Signs of spring

We had a very eventful weekend, with M, L, Hunter & I heading to Green Bay. M was speaking at a conference, and the hotel at which the conference took place had an indoor waterpark. While he spent his time shmoozing and being adored by his groupies, the kids and I hung out at the waterpark. M will remain on my shitlist for months, perhaps years, after his unpleasant last-minute surprises. I don't like surprises; I like control. The kids had a good time, though. It was H's first time at a water park--he had ear problems and tubes in his ears for many years, and only recently has been able to really enjoy water.

I couldn't endure eating a crappy fast-food-type meal on Friday night, so I used my new (free) app, HappyCow VeginOut, to find a veg restaurant and get me there and back. We went to Kuvarna, and I felt much better the minute we walked into the door. I don't like Green Bay. I don't like anything north of Madison, actually. It's icky; we don't fit in, and we definitely don't want to. We walked in there, though, and were amongst our own kind (hippies, tattoos, veg people, people with books), which was a very nice respite from the hotel/hotel area. I had the best spicy black bean burger I have EVER had! I'm salivating at the thought of it. The smoothies (I had peach) were awesome, too, and the yam fries were pretty good.

Later that night, we watched a Netflix movie (the kids' choice and it sucked; I worked on my laptop during it) in the room. M used his projector to project it onto the wall in our room, so the kids enjoyed the "big screen" and some popcorn. I had a ton of grading to get done, as well as consulting work, so I was up very late working, and worked Saturday at the water park for as long as my battery held its charge.

I was so disturbed at the waterpark by the number of fat and obese children (I am not even going into how disgusted I was by the number of men desperately in need of body hair removal! Blechhhh). It is absolutely unconscionable that parents do that to their kids. Adults can have a thousand and one different reasons/contributing factors to weight problems. I don't judge them. I know how incredibly hard it is to lose weight (especially as a menopausal woman over 40!), which makes me doubly angry that people abuse their kids that way. When children that young are that big, it is 100% the parents' fault and responsibility, and I wanted to just slap them for setting their children up for years of struggles with health and self esteem, not to mention the torment they will endure in school and beyond.

I had a very close friend throughout childhood, and we attended high school together. Her face was prettier than mine. Her personality was more sparkling. She had been a chubby little girl and continued to gain weight throughout childhood and her teen years. The fact that she was overweight in high school apparently gave the entire student body a license to torment her beyond words--beyond what any person should ever have to endure. She constantly struggled to lose weight. She did not eat any more than I did--probably less. This has been a lifelong issue that has impeded her quality of life in many, many ways. Because of what she had to go through, I have absolutely no tolerance for parents who are simply too lazy or undisciplined to make sure their children have a healthy start in life. Putting on weight and trying to lose it as an adult is hard but is nowhere near as difficult as it is when you have been that way since toddlerhood. I still get worked up an angry with those people when I think about what they have set those poor children up for! Saturday night, Dej, Russ, and I went to see Insidious. M was not interested in going(and it would have scared him), so he stayed home with the kids. I was trying to wait until it came to Netflix, but I'm weak. It looked really good, got good reviews, and I love the word, Insidious. How could I wait? We all really enjoyed the movie, with Dej and Russ vowing not to sleep alone anytime soon. :) Spring finally arrived in our garden this weekend, with some scilla and daffodils blooming. When I went out to take photos, I noticed some strange and disturbing items in the front garden. The kids played outside quite a bit, and they left these strange artifacts out, so the few remaining people in the neighborhood who didn't already think we're strange now do. They scewered a flyer that some church folks stuffed in our door handle and crucified a doll they found outside. I don't know wtf those kids were thinking.