That's right - today is Christmas! Russian Orthodox Christmas, that is.
While I am not Russian Orthodox myself, or even a practicing Catholic any longer, I continue to celebrate this second Christmas every holiday season in memory of my grandmother, who I called Baba, which means grandmother in Ukrainian. Baba, who was my mother's mother, passed away on December 23rd, 1993, at the age of almost-91. We'd thrown one hell of a 90th birthday party for her the previous spring, but in truth, her last few years were rocky, at best.
The year she died, we didn't celebrate Christmas on December 25th in any fashion - too much going on with funeral planning. However, we did remember her on January 7th, the day she recognized as Christmas.
And so every year, even when my mom is being a complete poop and has no Christmas spirit herself (on either Christmas day!) I do something to commemorate the fact that Christmas, in fact, comes twice a year.
So Merry Christmas, ya'll!
Love,
Tiffany
Manic Monday #10
Published on
Monday, January 07, 2008
in:
Manic Monday
Lisa is back with great questions this week for Manic Monday!
What was the last thing you regret buying?
Hmm...I really don't know. I don't shop all that often.
If you had a crystal ball that could tell you the truth about any one thing you wished to know about yourself, life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?
If we'll have children/when we'll have children/how many children we'll have. That's really the big question mark in my life right now...God's will is all good and well, but it'd still be nice to know what's in store.
How do you know when you're in love?
When the thought of not having that person in your life is so overwhelmingly negative that you can't bear the thought...
You know the drill, folks. Sign in using the linky, leave me a comment, and I'll come visit you back - unless I already visited you first! Happy Monday!
What was the last thing you regret buying?
Hmm...I really don't know. I don't shop all that often.
If you had a crystal ball that could tell you the truth about any one thing you wished to know about yourself, life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?
If we'll have children/when we'll have children/how many children we'll have. That's really the big question mark in my life right now...God's will is all good and well, but it'd still be nice to know what's in store.
How do you know when you're in love?
When the thought of not having that person in your life is so overwhelmingly negative that you can't bear the thought...
You know the drill, folks. Sign in using the linky, leave me a comment, and I'll come visit you back - unless I already visited you first! Happy Monday!
Friday Feast #8
Published on
Friday, January 04, 2008
in:
Friday Feast
I'm sneaking in early this time...ha! I'm defeating the "forget to post" monster!
Appetizer
When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it?
Chris Rock (female, trainer, not male, comedian) sent me a "don't drive faster than your angel can fly" ornament for my car a few months ago...very cool. Of course, it's a crack on my driving skills, but still a nice thing!
Soup
If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be?
Oh, Lord, only one? Ok, I'll go for generic. If I could have a summer home, it would be on the beach, at a beach where the average June/July/August daily temperature reaches at least 80 degrees. (Beach must equal warmth. San Diego way disappointed me by still being pretty chilly in mid-July. I can't sunbathe in "pretty chilly.")
If I weren't being generic but could list multiple options, I would say Ocean City, NJ; Virginia Beach, VA; Daytona Beach, FL; or South Padre, TX.
Now to finance this venture...I'm so jealous of my parents, sometimes. We always had two and sometimes three homes while I was growing up...but I'll likely never be able to afford that for myself and my own eventual family. Wholly depressing. Oh, well. There's always the lottery. :-)
Salad
Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry.
Mmm. Banana. It's the only one I'd eat without any conditions.
(I.E. I don't eat pineapple, the orange I'd only suck on, the apple would have to be peeled and in little pieces, and I only eat maraschino cherries.)
Main Course
Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own.
Well, I would say my wedding dress, but I really only just re-used the dress I graduated from high school in to also get married in. Nice, but likely not my nicest. So I'll say the formal gown I bought a few years ago for the Supper Dance we attended with Danielle when we went to Mardi Gras. I rewore it for the Barrister's Ball my law school held that same year. (If this is the first time you've seen me mention law school, I quit after one year, so no, I'm not a lawyer.)
Dessert
If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory?
Hahaha. I'd really probably pick my wedding day. I was so stressed that day and so many freaking things upset me that weekend that I have a hard time looking at it fondly. I actually had screaming nightmares about my wedding for about six months afterwards. My husband would have to wake me up and talk me down basically.
Leave me your link and a comment, and I'll come visit you back!
Appetizer
When was the last time you received a surprise in the mail, and what was it?
Chris Rock (female, trainer, not male, comedian) sent me a "don't drive faster than your angel can fly" ornament for my car a few months ago...very cool. Of course, it's a crack on my driving skills, but still a nice thing!
Soup
If you could have a summer and/or winter home, where would you want it to be?
Oh, Lord, only one? Ok, I'll go for generic. If I could have a summer home, it would be on the beach, at a beach where the average June/July/August daily temperature reaches at least 80 degrees. (Beach must equal warmth. San Diego way disappointed me by still being pretty chilly in mid-July. I can't sunbathe in "pretty chilly.")
If I weren't being generic but could list multiple options, I would say Ocean City, NJ; Virginia Beach, VA; Daytona Beach, FL; or South Padre, TX.
Now to finance this venture...I'm so jealous of my parents, sometimes. We always had two and sometimes three homes while I was growing up...but I'll likely never be able to afford that for myself and my own eventual family. Wholly depressing. Oh, well. There's always the lottery. :-)
Salad
Pick one: pineapple, orange, banana, apple, cherry.
Mmm. Banana. It's the only one I'd eat without any conditions.
(I.E. I don't eat pineapple, the orange I'd only suck on, the apple would have to be peeled and in little pieces, and I only eat maraschino cherries.)
Main Course
Describe the nicest piece of clothing that you own.
Well, I would say my wedding dress, but I really only just re-used the dress I graduated from high school in to also get married in. Nice, but likely not my nicest. So I'll say the formal gown I bought a few years ago for the Supper Dance we attended with Danielle when we went to Mardi Gras. I rewore it for the Barrister's Ball my law school held that same year. (If this is the first time you've seen me mention law school, I quit after one year, so no, I'm not a lawyer.)
Dessert
If you could forget one whole day from your life, which day would you choose to wipe from your memory?
Hahaha. I'd really probably pick my wedding day. I was so stressed that day and so many freaking things upset me that weekend that I have a hard time looking at it fondly. I actually had screaming nightmares about my wedding for about six months afterwards. My husband would have to wake me up and talk me down basically.
Leave me your link and a comment, and I'll come visit you back!
Thursday Thirteen #10
Published on
Thursday, January 03, 2008
in:
Thursday Thirteen
Hi, everyone!
It's been a hectic first few days in the new year, and so unfortunately, I am late to the game again this week in getting up my post! We spent most of yesterday winterizing our house - yes, even in Texas, this can be necessary! Our 22-year-old home also has 22-year-old windows and 22-year-old doors and well, insulation is a major issue. So while we have on the to-do and wish list an item to replace all windows and doors with new, more energy-efficient types, we've had to improvise in the meantime. I hate seeing $400 energy bills when we already use as little as we can, so $50 in supplies is well worth using to save money in future months...and it's already shown an effect because I was finally nice and toasty warm in my house last night withOUT the thermostat set to 80! Have I mentioned that I HATE WINTER?!
So now, without further ado, my Thursday Thirteen!
Thirteen Christmas Presents Received by Tiffany in 2007
Hope you all got everything you wanted to Christmas this year! Leave me a note with your favorite gift!
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
It's been a hectic first few days in the new year, and so unfortunately, I am late to the game again this week in getting up my post! We spent most of yesterday winterizing our house - yes, even in Texas, this can be necessary! Our 22-year-old home also has 22-year-old windows and 22-year-old doors and well, insulation is a major issue. So while we have on the to-do and wish list an item to replace all windows and doors with new, more energy-efficient types, we've had to improvise in the meantime. I hate seeing $400 energy bills when we already use as little as we can, so $50 in supplies is well worth using to save money in future months...and it's already shown an effect because I was finally nice and toasty warm in my house last night withOUT the thermostat set to 80! Have I mentioned that I HATE WINTER?!
So now, without further ado, my Thursday Thirteen!
Thirteen Christmas Presents Received by Tiffany in 2007
- A grey sweater, from Christopher
(check it out - I'm wearing it in our Happy New Year picture) - A dark green sweater, from my father-in-law and step-mother-in law
(very cute, very warm, I'm wearing it today at work) - An atomic alarm clock with laser projection, from my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law
(already set up in the bedroom...pretty cool) - A Christmas tree
(from my mother-in-law...she asked what we most needed this year and since our old fake tree - I can't have real due to health - was leaning quite badly, this is what we chose...and the new one is very cool!) - An electric cooker/server, from Christopher
(way cool...like an electric chafing dish...and since I love my chafing dishes, I'm super-excited to have a way cool new and improved upgraded kind of thing) - An old-fashioned popcorn popper, a popcorn set, and a gift card to Blockbusters, from our friends Stephanie and Greg and their two girls, who are my goddaughters
(also way cool...it's a stovetop popper and will also work quite nicely when we go camping, using our cook stove) - Three Christmas-themed serving dishes, from my mom and dad
(Mom loves shopping...just not for me. So this year, she picked Macy's, gave me a dollar amount, and as usual, I chose my own present. Cool stuff. Love my new dishes.) - A snack and sweets assortment in a Santa stacker, from Carlos, my boss
(yum) - A snack and sweets assortment in a cool winter house, from Chris' uncle Gary and aunt Ardyn
(again, yum) - Ghirardelli dark chocolates, from Christopher
(yum and my FAVORITES) - A $30 gift card to Borders, from Christopher
(will be WELL used! By the way, go visit my blog, Read and Release - my first book review of 2008 is UP!) - A beautiful angel snow globe, from Christopher's aunt Jane and uncle Ernie
(very cool...matches an angel figurine my aunt Grace gave me years ago and is now displayed by its side) - "The Choice", by Nicholas Sparks, from Christopher
(funny story...I also gave this book to Christopher for Christmas! We both like Nicholas Sparks...hahaha...so now we have two copies...can't decide whether to keep both or return one.)
Hope you all got everything you wanted to Christmas this year! Leave me a note with your favorite gift!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Slavery Apologists Take Off
Published on
Thursday, January 03, 2008
in:
Tiffany Takes On
(Post Transferred from my formerly stand-alone blog, Tiffany Takes On.)
The New Jersey Assembly approved a resolution today to make a formal apology for the practice of slavery within the state until it was abolished in 1846.
Ok, folks. 1846 was 162 years ago, unless I've forgotten even the most rudimentary math skills. 162 years ago. This gestures goes way beyond symbolic and into the realms of flat-out absurdity.
Were YOU alive 162 years ago when the last slave in New Jersey was freed? You weren't? Really? Neither was I. Going based on average generation length - 25 years - that was more than 6 generations ago. Can you tell me what in the hell this apology NOW does for someone's great-great-great-great grandmother or grandfather?
If you answered "nothing", you win the prize. It really seems like politicians in this country have been stricken with an unhealthy dose of Catholic guilt and are trying to make up for things that happened generations ago, instead of addressing the actual problems of today. Just in 2007, the states of Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia also apologized for slavery. To what effect?
Still there?
Yeah, I can't figure it out either. But let me ask you this...
...has any state ever apologized for the practice of indentured servitude? Do you remember studying that in school, dear reader? Where people signed up for work in the New World in return for passage from the Old World, and then found themselves in such atrocious conditions that many died and many others never performed enough work to buy-out their servitude? Do you recall that? By some historical counts, 1/2 to 2/3 of immigrants during America's initial colonization were indentured servants. And up to HALF of those died within their first two years here. That's a lot of people.
Have their great-great-great-great-great grandchildren received an apology?
How about women? Women have often gotten short shrift in America...when did women's suffrage come about?
1920?
You mean that until 1920, or more than 50 years after the last state abolished slavery, women were still considered second class citizens, almost entirely without rights?
Hmm. Have any states apologized to women for this treatment?
None? Really?
Odd.
Know what? I do not expect any states to ever apologize for the practice of indentured servitude or the way in which women were denied many legal rights until the early 20th century.
Know why? IT'S NOT NECESSARY. Society is a constantly growing and evolving organism. Because of that, changes are made, occasionally, to steady the course of progression. States outlawed slavery, both before and after the Civil War, because it was recognized that the institution of slavery was cruel and unacceptable. Indentured servitude died out in the 19th century for similar reasons.
In fact, did you know that the very same amendment to the U.S. Constitution - the 13th - ended both indentured service as well as slavery?
Neither that amendment nor the one granting the right to vote made it equal for women. In fact, women were still struggling for equal rights in the 1980s with the failed Equal Rights Amendment - and even today often achieve far lower wages and job levels when compared to men.
Do women need an apology? NO. Society is STILL evolving, STILL changing. And you know what? I think society will take care of itself and in another generation or so, it'll all come out in the wash, so to speak.
To circle back, however, I'd really like to repeat my disdain for any body that either seeks to apologize or seeks an apology for the doings of a time now long past. It's ridiculous. It's a waste of time. And it's completely unnecessary.
Read more here: New Jersey Slavery Apology
(No Comments Transferred; original posting date 01/03/08, 8:21 PM.)
The New Jersey Assembly approved a resolution today to make a formal apology for the practice of slavery within the state until it was abolished in 1846.
Ok, folks. 1846 was 162 years ago, unless I've forgotten even the most rudimentary math skills. 162 years ago. This gestures goes way beyond symbolic and into the realms of flat-out absurdity.
Were YOU alive 162 years ago when the last slave in New Jersey was freed? You weren't? Really? Neither was I. Going based on average generation length - 25 years - that was more than 6 generations ago. Can you tell me what in the hell this apology NOW does for someone's great-great-great-great grandmother or grandfather?
If you answered "nothing", you win the prize. It really seems like politicians in this country have been stricken with an unhealthy dose of Catholic guilt and are trying to make up for things that happened generations ago, instead of addressing the actual problems of today. Just in 2007, the states of Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia also apologized for slavery. To what effect?
Still there?
Yeah, I can't figure it out either. But let me ask you this...
...has any state ever apologized for the practice of indentured servitude? Do you remember studying that in school, dear reader? Where people signed up for work in the New World in return for passage from the Old World, and then found themselves in such atrocious conditions that many died and many others never performed enough work to buy-out their servitude? Do you recall that? By some historical counts, 1/2 to 2/3 of immigrants during America's initial colonization were indentured servants. And up to HALF of those died within their first two years here. That's a lot of people.
Have their great-great-great-great-great grandchildren received an apology?
How about women? Women have often gotten short shrift in America...when did women's suffrage come about?
1920?
You mean that until 1920, or more than 50 years after the last state abolished slavery, women were still considered second class citizens, almost entirely without rights?
Hmm. Have any states apologized to women for this treatment?
None? Really?
Odd.
Know what? I do not expect any states to ever apologize for the practice of indentured servitude or the way in which women were denied many legal rights until the early 20th century.
Know why? IT'S NOT NECESSARY. Society is a constantly growing and evolving organism. Because of that, changes are made, occasionally, to steady the course of progression. States outlawed slavery, both before and after the Civil War, because it was recognized that the institution of slavery was cruel and unacceptable. Indentured servitude died out in the 19th century for similar reasons.
In fact, did you know that the very same amendment to the U.S. Constitution - the 13th - ended both indentured service as well as slavery?
Neither that amendment nor the one granting the right to vote made it equal for women. In fact, women were still struggling for equal rights in the 1980s with the failed Equal Rights Amendment - and even today often achieve far lower wages and job levels when compared to men.
Do women need an apology? NO. Society is STILL evolving, STILL changing. And you know what? I think society will take care of itself and in another generation or so, it'll all come out in the wash, so to speak.
To circle back, however, I'd really like to repeat my disdain for any body that either seeks to apologize or seeks an apology for the doings of a time now long past. It's ridiculous. It's a waste of time. And it's completely unnecessary.
Read more here: New Jersey Slavery Apology
(No Comments Transferred; original posting date 01/03/08, 8:21 PM.)
