The Venting Thread

[amyurban]

Something happened over the Mother's Day weekend that did NOT make it to this board, but today, I had to finally deal with it in a very personal way.

See, one of my high school friends who now also lives up here in the Pac NW, his second child, a son, died the other day. He was born on Thursday and he died on Saturday, the day before Mother's day. Yeah. I put a whole huge thing on it in my Live Journal, one of the reason's why I have one, so I can write out my day to day stuff that is personal, ONLY my "friends" can see it because it IS ONLY a "friends only" journal and I pour my heart out, whether happy, sad, in between or what have you.

Tomorrow, my friend buries his son. It was his and his wife's second child. Their daugther, Terra, is 6. Here is what I posted in my Live Journal today, I won't bother you guys with my very sad, meandering post of the other day, no way, no how!

****************************************************

Apologies To My Friends-List Today:

I finally spoke to my friend, Raymond, who lost his infant son the other day. Good God, was that ever a hard conversation to have! My daugther is home sick, so I waited until she napped and took the phone into my bedroom. He and I spoke for a few minutes and then, he just broke down and sobbed! Not that I could blame him at all but oh nuts! It was so hard for ME NOT TO, as well, know what I mean?

I just let a few tears fall down my face, closed my eyes and told myself in my head "Anita, this is NOT about YOU, this is NOT about YOU!" and so, I just let him sob between words for a bit more and then, I couldn't take it anymore and I felt he was getting worn out, as well as was also at a loss as to what to say to me. What CAN one say?

The funeral is tomorrow and unfortunately ( or fortunately, depending on how one looks at funerals ) I can't be there.

I think me, hubby and Cassandra will go up to his gravesite this weekend and leave a dozen yellow roses and a card attached with a poem or something I will think of to write.

So if I've been scarce kind of today, or have not responded to something you've said or whatever, PLEASE DO NOT take it personally, okay? Today has been "one of THOSE days", know what I'm saying?

Please keep little Ryan Leslie in your hearts and prayers. He was only in "this life" for 48 hours.

[torinogal]

Hey you, we keep missing each other. I'm so sorry your friend had to go through that, it must be awful, especially when there really isn't anything that you can do to just "erase" the hurt feelings and make it go away-you know, just make it all better?. Send my love to everyone involved. Tell them there's a star shining just for them in the sky tonight. XOXOXO

[apolosangel8907]

Amy, so sorry to hear about your friends son. Thats really horrible, and happens far too often.

okay, so I am determined again to lose weight. I want to loose 30 pounds in 15 weeks. That is very do-able! Just 2 pounds per week. I am going to start eating better, and exersizing more. This will be easy because I won't be in school anymore so I won't have crap food to have to eat. Honestly, the food at school looks disgusting! The pizza is ALWAYS either extremly undercooked or extremly burnt. There is always pools of grease in the pepperoni in the pizza, it take four or five napkins to get the grease to a tolerable level! The salad is always brown and the dressing is gross. Plus, we almost always have "chicken". Every week we have chicken! We can also have butterbuns, which will be the death of me, they are sooo good, but I can't have anymore....sooooo much butter on them! Then there is ALA CARTE, the devil....if one doesn't like what is being served that day and doesn't want a salad or a hamburger, they can get ala carte. Nothing nutrious at all, ice cream, pudding, chips, fruit rollups, fruit gushers, capri-sun, fruit works, all kinds of junk food! And America wonders why kids are so fat, just look at what the GOVERNMENT is feeding us! The government can change this, but all they do is take vending machines out of schools, the real problem is in the school lunch program. School lunches should be monitored more closely, more fresh food should be offered, fresh fruit should be offered on Ala Carte and smaller portions should be served. Example of too much food and why kids have such big appitites, this is an actual days lunch that is offered at my school: 2 hotdogs with choice of chili, sourkraut, and other fixins, french fries, a brownie and pears, plus a student can get other fruits, butter bun(s) and a salad, or a student can get extra main and they can still get ala Carte! That is an insane ammount of food! I am not blaming it all on the schools because students have the ability to choose and eat what they want, but schools need to understand that kids are eating far too much! The source of childhood obesity is right under our noses...in our schools, the very place that is supposed to protect the children of America from harm is fattening them up like the thanksgiving turkey. Don't even get me started on fast food resturants! Wow, that was a long post....but I got a lot out of my system.

[Ruffian of Old]

I ate lunch at my elementary school, middle school and high school and I'm not fat. If kids can't control themselves the face of pizza then I suggest they just call it a day. I'm really sick of people blaming things on the government. It's really, really tired.

[apolosangel8907]

it is not all the governments fault, and I know that kids need to understand portion control, but schools should help, possibly even have a class about eating right. The government controls the school lunch programs in public schools and I feel that things should be monitored better. Ruffian, I understand what you are saying completly, kids need to eat less and find other alternitives. But I feel that we should be getting fed better in school. Maybe it is just my school, but it seems like we have extremly unhealthy food choices and it is unfair to students at my school, because we don't have open lunch. Ruffian, I respect your opinion, and obviously you have had better expierence with school lunches than I have. Again, I am not saying that it is all schools faults because students can choose what they eat, but we should have healthier choices.

[Ruffian of Old]

My school had Taco Bell, McDonald's, the works. They had candy out the wazoo and pepsi machines around every corner. There was also a "book store" which sold candy and muffins and coffee drinks and (big shocker) no books. Oh, and there was a salad bar and milk too (cheapest items on the menu, I might add).

Apolosangel, I just can't blame the government for this. My mother taught me how to eat right and when to stop eating. She also taught me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and stuff an apple in a brown bag so I didn't have to buy food from the school if I didn't want to.

So, my point is, school lunch isn't perfect. But, christ, school is freaking free and available to everybody! How can you complain?

People just gotta buck up, push themselves away from the lunch table when they're done eating and make the best of it. If people get fat it's got nothing to do with the government.

[apolosangel8907]

I go to a very small school, less than 400 students total, and we recieve very little funding. I realize that students don't always know when to stop eating, and they should know how, but my school has a no outside lunch policy so that it can get more money. If anything, I feel that lunch should be healthier, and that students need to make better choices, but the school also needs to provide the best for it's students and I feel that extremly greasy pizza and brown, slimey salad is not the best.
No, the government is not pushing the food in our mouths, and the government does not force us to eat the lunch, but I know for a fact that lunch at my school school is a choice between greasy pizza, brown salad and carbinated fruit drinks and ice cream.
My suggestion for lunch; green salad, not so greasy foods, and fresh fruit at ala carte.

I was not lashing out at all school lunch programs in America, mostly mine. I think it is unfair that because we have very little funding that the first thing that gets effected is our school lunch program. I would love to be able to bring a turkey lettuce cheese and tomato pita for lunch, but I just don't see that happening.

My school also promotes pop and candy for students in study hall. No where in the vending machines is there water or fruit juice, just pop. I think that is a little rediculous!

Ruffian, I hope you understand what I am trying to get at now. I am not striking out at all lunch programs, just mine.

[Ruffian of Old]

I hope you understand that I still don't think that argument holds water. I mean, your school offers salad and fruit, right? That's healthy, but you said you ate pizza. Besides, your school sounds like it sells foods that make the most money (pizza, etc.). If all the kids stopped buying the unhealthy foods, your school would stop selling it. Supply and demand.

And as far as school lunches bearing the brunt of the school's financial woes, at least it's not your books. Or teachers.

I can't really say I understand the whole situation at your school, tho. I went to a high school with 4,000 students in an affluent part of the city so I probably don't really get it, so to speak. They offered the same crap food tho, lol.

And I didn't say turkey cheese and pita or whatever else. I said PB&J and an apple. That's not impossible, lol. That's gotta be less than $20 bucks a week. You take that and a water bottle and your set!

[apolosangel8907]

see, we cannot bring sack lunches. we also cannot just buy pizza, it is whatever is on the menu. The salad that is offered is slimey and brown. The fruit is okay, but nothing to pile on. supply and demand is important, but often times kids get school lunch because there is nothing better to eat. I also do not come from a wealthy school district so for some, this is their only meal of the day.

I understand what you mean when you think that my argument holds no water and that we obviously come from completly diverse populations. 400-4,000. I see your side of the argument and I hope you can see mine.

[Ruffian of Old]

I understand what you're saying.

Why can't you bring sack lunches?

[apolosangel8907]

because the main source of income is our school lunch program and if students bring sack lunches, the school would loose money.
Do you see why I am frustrated? I am forced to eat school lunch, and then I don't even get to eat good, fresh food.

[Ruffian of Old]

So they absolutely won't let you bring sack lunches? They'll throw it away if you have a sack lunch? Is this a public school?

Do you pay for the lunch everyday out of pocket?

[apolosangel8907]

it's a public school and they said very clearly the first day of school, any sack lunches will be consfigated(sp). We have lunch accounts, we don't have to pay cash.

[Ruffian of Old]

What about kids with special diets? Diabetics, for example? Kids with allergies?

How can they make you pay for the lunch? I don't understand that. What do they do if you don't pay for it?

[apolosangel8907]

we have a lunch line, and we have lunch tickets, the meal ammount is taken directly out of our account. For the kids with special diets, they can bring lunches only if they have a doctors note stating what their condition is.