…ok, SRSLY?
You probably can’t tell, but I spent many years attending Christian Private Schools. We’re talking of the “memorizing complete chapters of the Bible, Southern Baptist” type school. I know, I’m the picture of purity now, so you likely figured that out, right? Right.
Some rules of the school for the girls:
— We were not allowed to wear pants on the school grounds.
— Shirt collars could not be lower than two fingers below the collar bone.
— Skirts had to touch the floor when you knelt – cover the knees.
— No sleeveless shirts, ever.
— No shorts – that whole “below the knee” thing dictated that we wear culottes, which made us laugh because when we fell in basketball, they showed more than shorts ever would have. These were also ONLY for Gym. All other times it was skirts/dresses/uniforms.
— Our hair was to be long. At the SHORTEST it had to cover the nape of the neck, though they frowned on anything shorter than shoulder length.
— No heels higher than two inches.
Some rules for the boys:
— Hair must be SHORT. It could not touch the tops of the ears, or the back of the collar.
— Shirt and tie and slacks. No jeans, no shorts, etc.
— Shorts for gym, but they had to be no shorter than a handwidth above the knee.
— Nothing sleeveless.
Yes, those are a little uneven, but after all the Woman is to be demure and perfect and pure for the man. They taught us that in many a manners/Bible class.
Some general rules, and rules for couples:
— No Dancing.
— No Rock Music.
— No Holding Hands.
— There must be at least 6 inches between you at ALL times.
During assemblies – every single morning, and Chapel on Wednesdays – The girls and boys were separated, so that there would be no temptations as we learned chapter after chapter of the bible in its entirety. Women were to be pure. Men were to respect women. There would be no TOUCHING, EVER.
Now sure – outside of the school grounds, I was a jean wearing, boy crazy tomboy – who held hands and kissed sometime after she turned 14, and by the ninth grade I had bristled under the control so much that my parents let me transfer to another school – a school that I lasted one year at before headed to public school where people were sane. This is not to say that the education I received at the Christian schools was sub-standard, just that the rest of it became too much and it was time to move on. I thank my parents a LOT for letting me do so.
All this came back though in a rush when I heard the story of Tyler Frost and his prom date, Rebecca Smooty. Tyler attended a Christan School that sounds much like the one I attended, while his girlfriend went to school elsewhere. When Rebecca asked Tyler to take her to prom, he of course said YES, because he is a smart boy. As a direct result, the officials at his school, Heritage Christian School in Findlay Ohio have suspended him, given him an incomplete for his exams, AND banned him from his graduation.
All for something that happened OFF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS.
All for daring to hold his girlfriends hand.
All for listening to the music and dancing.
All for “attending a function where girls wore short skirts”.
All of which happened OFF THE SCHOOL GROUNDS. (Yes, it bears repeating!)
The schools officials have graciously said that he can complete his final exams separately and get his diploma – after the school year ends.
I’m sorry – but this is utterly ridiculous. Once a child leaves the school grounds they are the responsibility 100% of their parents, NOT the school or it’s officials. The church/school has no right to dictate that he not attend another schools function, or insinuate that something improper is going on because he dared hold hands with his girlfriend. Its not like he was part of an orgy on the dance floor, for fuck’s sake!
I hope to HELL his parents are going to help him fight this, and that he gets to walk for his graduation. To ban him from it is absolutely unfair, and part of the reason folks think Christianity is full of sanctimonious wackjobs.
…wonder how many of the schools teachers and preachers have been divorced and remarried? Wonder how many of them hold hands, and wear short skirts, listen to music not of the ‘inspirational’ genre when off the school grounds and dare to bounce to the beat… That’s what drove me away… hypocritical bullshit like this.
Psalm 149:3
Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
Stand your ground, Tyler! Stand. Your. Ground!
Body Modification
It probably won’t surprise you, but I’m a fan of tattoos. You may not know that I’m also a fan of piercings, though I believe those are best in moderation. While I don’t have any extra piercings myself – just my ears, 3 in one, 2 in the other – that’s mostly due to my HUGE FEAR OF NEEDLES, rather than fear of public ridicule. Of course my huge fear of needles, and low pain tolerance, doesn’t explain my 4 tattoos. And plans for at least two more. Go figure. It’s just an added benefit that it makes my mom tsk and shake her head.
🙂
ANYWAY – it stands to reason, with my love of body modification, tattoos and piercings, that we’ve talked a lot about them around here. My husband had several tattoo’s as well, and they have always been a fascination for my kids. In fact, Peppermist, when all the other little girls wanted to be nurses and athletes, and moms, and business women – Peppermist wanted to be a Tattoo Artist. inorite? I was SO PROUD! Each of the kids have already picked out their first ink, have general ideas of Memorial tattoos they want for their dad, and give me pointers on what I should get next. We talk about how to pick out a good artist, what to look for, what questions to ask, and how that they need to be SURE that they know what they want, because it is permanent – laser removal is painful and doesn’t always work, so think it through.
So as a fan of the ink, imagine my delight when B – “my” girl by love not blood – sent me a text, telling me that she had a new tattoo she wanted to show off. It’s her second one – the first is her mom’s name and the date she died on her shoulder. When she showed me this one, I was all “AW! It says mom!” And then? Then she told me that this one? This one represents me.
ME!
I’m not ashamed to admit that I got a little verklempt when she told me that. And since it’s “Mom” on a shot glass, and I added that it would help remind her to STOP DOING STUPID SHIT LIKE DRINKING TOO MUCH. Cuz Mom? Is always watching. She laughed and said “EXACTLY!”
I love that kid like she was my own, even when I want to shake her for doing something stupid, and I’m so proud that she’s getting her GED, that she’s getting her act together, and that she’s doing well. And even when she’s not doing well – I’m proud that she has realized that I’m always here, and she can come to me for anything.
She’s a beautiful girl – and the ink? Only enhances that. Thank you, B. I’m honored to be represented in such a way! Now – finish up that GED!
🙂
The Final Meet of the Season!
Wow. We thought this day would NEVER get here, and that we’d be swimming 4 days a week FOREVER… wait, that was just me. At any rate, yesterday, May 2, was the final swim meet of the season for the Pup! We had high hopes, and LOTS OF NERVES, and the pup fairly THRUMMED with excitement and nervous energy starting at 6pm Friday when she started carbo-loading. Heh.
We arrived bright and early, and got her into the locker room, dressed and ready to find out what events she was in. We knew of the four individual, and expected one relay – turns out, she was in TWO relays! Which meant that she was going to swim six times. It exhausts me just THINKING about it.
She was a little nervous too. Heh. However – it ended up being a HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL MEET for my baby girl, with only one little disappointment, that was STILL cause for celebration.
Here’s how it went down:
First up, and in the second event of the day which was like OMG MOM ITS LIKE SWIMMING FIRST! The pup and her teammates hit the pool for the 200yd IM Relay. The pup started them off with the backstroke, this time. The girls after her in the breaststroke and butterfly disqualified them, but for the pup? That just meant THIS TIME it WASN’T HER. So she was happy. They clocked in with a time that won’t count of: 3:59.59.
Up next, the 50yd Butterfly. The Pup’s been struggling to get a seed time in this event all year, having disqualified in it ever attempt to date. She was nervous, but I gave her a little pep talk and we watched some other swimmers do the butterfly, and she was ready to give it her all. AND SHE DID IT! It wasn’t the fastest in the lot by any means – though it was considerably faster than previous attempts – but she DID NOT DQ! She finally has a seed time of 1:23.34! YAY!
She’d been really concentrating on her 50yd Backstroke – it’s the stroke that she was closest to having an Honor Time for the team in – basically, 4th place, which would get her an award at the banquet. It also made her most nervous as she knew she’d have to take almost 3 seconds off her time. She did not do so – adding 2 seconds instead, however, for the first time she came in SECOND in her heat! SECOND! And she actually LEAD it off the block! So for that? It’s a HUGE VICTORY!
Previous time: 1:04.04
Yesteday’s time: 1:06.35
Difference: +2.31
She was disappointed, and it took a little while to shake that one off. And a package of goldfish. And hugs from Papa. But after the break, it was time for her next event.
The 50yd Breaststroke.
Now, last meet, she shaved off over THIRTY SECONDS off her breaststroke time, which was ASTONISHING, and we were beyond thrilled! We didn’t expect a repeat performance like that, but knew she’d do well. Even Coach Luke complemented her on her breaststroke last week – which had her GLOWING for DAYS. So, we expected a couple seconds off, and were hoping for a good clean event, without a DQ. We’re easily pleased.
And then we were STUNNED. Get a load of this:
Previous time: 1:28.34
Yesterday’s time: 1:10.28!!!
Difference: -17.72
Houston? I think we’ve found “her” stroke! And here we thought it would be backstroke all this time… *L* That’s like, 47 seconds off in the past three months! DEFINITELY something to be proud of! She does need to practice not going so deep off the blocks – she had to do a second pull down to get to the surface, which could have disqualified her, but they let it go. We are COMPLETELY thrilled!
We were definitely back on a high note, going into the 50 yd Freestyle. Funny thing about her freestyle, is that it’s always been just a little slower than her backstroke, which I guess is unusual, and amusing. But the best part about this event? MAH BABY DID A FLIP TURN! For the first time in competition! She’s been working hard on them all week, but had decided not to do one, as she wasn’t quite confident and thought it’d slow her down too much, and was too big a risk of disqualifying. Then? SHE DID IT ANYWAY! She told me afterwards “I did it for you, Mom. I knew you wanted to see me do one.” AWwwwww. God, I love that kid. So.. did it slow her down?
Previous time: 1:10.21
Yesterday’s time: 1:01.75!!!
Difference: -8.25!
Not only did it not slow her down, but she clocked in her best 50 free yet! Dude. I bought her a freakin T-shirt. They were actually putting on the decals right there, so you could design what you wanted them to look like. So my girl? Has “Swim Diva” on one shoulder of a purple tie dye t-shirt, and “iFlip” going down the left arm! Because? Time aside, MAH BABY DID A FLIP TURN!
That left us with one more event, her final relay, the 200yd Freestyle Relay. Her 50 was a little slower than before (hello – 6th event!) but STILL awesome with a 1:02.31! Though, none of them did flip turns during the relay… *L* The time?
Previous time: 4:01.58
Yesterday’s time: 3:36.61!
Difference: -24.39!
Whew. Color us EXHAUSTED. Not too exhausted for the pup to dash out and down to the neighbors for a bbq dinner, in 72 (!!!!!) degree weather that got her a nice sunburn too cuz her mom is still in the “huh? it’s not summer yet…” frame of mind. She did stop moving eventually though, which means this:
Inorite? Too cute.
For those that want videos – here ya go. I uploaded them in order, which means the play list has them backwards – cuz I forgot about that little playlist quirk. Heh. But enjoy! (I recommend turning the volume OFF. That crazy lady was yelling again, and surrounded by family other crazy ladies doing the same thing. 🙂 ) Enjoy!
I think this is…
…my favorite one yet! *LMAO*
What? I’m just doing what he told me too! I DON’T WANNA BE EATED FIRST!
(mmmmmmmmmmmmbraaaaaaaaaaiiiiiins)
