Ouch, I have very stiff joints this morning. One “benefit” of getting regular massage is that you are more tuned in to what is happening in your body. I took the basic anatomy class at the HAC and now I know which tendons and muscles are sore and why. The main “why” would be that I slept at my sister’s all weekend and what I slept in is not a proper bed, it’s more like a giant bean bag chair only softer – I think it’s actually called a love sack, anyway, at first you want one because they are super comfortable and then you regret that you’ve ever seen one because of the strain that it puts on your hip and knee joints.
So yesterday, after I worked the morning away, I went to celebrate Earth Day. Actually I went to take Ann the digital camera so we have images of our students doing chair massage for the newsletter that I am going to start writing for alumni. Some things to note about Earth Day in Forest park, it was cold and windy so attendance was down. The music was good, New Orleans style Jazz when I was there by the main stage. I want to set a scene for what I thought were several odd choices. The event was held in a horse shoe shape wrapping around the front and side walkways of The Muny Outdoor Theater. The right hand side of the event was dominated by environmentalists and retailers of bright silver jewelry and nature photography, while the left hand side had “consciousness” groups: health groups and recreational associations like rock climbers and camping enthusiasts.
The middle part of the festival had two lines of booths. Facing out, with their “backs to the wall” were the St. Louis vegetarian society, PETA, the various natural stores and cooperative food options. Directly across from them, facing in, were all the festival food retailers selling bratwurst and meat on a stick, “the best twelve inches of meat in town.” I haven’t had lunch at this point, so I get a brat and I am walking towards the “animals are our brothers table” when the obvious ridiculousness of this situation occurs to me. I am about to turn away when I hear protest shouts coming from a stereo at the table. The two representatives of the group are in casual conversation with one another, apparently unperturbed by my brat, or the reminiscent bloody ketchup oozing from the bun (didn’t this combo originate in this very spot at The World’s Fair?). They seem oblivious to their relative proximity to the flesh sellers, but they have put on an audiocassette of actually upset people angrily protesting at some other time and in some other location. It’s hard to get passionate in middle America, analogue protest with the volume quite low, will both make the point and keep the peace. Ah well, that’s the state of activism, even at a sparsely attended Earth Day. The fix is in ladies and gentlemen, the fix is defiantly in.
So after that I did the walk my dog, drive out to the county, walk V’s dogs thing and then around five I picked my nephew up at the airport. He bought me a fridge magnet in the Arizona airport to thank me for the dog care and we discussed what we should do until V got in at eleven. He asked me to help him with his procrastinated homework. I was exhausted, so while he got a shower and did another round of dog care I crashed out for about two hours. V called to let us know her flight had been delayed and then we spent much of the rest of the evening first with science and then with math. He had to read the chapter on cell biology out loud so I could help him with pronunciation and finding the answers to the questions on his worksheets. The worksheets followed the text exactly and were all about repeating what you’d just read in you own words. It was odd to remember learning this stuff, the parts of cells and their functions. Ah the banking model of education, deposit and withdrawal, read and regurgitate, what else to you expect from a capitalist system? Next we did math, which was both triangle identification/angle calculation and then percentages/ratios, if four out of five students wear gym shoes and there are 210 students in the eight grade then how many eight graders have gym shoes? T is in seventh grade – I know this bit seems a little dull, but it was really fun going through all that stuff – I even did a language lesson on why sometimes ch is Charles and why sometimes it’s chlorophyll, 1066 Norman invasion baby, smashing French into Old German at high speed. “You there, servant, we kicked your ass and will be living in the castle from now on, freely distributing the Latinate proper names from our romance language. Bring me that animal out there to eat.” “What, you mean the deer out there in the field? If I have to go get it I’m calling it a deer.” “Just leave it there in the kitchen Nanette will cook it up for us. Yes, we will have the venison! If it’s on my table I’m calling it venison!” Language and religion resulting in the sedimentary remains of class warfare, Goddesses percolate up and thunderclap chucking Zeus’ trickle down. hehe
The carrot dangling at the end of the homework was the potential of renting a movie, so when we got done we drove off to Blockbuster. Odd thing though, the percentages came with us. There was a gas station sale on coke, 5.49 a case. How many in a case dived from the price equals the price per can. Silly Irish accent results in, “we have Irish in us don’t we?” “Well, I’m one eighth Irish from my mother’s side, what does that make you one generation further removed?” You use this stuff everyday T, that’s why we learn it. My folks called to check in, dad had a small procedure – which of course we hear about afterward so as not to worry – went fine and they didn’t find anything scary. Family is the most important thing there is and your close friends are your family.
On that note it’s off to work late to compensate for tonight’s Wayne Dwyer event. I anticipate tomorrows blog to take some time to compose. I still have a seder blog on the back burner:

There’s no Seder like our Seder,
There’s no Seder I know.
Everything about it is halachic
Nothing that the Torah won’t allow.
Listen how we read the whole Haggadah
It’s all in Hebrew
‘Cause we know how.
There’s no Seder like our Seder,
We tell a tale that is swell:
Moses took the people out into the heat
They baked the matzah
While on their feet
Now isn’t that a story
That just can’t be beat?
Let’s go on with the show!