Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Rabble Rousing and Concrete Laying


Greener Groceries:

Our Gruppie should like this story.

There's a bill passing through the California legislature that would add a 25 cent charge for each disposable bag given out at a grocery or drug store.

Not that we have a signed budget yet. But I digress.

I'm sure there will be tons of people snarking about having to pay the extra money. You know what, though? Get some damn reusable totes and shut your yap. Most stores sell them for a buck. You can get fancier ones for cold items, heavy items, or just because you like to have things that are pretty. Etsy has a great selection of purty totes, and you'd be supporting handcrafting, and not buying from China. And it's not like you have to start paying a quarter for bags today. You have, like, 16 months if the bill passes. So get yourself one or two bags a month. Or one bag with each shopping trip (we go weekly)(help!). It won't add that much to your bill, but, before you know it, you'll have enough of a collection for an entire grocery trip.

Ta-da!

Saturday:

On Saturday, SweetPea, the Monkeys and I met some friends downtown for the Chalk it Up! festival. I was a little disappointed, because it didn't occur to me that everyone would just be getting started, so most of the sidewalk art was nowhere near completion while we were there.

I looked in vain for our Laura Booty, who, from what I understood, does Chalk it Up! every year.

I bought Monkey Do a personal square so that she could let her artistic flow. Monkey See rolled his eyes and was definitely not interested. After awhile, I started to feel kind of bored, so I sent Monkey See to purchase me a square and got started doing my own thing. It wasn't very long before I had to send SweetPea for more chalk. Each personal square comes with a box of 12 chalks, but they're the skinny ones. I was definitely going to need more black & blue. SweetPea purchased me one each of the big, fatty chalks. Yay!

One of the volunteers came up to me and asked why I wasn't an artist for the festival. I was kind of confused at first because wasn't that what I was doing? She said, no, that I should sign up for next year and that they can get me a sponsor and I can do one of the big squares and I get a teeshirt and water and lunch. Of course, I'm sitting there thinking "But I'm just doodling!"

Still, I was kind of flattered until I was finished with mine and took another walkabout. OMG! Yeah, I've got nothing on some of these guys and what they can do with chalk and concrete. Not even in my wildest dreams. I really wished I'd had more balls to walk around and take snaps while people were working. I don't know, it just feels intrusive to me.

After we finished at the festival, we went out for lunch. Chief and I managed to get a touch of food poisoning. We're guessing it was the mayonnaise. It left me feeling very thankful I don't eat meat, and also wondering, again, if I could handle being vegan.

I hate when my tummy is the yuck.

Sunday:

Sunday we met up again for the Rainbow Festival Street Faire . We've gone every year for the last couple of years. Last year they had a burlesque group from San Francisco. Because this is Sacramento, seeing a performance by a burlesque group in broad daylight, outside on a stage smack in the middle of what is ordinarily a very busy intersection was enough to leave me giggling for days. We just don't bare our wares like that very often in Sacramento.

This year's Faire kind of sucked. The performers were ok, but kind of uninspired. Mostly it was local acts that had supposedly made it big and a bunch of drag queen spots. The things those girls can do in big ass platform heels is amazing, but it still gets old when you didn't go to see a drag queen revue.

The Monkeys had fun, though, mostly. Monkey Do got herself a "Vote No on Proposition 8" sticker and wore it proudly. She had previously asked me about the signs people were carrying, and what that meant. I'll get to that conversation in a minute. She also conned SweetPea into getting her a "sweatcuff" with the rainbow flag on it (which, yes, she did wear to school today), as well as a plastic rainbow peace sign necklace.

After the Faire, we went to the park and had picnic lunch and then played in the playground for awhile. You'll be seeing snaps from Sunday, mostly at the park, in the daily photos posting this week. Snaps from Saturday will start this weekend (I believe).

I really wish that I'd had the sense to use the long lens at the Faire. Oh, well. I'll get there.

Proposition 8:

Monkey Do asked me what all the "Vote No on Proposition 8" signs meant.

I explained to her that there was a proposition up for vote that would make it illegal for a man and a man or a woman and a woman to be married. It would mean that only a man and a woman could be married.

I told her that, if it passes and becomes law, then SweetPea and I would no longer be married.

She looked at me with this positively stricken look on her face and asked me:

"Does that mean you wouldn't be able to live together anymore?"

Y'all. I have no idea where she gets this shit from.

OK, maybe she equated it with divorce, at which point, duh, we'd totally not want to live with each other anymore. But, at the time, all I could think when I was looking down at her was "omg, what, we're living in sin otherwise?"

Anyway, Monkey Do was a little appeased that her world would not totally crumble should proposition 8 pass, but I think she was still pretty damn offended that anyone should feel the need to stick their noses in her moms' business.

When we passed the nice lady handing out stickers, I grabbed one up for her and smacked it on her chest.

My little girl is going to grow up to be such a rabble-rouser.

*sniff*
I'm so proud!
*sniff*

PS:

I've still got a big old black spot on my finger from Saturday.

Chalk's biocompatable, right?

3 comments:

Gruppie Girl said...

You girls in CA are always so ahead of the rest of us.

Giving a measly 5 cents back to shoppers for bringing reusable bags does nothing to promote them.

Now if you CHARGE people, they will take notice. Even the oil-loving right wing will start to bring their bags to the store.

Gruppie Girl said...

You girls in CA are always so ahead of the rest of us.

Giving a measly 5 cents back to shoppers for bringing reusable bags does nothing to promote them.

Now if you CHARGE people, they will take notice. Even the oil-loving right wing will start to bring their bags to the store.

Anonymous said...

OMG, were raising breeders.. YeHaW~