Tuesday, July 31, 2007

red headed step children and watermelon bombs

I am so annoyed at the Powers-That-Be at TGP right now. We, the Education Department, are always... ALWAYS... the red-headed stepchild of the organization. And it is getting worse. Hee hee hee... Okay, TANGENT... Sorry, the phrase Red-headed Stepchild kind of cracks me up.

When I was little, I overheard my dad say to a friend about his golf game. "Yeah, he beat me like a red-headed stepchild!"

It totally confused me.

I had to ask why red-headed stepchildren were better golfers... which lead Padre to a very awkward explanation to his 5 year old about what child abuse had to do with the situation. HEE HEE HEE!

Which, actually, has amused me ever since, because the idea that a Red-headed Stepchild was a BAD thing seemed to me INSANE since my HEROES were just that.

I mean, Annie was pretty cool. She had a dog, and I was jealous of her for that. And she was tough.

And then there was the fantastically hilarious PIPPI LONGSTOCKING! I LOVED her! I think Gilmore Girls put it pretty well.
Luke: ...You know, Rory is like Pippi.
Lorelai: Pippi?
Luke: She can have adventures and be free, she's smart. The whole world's waiting for her.
Lorelai: You're comparing Rory to Pippi Longstocking?
Luke: Pippi is strong and independent. She can lift a horse above her head. Uh-huh. And beat up bullies and build a hot-air balloon. She's unique, like Rory. But I guarantee you, if Pippi had met Dean, there would be no horse, no balloons. He'd drag her down to his level, spend all her gold coins, and poof, like that, all her dreams would be gone.
I was Pippi one year for Halloween. And the PET THING? She had a horse AND a monkey and probably could have bought more with her pirate gold if she wanted and was just AWESOME.

But the RHS that has meant the most in my life anyway has been, of course, Anne Shirley. I wanted so badly to BE Anne. I loved the movies. Later, I loved the books. I could imagine BEING her. I imagined we were definitely "Kindred Spirits."

"And people laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?"
~ Anne


Oddly, all of this rambling about how much I secretly wish I was a LITERAL Red-headed Stepchild, is just because I was about to say how annoyed I sometimes I am that we, the education department, are the FIGURATIVE RHS of TGP. SGary has hired his own B***h to do OUR job for HIM. But not the same. She is Cheerleader and there are MAJOR problems at work right now. I am worried things are about to get worse.

On the one hand I have the greatest job on the face of the earth. On the other, we are paid very little and are disrespected by every other department.

We blew up a watermelon like these... yet, sort of less... uhh... regulated so there was a bit more fire. It was AWESOME. But here is a TASTE of our Self-Carving Jack-O-Lantern Melon!




Steve Spangler is my HERO!

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