The point is this!

HE LAUGHED! He really did! Dave and I were discussing how to organize Jonah's slowly growing piles of way too many of everything. I was holding the wee one and all of a sudden we hear uh huh huh hu huuuu. And that was that! Kind of a Beevis and Butthead kind of laugh, but I'll take what I can get! We tried to get him to chuckle or the rest of the morning, but all he would give us was a Uhhhh or a uh huhhhh. Still very cute in it's own regard.
Oh, Dave and his mom got in a fight this morning. It's kind of hard for him because he doesn't like being the parent in their relationship. She always calls just to talk about the problems that she is having and the money she doesn't have. Today she called and told him that she didn't like the way that I said goodbye to her the other day. Can you believe it?! She said I was being rude saying good bye. And you would think that after Dave said, "Sorry, mom. I was there and I know she didn't mean it that way" that she would be understanding and go on to her next sob story. NO! She continued to fight with him about it for about a half hour. I couldn't believe it. She then continued to tell him that we think they're better than them and we're prideful people and she didn't like spending time with us. WHHHAAAAAT?! The lady has gone coo coo. Never once have we been prideful or thought that we were better than them. Ugh! We do all we can for them and it still isn't enough. We buy her groceries, we lend her money when she needs it, we bought her a TV bigger than ours for her because we thought she didn't have a TV only to find out she's got 3 or 4 TV's Bigger than the one we got her. Her excuse, "Oh, well they don't have that great of a picture. We try to help her with her problems, which has obviously not helped at all. I know that her saying she thinks we're prideful and that she thinks we think we're better than them is because she is ashamed of how she is living. C'mon. A mother needing her son to take care of her when she is completely capable to do everything herself - that is wrong and a half. When we don't have any money to gie to her she goes and gets a job. When she gets all the money she needs she quits. Ugh. Now she's trying to get support from the government. I don't want it to happen, but I think it might because she can talk her way into anything. I mean sure, I love the lady and all, but at 42 or so, I think it's finally time for her to grow up!


OH! Some of the women on UC's Rowing team (of which I am a member - not currently, but come January when Winter quarter beings) have filed a lawsuit against the university mainly on account of not having a boathouse. They are also complaining of unfair treatment based on not enough equiptment, staff, trainers, gear to wear and scholarship money. I will now give my opinion on the matter (so official, right?)

not enough equiptment - Regarding the vans to allow us to travel to practice, honestly I think we need a school bus to fit everyone. I also think that even if we had enough room for all the girls to fit, a lot of them would still drive to practice! I know that when I was able to drive I wanted to because getting in the van was much more of a hastle than driving myself. I would have to drive to campus, find a parking spot and then run and try to catch the van on time. That equals a hastle. Regarding actual equiptment to use at practice, I think we need more and better quality things. I think we don't have some things like a couple extra motors on account of the men's team dropping them into the river the year before last. C'mon guys, those were our best engines! I think we need a fewmore smaller boats for personal pregression. Tim (the old coach) was kind enough to buy a few pairs for us to work on our technique, but now that he is gone we do not have boats such as those. I also think that we need more than one 8pc set of nice oars. We need better boats than hand me downs from other teams.

Staff - I think the amount of staff we have is okay. I mean sure we could use a couple extra hands, but do we need an assistant coach or could some of the members of the team be helping with the rigamorole that takes so long for the coaches to do. I think that the team captains should help with the tasks like booking hotel rooms, ordering supplies, yadda yadda. THAT would get ride of the need for a second assistant.

Trainers - YES. We need a trainer. Is stinks that we don't get the personal attention like the other sports do, but my thinking is that we aren't a contact sport with considerably less injuries. I think that if the schoolcan't afford to have a new trainer and would rather spend the money on the boathouse, then so be it.

Gear - Frankly, this is a load of crap. Okay, so we had a couple races with out racing gear. Of course I wasn't there, but it's hard for me to give sympathy. I think it was 4 or 5 races we had this fall and a couple of them were scrimmages. I think that because this wasn't our big season, and this past season was the big one for a lot of other sports, the focus wasn't on us, which is okay. I can understand the complaining if we dont have gear by our big season which is spring. Also, I know that another reason why we don't have a lot of gear is because we have a new coach. C'mon people. She's only got two hands! She can't get new equiptment, new gear, find a site for the boathouse, a new assistant, meet and coach a new team, meet new co-workers without missing out on something. Again I think this is something some of the team members could help out with. Oh, I just remember. Pam, new coach, is apparently having troubles treating the girls like children. Maybe she would have a problem delegating tasks for team members to do. I guess you never know until you try!

Scholarship money - I worked at the Athletic Development office over the summer. At the office, I saw that the womens rowing team is the heaviest funded women's team on campus. We have, I think it said 15 or so full scholarships. We were on the top of the list for womens sports. Compaired to the men's scholarship, that is a different story. You have to also consider the fact that Men's sports rake in a ton more money than female sports! Does that suck for girls? Of course, it does! But should the university not give money back to the football team that they are raking in for the university? Of course not! The only way for the Football team to keep making money is to keep giving them money! The fans wouldn't have it any onther way. They want good concessions, they want comfortable seats with a good view of the field. To not give them what they pay for is a waste of their money. They wouldn't come if the university did not heavily fund the football and basketball stadiums. Now, Baseball is a different story. Not too many people come to the baseball games. Perhaps the new stadium was a plea to get some fans to come.

Boathouse - I agree, WE NEED A BOATHOUSE! When I was being recruited in the spring of '02 I was told the boathouse would be finished that coming Fall and it wasn't. The date kept being pushed back and back and here we are today STILL looking. I think most of the problems stem from not having a place to put the boathouse or being denied or kicked off spots that were once promised to us. Is that our fault? Kind of, but is it the universities fault? Kind of. Is it just naturally complicated, YES! I think that the university need to get on the ball. Maybe if more money is offered to the owners of site then we would get what we wanted I think they should take more of an active role in looking for a site instead of leaving it all mostly up to Pam. I also think a lot of time was wasted in the past.

Okay, now I want to go do something productive while the little one is sleeping!