Saturday, May 31, 6pm

Cain’s Ballroom

423 N Main Ave

Hundreds of tickets have already been sold for Oklahomans for Equality’s annual Equality Gala, held this year at the legendary Cain’s Ballroom. Benefiting OkEq, the Gala honors Lifetime Achievement Award winner Charles Faudree, Community Heroes George Kaiser Family Foundation and Carol Crawford, and Russ Bennett Spiritual Inclusion Award winner Nancy Day. The program features a champagne and hors d’oeuvre reception, live entertainment by Jared Tyler with Reed Mathis and Josh Raymer of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and Valerie Eskridge accompanied by Chuck Fluker, dinner by Taste Catering and wine donated by Loring Wine Company. Don’t miss the black tie event of the season, celebrating Tulsa’s rich diversity.

Oklahomans for Equality commemorates another year of tremendous growth and success with our annual Equality Gala. OkEq is proud to highlight the many accomplishments of Tulsa’s LGBT community, organizations and allies. We hope you will join us this year, as we celebrate our successes, honor an incredible group of award recipients, and look toward a bright future for OkEq and our community.

VIP After-Party
New to this year’s event is an exclusive VIP After Party following the Gala, held outdoors at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center. The VIP Party features live entertainment, champagne and wine as well as coffee and spirits, and passed desserts. Admission to the After Party is included with all sponsorship levels, or may be purchased separately.

Date: May 31, 2008
Location: Tulsa’s legendary Cain’s Ballroom

Reception: 6pm
Dinner and program: 7pm
VIP After-Party: 10pm

Dinner: Catered by Le Cordon Bleu-trained Chef Seth Smith of Taste
Wine: Pinot Noir donated by acclaimed California vineyard Loring
Entertainment: Jared Tyler with Reed Mathis and Josh Raymer of Jacob Fred Jazz Oddyssey, and Valerie Eskridge with Chuck Fluker

Honorary Chair: Francie Faudree
Chairs: Michael Mills and Noah Millsap

Gala Tickets: $150
After Party: $50

Still no news on Maegan’s ADHD medicine. I dropped the prescription off Monday, called yesterday, and the pharmacist still hadn’t heard from the Doctor or DHS. Its seriously disheartening, when you consider I took her to the first doctor for ADHD evaluation a month and a half ago.

I’m still sick with whatever bug I picked up from the kids, weeks ago. Of course, all the daily stress I’m dealing with lately doesn’t really help. Poverty sucks, I don’t care what country you live in these days.

James still hasn’t made September’s house payment, and Mom went berserk this morning. It isn’t like I have any say in what bills James pays first. And he has paid all the other bills for this month. But our monthly expenses are around 1700 and James only brings in about 1200, so things are going to fall behind. Mom knew that when she lost her job at Dollar/Thrifty and decided to apply for disability. If we’re lucky, she’ll get a check from SSI by January, until then, we just have to do the best we can.

I’m just sick of being in the middle. James complains about having to pay for everything, not having enough to pay for everything, and being constantly broke. Mom complains about , well pretty much everything about James. They’re giving me an ulcer. It’s not like I have any power here. Honestly, if it weren’t for the kids, I’d leave. One way or the other. Really, what person in their right mind would live in such a toxic environment? On a really bad day, I think about which brother I want to raise my kids. Then I remind myself that that isn’t fair to anyone (Although, Suzi might like to have a red-haired daughter) especially the kids.

Damn, I need to stop feeling sorry for myself now, and get some shit done around here. Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow.

I am so sick of the medical system in this country. I refuse to call it healthcare, since most of us are unhealthy and nobody seems to care.

Maegan’s doctor got her evaluation from the psychologist last week. Yesterday, around 6pm, his receptionist calls to tell me, “Dr G…. doesn’t monitor meds for ADHD. You’ll need to take her to a psychiatrist for that.”

Now, why couldn’t they have told me that weeks ago, when I first took her in to talk to Dr G…. about assessing her for ADHD. If they had told me then that he didn’t monitor ADHD meds, I would have scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist in the first place. It would have saved us time, not to mention multiple trips to different dr’s offices. Now, I have to find a psychiatrist instead of the psychologist we started seeing, and start all over from there. I’m fairly certain the psychiatrist is going to want to do his or her own evaluation/tests and it’s going to be that much longer before Maegan is taking anything to help her.

People just have no idea how difficult it is living with someone who is constantly moving (and talking) and who has zero impulse control. If she thinks it, she’s going to say or do it only seconds after she’s thought it. In fact,  most of the time I think she’s saying and doing stuff before she finishes thinking about it.

Well, that’s my rant for the day. I’m outta here.

ADHD, Drs, Psychiatrist, Psychologists, Medical System, Health Care

One of the funniest things about living in Tulsa is seeing how hard some Christians try to be “cool” to appeal to the younger crowds.

Like this dance school in south Tulsa, Momentum Dance - Dance Classes in a Christian Based Dance Studio
I found a video of them on youtube:

Then theres GUTS and their NIGHTMARE, which is their way of “saving by fear”. How crazy is that. Of course, they make tons of money by scaring kids straight. I found an old review from 2005 of GUTS’ NIGHTMARE here, and it is much kinder than anything I could write. A short excerpt:

“The line takes so long because the first experience inside The Nightmare involves joining a group of other attendees on a school bus being driven by a drunk driver. Everyone goes through the nightmare as part of a group limited by the number of seats in the school bus. You proceed through a number of stage set spaces that each involve a horribly depicted experience of the suffering involved in drunk driving, gambling, sexual exploitation, and violence. We were relieved that the latest version of The Nightmare does not have a room depicting the “sin” of homosexuality. Each room includes live actors and lots of fake blood and gore. Wayne was not happy about getting fake blood sprayed all over his Dockers during a brutally depicted “scourging” scene involving whips wet with blood.

The big climax is a final room with a particularly gory Jesus on the cross that tops the worst medieval church depictions of Jesus’ suffering that we encountered in Italy . Then you are finally released into a room with video screens where the senior pastor of the church invites you to accept Jesus into your heart. Then the door opens to a room full of happy compassionate young adults who want to pray with you and urge you to say the right words that will convinced them that you have been saved.”

I personally think you should be 18 to see this stuff, but they think twelve is mature enough. My twelve year old is not going to be experiencing that haunted house anytime soon. Unless I’m dead.

I don’t have a problem with Christianity per se, but some of the behaviors and tactics of its practitioners are less than Christ-like. I still think if Christ came back today few of His “followers” would recognize him, and he’d probably be killed by his own people all over again.

I am so sick of rain. Don’t get me wrong, I know rain is necessary. Usually, I love a good summer soak. The air seems cleaner and everything is so nice and green. Of course, those summer soaks rarely lasted for a month. And I don’t think that when they decided to call this “green country” that they meant “rainforest or jungle” green.

And it is turning into a jungle out here. The insects are taking over. I know we are all aware of the mosquito problem. We’re all getting eaten alive everytime we step outside, day or night. With standing water everywhere, and the sporadic rainfall making spraying next to impossible, it’s a mosquito’s paradise.

I’ve also seen more and bigger waterbugs, roly poly bugs, cockroaches, and even some bugs I’ve never seen before in my life. They’re everywhere, and I’m just glad we had our house “weatherized” last year. Even with that, the little beasties still manage to sneak in every so often. Forget about any trip outdoors if you have issues with bugs, there is no escape. If I wanted to live like this, I’d move to an equatorial country.

So much for global warming being a myth.

Being a stay-at-home mom sucks sometimes. Money can be a major issue. People have no respect for what you do. They think you sit around on your ass all day watching tv, like Peggy Bundy. NOT

There can be a serious lack of intellectual stimulation, since you spend almost all of your time with children. Adult friends seem to go away. Hey, they have real jobs to do.

You never seem to have money or time to go out. Even other mothers can be condescending to stay-at-home mothers. Like they’re superior because they’re mothers and have outside jobs.

I’d rather have less money and more time with my kids. Sure, I sometimes resent not having money and things. But I just remind myself that money goes away and things can be broken or stolen. Your children are so much more valuable than that.

Things are only as good as what you can do with them. So what if I don’t wear the latest fashions or go out very much. I can share books with my kids. I know that, no matter what happens in this increasingly insane world, the ability to read is a tool that will serve them well wherever the future takes them.

stay-at-home mom, mothers, motherhood, kids, children, books, read, fashion, adults, friends, share, future

I am so frustrated. My brother and his family are in town visiting from Ohio. They love to shop at thrift stores. So, we thought we would take them shopping at some of the many stores we have here. We made it to two.

We started at the Goodwill on Garnett just south of Admiral Blvd. It’s a nice store and we found a few things in no time (2 dresses for my girl, and toys for their boys). I love how they divide clothing by colors. I’ve noticed more local thrift stores doing this recently, but Goodwill started doing it years ago.

After Goodwill, we decided to take Garnett down to 71st and check out the newer (and nicer) Salvation Army store. It is a nice store, and we found several tops we liked right away. And there is where my frustration started.

Half of the things we liked had numbers written on them with markers. Not little numbers in out-of-the-way places either. These are inch high numbers (one inch high x 9 inches long on one blouse) right across the front of the garment, hardly unnoticeable.

We decide to ask about the marks, so I take one to a cashier and ask about these obnoxious markings. She tells me that a certain national, “super” chain marks everything they donate this way. Everything. WTF.

Even if the cashier was right and the marks were removable, I think it’s an hateful practice and totally unnecessary.

I can understand a retailer wanting to prevent someone from buying at the thrift store and then returning to the retailer for a full refund. And, to be fair, this retailer is nice enough to take returns without receipts.

However, they don’t accept clothing returns if the item’s size/care tags have been removed. So why not just mark the tags some way to prevent returns? There is no reason to deface the garment itself.

The marks don’t always come off either. At least half of what we bought had marks, and only half of those came clean. Maybe this seems trivial and even petty, but think about it.

What if you’re shopping at the thrift store, not because you’re an awesome bargain hunter, but because you simply can’t afford to shop anywhere else?

So you have $20 to buy your kids some summer clothes. You buy these marked clothes because they’re cute, the right size, the kids like them, and the store’s staff thinks the marks can be removed. Hey, you’re a mom, you’ve picked up a few laundry tricks here and there, surely you can get a little ink out of a few clothes.

Only to get home and find out none of your tricks work and the marks seem to be made with permanent markers, like a Sharpie. Great.

Do you toss the clothes and have $20 wasted, or do you make the kids wear them and feel “marked” by poverty?

Are poor people the new Jews, to be marked by numbers and symbols on their clothes? That may seem like a rather extreme comparison, but I would never belittle the suffering they (and others) endured at the hands of Nazi fascism. People seem to forget, the nazis started small and worked their way up to tattooing people and shipping them off to die.

I just seem to see more little signs every day that hint at a gradual slide into a new fascism right here at home. That is not why my grandfather fought World War II, so that we could become the enemy. Whether it’s a slow slide or a blind leap into fascism, the end is just as ugly.

thrift store, Goodwill, Salvation Army, bargain, retail, markings, returns, poverty, poor, jews, fascism

So, I’m looking online for free skin cancer screenings and ‘lo and behold, nothing in Tulsa or anywhere else in the entire state of Oklahoma. This, despite the fact that the summer sun in Oklahoma can be deadly (UV index today, 7/7/07, is 10 = very high, meaning 15 minutes of exposure and your skin is taking damage).

The American Academy of Dermatologists has approximately 60 Doctors registered in Oklahoma and not one of them is listed as offering free skin cancer screenings. So much for christian charity here in the buckle of the bible belt.

According to the National Weather Service:

Tulsa, Oklahoma, skin cancer, dermatologist, free, UV