Bravery

I got a call today about the class I'm teaching for our homeschool co-op. Pretty run of the mill, really, but during the conversation the mom told me how happy she was that I was brave enough to post to our email list about an idea I had for a splinter group of homeschoolers. Basically, young-ish and/or single moms who maybe feel left out of the other activities. After the call I started to think about how silly it is that I would be thought of as brave that I put out this description of myself:

For those of you who don't know me - in a very small nutshell, I am a
divorced mom of 2. I am a full-time server and bartender. I am a
member of a very liberal Christian church. I have a strong calling to
help women choose traditional birth attendants and use the God-given
tools and skills to parent, particularly breastfeeding and respectful,
attachment parenting. I have friends of many faiths and have learned
a great deal about true love and tolerance from many of them.
Politically, I am a fervent liberal feminist Democrat, but love my
conservative Republican friends who can have intelligent discussions
about current events. I am 33 years old and feel like I am just
coming into the best time of my life and am more comfortable in my
skin now than I ever was previously.


Should I be ashamed of my life? I'm not. I think I'm pretty okay. It struck me as odd that I might need to be brave to tell some people about who I am.

Saying goodbye to the Pirate

About noon yesterday I got a call from my best friend asking if I had talked to anyone at Jolly Rogers. I had not so he told me I should probably call as he had heard on the radio something about it being damaged the night before.

I called Joe (the owner) and he said it had not been "damaged," it had been destroyed; burned to the ground. I made sure no one was hurt and their home was saved (they live on site) and did my best to express how sorry I was and let him know to call if there was anything I could do to help. He says he plans to rebuild for next season, always the optimist. That is one thing I will really miss. It is one of about a hundred things I will really miss.

The great money would not be enough to make me drive four days a week for an hour to get to a place to run my butt off for several hours in scorching heat. Working there is so much fun, it is easy to feel like you are a part of your tables' vacations. The owners are fantastic and accommodating, my co-workers and guests are/were fun and entertaining, the food was fantastic. I miss it already and tomorrow will be my first actual missed shift. I got a little teary-eyed putting away my apron this morning.

I am incredibly fortunate that I kept Applebees part-time. Yesterday I went in as soon as I heard and asked about getting put back on the schedule full-time and Kara assured me that they would make room for me. I put up a note asking for shifts and already got one for Thursday, so I will be fine. I will need for work some on my kids' weekend which pretty much sucks, but I'll survive and they will, too. When I worked at the Pirate with them, they loved it. They got to play with Luke and Anna all day. It's not so much fun at the Bee. :-(

Here is the story from the newspaper:

Fire Destroys Jolly Rogers

Statewide Celebration

I am so upset that I had to miss the midwifery celebration this weekend. Here is the post from FoMM's blog, including pictures:


Friends of Missouri Midwives: A Celebration of Legal Midwives in Missouri!