Teachers Little Pest

Every night until the 7th grade my mom or dad would come into my room and either read or sing to me. My mom was the one who mostly did it but sometimes my dad would too. My dad’s choice of songs often bordered on the bizarre. He would often sing: the National Anthem, the ballad of the Green Berets and the Marine Corps Hymn. All of these are slightly random songs to sign to a five-year old girl. Especially when you consider I was living in England and had no real concept of being an American yet. Maybe that was what my dad was trying to do…instill in me some sense of Americanism.

Well there was also one song (my favorite song) that wasn’t hyper patriotic. It was a song my dad made up when he was in middle school (he was a dork). I decided to post those lyrics below. It is sung to the tune of the Marine Corps Hymn. I used to think this song was so funny…a battle cry for kindergarteners!

From the Halls of Itchy-Gooey
To the Shores of Bubblegum Bay
We will fight our teachers in battle
With spit balls made of clay
We will fight for lunch and recess
and to keep our desk a mess
We are proud to claim the title…
of teachers, little, pest.

Daddy’s Prayer

Last week my dad had a little health scare.  He is fine now but he had to spend a night in the hospital due to a heart condition.  Anyone who knows me or my dad knows we worry about his heart, all the time.  It’s interesting dealing with something like this so far away.  I live in L.A. and my family lives in the Bay Area.  I first found out via text message from my little sister “Don’t know if mum told you. Dad’s in the hospital, I don’t know much else. Mum is with him.”  Text messages went back and forth that night and the next morning but Sarah (my sis) still had no news.  Of course everything turned out fine. My mom called later that afternoon with a tone of “I know Sarah told you already and you must be worrying…which was something I was only trying to avoid by not tell you” – a tacit I’m not sure I agree with mom…but I know you do what you think is best.

That twelve-hour period was a worrying one.  All I knew was that my dad was in the hospital.  News of the shootings in Arizona only compounded my wired mood for the day.  Those shooting hit a little too close to home as well.  The people shot were people doing the same job that I do  – it was all just a little troublesome of a day.  And days like that lead to reflection.  My dad is the person who takes the most pride in the fact that I want to go into public service.  He is a very proud American and impressed upon all his children that public service is a noble profession.  I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without him and I can’t image what it would be like if he where to suddenly leave.

With all this going on I had a vivid memory running through my head, the prayer my dad would say with us every night before we went asleep and the little handshake that came after.

God Bless Mommy
God Bless Daddy
God Bless James and little Sarah
God Bless Grandma in America
God Bless Nana and Popa and Great Nana
God Bless all my Aunties and Uncles
and all my cousins and friends
and most of all dear God, Bless me, Rebecca Faith Barrett
and keep me safe through the night
Amen

After dad would stick out his index finger to meet mine and he would say “Beeeeeeee good.”  Our little handshake I found out later comes from the movie E.T.

Overwhelmed!!!

It’s midterm season and the only reason I’m blogging is that I finished one midterm today.  My last two are next week but the one I took today was the big scary midterm.  That being said, I’m still super busy.  It feels like everything is happening all at once. Midterm season isn’t just the time were all my classes give their midterm tests, it’s also the election midterms. So I have GOTV (Get Out The Vote) events, “studying” aka desperately cramming stuff into my head, making sure a event for my boss is holding at my school goes off well.  It feels rather overwhelming!!! and you guessed it, my last midterm is on election day 😦

With that in mind lets look at the LOL’s and WTF’s of the past week…

LOL’s:

• My dad coloring his beard black to be like the Giant’s pitcher (who I guess has a black beard).
• Getting a plane ticket to go home on election day!!! This might not be funny but it’s the best news I’ve gotten in a long time!!!
• My roommate bring home the new Taylor Swift CD after her firm anti-Taylor stance.  It’s good to see that’s now over.

WTF:

• Political Science Professors who have their midterms on election day!
• The 14 boxes of posters for Eva Longoria’s new documentary movie…what am I meant to do with all that???
• Students who don’t VOTE (Election Day, Nov. 2)

To deal with all the stress…here is a picture of my favorite fruit: Pomegranate!

 

It’s Love Without End

Wow, I never thought I would post a picture of me as a small child up.  In what might be a momentary lack of sanity (cus, it’s just not cool to have your baby pictures up for your friends to see) I have posted this picture for my dad.  My dad who has been really a great guiding force in my life.  He is getting older now and it’s hard to me as his daugther to watch that happen.  He is going from the superman dad to a human dad.  -and I have to say I like the human version of him the most!

My dad recently decided to start a blog.  When he told me this I didn’t really know what to expect…the mad rantings of a super liberal, a proud dad putting up pictures I don’t want out there, or just general complaints about life.  Well his blog is all of that and a little bit more.  But what struck me the most is that my dad is a actual writer!  He doesn’t write like I do on this blog (lets face it no one can dyslexically ramble like me).   He actually writes.  He is able to put his wit and charm into his posts and it is neat for me as his daughter to be able to read that.

So here is the link to his blog and please show him so love 🙂 http://kmabarrett.wordpress.com/

P.S. 10 points to the person who can get the reference of the title of this post 🙂