Trashy is the new Classy!

I just think that this idea and these purses are SO amazing! A nonprofit organization and some amazingly creative Mexicans are using "[e]mpty candy wrappers, potato chip bags and cookie packages that once littered roads and filled Mexican dumps [to make] fashion statements in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo," says this interesting article by Lisa J. Adams for the Courier News Online.com.*

Some of the purses and accessories below are going for $200 a pop! Check out the website HERE to see what I'm talking about!

Interesting idea, right? Purses made out of un-recyclables! I say, AMAZING! And I want one for Christmas!


Current book: "Women in Love" is clearly one of D.H. Lawrence's best. I'm overjoyed I randomly picked it up and have been reading it by the pool alllll weekend. Relaxing AND intellectualizing!!

*Click HEREto see where the above quote came from.

"Yes, Reed" --- A snippet of conversation between myself and one of my three year olds

Reed, one of my more devious, wild, and stubborn three year old boys has recently opened up to me a great deal. He seems to have recognized my authority finally. This is not the interesting part of my teacher-student relationship with this young boy. The interesting part is the conversation that we had the other day while I was walking with him to the restroom. He informed me, suddenly and tritely, that he "had to go poop" and so off I took him to the restroom.
While I was standing at the door, Reed questioned me profusely about the origin of many interesting things. Twos are known for their relentless asking of the question "Why?" and now it seems I have pigeonholed the threes, they relentlessly ask the question "Where?"

Here is the extent of Reed and my conversation:

"Ms Mercedes, where does poop come from?"
And I amusingly replied "Well, Reed, when we eat food, the food then goes down our throats and into our stomachs, where we begin to break it down, then the food leaves our stomachs and goes into what is called the intestines, where it is broken up even more, and then, the broken down food comes out of our bottoms as poop." Yes, laughing is ok.
"Where does water come from?"
"Water that we drink comes from a process called evaporation. Water falls from the sky as rain and fills up lakes and rivers. Then grown ups take that water and filter it and clean it at a water treatment center and it comes to us through the pipes and into the sink right out there."
"Where does the sun come from?"
I pause, thinking on how to best answer this question: "The sun is a star that is on fire and always shines on the earth, creating the light that makes things grow and makes us get sunburned. The earth spins and that is why sometimes it is night and there is no sun and sometimes it is day and the sun is shining on us." I don't think he understood me.
And then, I walked away for a moment, coming back chewing a burrito that I was eating for lunch.
Reed inevitably asked me,"Ms. Mercedes, what are you doing now?"
"I'm chewing a burrito," I replied.

"Oh, you're eating a taco?" (All Texans call burritos tacos, I do not know why)

"Let me see!!" Reed exclaimed.

I showed him half of the burrito through the restroom door.

"No, open your mouth!" he exclaimed again. So after all that coaxing, I swallowed and then stuck my tongue out.

Reed then intellectually responded "then you will swallow it, then it will go down your throat and into your stomach and your intestines and then come out your bottom?"


"Yes, Reed," I replied, laughing. What I said got through! He understood, at least the poop part.

I hope that you found this story as amusing as I did. Just a snippet of hilarity that happens every day at my work. Keeps me insane.


Current book I'm reading: Women In Love by D.H. Lawrence

"'It's Only Rock and Roll, but I Like it': The Fall of Saigon"

The poem title in the subject heading of this post is about the US occupation in Vietnam. I read this poem today after reading an article about Sean Penn's activism and journalistic ventures in Iraq in my favorite magazine, "The New Yorker." Of course the connection between Iraq and Vietnam has been made before, and here, with this poem, I'm going to make it again.

"'It's Only Rock and Roll, but I Like It':
The Fall of Saigon

The guttural stammer of the chopper blades
Raising arabesques of dust, tearing leaves
From the orange trees lining the Embassy compound;
One chopper left, and a CBS cameraman leans
From inside its door, exploiting the artful
Mayhem. Somewhere a radio blares the Stones,
"I like it, like it, yes indeed..." Carts full
Of files blaze in the yard. Flak-jacketed marines
Gunpoint the crowd away. The overloaded chopper strains
And blunders from the roof. An ice-cream-suited
Saigonese drops his briefcase; both hands
Now cling to the airborne skis. The camera gets
It all: the marine leaning out the copter day,
His fists beating time. Then the hands giving way."

~David Wojahn (b. 1953)

Coincidentally, I read this poem again a few days later, and I had just heard about the "alleged" massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi citizens by a battalion of Marines. Note the repeated presence of the marines in the above poem. I find it coincidental that I recently posted this poem in relation to Sean Penn's activism and then news about these Marines comes out soon after. Read this article on NPR to find out what really happened on that horrible day in Haditha.
I suppose it is only natural for the Marines to be upset at the death of one of their own, but to lash out and kill 24 unarmed civilians inside of their homes in reaction to that death is, in my opinion, a horrible example of pure genocide. Genocide that they lied about initially. Genocide that could be prevented if we would get our butts out of Iraq, stop stressing out our soldiers and the Iraqi people with our continued occupation of their country.


DISCLAIMER:
I sympathize and will hear out all political views. I know that waxing political is not always the best thing to do publicly, however, I feel very strongly about Iraq and war in general. I’m a pacifist, and that does not mean I’m a crazy liberal. In fact, I wouldn’t consider myself liberal at all. Imagine that! I apologize if you disagree with my political views. Feel free to comment and let me know your opinion.

Current book I'm reading: "Women in Love" by D.H. Lawrence
Last movie I saw and loved: Annie Hall, an old, great, Woody Allen flick