Rabbit, rabbit ...

2005-09-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

Channeling my "inner Lorelai Gilmore" here, this week marked our third-to-last First Day of School.
Sadly, no "first day pictures" were taken in the backyard ... we abandoned that tradition in sixth grade when, on her first day of Middle School, the picture-taking ceremonies caused her to actually miss the school bus. NOT cool. (But the pix were great!)
So four days into D's sophomore year, she actually likes her classes, likes her teachers and likes her schedule. For the first time ever, her easiest class is math (it looks like we really made the right decision to have her downgrade to Algebra 2 instead of Honors Algebra 2 ... she said her friends say it is the hardest class they have ever taken). She's the only bassist in jazz band so she's in all the numbers, they've combined all of the advanced acting/IB Theatre classes into one with different objectives so most of her friends are in that class, and in gym they've changed the objectives so she is graded on participation and having her uniform every day rather than performance ... so all in all, a good first week as far as that goes. Oh, and yeah, she likes her four academic classes as well ... LOVES AP NSL even though it's probably going to be her toughest class.

But it seems like the first weeks of school can never go by without some sort of tragedy. In sixth grade it was 9/11. Seventh was the snipers. Eighth was Hurricane Isabel which, though not a catastrophic hurricane by most standards, still left our area at an absolute standstill for nearly two weeks. Ninth grade was event-free but now ... Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans and much of the Mississippi beaches.
There are no words to describe how horrible this is ... the storm, the damage and the unbelievable riots and looting and horror going on down in that city. I have felt the last few days very much as I felt during the aftermath of 9/11, with no disrespect intended to the victims of that terror.
I think the casualties will be equal or surpass that event (even if you count the loss of lives in the War in Iraq, which I consider a direct result of 9/11). Right now they're talking deaths in the thousands, so many people missing ... and within a few days the disease will start to set in and with the shutdown of the hospitals and basic martial law down there who can even guess at the coming days/weeks/months. Years, even.
The utter destruction of a city, several cities -- beautiful cities. The loss of jobs and families and belongings for hundreds of thousands of people.
I feel now the way I felt then ... in a way, our lives have ALL been changed in the last few days ... I am just so so so sad. And feel so helpless. There is so little we can do.
D is going to talk to her HS principal tomorrow to see if they can go about getting the auditorium to put together a benefit concert with proceeds going to the Red Cross for the victims down there. If they can find a few of the popular younger bands in the area to perform, who all have different fan bases, they could probably draw a few hundred kids and raise at least SOMETHING. We'll see what he says ...

So there you go. My first post. In my first blog.
Oh, the screen name? Remember the old National Lampoon TV Guide satires? Every sitcom description ended "and hijinks ensue." I always thought it would be a good name for a comic strip.

Hijinks and Sue

Rabbit, rabbit ...