bleh
Wonder if anyone's interested in seeing Mr. George Takei next week....
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The Human Rights Campaign's Coming Out Project and Star Trek's George Takei are embarking on a nationwide tour for Equality Trek!
Come hear the story of Star Trek's Mr. Sulu as he discusses his life on and off the set and the importance of being out and open.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
7:30 pm
Shriver Hall
Homewood Campus of the Johns Hopkins University
3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Admission is FREE and all are welcome!
For more information or if you have any questions, please e-mail ncop@hrc.org
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My week has been somewhat boring so far. I applied for the place I've been on the cusp of applying to for so long. Hopefully I'll hear something back in the next millenia.
I'm probably headed over Erik & Veronica's in a few minutes to play with Baby Val, relieve some mother-stress from Veronica (stress over her mother, not stress over being a mother), and board game night. Discovered this week that the date of their moving is the same date my step-aunt (wierd family relation, but basically my grandfather's daughter by second wife who is about my age) is 'becoming Catholic' the same day through some ceremony. *shrug* I won't be there. At least now I have a passable reason. ("I'm watching Val for the move since I can't lift anything over 10 lbs."--I said to my mom...) Of course, I will be helping move and Val has a sitter (the lovely and oblidging Kristen) for the day... but it sounds better that way and my mom won't be yelling at me about how much I shouldn't be lifting because I still have 2 herniated discs in my back. Bah.
I got this week's game (Baltimore) newspaper and I have to say I'm as annoyed as ever with those game newspapers lately. Very few stories based in Baltimore. Have to wade through crap from other cities (which may or may not be happening in that city's actual game or the game that owns that city). But now they're using "The Onion" as a source and though they're humorous, it's driving me nuts. Knowing that it is "The Onion", the reputation of the souce is enough to throw that info out the window and make it unusable. So now we're down to crap happening elsewhere and crap that's not even happening except to make a joke. I'm wondering why the staff isn't allowing any actions, questions, etc. until the game. *shrug* I'm starting to not want to ask when it comes to this staff. If I ask, I get halfassed "that's the way we're doing it" answers in a fragrant sauce of condescension. Oh well, I suppose urination on things is a way of life for some people. By the way, I'm not asking for opinions on this topic, or the staff to hear of it and fix things. I've done that route and I'm finished with that sort of hope now. I'm not dealing with weak defenses of the staff in comments. My LJ is for me to rant about things. Sure, I might not have considered X, Y, Z. I might be an arrogant ass who places herself above all else. But I don't want to open this one up to argument. either agree or disagree. Don't expect me to debate to get you over to 'my side'.
On the interesting, non-inflamatory side of things, I had a long long talk with my Mom lately. I've been having some interesting talks with her of late that (strangely) haven't been 'clean your room' type talks. I've known for a long time that my mother's grandmother (i.e. my great-grandmother) disappeared in the 70s from Crownsville State Mental Hospital where she was being treated for depression. I've always thought it was an interesting story and over the last years, I've been mining my mother for information about her and other family members. The stories I heard last night are enough to make me want to start a book chronicling mother and daughter finding out about their family's history. A non-fiction and see what we can find out. I still might, but you never really think that your family did anything other than give birth to children and marry, never had motivations for love and other feelings.
So far I've discovered that the woman in question was married (before or during WW2) to a Crawford Brown who went away to war and never came back. Only a few years ago, my mother managed to find that Crawford Brown came back from the war, just not to Maryland. He had started another family in Richmond, VA. My mother went through Richmond, VA phone books to find Browns, called a lot of them until she found Browns who had an older family member called "Crawford Brown". They were suspicious, though some admitting that they did know a Crawford Brown who had passed away a few years previous. And that they had heard that he did have another family in Maryland. Is it any wonder that my great-grandmother suffered from depression and had to be admitted... her children were sent to different relatives to raise.
And one day, in the 70s, she 'eloped' from the mental hospital... which is what they used to call running off without permission. Apparently some paperwork says she disappeared July 2nd, some says July 4th. The hospital apparently filed a missing person's report and she was never found. But when my mother was 18, she got in touch with the local sheriff's office who checked all their records and said they never found a missing person's report. Some of the family believe that she died in Crownsville and the people who work there covered it up. My mother got in contact with the Social Security people a few years ago as well and discovered that her grandmother had not used her social security number and was not collecting benefits currently.
The story gets more interesting when the family recently discovered that a woman named "janet" or "janice" (i can't remember) is supposedly another daughter of my great-grandmother and when a child the girl had been put in foster homes until she was grown. According to her, she has just tracked down her original family and now wants to be involved in the family. She doesn't look anything like any of the others in the family. Most people seem to think she's out for some money and is lying. I haven't even met her yet.
So... considering what I've said above.. think it's an interesting story? worthy of a book? I'll be working on using all the technological means that my mother doesn't understand to discover anything I can.