Friday, June 27, 2008

Fun as a Cure for Being Overwhelmed

I have the responsibility for the care and feeding of my 94 and a half year old mother and my 12 and a half year old nephew. I am sometimes overwhelmed because they both are crotchety, ungrateful, complainers. I dearly love them but whiners they are just the same. My test comes with cooking. Neither eats a wide variety of things. Ma is much better than Joel but it comes to the same thing all they want is... Junk Food! And junk food is a very bad thing for me. Look, I don't need one more ounce on this already overloaded frame.

So, every day I struggle to think of something that we all like to eat. I eat hamburgers but never had an abiding love of them...Joel is a hamburger nut. Ma, eats like an atrocity survivor...barely anything. Whereas I love all kinds of foods especially seafood. I am also very allergic to shellfish so that limits my seafood by quite a bit. Still, I manage to feed them something. It wears on my frame and my mind.

I spend most of my time with them. They do not like anything that I do. We live in a city with many interesting things...museums, historical sights, a decent theater life, cultural festivals and of course an active church. I find that my social life is bland limited to occasional church attendance because when Ma does not want to go Joel and I have learned that making her does not work. So it is wonderful that my best friends from New Orleans are coming to my new town to see me. My spirits are lifted high because I know that we will laugh, encourage each other, commiserate about our lives, and enjoy the things that we all like. Here's to starting my new life and soon my new job with the encouragement and blessings of my friends.

So Dawn and Kim here's a God Bless you and a heartfelt thank you even before you arrive.

Much love for you!

Deb


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Good Dementia Article for Dementia Caretakers

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/health/24deme.html?ex=1372046400&en=6c1ebe3a7786081
b&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink


Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia
Published: June 24, 2008
The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of dementia patients has soared.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

A Very Good Commencement Speech
J.K. Rowling's author of the Harry Potter Series
Harvard University Commencement 2008

http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:npr708:9311c0b7c0ce94e1bfb78ccd5c9a4f45


Friday, June 20, 2008

Action for a Responsible Press Alert!

Dear Friends,

Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not "one of us."

I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment:

http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1953-546747

Here's what happened recently:

After Senator Obama won the nomination, he and his wife gave each other a "pound" in front of the cameras. Fox anchor E.D. Hill called the act of celebration a "terrorist fist jab." Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama"--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child. It was a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative cultural stereotypes about Black people, an insult not only to Michelle Obama but to women and Black people everywhere.

After each of the incidents mentioned, Fox issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again on the third? It means the apology is meaningless.

These aren't one-time incidents--they're part of a pattern that continues no matter how often Fox is forced to apologize. Fox has a clear record of attacking and undermining Black institutions, Black leaders, and Black people in general.

If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join me in helping to bring an end to Fox's behavior.

http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1953-546747

Thanks.


Monday, June 09, 2008

My Ma

I have lived as an adult with my mother since 1998. It has been an education. The social dynamics alone could fill several posts. My mother whom I have always called Ma is one of the toughest people I know.

She in her deep knowledge and fearless dependence on the Gospel of Jesus Christ took on the Jehovah Witnesses that held our neighborhood (of diverse religious beliefs and a couple of atheist s too) hostage on Saturday mornings. I remember that day clearly. The nice ladies came up to the house. Ma shouted orders to invite them into the living room, go make tea, use the best tea set, and go to the ripoff corner store and buy that expensive box of Nabisco mixed cookies that held a sampling of Nabisco's best cookies in two layers, clearly Ma was rolling out her reddest carpet for the visiting Jehovah Witnesses.

Ma pulled her huge Bible with the picture of a white Jesus on it on her lap. She put her Concordance on the floor against her right leg. I don't know how those ladies did not know the battle was on but they handed her their Watch Tower Magazine/pamphlet and it was on! I have no taste for live blood sport (except for boxing). So, I did not watch the battle. I did see the results. They came back only once. Then for the rest of our lives in the neighborhood no Jehovah Witnesses came through to convert us on early Saturday mornings or any other times thereafter.

Ma if she were born to another family in another time would have been some university's prized professor. She is the one who taught us all to love reading, books, and information of all kinds. She is also the one who saw to it that we had a religious upbringing. Ma is the person who taught us to hold fiercely to family, to help each other and pray for each other to stay a family. Now, that she is nearing 95 and there are no more "old ones" other than Ma at the top of the family tree the family lessons she taught are being handed down to the next generation to carry on by us the next "old ones". May we do half as well as she and daddy did.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

When I Am Old I Shall Wear Red

My favorite color is red. I feel happy, carefree, and even alluring when red covers my body. As I steadily grow larger the less red clothes I find to adorn my body. I miss that hot red dress. I even walk differently when I wear red. My hips swing and my head tosses and a smile is plastered on my face. My world at that point is hot, fun, and filled with secret thrills. I mean I love red so much my attitude pours confidence all over everything I am doing at the moment. Hmm, red really is powerful. So why when folks get older they don't wear it as much? I mean a few sisters flash their red suits on Sunday during the rest of the week they wear those indigo, green, white and black colors. Why not have a hot red week? Wear red every day to just bowl folks over with the you of you!

Some folks say purple and royal blue are the colors of royalty but give me the loudest red you've got and no queen can out shine or out rank me. You can never wear too much red. They say I look like a flame? Well, isn't that the point?


Friday, June 06, 2008


Virginia Singleton Britton- Graduate 2008

On May 29, at 7:00 p.m. after several years of diligent work, Mrs. Virginia Singleton Britton graduated at the Bonnabel High School in Kenner, LA.

Mrs. Britton came to The Learning Center to get her GED. She never quit. She is a fighter which comes in handy when you as an adult have so many "issues" that erupt and threaten to throw you off of your game or just stop you cold. Virginia came to The Center needing work in everything. Unlike many students who feel overwhelmed and quit Virginia stuck to it. She kept going after it repeatedly taking the GED examination coming close but not quite making the grade. She pressed on. She enrolled at Delgado Community College in New Orleans without her GED and took challenging college courses and passed them too while studying for the GED. She kept taking the GED until finally she passed it!

When Hurricane Katrina destroyed The Center and disbursed the staff she landed in Baton Rouge where she continued to take courses at Southern University that would take her closer to reaching her goal of becoming a pharmacist. Later, missing New Orleans and wanting to be closer to her family she returned to New Orleans and battled to get decent affordable housing. She succeeded at that too.

Upon returning to New Orleans she enrolled at Southern University at New Orleans passing very difficult science and mathematics courses. After completing her work there she will return to Delgado Community College this summer to get her Associate degree in Pharmacy Technology in May of 2009. She expects to graduate from Delgado Community College so that she can immediately enroll at Xavier University in New Orleans' School of Pharmacy in the Fall of 2009.

All of us who understand the odds that she overcame and the personal struggles she persevered through to accomplish this critical step toward reaching her goal of becoming a pharmacist congratulate her and cheer her on to further success.

Virginia you do The Learning Center proud. Congratulations, it is well deserved.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Obama Day!

This morning I am filled with pride, hope, and relief that we as a country and Blacks as a people have completed the first part of a long journey toward changing this country for the better...Senator Barack Obama has won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America. Hallelujah! This has been a long time coming. As a person only three generations away from slavery I feel the prayers and hopes of those who came before me. A secret hope or dare to have someone who looks like me become President of the most powerful nation on this planet has been granted a step closer towards fruition. For me this is a happy day, this is Obama Day! This is a day to celebrate seeing history made.

Now, we have to be vigilant, prayerful and trust that God will deliver our hopes and prayers again. May God grant Barack Obama the 45th Presidency of the United States of America. Happy Obama Day!