Thursday, June 05, 2014

My new house has roses. Aw, you might say, roses. Perfect for a white-haired lady. Well, but. Roses bite you, I mean, really bite you. They have nasty wicked thorns and as I always go out there without gloves, I suffer.

I have at least 15 rose bushes. And the plant part isn't so pretty. And these roses are all hybrids so they have no scent.

Complain, complain. I am dismantling the bathroom, very satisfying. The giant mirror over the sink has a huge crack in it so now I'm afraid it'll fall on me and slice my jugular and I won't be found for two weeks after the katz have eaten off my fingers and licked up all the blood. I'd like to think Felix would go for help but Lassie wasn't a real dog, come on. And Felix has way too much self-esteem to do Lassie type things.

My crew fed homeless kids last Friday. We mixed salad with our (gloved) hands, served corn bread and vegan chocolate coconut bars and offered baked yams mixed with orange juice and olive oil. It felt SO GOOD to be doing a little bit.

One boy asked us to heat up his whole plate of food because his teeth are cold sensitive. He haunts me. A child with dental problems is so wrong. And heartbreaking. I figured out how to get dental care for my children. I was on medicaid for so many years, making minimum wage. But I knew the university dental school had free clinics and I could take my kids. I think it's harder now. I was so pushy as a mom, so driven. You have to be in this country when you don't have the resources. But a child who is homeless, who is advocating for him?

This is making me too upset.

Our next  teen feed gig is in August. I can't wait. I wish I could do more.

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

Since I discovered the Nitrile coated garden gloves, I actually wear gloves to work outside. You can handle seeds with them on. They are very, very flexible and comfortable and I have trimmed roses and sago palms in them and they protect really well.
But it's your yard and you can rip those roses out if you want.
Kids who need dental work. Sometimes I just can't believe this country.
Bless you for feeding those teens.

Mel said...

I get upset at the thought of all those hungry, ill-kept kids, but I know as well as you that it costs a fortune to take proper care of a kid and you're so right, the same resources we grew up with just aren't there.
It is something wonderful, that you do something, which is inspiring and gives me some hope.

Now about the roses, we have a hybrid shrub rose that is divine, the flowers smell strongly that two in a vase make the whole house smell. And the bees love them.
But you've got to wear some gloves, those thorns hurt!

Keep your cell phone in your pocket so you can call 911 if the mirror attacks you before you make it go away. :)

Radish King said...

I love you so hard. I will soon be investigating dental care (of which I had none as a child though my siblings did!) through Medicaid and yep the u still has a dental school on the west side of Harborview Hospital but it's terrifying. They effed me up bad the last time I was unemployed. So it goes. I love you so hard for feeding these kids you have no idea.
xo

A said...

Courtesy of roses and blackberries, my arms used to look like
I played with a litter of kittens
every day because I didn't know about
elbow-length gloves.

Maybe some civic-minded dentists should be invited to the August teen feed?