"Gay" is the new "loser"... and Cookie's a bruiser.

I've got some real things I want to talk about in this post.

A blog with a purpose? Yes, insane, I know.

The reason is that I need to write it down, but if I put it anywhere else, people I actually know (face to face) might see it.

My brother colored (or bleached?) his hair so that it's all blonde now. He used to have dark brown hair like mine. He went to taekwondo class today and two older black belt boys scolded him for it. They continued by making him an example in front of the entire class and telling them that they weren't allowed to color their hair.

I can only imagine the embarrassment and awkwardness he must have felt.

I don't agree with this at all. FIRST, taekwondo class is an extracurricular activity that we pay for. It's not private school. It's not the army. SECOND, they told him that they had announced the no-hair-coloring policy, but we had never heard of it until today. Obviously, if he had known about the rule, he wouldn't have done it, duh. THIRD, if they had a problem with it, they should have brought it up with his parents instead of scolding him and making him feel horrible in front of the whole class for breaking a rule he didn't even know existed.

While he was being scolded by the older boys, another boy told him that he looked "gay." This particular boy is always calling him "gay." I never thought much of it before because nowadays it seems like the cool thing to do is to call other kids "gay." My parents, however, have been slowly building up dislike for this boy and the "gay" remarks. I have to e-mail a letter to the instructor that my parents wrote to him. The boy is his son.

I'm bothered by how many kids I hear calling each other "gay." It's the new put-down. I don't recall ever using the word against someone when I was in school. These days, if you don't like something (or someone), just call it "gay" and your point will be made. Everyone will know that you despise it. They'll look down on it.

Such wonderful progress we're making, isn't it?

These kids are going to grow up with negative connotations of this word engraved in their minds. It might not seem like a big deal now, but I have a feeling it's going to only get worse. Hopefully, I'm wrong, though.


CHANGE OF SUBJECT


Here's our dog. She looks cute but she can be a real meanie. The neighbors have called the humane society on us many times. Don't interpret that the wrong way - we don't hurt her! She's just...noisy...which is exactly what we want for reasons that will soon be revealed. She barks at certain new neighbors (who come and go without warning so we have no way of preparing her for the strange new people) but they refuse to meet her so that she can get used to them. She guards my room.

We got her after I left my sliding door open one night (it was so hot!) and people came in, stole stuff, and grabbed a pair of my pants. In the morning, the pants were laying about 15 feet outside of my room and there was a cigarette butt on the ground. My dad thought I had gone crazy after a wild night with my imaginary boyfriend, but after I woke up, everyone realized it wasn't me. I had the worst headache and felt really dizzy throughout the entire day. My mom has some theories about this but I'd rather not think about it. A week or so later, people came into our house again and stole even more stuff. This time they broke a window on a door and stuck their arm through the hole. I had learned to close my door at night but they still found a way in.

Did I mention that we were all in the house, asleep, both times?

Our dog, Cookie, came to the rescue. Neighbors get grouchy about her barking and all they do is complain when they could be making friends with her. My dad and brother took her over to their house one night so that they could be introduced, but the neighbors just turned their backs and ignored them. I don't think our neighbors understand what we've been through. They don't know that horrible feeling of vulnerability. I like the feeling of having a grouchy (but loveable!) dog outside of my room at night, so to hell with whatever they say.