Laundry Etiquette By YuckMouth Daddy

                                      

My laundry mat opens up at 6:30 am, so when my alarm goes off at 6 am I’m up and getting my stuff together to go do wash. I arrive at the laundry mat at 6:30 when they open the doors. I talk with the owner and his wife, since I've been a regular at this establishment for a year now. One great thing about being there so early is the place is empty so I get first pick of what washers I want to use. Another great thing is all my loads are done around the same time. As the morning gets later people start to trickle in. When my wash is done I start putting my clothes in the dryers, typical Sunday morning. This lady walks up to me.

LADY: Why are you just using the top dryers and not the bottom ones?

I look at her in puzzlement.

ME: Does it matter?

LADY: Yes it does matter. Hasn't anyone ever taught you Laundry Etiquette?

It’s way too early in the morning for someone to act like this, but me being the writer that I am, I listen. Never knew there was such a thing called Laundry Etiquette.

LADY: From your silence I take that as a no. Well Laundry Etiquette is being considerate to the other customers here. Since you took all the top dryers, we have to use the bottom dryers.

ME: This is a problem why?

LADY: Your not suppose to do that! This is what you do; you put your clothes on the top then go directly to the bottom. Top bottom, top bottom! Not top, top, top.

ME: Wow so much anger this early in the morning, looks like someone here didn't get laid last night.

The lady stays quiet.

ME: From you silence I’ll take that as a no.

I turn and walk away. You got to be fucking kidding me, Laundry Etiquette at 7am? If I’m here first, I’m taking what washers or dryers I want. If they wanted their choice of pick of dryers to use then they should have woke up early like I did and came in then. At first I thought maybe she was mad that I took all top seven dryers, yes seven dryers. I am washing for seven people. But it was more cause I didn't go the top bottom route and just all top. I wasn't in the mood to go for the bottom dryers. 

Save the Library! By YuckMouth Daddy

We were walking home when we came across this sign on a local store window that read:

SAVE THE LIBRARY FROM CLOSING!!

I was interested in what was going on, so when we arrive at home I right away go onto the website that was listed on the flyer. What do you know our city Library is closing due to lack of hours and people attending? Have we come to that where Libraries close in our own city? If I remember correctly, I can’t get a Library card from a different city unless I reside in it.

A few years ago I remember a friend of mine telling me about VHS tapes going away, and sure enough, stores stopped carrying them. Then I heard about DVD’s going away, well they didn’t go away totally since Blue Ray is still around but the Hi Def. guy closed down his department. Then the video stores started to disappear, first it was the local Mom and Pops video stores then it moved up to Hollywood Video and now Blockbuster. We went from Beta to VHS to DVD to Streaming.

This also applies with music. First it was the cassettes, then Cd’s and yes of course Streaming live music. Makes you wonder if Tower Records saw this coming and was one of the main reason’s why they closed their doors a few years back.

So here we are with books. Bookstores are very rare now days. Borders is gone, Barnes and Noble is still very popular online but they have been shutting down stores themselves. Now I guess the Libraries are now getting the hit. Are people that much in a hurry that they can’t walk into a Library and check out a book? I know you can find everything you need online with Library.com and many other sites, but does anyone ever wonder that their kids growing up today will never know what a bookstore is, let alone a book itself? My daughter was telling me the other day that she want’s the latest book “Kindle Fire”. I had to explain to her, that Kindle Fire isn't a book but a tablet that lets you read books. Me, I’m old school; I still prefer reading a book. It’s something that’s hard to explain, the feel, the smell.

Just the other night when I was at Subway, my daughter saw a phone on the wall. She points and asks, “What’s that?” I tell her it’s a payphone. She looks at me funny. Payphones. That’s a whole other story to talk about.

Facing a New Diagnosis

Nine years ago I gave birth to an amazing little boy, his name is Wolverine. Over the last nine years there have been lots of ups and downs, lots of questions and concerns. More recently in his school years because of behaviors that he has now had at school and not just at home. Finally we have someone willing to listen. We have current tests running at school for ADHD, emotional disability, and possible Autism. He's in weekly therapy sessions at the local mental health clinic. Its a new journey for our family. One that so far has been on a very dark path. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel but its still far off.

I as always will share this journey with you...with all of you. The road we've been traveling so far hasn't been one I've been willing to share. Not because I'm embarrassed but mostly because I just didn't know how to talk about it.

But I have the words now and I hope I have the strength to be honest with all of you.

Damn the Points

I remember it like it was yesterday. Standing in front of class in the 4th grade, being made to walk back and forth to my desk because my teacher asked me if I would always be this slow. Being taunted and I remember crying. I can recall that moment even now at the age of 34. I remember my mom asking me what had happened and some of my friends telling her what had happened. I think back then kids were a lot nicer, yes their were bullies but nothing like today's kids.

Yesterday Racer sat in class and peed in his chair. Not because the teacher wouldn't let him use the bathroom, but because she has a points system. The kids earn and lose points for certain things, losing points for say "using the restroom" is one of them and the reason why Racer sat there and willingly peed his pants. You see, regardless of Autism he's a super competitive child so it seemed totally worth it to him to just sit there and pee. But because of Autism he thinks its ok, to him a rule is a rule and he wants those points, willing to do whatever it takes to get them or not lose them.

This is not a world I want to raise him or any of my other kids in. To harm at any cost to get what they need. Its hard enough for him to make and keep friends, now he is the pee kid *lets hope not*.

So we're headed off to ANOTHER meeting with the principle and his teacher. It hasn't been a good year so far for us...but that's like three other blogs to write lol.

Countdown and Giveaway to Racers Birthday!!

Its been a while since I've blogged. To say the least its been one of those summers. But I'm excited to blog today because I'm bringing you a giveaway! As most of you know the YuckMouth Daddy wrote the 2nd book in the Adventures of One Sock series! You can buy it here Adventures of One Sock My Pal Rodger

With Racers 7th birthday fast approaching and him being super excited about it, we've decided to hold a small giveaway in his honor! Starting tomorrow you can enter to win and do some really fun entries as well!!

While the 7th birthday isn't a big one its very rare that Racer is excited about something so I want to make a big deal about it. I plan on covering the floor with balloons for him when he wakes up and after school he gets his special dinner and cake! So lets do Racers birthday up BIG!!



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Minecraft ~~ Virtual Lego's For The Soul

So the family has fallen for the Minecraft...and we've fallen HARD!!!

Lately Racers been stimming and wiggy for so long neither one of us knows up from down anymore. If he's not sucking his thumb, he's standing on his head or stammering with his words. I had originally thought it was from a tooth he cracked but its not. So while I'm still knee deep in trying to figure out what's wrong with him, I'm also trying to figure out how to help him regulate. Not for my own sense of normalcy but for him but I don't think HE can think straight, let alone anyone else.

Which brings me to Minecraft. I had resisted for quite a bit, I'm a gamer and when it came out on the 360 I had to ignore it for the longest time. I knew it would be a soul sucker, that the hubs would become a Minecraft widow and the kids would starve and become motherless *I am not joking here either* But the other day the hubs broke the drought and bought it for me.

Day One.....it was all a blur, bought the game around 6PM I think 12hrs later I was still playing that damn game.

Day Two.....I managed to stay in reality. I refused to play because I saw what had happened the previous night. But between me and all of you IT WAS ALL I COULD THINK OF ALL DAY!!!

I had it bad.....real bad.

Day Three......played again, this time I got to play with a long time e-friend of mine. She played with the rest of my clan *yes I said clan* and I. We had a blast and once again up till the crack of dawn.

I'm on Day Four and already going through withdrawals.

But here's the thing, on day one....Racer was as still as a freaking mouse, he was quiet and in tune with what I was doing. By day two he was ready to play with me, so we logged him into his acct and let him play. He was already building castles and crafting tools all on his own. It gave me pause, here is my 6yr old son doing this, he was sitting still and working and building. Using creativity to create his own world here, mind you we've had our bumps. He doesn't like playing with to many other people and he REALLY hates when you go in his house. But its teaching him about cooperative play, learning to share and coexist with others. 

I was thinking about it last night and its kind of like virtual lego's in a way. But here there are no little sisters to take his lego's, no older brothers to destroy his creations. Its his world and no one can mess with it. 

But if I thought I had it bad, man oh man...the kid is sleeping with his xbox controller under his pillow. From wake till sleep its all he wants to do. I have to force mealtime, bath time and sleep.

We've got it bad!!!! Wonder if there is a 12 step program for this?

50Cent and Being a Decent Human Being.

I haven't blogged in quite a while. My voice, time and energy have been with different projects. Ones I'm quite fond of doing and will hopefully blog about soon.

But today I saw something on my Facebook newsfeed that made me think today. As most of you have seen lately the rap artist 50cent has taken hits after his extremely rude over the line tweets. He's since had them removed, along with apologizing for what he said. The apology is what I call a PR apology it lacked any sort of real emotion.

I didn't plan on blogging about this, most stuff has been said over and over again. I'm proud of the community for coming together and ripping this guy a new one. But I have my own view to express so here it goes.

What I see this as....most celebrities have twitter. Lots of them say stuff that is cringe worthy and it makes you wonder where the heck their PR person was when that was written. But that is what happens when you give people an open forum. I see them as people, they may be rich and famous...but at the bottom of it all they are people, just like you and me. Does that mean they should say whatever they feel? No, but most people wish they could, some people do and have no remorse or understanding that some actions have repercussions.

What this makes me think..... 50cent and every other person/celebrity who voices a very strong opinion about special needs children, or any other community of people. This is what they think, what the truly believe about other people. There is no changing that, there is no going back from what was said. The words stung as they should...but this is what he truly believes. Its not like he just wanted to be so rude he'd throw together any words to insult another human being. As Autism is all over the news right now it was a perfect target. It wasn't like he stopped there, because he went on to say "I don't want any special needs kids following me"

I'm sure his momma would be ashamed, does she think "I didn't raise my boy like that?" When in fact she did. I was raised to never insult a special needs person, the R word wasn't in my vocabulary and its not in my children's vocabulary. When they hear the word they ALWAYS tell me about it and how it made them feel. 


I truly loved 50cent as an artist, I will be sad to see him leave my playlists, but even sadder to know the type of human he truly is.