New Twist in Hill District Standoff

I work with the very people who feel that the Penguins are this foreign encroachment on their neighborhood. The Penguins, they feel, are there for their own purposes. They don't care about the people in the surrounding neighborhood, relate to them, or have any incentive to help them. Hoards of outsiders flock to some game from some foreign culture, night after night. They have no relationship to or understanding of the surrounding neighborhood or its people. No one on either team is anything like the people of the surrounding Hill District or understands what their lives have been like.

That changed two nights ago. The Penguins haven't been home since it changed. The Penguins haven't been playing next to the Hill District since it changed. But for two nights in a row, the Penguins have been different. They have had a player who knows what it's like. English may not be his native language. His name may not sound like the names of the vast majority of Hill District residents who feel so ignored by the Penguins, who feel so foreign to the Penguins. He may even sound as foreign as the rest of the Penguins, but he's not.

His name is Georges Laraque. He is black and he grew up in a small town near Montreal where he was treated as an outsider. From the time he was a small child, he was told black athletes did not belong in hockey. He was called the N-word by teammates and fans. His parents begged him to quit and find another sport where he would be accepted. But he loved hockey. He felt he had the same right as a white Quebecois child to idolize Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky and dream of being the next Lemieux or Gretzky. Just as the people in the Hill District feel their rights are just as important as the Penguins' rights, he felt he had the same right to be a hockey player as the white children. He used their racism as fuel to propel himself forward.

His parents eventually moved to Montreal where he would be accepted. Now he is in the NHL. Now, ironically, the residents of the Hill District have a Penguin player who knows EXACTLY what they have endured.

On top of this, Georges Laraque is a role model for those who have endured discrimination. He is determined off the ice to be a gracious and decent human being and to do charity work and give back to the community. He is also determined to make the most of this opportunity. He is considered an enforcer, a player who protects others, and he is glad to have the responsibility of protecting three players--Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, and Jordan Stall. He welcomes the opportunity to do what he does best. He is determined to be the best he can be, because he can also score goals. He can stand tall behind the net, because he is too big to be dislodged, and can pass the puck to goal scorers. This makes him capable of collecting points for goals and assists. He can also stand in front of goaltenders as a huge screen while others score. This gives him a plus percentage on the ice. In other words, more goals are scored than given up when he is on the ice.

Before Georges Laraque came to Pittsburgh, there was a standoff between the Penguins and the people of the Hill District. Now it's not so black and white; it's getting a bit gray.

Staying Focused

Since Kimberly has been here she has accomplished one big project in her own life. She got divorced from a marriage which was stifling both parties. She got out of a town which was also holding her back immensely. She has accomplished a lot here around the house and yard and in Ligonier. But it really is time for her to quit delaying the rest of the big issues in her life. It's been a year and a half and it is time for her to focus, and I told her that. She keeps letting other issues distract her, and I told her she has to stop doing this.

1. She needs to get the remaining issues from the marriage and her bankruptcy taken care of.
2. She needs to change her name legally.
3. She needs to get a part-time job to start saving for her future expenses.
4. She needs to get back in school to retrain as a counselor.
5. She needs to have the surgery, electrolysis, voice training and whatever else and complete her transition.

Her counselor told her she needs to stay in a stable relationship. The counselor is right. I explained to her how lucky she is given her situation. She is living with someone who supports her transition and will not hinder her in what she has to do regarding surgery and the other procedures, and will actually help her. She is living in a house which is paid for and the vehicles here are paid for. She is living with someone who is willing to work for a living and who is not going to ask HER for the financial support. She is living with someone who is willing to live with a student for several years. She has wonderful counselors and doctors free of charge who will help her through this. She needs to accept that she is in the best situation she could possibly be in under the circumstances and get going on all these important goals. She needs to stop getting sidetracked on issues to delay her focus on the big things and she needs to just put up with minor irritations and not blow them out of proportion.

The Cold Weather Continues

It was really rough going to work this week. They did not close the college I work for. It was -4 with -20 wind chills the first two days. I have to park very far from my office, and I really bundled up to make it from the parking lot to the office. It stayed fairly miserable all week. Luckily, I had done some extra work the week before, so as I began to fade, I was able to work less hours as the week progressed. I had run out of hours at noon yesterday, so I was able to leave. It was not bad walking back to the car. I went with Kimberly to Ohio to see her therapist yesterday. It was a very interesting experience to meet her therapist. The main thing accomplished this week at work was finalizing and posting the schedule for Black History Month on the web site. I enjoyed doing this. This requires constant vigilance because there continue to be revisions, additions, and deletions to the schedule. I am just trying to survive this cold spell right now before I make any plans to do anything big.

Brutal Weather

We had several days of sub-zero weather with strong winds and dangerous wind chills. Naturally, they did not close the college where I work. Over the weekend, we celebrated Kimberly's birthday. She was 52. She got a book on becoming an expert cookie chef for her birthday. We also baked a cake. I chose the mix and the icing, but I'm not very good at this kind of thing, so she did most of the work. The cake was yummy!

I spent some of these cold days celebrating my distant past. I made quite a bit of Algerian couscous to survive this weather. As it turned out, the Battle of Algiers was on TV and I watched some of it. I had seen it in France. It is in both French and Arabic with subtitles.

Another way I've spent some of these frigid days is watching the Penguins, who are doing fantastic. I enjoyed watching them in Montreal and hearing O Canada in French. The Penguins have only lost one game in ages, and they lost it in OT, so they even got a point out of that one. They won again last night. It's very exciting. The usual suspects, Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Recchi, and Fleury, all did great last night.

It was awful walking to work the past few days. I have to park far away, and it was -4 degrees both days. The windchill was around -20. Today I get to go in a little later because I am working an AIDS Awareness table for Black History Month at a campus which is closer to home. It's warmed up a bit and the wind has quieted down.

Death to the Easel and Flip Chart!

I went through months of altercations with my boss over the ordering of an easel. First, she was upset I didn't just pick and easel and order it. Then she was upset I consulted a man in the office who seemed to be knowledgeable about easels and showed her the one he suggested. She said I thought he was the boss instead of her. She finally picked an easel she wanted; however, there was then a staff meeting where everyone was fighting over what kind of easel they needed. So I held off. I then got blamed for wanting an easel another guy in the office really suggested. This guy could care less about having an easel and had not suggested any easel. I was accused of thinking he was really the boss. I finally ordered the easel. The wrongly accused guy joked, "Finally, my easel has shown up!" The easel sat for several months. Finally, my boss told me to get it out and put it up. Naturally, in our crowded office, there was nowhere to put it, but up it went. It has a white board, but I also mounted our partially used flip chart. My boss has not stopped since. Every night there has been a meeting keeping employees very late. Employees have just started putting on their coats and trickling out. Still, every morning, I come in to pages and pages of diagrams. Yesterday, I found it curious that one of the work studies has been working such late hours. Last night, I got caught at one of the meetings where my boss continues to perform as employees trickle out. As I finally put on my coat to trickle out, the work study student was still there glued to my boss's performance. Now I understand. Easy money for the work study student sitting there providing an audience every evening!

Dog Days of Winter 2

When I was living in France many years ago, an Algerian taught me to make Algerian cous cous. Well, through the years I have refined the recipe into a healthy low-fat version. I decided to make some last night. I didn't have time to make garbanzos to add to it, so it was mainly cous cous and vegetables. I have switched to whole wheat cous cous and I don't add all the oil and butter I learned to use in France. I make it without any fat. I put some of my frozen tomatoes saved from my garden this past summer in the broth. I added carrots, celery, onion, turnips, potatoes, and zucchini. When I got back from France, I didn't even know how to say zucchini in English, Italian, or whatever. I was scrambling to find someone who knew what a courgette was! My cousin Bobbie has had some of the same problems returning from French-speaking countries where he lived with French-speaking girlfriends, trying to cook something and not knowing how to say courgette in English!

In Quebec my problem was finding out how to talk about hockey in French. I couldn't find a Quebecois who knew what goaltender, goal, glove, net, etc. meant, so I had to buy a bunch of French hockey publications and figure out the words for myself. I've been to Sorel several times and am now capable of having a perfectly decent hockey conversation in French with Marc-Andre Fleury himself.

Last night Kimberly admitted to me that her neck and shoulder has been killing her for some time, so I gave her a massage. We have decided I need to get seriously back into massage. I got my books out and my next plan is to give her the same Shiatzu massage I gave my sister a few years ago, which I found in one of my books.

The Dog Days of Winter

In the typical year here in southwestern PA we tend to have a three-week period of below normal temperatures. We're in it now. It always seems it will never end. We had a brief reprieve yesterday, and I did my best to enjoy it. It's nice to just be able to go outside and do a few chores without freezing. We are now supposed to go back into the deep freeze until February 9.

After going about some errands in the milder weather, I got to work on household chores. While Kimberly was out doing her errands, I logged onto www.rock-detente.com, a set of Quebec radio stations. Yesterday, when I clicked on the Ecoute en directe option, I got lazy and chose the Montreal station. Since bleuet. the Quebecois version of blueberry, which is myrtille in French, is my favorite word, I usually pick the station in Chicoutimi, up in the Lac St. Jean Saguenay region. I've visited it several times and like it up there, as long as it's not winter! They grow great blueberries up there and even refer to the locals as blueberries! Anyway, it was fun listening to them talk French in their Quebecois accent. I got to hear a few French songs, but they played mostly English songs yesterday. I tried to get in some dancing for exercise.

I ate fairly healthy yesterday. I got some millet and some whole wheat spaghetti. I also ate some raw vegetables, and I did a big supply of tofu. My birthday was on the 20th. I am an Aquarius by 5 hours, since that was the one year in every three that January 20th is Aquarius instead of Capricorn. I turned 54. Kimberly and I were very tired from the recent trip to the Hampton/Virginia Beach area over Martin Luther King Day to visit my mother in a nursing home in Poquoson. So we really were too tired to celebrate my birthday last weekend and decided to celebrate it a week late. Kimberly's birthday is next Saturday. She will be 52.

They celebrated my birthday at work on Tues. Jan 23. One of the young men I supervise had his the 23rd, so we had both together. My boss bought a huge cake. The young man is extremely huge. He is very tall, very big, wears a 6 XL shirt, etc. They took a picture of him with his arm around me, and you couldn't see much of me in the picture! Kimberly celebrated my birthday by getting me a card with a polar bear on it and giving me a beautiful mug. She really knows how to wrap presents too. I hated to open the package! She also baked a red velvet cake. It was delicious. She is becoming very talented at baking. Other than my whole grain corn bread, which I bake for my health, I try not to get much into baking, because I'm always trying to keep my weight down.

The Penguins have won two straight since the All Star break and they are in playoff contention! GO PENS!