"XXXXX-Americans"

Are you a Mexican-American?  Chinese-American?  African-American?  No, you probably aren't!

Oh, your MEXICAN but you don't speak a word of Spanish?  You're AFRICAN but you've never been to Africa?  You're CHINESE but you didn't know that the official name of that country is the People's Republic of China?

And what about NATIVE-Americans?  Sure, many years ago this was the perfect way to differentiate the "Indians" from the immigrants....but does it still make sense?

I mean, I was BORN in the Unites States, so am I not, by definition, a NATIVE American?  But, if I were to go around calling myself a "Native American," people would get offended.  And people would think I was loony if I went around calling myself "Irish American" these days.

A Long-Overdue Rant

Well, everyone else seems to have a blog, and so.....why not me?

I've had this Blogger account for several years now, and it has been mostly dormant for at least the last two.

I think blogging will give me an outlet to a) discuss my thought more in-depth than is possible on other social networking sites, and b) express thoughts that I may want to share without posting them directly onto any of my profiles on other sites.


So, this first blog will turn into a bit of a rant, and I expect to feel much better once I've said all that I've been holding back over the past few months.  Many of these topics will concern posting to Social Networking Sites.

Quoting a Friend's Comment on the Oil Spill in the Gulf

Okay, is anyone else SICK and TIRED of hearing about the oil spill? I realize that this is big news. I realize that it is important. I realize that it has the potential to affect all of us who live on the Gulf Coast. All that being said, the oil spill is NOT THE END OF THE WORLD! We're sitting around whining about the oil spill is going to uglify our beautiful beaches . . . HELLO! There are more important things going on in the world than how attractive our beaches are! There are still crimes being committed, there is still corruption in the government (on all levels), children are being abused.....


(excerpt taken from a note posted earlier today by a friend)

Kaleb's Minor-ish Dental Trauma Today

Well, it's been a not-so-great day in the life of my little guy!

At daycare today, Kaleb got tripped up running across the classroom and fell.....onto the tile floor....flat on his face. As a result, his "two front teeth" (top, front, middle) are both broken off diagonally, leaving an empty triangle where once there was just a cute little gap between his two perfect front teeth.

The daycare notified me while I was @ work, and I went and picked him up. We went first for an emergency appointment at Sacred Heart's Pediatric Dental Clinic. They took a quick look, and were fairly certain the teeth would have to be completely removed. Not wanting to have to put Kaleb under general anesthesia, they referred us to another pediatric dentist who could, if necessary, remove the teeth without general anesthesia (using instead a type of conscious sedation). Dentist #2 was Dr. Bonnin. He got a good x-ray, and luckily the tooth was NOT broken as deep as the nerve, which would have been the reason behind removing them entirely. From what the x-ray shows, there appears to be a thin layer of tooth (about as thick as 2 sheets of paper) covering the sensitive nerves within.

SO, for the time being, Kaleb gets to keep his teeth....and, as long as the nerve hasn't been damaged enough to cause it to start to die, he will get to keep them. If there is significant enough damage that the nerve dies, the tooth (or teeth) will have to be taken out at that time. Luckily, Dr. Bonnin said that looks unlikely. He says the teeth have been minutely impacted (pushed back into the gums), but that this should correct itself over time. Also, since Kaleb's just a little guy, the teeth he DOES have haven't fully grown in yet. Once the broken teeth grow in a bit further, they'll be long enough to be capped, thus correcting their shape. The doc checked to make sure that there are no sharp edges or points that could cause Kaleb any pain or more damage, and he said that the breaks appeared not to have left any ragged edges.

Because of the shape of the broken edges, Kaleb's teeth will now have to be brushed after every meal.....but that's certainly no big deal.

In all, I'm so thankful that this is mostly a cosmetic issue, and not something that should cause Kaleb any developmental or long-term problems! It might look a little funny for a while, but even that will be fixed with caps long before he's old enough to care about his appearance. Kaleb's not in pain, and as a mommy, that's a HUGE relief to me!

This photo taken yesterday, with all eight of his teeth still in perfect condition.