In which I make you feel a lot better about the way you look in the morning

Posted on April 18, 2013 by lara-b

I’m the kind of tired that makes a girl wonder why on earth she’s picking up blogging again instead of taking a nap, but here I sit, catching up on TV and messing around on the internet instead.  I can’t explain this.   Not to mention that if I’m going to be awake while the kidlets are asleep, I should TOTALLY be packing up clutter, but I just can’t make myself do it today.  So here I sit.

Speaking of catching up on TV, is anyone out there watching the new Dallas?  It’s completely ridiculous and I love it.  I grew up watching the old Dallas with my family.  I’m pretty certain I didn’t understand most of what I saw, but apparently I have a deep and abiding love of Texas drama as a result.  I’m also completely obsessed with The Americans – and I have to say, that’s a show that is actually worthy of my obsession in a non-ridiculous sense.  You must watch it.

Also, I can’t stop eating.  Dare I vow to figure that little problem out tomorrow (instead of right now) instead of going to the kitchen to get another handful of pretzels?  Yeah, I dare.

Anyway.  Wanna feel better about the way you look in the morning?

We had some painters here doing some work on the trim on the front of our house this weekend. They arrived at 7 a.m. on Saturday.  I’d been awake since 4 with the baby, who I don’t think I’ve given an alias yet.  We can’t just call him “Baby”, right?  Stay tuned for that (or feel free to suggest something.  If Kid #1 is Baby Bear, maybe Kid #2 should be Wee Bear?  Or Cubbie?).  I digress.  What I’d started to try to explain is that I’d been up for 3 hours already when they arrived at 7, and I was TIRED.  I answered the door in pajamas, a robe, and glasses, with my hair in a ponytail and no makeup on, and just generally looking like crap on a cracker.  (I apologized for my appearance and explained I’d been up with an infant, but still.)   We exchanged pleasantries and I went back to my business, leaving them to their house beautification project.

The next time I saw them was a couple hours later, as I was on my way out to take Baby Bear to his very first swimming lessons without a parent in the pool with him.   More pleasantries were exchanged, and as I walked away, one of the painters said, “Hey, you look just like your mom, by the way.”

I said, “How do you know my mom?  She lives in Florida!”

He said, “Oh, I’m sorry.  I thought you were a different person than who came out to talk to us this morning.”

Y’all.

He thought I was someone else.  Not just someone else – someone 30 years older than myself.

I think I’m probably supposed to be offended or upset by this, but instead, I think it might be the funniest thing that has ever happened to me.  I don’t even wear a lot of makeup!  I feel like I’m a character in a teen drama where the nerdy girl is miraculously transformed into a cool, pretty, popular girl simply by letting her hair down and removing her glasses. (You know, like in this movie.)  If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is.

I don’t have pictures of that particular day’s transformation, but I do have pictures of the adorableness that was Baby Bear’s swim class.  Wanna see?

Jonah swim

He kept poking his head over the side of the pool and going, “Mommy?  Mommy?  [Baby Bear] in pool!  In pool!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

swim classHere’s the whole class.  Baby Bear is the one second from the right.  I’m pretty sure he’s examining the ripples in the water.

 

 

 

 

It was all so adorable!  We’ll see if he actually learns anything or if he spends all six weeks of class poking his head over the pool to find his mommy.

I’m off to drink my ninetieth Diet Coke of the day and take advantage of what’s left of naptime by packing a few more boxes if I can.  Lest you all think I’m neglecting the wee one, here’s a gratuitous OMG THAT BABY IS ADORABLE shot for you.  Because he is indeed adorable.  And if he looks enormous, that’s because he is.  Mama’s little overachiever is often mistaken for a 3 or 4 month old despite the fact that he’s only 6 weeks old.  He’s in the 100th percentile for height, 87th for weight, and 93rd for noggin!

Robert

Posted in lara-bee chatters, lara-bee watches too much TV | 2 Comments

In which I remember I have a blog.

Posted on April 10, 2013 by lara-b

Oh hi, Internets!  You know what is embarrassing?  Visiting your blog for the first time in months, only to be reminded that your last post was a soul-baring whiney one that has been sitting up at the top of the “recent posts” list for three solid months.  Meep!  I really love how I said I’d post when I was less pathetic, then didn’t make a peep for a long time.

whoopsie.

I promise, I haven’t been whiney and sad and fighting with Wilbur all this time.

I’m attempting to type this on my phone, which is a giant pain in the neck, and the baby is finally back asleep, so I’m going to give up on writing now.  I’m also going to give up on promising to write more soon. We have a lot going on around here.  We have a new baby (who is beautiful and wonderful and a complete angel!)!  And we bought a house and are therefore scrambling to pack up our current house so we move get it on be market!  I think we might be insane to try to do this while also adjusting to being a family of 4!

So…more later.  Maybe.

 

(I’d include a photo of the baby, but have no clue hi to do such things from my phone, so alas, you will have to wait.  Boo hoo!)

 

also?:?  I just fell asleep typing, which is how those question marks got there.  Clearly, I need to try to catch a few more winks before the next feeding time!

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In which I whine.

Posted on January 6, 2013 by lara-b

Oh, Internets.  You know things are bad when you write a blog post because you can think of nowhere else to do your boo-hooing.  (Mom & Dad will worry, I don’t want to be That Whiner on Facebook, I don’t want to call someone just to whine…you know.)

But…I’m in a bad place.

Baby Bear and I went to visit my parents for two whole weeks over Christmas (Wilbur joined us for 8 days, but had to work for part of the time we were there.). It was lovely.  We got lots of rest, wore short sleeves a lot of the time, spent time with my sister and her family, thoroughly enjoyed my parents, and just had a ball.

And then we came home.  And the house is so cluttered it makes me feel like I’m losing my mind.  And I started puking on New Year’s Eve and everyone in the family has been sick ever since – like, REALLY sick.  And Wilbur and I are fighting (basically over what a wuss he is when he gets sick.  There’s no way he has something different than I do, but he has stayed in bed for 3 days while I’ve gotten up and cared for our busy toddler and done other house things, all while very pregnant, and it infuriates me so much that I threw the D word out into last night’s argument.). And we had to put our cat to sleep on January 2, and I feel horribly guilty about the couple days he was alive – particularly his last night.  He slept outside, in below freezing temps, because nobody realized he was out there.  The vet assured me that he would have been fine if he need not already been old and sick, but i just want to cry and cry when I think about finding him the next morning, cuddled between a hydrangea bush and the wall, breathing but not moving.  Okay, I don’t want to cry and cry – I actually do cry and cry.  When I took him to the vet, his body temp was so low that it didn’t even register on her thermometer.  And his heartbeat was so slow, she said he only had a couple hours left in him, and although we could rush him to an emergency animal hospital, she personally thought the more humane thing to do would be let him go peacefully and painlessly.  And so we did.  And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to let go of the sadness and guilt  that comes with knowing he didn’t spend his last night cuddled in bed with me.

And on top of all this, Baby Bear’s upset tummy is so bad that his accompanying diaper rash makes him cry when I change his diaper (and makes me cry, too).

And from the looks of things on the video monitor, it appears that he is boycotting his nap today (my guess is the upset tummy is to blame for this).

So.  In other words, I and my family are falling apart.

i know that this will pass.  And I know I lead a pretty charmed life.  And I feel like a brat for boo hooing over all this stuff when there are so many people whose tragedies are so much worse, but oh, boy, does this feel so big and awful right now to me.

and that’s that.  I’ll write again when I’m less pathetic.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In which I proudly display my refusal to further engage in drama.

Posted on November 8, 2012 by lara-b

Oh boy, Internets.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  Do I have a story for you.

So.  On election night, one of my Facebook friends posted something about how anyone who voted for Obama is an idiot.  In response, I posted something about how everyone needs to realize we’re all friends, and while we might not all agree politically, there’s really no reason to insult each other for disagreeing, and let’s just be cool.

The more I thought about that “friend’s” post, the more bothered I got.  I have a lot of conservative friends and family, and I don’t mind reading their different perspectives (although I will admit that sometimes I’m annoyed by some things…).  (I will also admit that I’m a wee bit hormonal these days.)  I wondered to myself, Why would I want to be friends with someone who thinks I’m an idiot?  I evaluated our friendship, and decided we were never actually close friends anyway.  Yes, she was in my sorority, but so were a lot of other girls; we haven’t talked since graduation (at least not that I can remember); we lived in the same city for 5 years and never once tried to get together.  And in the meantime, I have something ridiculous like 511 Facebook friends – some of whom I don’t even remember but recognize their names from college or high school.  So I decided to purge the friend list.  And so I de-friended her (and about 50 other people, regardless of their politics).

I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.  People de-friend each other all the time on Facebook, right?

Um…boy, was I wrong.  About 3 hours later, the girl sent me a one-word email: “Hysterical.”  (I guess you can send people Facebook emails if you aren’t friends with them.)

I considered responding to it, but what was I going to say?  ”Gee, sorry, but let’s face it, we weren’t ever that close, and I don’t want to be friends with someone who thinks I’m an idiot?”

So I just left it.

Here’s where things really get crazy.  About 6 hours later, she sent yet another message. Here’s how it began:

“Day 7: Thankful for intolerant liberals who defriend me for expressing my beliefs.”

Crazy, yes?  Annoying, yes?  It gets worse:

“I’ve tolerated your daily posts about that unruly, undisciplined child of yours for 2 years.  For Pete sake, act like a damn parent.  Good luck with #2.  You’re gonna need it.”

Ummm….

Yeah.

My heart starts pounding just reading that again.   It shocks me even now, 24 hours later. What is WRONG with this person?  When I read the message to Wilbur, he said he was surprised that I wasn’t crying (I’m a total weeper).  The thing is, though, I know that was intended to hurt me, but I don’t understand how it possibly could, because what does someone who only knows me on Facebook know about my parenting (or lack thereof)?  So I’m left, instead, with the awe that this girl responded to something as trivial as me defriending her on Facebook with such a massive amount of vitriol.

And oh, how I have spent time drafting responses to her in my head.  My favorite one involves me pointing out that if I’d realized what an ass she is, I’d have de-friended her ages ago and thus spared her the two years of posts about my unruly child.  (Except I’d have called her something a lot worse than an ass.  I think I’d have used the C word.  The one that is a euphemism for the lady bits.  I NEVER use that word.)  Another one involves me just telling her to step back and read her own email to me and then ask herself if my decision to defriend her was really about her “expressing [her] beliefs.”  The rest of them fall within a wide spectrum between the two on a scale of jerkiness to non-jerkiness.

But really, I think I need to just not dignify any of this with a response.  And I’m trying not to worry what she’s saying to our various mutual friends about all this.  And part of me wants to just delete my whole profile on FB because if that site opened me up to that kind of crazy from this person, what other craziness has it opened me up to??  (Except wait – I’m a stay at home mom, which can be really isolating at times, and as sad and pathetic as it is, I’ve gotta admit that I use FB to feel connected to other people on a pretty regular basis.)  And part of me wonders – not whether people are judging my parenting based on what I post on Facebook (because really, how can anyone who isn’t close to me in real life know diddly-squat about my parenting?) – but whether my incessant posting of pictures and comments about my child is annoying everybody else on my friend list.

Ugh.

But you know what?  My faith in humanity was restored a little bit later today.  Do y’all read Momastery?  I do sometimes, and although some of the language is a bit flowery, I really like it, and I especially love the Holiday Hands program.  Just reading updates on the Momastery Facebook page with people filled with gratitude for the kindness of strangers made all this other Facebook silliness seem like…well, silliness.

And suddenly, all’s right with the world.   Not EVERYBODY in the world is vicious.  Not everybody in the world reacts to a misunderstanding by trying to cut other people down.

So, yay!  What craziness did you experience today?

Posted in lara-bee chatters | 4 Comments

In which we have a Sarcastic Day of Thanksgiving

Posted on November 6, 2012 by lara-b

I should warn y’all that I am typing this on my phone whilst lying in bed in the dark, after taking two Benadryl, so things are about to get woozy over here.  It’s probably pretty stupid to attempt a blog post on an iPhone.

…

And now it’s the next day, because I realized it was indeed stupid to attempt a blog post on an iPhone when I was already exhausted and loopy on Benadryl.  So, hi, new day!

Yesterday, I was going to write about how a lot of people (including myself) are doing this  thing wherein they post something for which they are thankful in their status updates each day.  I like doing stuff like this.  I like focusing on the small things that are good, finding my own gratitude each day.  I do try, on Facebook, not to be obnoxiously husband or kid focused in my gratitude, because I have friends who don’t have husbands or don’t have kids and may or may not want those things, but I don’t want my 30 days of gratitude to be 30 Days of Lara-Bee Acting Like Her Life Is Perfect and Yours Is Not.  You know what I mean?

Except…yesterday, all of my gratitude was sarcastic.  It wasn’t even like i had that bad of a day, but I just couldn’t seem to find anything other than “cute toddler giggles” or something else obnoxious.  I mean, yeah, I was actually feeling grateful that Wilbur and I decided, and both agree, that this isn’t the right time for us to buy the lot and build the house we were THIS close to buying a couple days ago – but I didn’t want to give all the back story for that on FB.  And I guess I could have written my sarcastic gratefulness, but I also didn’t want to be the a-hole who couldn’t come up with something to be sincerely thankful for 5 days into the project.

So, my dear readers, I give to YOU: the various ways in which I was “thankful” (or: sarcastically thankful) yesterday.

(1) Today, I am thankful that my husband parked my car so close to the garage wall, promised me he’d move it, then didn’t, so that my fat butt and 22 weeks pregnant belly had to climb through the passenger side to get to the driver’s side.  Oh so very thankful!

(2) Today, I am thankful that my child has such a strong set of lungs and even stronger will that he will emit such an incredibly high pitched screech/scream when he doesn’t get his way that it actually physically hurts my ears.

(3) Today, I am thankful that the windows in our (very old) house are so poorly fitted and our heater is so inefficient that it is freaking freezing unless I lay next to a radiator.  And that radiator is on the first floor.

(4) Today, I am thankful that I donated all of our leftover Halloween Snickers bars to evacuees of Hurricane Sandy.  (I donated blankets and other more useful things, too – the candy was just extra).  Because I would really love one of those right now.

(5) Today, I am thankful that I have several working toilets and sinks, because what else would I vomit in with this STUPID PREGNANCY NAUSEA?

I feel like I have additional things for which I am sarcastically grateful, but I cannot remember them.

With that, I shall go determine something for which I can be actually, not sarcastically, thankful that also meets my requirements of not looking like a flaunting braggart.  Or maybe I’ll just trash the whole project.

Posted in lara-bee chatters, lara-bee mamas | 1 Comment

In which I am a whiney old fogey

Posted on October 16, 2012 by lara-b

Hi there, internets!

I am typing this post out for you on my phone whilst lying in bed. If that’s not enough to clue you in to my extreme laziness, I should also tell you that my laptop is three feet away from me, but on the floor and in such a position that I would have to get up to get it.

Yep, that, my friends, is Laziness. (note the capital L).

Anyway, there is a reason I’m tapping this message out to you instead of indulging in an awesome nap (since the Bear is also napping). My across-the-street neighbors are that reason. These would be the 20-something boys I’ve seen traipsing around the neighborhood, looking like its been days since they bathed and wearing kilts. Kilts, I tell you! (I probably shouldn’t have commented on the bathing, as I failed to do so myself today and haven’t washed my hair in two…). But kilts? This is not Scotland! Put on some pants!

Anyway. If you’re disgusted by my kilt rant, remember you were warned. I am old. And a fogey. But I digress, because the kilts aren’t what has kept me awake. It’s the fact that these boys have a band. With a full drum set. And a dedication to their craft that I cannot fathom, because people, they have been drum drum drumming away since the precise moment Baby Bear went to sleep at 2:05 pm. OVER THREE HOURS OF DRUMMING.

I know I should be grateful that (1) they aren’t practicing at night, (2) they aren’t on Baby Bear’s side of the house, and (3) their band doesn’t include a bagpiper, but ohhhh kill me now. Please. And did I mention that they’ve been working on the same song for all three hours? Because they have.

In other news, since I last wrote, we have taken a trip to DisneyWorld and survived! And I’ve gestated this baby another several weeks! (still don’t know the gender, but will on the 29th and maybe as early as the 25th.). (The 25th is a probability because I had a crazy new blood test done recently because some tests came back showing a higher probability than normal for Down Syndrome. This new test somehow analyzes MY blood to check for genetic abnormalities in the baby and can also tell the baby’s gender, all with 99% accuracy – and no risk to the babe. How wild is that?)

And that’s about it for me! I should probably go soak my dentures and check on my stock of Depends. ;) Peace out, folks.

Posted in lara-bee chatters | Leave a comment

In which I talk even more about Pinterest

Posted on September 7, 2012 by lara-b

I use the word “Pinterest” way too much around here, don’t I?  I was thinking maybe I need to become one of those people who devotes her entire blog to testing Pinterest things.  Because you know what?  I’m one of those people who has started spending a lot of time testing Pinterest things.  We’re going to talk about a recipe.

I made this tonight: Creamy Beef Stroganoff Casserole.   Well, actually, I made it during naptime, stuck it in the fridge, then heated it up at dinnertime.  I’m wondering if that’s why it was kind of weird, or if it’s the recipe itself that made it weird.  If I make this again (and I might, because you know what?  This baby I’m growing likes beef.  Seriously.  The Bear?  He was a fresh pineapple and McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich kind of guy.  Not so with this new baby.  It’s all red meat, all the time.  And mint chocolate chip ice cream.  And this new baby would really, REALLY love it if Taco Bell would bring back the chilito.  Seriously.)…

Aside: What the hell, Taco Bell???  When did you take the chilito off the menu?  I mean, I know I haven’t been to you in a reeeeeeeaaaaallly long time, which is part of why this chilito craving is more random than…well, something random, but seriously?  BRING BACK THE CHILITO!!!

Hey, maybe we can all start a Bring Back the Chilito movement!  Who’s with me?

Anywho.  I think I stopped that last sentence mid-sentence.  Creamy Beef Stroganoff Casserole!  It wasn’t all that creamy.  In fact, it was kind of dry.  Was that because I let all the sauce soak up into the noodles until dinnertime?  Who knows.  If I make it again, I think I’ll double the sauce ingredients and see what happens.  Otherwise, it was pretty tasty.  I added some stuff: salt, pepper, white pepper, sage, paprika, and onion powder, to be specific.  I figured the instructions said, “ground beef is browned with some spices,” and then no spices (except garlic, which I pretty much tripled because me likey the garlic) were included in the instructions, so why not?

So: yay, not-so-creamy-beef-stroganoff-casserole!

This concludes my Pinterest recipe review for the night.

I was going to babble some more, but man, I am tired.  Peace out, readers.

Posted in lara-bee chatters, lara-bee eats, lara-bee uses pinterest | 1 Comment

In which I pretend my blog is a polling place

Posted on September 6, 2012 by lara-b

If you aren’t one of the SAMs, please ignore this post!  If you don’t know what a SAM is, you probably aren’t one!

To explain: a group of friends is trying to decide what gift to send a new mother.  I figured the easiest way to do this is to create a PollDaddy poll and let everyone come on over here and vote.  When everyone who wants to vote has had a chance to do so, I”ll delete this post, we’ll send our gift, and I’ll resume either ignoring this blog or writing in it once every 3 months or so.  Or hey, maybe I’ll become A Blogger again!

SAMs – please use the poll below to cast your vote!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

In which I still try to save the world, describe my crazy irrational toddler, and review some hair products (sort of).

Posted on August 21, 2012 by lara-b

I’m posting twice in one week!  Yippee!

The votes for Walter L. Cohen High aren’t exactly pouring in…but they are up to 84.  When we started this quest, they had 0 votes.  ZERO.  So this is pretty awesome.  (Although, admittedly, not as awesome as I’d hoped.)  If you haven’t voted yet and you happen to have found yourself on this here long-forgotten blog, you can do so by clicking here.  If the link doesn’t take you directly to Walter L. Cohen High’s voting page, you can do a simple search for it.  And if you have no idea why I’m talking about this school, please refer to my post from yesterday.

Anyway.  Guess what Baby Bear did today?

In case you can’t tell, that’s crayon.  Blue crayon, all over his walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then guess what he did?

 

That’s him trying to pick up the cat by the cat’s foot.

 

 

 

 

 

I do not understand the two-year-old mind.  After all of this nonsense, we went to swimming lessons, where he alternated between paying attention in class and trying to launch himself out of my arms or kick me to death because he wanted to practice climbing up and down the pool ladder.  He also decided it was hilarious to jump up after I pulled his wet swim diaper off and go for a run around the gym, laughing maniacally as his “twig & berries” flapped in the wind and strangers chuckled at the half-naked small person tormenting his mother.  Good times!  And then, when we got home and I was trying to change his disgusting pooey diaper, he belligerently kept trying to roll over and hop off the changing table, leading me to chuck one of his toys across the room while yelling, all Tarzan-like, AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!.

(In other words: I lost it.  And by “it,” I mean my cool.  My shiz-nit.  My marbles.)

Sometimes, I think I am ready to go back to work.  Except nobody wants to hire a pregnant woman who is then probably going to want to stay home with her infant.  I really need to invent something.

Speaking of inventing something!  Could someone out there, who perhaps is more science-y than me, invent a dishwasher that washes and dries dishes in the time it takes to prepare an easy meal?  Because I can’t tell you how many times I find myself having to clean my kitchen before I can start cooking dinner (don’t judge.  I’m tired, lazy, and involved with a demanding 2-year-old).  It would be so awesome if I could load the dishwasher, start preparing dinner, unload the dishwasher, and fill it again – all before dinner is done!  Oh, and while you’re at it, Inventors, could you make this affordable?  Thanks.

I shall leave you all with a hair product review.  I’ve mentioned before that my hair is pretty much a mess all the time, and I do not know why (although I suspect age and the hormonal changes that come with having a kid are at least partially to blame).  Since I’m pretty much a marketer’s dream, I recently purchased and tried Salma Hayek’s “Nuance” Shampoo & Conditioner.  Yes, yes, I fell for it.  In case it isn’t already abundantly clear, here was my line of thinking: Salma’s Hayek’s hair is pretty, so if I buy her hair products, mine will be pretty, too!  (I know, internets.  I KNOW.)  I probably am not going to surprise any of you when I tell you my hair does not look like Salma’s right now.  Well, especially not right now, since I haven’t washed it or done anything to it since leaving the pool this morning, but still.  At least the shampoo & conditioner smell nice, yes?

 

Posted in lara-bee discusses her hair, lara-bee mamas, lara-bee tries to save the world | Leave a comment

In which I attempt to get money for a struggling school

Posted on August 20, 2012 by lara-b

I keep seeing posts on Facebook about voting for schools on Target’s website.  Have y’all seen these?  The gist is that there’s a Facebook app through which you can vote for the K-12 school of your choice.  For every 25 votes that school receives, Target will send the school a $25 gift card to buy supplies and books.

Many of my friends who have school-aged children have been posting links to this app, asking everyone to vote for their child’s school.  I was just about to vote for one of these schools, but then I started thinking: why vote for a school that I know is “good”, with students whose parents can afford to buy their own supplies and who have internet access with which to vote?  Why not find a school that’s really struggling and try to get people to vote for THAT one?

I can’t remember if I have mentioned this on this blog or not, but I’m currently on hiatus from a graduate school program to obtain my teaching certificate.  In one of my pre-hiatus classes, we learned a lot about the problems with public education in the United States.  Specifically, we learned about the inequities that occur between schools and the huge differences in quality of education between schools.  It should come as no surprise to learn that these differences usually correlate with the socio-economic status of the populations the schools serve.  Furthermore, the problems are exacerbated by No Child Left Behind, which penalizes underperforming schools by reducing federal funding.  (This makes no sense to me, but that’s a rant for a different day.)

So anyway.  Back to Target.  With all this in mind, I googled something like, “worst public school in america” and came across this list: NeighborhoodScout’s Worst Public Schools in America.  I then scrolled down to the end of the list (assuming #1 is the very worst) and chose a school from the bottom 10: Walter L. Cohen High School in New Orleans, LA.  Why this one and not the #1?  For a few reasons: (1) I love New Orleans.  (2) I wanted to pick a high school, because I feel like those kids are old enough to have lost hope, and maybe some random Target gift card money for supplies could help save them from being as jaded or hopeless as they might feel.  (3) I didn’t want to choose a charter school.  I don’t know a lot about charter schools, but I think parents who send their kids to a charter school usually have a public school option in their area as well.  If they’ve chosen a crummy charter school over a less crummy public school, well…they can make the change back to public school.

If you’d like some statistics on Walter L. Cohen High School, here you go:

99.3% of its students are black.  76% of the students are eligible for free or discounted lunch.   In 2011, only 12% of the school’s students met the standard in 10th grade language arts standardized testing for the state’s Graduation Exit Exam (whereas the state’s percentage was 56%).  The school’s overall performance is below 5%.

Now, don’t y’all think this school could use a little help?  I have a feeling a Target gift card will just barely scratch the surface of all this school needs, but…doesn’t it feel good to imagine that it would at least help a little?

So.  Although I have practically no readers these days, this post is part of my attempt to get people voting for Walter L. Cohen High School.  Just click the link below and enter “Walter L. Cohen” in the school name spot, and “new orleans” in the city/state spot, and it should come right up.  We only have until September 8 at 11:59 p.m. to make this happen, so please – spread the word.  Let’s go viral, people!

 Give with Target

https://givewith.target.com/

Posted in lara-bee tries to save the world | 4 Comments