#guncontrolnow

Today, unlike yesterday, was a pretty day in Dallas.  Mr. Guy and The Lady had some errands to run. I decided that I would go since I did not spend yesterday with them.  While we were out driving, we spotted a building with lots of orange things in the grass in front of it.  Since I like orange a lot, I asked Mr. Guy if we could stop and look.  

When we got closer, I could see that the orange things were Crosses, Crescents, and Stars of David.

They were in front of a church.

Mr. Guy and The Lady explained to me that there is a convention in our city this weekend of lots of people who believe that guns are an important part of their life.  They think that it is OK for all kinds of people to have all kinds of guns even though everyone knows that people with guns kill lots of other people every single day.  There are 96 symbols in front of this church.  The number 96 represents the number of people who are killed by gun violence every single day in my country.

That is a lot of people!  I don't even have 96 friends I don't think.  So this means that in one day, all of my friends plus some more people I don't even know could all be killed.  That is a crazy thing to have to think about!  I borrowed The Lady's phone to calculate how many people that means are killed by guns in the United States every year - 35,040!!!  That is more people than live in my city!!!  My whole city could be killed by guns in less than one year!  

I thought yesterday was a sad day because of the funeral that The Lady and Mr. Guy had to go to.  Thinking about gun violence makes me sad too!

Why do people think that guns are a good thing?  I understand that policemen and a few other people need them to help them do their jobs, but I don't need or want a gun.  Mr. Guy and The Lady don't need or want them either.  It scares me to think about how many people have guns who don't need them and won't use them properly, whatever that means!

It makes me very sad to think about all of the people that these Crosses, Stars of David, and Crescents represent.

For now, I just keep hoping that things in the world will change by the time I grow up to be a big blue and orange furry monster...that's assuming I even get to grow up and am not shot by someone with a gun.

Sad and Happy

This morning was dark and rainy.  Mr. Guy and The Lady had to get up early and drive several hours to attend a funeral.  I didn't go.  Nothing about the day sounded good to me.  I remember when we went to the funeral for The Captain.  I remember it being both a sad time and a happy time.  Sad becasue the Captain wasn't here with us anymore; but happy because he was not sick and weak anymore either.  I'm still trying to figure out how I can be sad and happy at the same time.

The funeral that The Lady and Mr. Guy went to today was for Ms. Melba.  She has known Mr. Guy since he was a tiny little boy, maybe even tinier than me.  She looked after him for lots of years after his parents went to heaven.  We talked about heaven tonight when Mr. Guy and The Lady got home.  It is not like Lewes, or San Diego, or New York, or Mini-apples, the places I have been.  It is a place that lots of people talk about what it is like there, but no one that I have ever talked to about it has ever been there.  I don't quite understand that.

And I'm just curious...why does the word funeral begin with FUN?  I'm not sure that there is anything fun about them.

Play-ing in NYC

I bet you are wondering why I went to New York...

Offspring #2 and The Lady have a friend, Ms. Mandy, they said that she plays right in New York City and they wanted to go visit her.  That sounded fun.  I like to play.  When I asked The Lady where we were going to play  - at Ms. Mandy's apartment? a park? a pool? a beach? - she said it was not that kind of play.  Ms. Many writes the kind of plays that you see on stage at the theater.  She is a playwright; she doesn't play right.  Well, I bet she does play right, but that is not what was happening on this trip.  We were going to see the play From A to Double D that she wrote and Ms. Mandy was also acting in her play.  I like the theater so this plan was OK with me.

The title of Ms. Mandy's play sounded like it was a story about the dictionary, but only a little bit of the dictionary, since it only talked about the the first three letters and part of the fourth.  I thought about it and that makes sense.  That is job security for Ms. Mandy.  At this rate, she can write six sequels to her play before she gets all the way to the letters ZZ!  I did think that it was a little strange that she stopped with "DD."  I had to go look at the dictionary and see what words even started with two d's.  All the words that I found were either abbreviations or acronyms.  I didn't really understand Ms. Mandy's thinking on this one, but she is the professional playwright so I guess she knows what she is doing.  When I asked The Lady about this, she explained that the play was not about the dictionary, it was about bras.  Bras??  The Lady explained that little (boy) blue and orange furry monsters don't need to know or think about bras.  They are for grown-up ladies.  She showed me hers.  Boy was that a confusing contraption!!  It was even more strange than my vest!  Not only did it not have any sleeves, it didn't have much of a front or back either.  I can see why the grown-up ladies wear these weird things under their clothes.  They are funny looking!  The Lady said that grown-up ladies wear bras to keep their breasts in place.  Breasts?  Where is Mr. Guy when I need him?  I needed a boy to explain all this girl stuff to me! 

As it turned out, I learned a lot about bras and boobs breasts and girls while watching From A to Double D.  I don't think I understood everything, but I am pretty sure that I am glad that I only have to worry about my t-shirts and not trainers, underwires, and sports bras!  There are definite advantages to be a little blue and orange furry boy monster!  

I was happy to be at the play because The Lady, Offspring #2, and The Young Guy were very excited to be there.  Offspring #2 has been friends with Ms. Mandy for a long time, since when she was kind of a little girl and not famous, maybe since after the trainer time and before the double D time.  

And, Ms. Mandy was happy that they were there.  We had breakfast with her the next day.  She  agreed to have her picture taken with me!  Maybe some day we will both be really famous!

During the day before Ms. Mandy's play, The Young Guy, Offspring #2, and I walked around New York City.  Well...they all walked and The Lady carried me.  Mr. Guy does a little better carrying me. The Lady didn't do so well trying to hold me and her camera.  She didn't take very many pictures on this trip.

The first place that we walked was to the World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial.  Offspring #2 and The Lady explained that sixteen years ago, two buildings called the twin towers, were hit by airplanes that had been taken over by people who did not like our country.  Lots and lots of people died and lots were hurt.  I was not born when this happened and Offspring #2 was only eight years old.  The Lady remembered it very well.  There is a memorial where these two towers stood.  It is a fountain and a reflecting pool with the names of all those who lost their lives on that day.

There were so many names on the memorial.  So many people died.  This made me very sad.

A new building has been built in the area.

It is called Freedom Tower and is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

It hurts my heart to think about that day in 2001.  I wasn't even alive back then and seeing this memorial sends chills down my furry spine.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like for all the people who were right here in New York City or even those, like The Lady, Offspring #2, and Mr. Guy, who watched it all on television.  The people who's names I read on the memorial here and their families now have a place in my heart forever.

After we visited the 9/11 Memorial we walked some more and then decided to take the subway.  I have ridden the trains in Dallas, where I live, but they are above the ground.  In New York the trains go under the ground through tunnels.  The Lady told be that that is why they are called subways, because sub means below.  I should have figured that out by myself.

We bought our tickets and then walked through this gate that looked like we were going into a sideways jail.

The good thing was that the bars kept moving so it didn't feel like we were in jail!

Once we were inside the not-jail, I saw the tracks and watched for the train we needed.  Offspring #2 told me which one to look for.

We got on...rode for a few minutes in the dark...got off and walked up some stairs...and we were right where we wanted to be.  It sort of felt like magic.  I guess the same thing happens on the airplane, but since it is usually not dark in the sky when we fly, it doesn't feel so much like magic.

I wish we had more pictures from our trip. I thought that Offspring #2 and The Lady might be taking lots of pictures with their phones because they were in their hands all the time.  When I asked to see their pictures they said that there weren't many.  I was confused until they told me that they were using their phones so that we knew where to go.  The phones had a map on them and gave them walking directions.  I wondered how they always seemed to know where they were going!

We weren't in New York very long.  I wish we could have seen a little bit more of the city, but I was also glad to come home because I missed Mr. Guy.  Hopefully Ms. Mandy will do another play right and we will get to go see her and one of her plays again!

A Month of Me: Day 31 - Guilty Pleasures

Today is both a happy day and a sad day at the same time.  I am happy that The Lady and I managed to write a post together every day for the whole month of May.  I am sad because this is the last day of May and we probably won't write every single day in any other month.  At least I know we can do it if we want to.  The Lady and I have a deal...we are going to write at least two posts a week and we are going to keep working on my 100 People Project.  Thank you to everyone who has read my posts this month and sent me messages and comments.  I am a happy little monster most of the time and I want to help put smiles on other people's faces as well.

About today's photo...

In some ways, it is a good thing that I don't have to write a post every night this week because I am a very busy little blue and orange furry monster right now.  I have rehearsals this week for my performances with the Turtle Creek Chorale this weekend.  I need to learn my words and practice my notes.  I also need to get better with my fur brush.  All of the men in the chorale wear fancy clothes and brush their fur so it is nice and neat.  I think I need to try and control my shaggy fur while I'm on stage.  I don't want to embarrass Mr. Guy, The Lady, and Mr. Stan, who is helping me with my music.

Learning all of those words and music notes is hard for a little monster who has never done this kind of thing before.  This afternoon, The Lady was busy cleaning the bathroom.  I was studying my score and resting a little before tonight's rehearsal.  Then I realized that all of that studying made me hungry.  I didn't want to interrupt The Lady's swishing of the toilet bowls, scouring of the soap scum in the shower, and scrubbing the dried toothpaste out of the sinks so I figured I'd help myself to a little snack.  Ice cream sounded good to me.  Does it sound good to you?  I dragged a stool over to the freezer and found the ice cream.  There was a container of chocolate and one of vanilla.  Chocolate sounded good.  Vanilla sounded boring.  Right as I was pulling the chocolate container from the freezer, here comes The Lady.  Uh oh!  I'm not supposed to help myself to food in the freezer without permission.  I thought that I might get in a lot of trouble, but The Lady didn't get mad a me.  Whew!  She knew that I was working very hard and that hard works makes little monsters very hungry.  The Lady scooped a ball of ice cream into two bowls, one for each of us.  We ate our ice cream together and talked about how much fun we've had this month with my blog.  She also made sure that my fur did not get chocolaty dirty.  Shaggy is one thing.  Chocolaty ice creamy dirty is another!  If I want to be a star, I certainly couldn't have ice cream in my fur when I went to rehearsal!

So, farewell May and A Month of Me and welcome June and my stage debut...and lots of other special things!

I'll keep you posted!

Monster hugs,
Blueper B

A Month of Me: Day 29 - Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.  I didn't know that when I woke up this morning, but I know it now.  Memorial Day is a special day when, as a country, we honor all of those men and women who have given their lives in service protecting the freedoms of all people.  Mr. Guy told me how many Americans have died during all of the wars in which America has been involved...about 660,000 battle deaths.  That is a lot of people!  It makes me sad.  I don't like wars.  I don't like people killing people.  Supposedly sometimes wars are necessary, but I don't really understand why that is.  Maybe when I am a grown-up monster I will understand this better.

This evening The Lady and Mr. Guy took me to a park in our city.  It is called Liberty Plaza.  It is where we can go to say thank you to all those that have died in the service of our country.  There is a great big flag pole, some plaques, and some statues in the park.  The statue above is The Lady's favorite.  She explained that when a serviceman or service woman has dies and is buried, their casket is draped with an American flag.  At the end of the service, the flag is folded and presented to the family.  The Lady got a flag like this at The Captainb's funeral and Mr. Guy got one at his father's funeral too.  They keep their folded flags in special triangle shaped boxes.

Even though this is just a statue, it makes me cry thinking about all of the little boys and girls whose moms and dads are killed during wars.  I hope that some day there will be no more wars and children whose parents serve in the armed forces won't have to be scared that their moms and dads won't ever come home again.

I do want to say "THANK YOU" to all of those men and women who serve our country and also to their families.  The sacrifices that they all make are tremendous, the breadth of these sacrifices is unimaginable for most people.

A Month of Me: May 3 - Life Is Good

Every now and then Mr. Guy and I get lucky.  Today was one of those days.  A few days ago Mr. Guy and I were looking at stuff on the computer.  We saw this t-shirt that we thought that The Lady would She enjoys making stuff with stuff with sticks and string.  She says it makes her happy and helps her relax.  T-shirts make me happy and giving a present of a t-shirt to someone else makes me really happy!  Mr. Guy told me the secret code for his plastic money and we ordered her one as a surprise.  We knew that The Lady would like the picture of sticks and string on the shirt and Mr. Guy and I like the words...Life is Good.  Most of the time I think life is really good.  Only when I have to spend time walking for an hour going nowhere on dread treadmill, or when we lose someone that we love, am I not sure life is that good.  Mr. Guy and The Lady try to remind me that even when I am sad, there are still lots of good things to be happy about if I just open my eyes and my heart.

Mr. Guy and I were happy that the shirt that we ordered for The Lady came in the mail today because today especially, The Lady needed to be reminded that life is good.  

The Lady is a professor at a college.  She likes her job teaching people about music, but lately she says that being at her school is not as safe as it used to be.  In Texas, people can have guns on college campuses.  That is scary to me!  I don't even want to think about that!  Today, at a school just like the one where The Lady teaches, but thankfully not hers, someone brought a gun inside the school and killed someone and then killed himself.  I just don't understand this.  Mr. Guy and The Lady can't help me to understand because they don't understand it either.  All I know is that I don't want something like this to happen at The Lady's school.  Mr. Guy says that maybe she should retire, like he did, and then he and I wouldn't have to worry about her when she goes to work.  I don't think she will do that, but I wish she would!

Mr. Guy and I hope that the new t-shirt that we got will make The Lady think about how happy playing with her sticks and string makes her.  Then maybe she won't worry about guns and school.  She can think about what color string she can twist into knots to make a hat for me for next winter.  

Like The Lady and Mr. Guy remind me, life is good even when I think its not.