8th

Dante defined Hell as having seven circles…those being the following:

First: Limbo
Second: Lust
Third: Gluttons
Fourth: Hoarders and Wasters
Fifth: Wrathful
Sixth: Heretics
Seventh: The violent (subsequently divided into Outer Ring, Middle Ring and Inner Ring)

I am proposing to this respected Italian philosopher and author, that an Eighth Circle of Hell be added:

Eighth: Molly and Brett’s move to their new apartment

In this circle there will be no hail, raining fire, flaming tombs, boiling blood or flaming sand…there will be us and our rental company fighting over the most infinitesimal details in regards to an apartment that, besides the kicky location, is not worth the trouble. There will be a Molly, on the phone all day every day threatening to call her lawyer, hoping that someone will cave in and paint some of the rooms white in the damned place. There will a Brett, taking the day to clean and paint the place in hopes that the job will some day be finished but knowing that he much continue like this throughout eternity.

When finally finished with the circle Dante would find the Bretts and the Mollys walking downstairs from their new place and literally right into Roscoe’s to get wasted for the evening (this one and all those ensuing). So if you would like to celebrate the breaking free of the Eighth Circle, call us on Sat. night and see if we have made it out alive…

Heartbroken...

The Zags are no longer in the tourney. I spoke too soon...I jinxed. I do believe that I was more upset to see Gonzaga go then I was to see U of I.

I am in mourning...

...mourning made slightly better by the fact that Duke is O.U.T!

“The Big Dance” is awaiting and as the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament starts I find the anticipation building.

Since I was a child I have enjoyed the NCAA tournament. I associate the tourney with my older brother Sean as we are 4 years a part and he has always been a sports fantastic. Growing up in the same household as Sean meant that as we were falling asleep in our bunk beds I was being quizzed on the stats of baseball players, the sport of the season was always on TV, any game he made up had an athletic spin, I was often a stand-in for the pick-up games as inevitably a child would have to go home early for dinner, my weekends were spent at his games and matches, our house was always filled with jocks (certainly not a negative), and I learned to love the NCAA tournament.

The tournament is one of my favorite times of the year probably as much for the actual games as the passion and spark it evokes in those around me. It also is nostalgia for the times when Sean and I were under the same roof and I was young enough to learn from the sporting master. I think he used me as his guinea pig. Our little brother Ryan is 8 years younger then Sean…far to young at that point to be useful J and Ryan has never been interested in the least with sports. So I feel like Sean saw me as a way to make an impression on a young mind. He molded my sporting thoughts until he had a little likeness of his own. J I grew up a Cubs fan, a Bears fan, a Bulls fan…whatever team Sean liked in a given game…that was the one I was rooting for too. I remember years of cheering for Duke and North Carolina and the very first time I hear Dick Vitals voice “A P.T.P FROM D.U.K.E BABY!” Even thinking about it makes me smile. He taught me what teams to like, how to swing a bat (bite your shirt if you pull your head out), how to throw a ball, how to kick someone at the right place in the knee so that they go right down, how to tackle someone effectively (if you bring your forearm up into their chest/neck right as you are coming up from the line no one will see you and it will stun the other guy), how to shoot a lay-up (I need more practice), how to channel “Andre Dawson power” and most importantly how important sports are in life. They can give you confidence, grace, power, agility…and guys dig a girl that can hold her own on a field or watching a game!

To this day I call Sean with all of my sports questions, he is my guru. He knows everything when it comes to athletics and I trust his opinion above all.

With all of that said (and trying to make this post end soon) there is one thing that Sean did not teach me about sports…one thing that Sean did not influence me on…my love for the Zags. That’s right…Gonzaga is in the Sweet Sixteen and I have loved them since I was a wee lass. I am not even sure how long but I do know that I applied to a master’s program there just because I love the basketball team so much. You can’t beat the Zags…when the Illini played Gonzaga I almost cried as I did not know who to root for. My alma mater verses my one true basketball love.

So here’s to Seany and also a big Zags win this weekend!! Go Team!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! A DAY FOR MY PEOPLE!!

I wanted to give you all a little history on St. Patrick and the day of celebration! Here is a little about it compliments of the History Channel! Did you go to mass today? Did you know that Ireland considers this a "holy day of obligation" for Irish Catholics? I went to mass (but it helps that I work at a Catholic school and they offer it at lunch-time!) Hope everyone has a happy, lucky and safe night! Here's to green beer and bringing home and Irishman!

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army. Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called "Irish Aid" societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country 's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys. However, the Irish soon began to realize that their great numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.

Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore, and Russia. In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.


HAPPY ST. PATTIES!!
In Italian: Felice giorno Il Santo Patrick!

International Women's Day

As of May 2004, the U.S. Government estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked annually into the United States, and 600,000 to 800,000 are trafficked globally. Approximately 80 percent of the victims are female; 70 percent of those females are trafficked for the commercial sex industry.

Today is International Women’s Day, a celebration for women across the globe, yet each year over 560,000 women are trafficked through the world for sexual purposes. There isn’t much to celebrate for women internationally, as we are allowing our sisters to be bought and sold in order to fulfill the demand for sex workers. 45% of those were sold by their own parents/family in order to circumvent debt, humiliation and/or the burden of another mouth to feed. Over half of these women are minors. The important distinction is that when a woman is “trafficked” she has been taken away from her country and moved across a border. These aren’t just prostitutes…these are women who have essentially been kidnapped or sold in order to be taken somewhere else to work in the sex industry. Above are just the documented numbers for trafficked women. Researchers suggest that these number could be doubled and that would give a rough estimate of the entire amount of sexual trafficking taking place…there are hundreds of thousands of cases that we do not know about. With that there are millions of cases of non-trafficked sex workers…forced to perform for money or servitude. Women and girls forced to do the unthinkable.

In Human Rights we often refer to the Sexual Trafficking plight as a “black hole” something that we could talk about and research on non-stop for years yet have neither correct data nor a solution. When someone brings up sexual trafficking projects in the office a laugh escapes as we know that we have no tools that would allow us to further this plight. Demand is too high and in countries like Costa Rica sexual tourism brings in incredible amounts of money. Men and (some) women travel to Costa Rica in order to participate in “tours” that facilitate these sexual binges. Research shows that requesting time with minors on these tours even produces results. One would think that such requests would be shunned but inevitably a minor is found and yet again that demand has allowed for one more trafficked girl to be used.

If we think this is just a problem abroad then we must note that about 15,000 women are trafficked into the US every year as well. We have at least 15,000 women (that we know about) brought here from other countries, against their will, to fulfill sexual practices. We are culprits. In a society that takes such great pride in being Westernized and the “leaders of the free world” and takes great strides to regulate violations of other countries…we are not even able to stop the trafficking women and girls into our borders for sexual purposes.

On International Women’s Day I ask that you remember that those of us with a home, food, shelter, family, jobs, education and access to technology must take steps to eradicate the incredible wrongs we have pushed upon the world’s women and children. Although it seems endless, the fight must continue until we have stopped the demand and ended the trafficking.

For more information feel free to visit Break the Chain, Rescue and Restore, Human Rights Watch, CATW.

Oh Little Ry....

My little brother turned 21 on Sunday…as Brett puts it “I am officially old”.

I have a hard time reconciling the fact that Ryan is 21 as I feel like I literally just turned 21 myself. But here I stand…old n’ shit…and Ryan is now able to buy beer legally (not that it ever stopped him before)…

Little Ry (clearly just a nickname) started out the night with a family party and then, because he turned 21 at 12am on Saturday night/Sunday morning and therefore the bar choices were limited, we went into Waukilla for some 21 year old fun. Chad, Ryan and I stopped first a Booners, there just before the stroke of midnight. We cheered for Ryan as he officially turned 21 and enjoyed a little fun with my friend Elise and some family. Off we went after that to do a shot at the Muck (no Gloria and Bubba to be found) and then on to the Pub in a last-ditch effort to find someone fun to hang out with. Not so much.

Steve, the lovely and incredibly talkative proprietor of the Pub gave us free drinks and gave Ry a few shots of some good whiskey…so it was a cheap venture. Ryan got drunk (which was really what we were looking for) and we had some funny conversations. All in all it was pretty tame, but Ry is coming down to the city for his real night out on March 11th. Hopefully we don’t have to drag him home but I know he will get good-and-canned with the likes of his friends and mine. So…if you want to come out…let me know. Otherwise, I would stay home on Saturday night b/c the party might be too crazy for you!