The unappreciated joy of middle-class-hood...

Today, my daughter was asked by a friend "so, what's it like being middle-class?" Evidently, we are perceived as middle class by this friend who aspires to BE middle-class.

After being unemployed for almost 9 months, I'm back to earning what the economists would call a "living wage", but 5 months ago, while enrolling the girls for school, we discovered we easily qualified for the free lunch program. We haven't taken advantage of that distinction, because the school lunches are generally cold, unappetizing, and the girls prefer a lunch from home, even if it's a lunch meat sandwich on some sort of artisinal bread or a chef salad. I keep them fed, three meals a day, a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and a smattering of modern conveniences that evidently make us appear "privileged".

For some of my daughter's classmates, they engage in near-constant "hunter-gatherer" behavior, grazing off other classmate's lunches, collecting the uneaten fruit in the cafeteria after lunch, packaging up "leftovers" from class parties and school open houses to take home to eat. At one evening open house, one of the students brought an empty pizza box and proceeded to fill it with cookies, brownies, chips and finger foods before anyone else had a chance at the snacks. I'm just glad I left the good caviar at home that night...

I feel guilty when I hear there are friends of my child living on chocolate and lunch meat because there's not even bread in the house to make a sandwich. I get angry when I hear someone's parent let their kids go hungry until 10 at night because she was passed out on the couch and figured she'd feed the kids "later". And I just shake my head in frustration when I hear someone's father is too busy sitting in the car smoking weed to pay some attention to his kid. As much as I'd like to take these kids in, sit them at our table and feed them a hot meal, I know it's not feasible, even if their parents consented - assuming their parents even cared. I just know I should be doing something, and it seems like this is the time of year to be doing it. I just don't know what "it" is, yet.

 

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Trust JETER? I think not. NEVAH trust a Yankee...

(Pay no attention to this blog entry at present. Eventually, I'll be back to rant and rave about the whole Tiger-Gate thing, but mostly just trying to find a place to post this pic file for now.)

I'm NOT necessarily upset that Tiger cheated on his wife, I'm just upset that he had a wife that looked that fine and yet had to cheat on her with nearly a dozen women who combined didn't look as good. And they couldn't keep their mouths shut when the lights came on.

My tolerance for big city music education is slipping away

We attended our daughter's holiday band concert last night. She's a freshman at my wife's alma mater - I graduated from a high school in a small town south of Wichita.
Most of my "interaction" with my daughter's school so far this year has been through her being in band, although I've certainly shared some heated e-mails with her teachers, which is another story best left for another time. My high school had what I still consider to be a band of above-average talent, both during marching and concert band season. So it was with great anticipation that I attended the school's second home football game (we were out of town for the first one), to witness first-hand the awesome power of a big-city marching band playing in a big-city football venue.
On a perfect night for football, the stadium held MAYBE 100 spectators, evenly mixed between parents of band members and football players. It's possible that the marching band outnumbered the 47 players on the home side of the field. The band performed three songs that first game - The national anthem, the school fight song, and as halftime entertainment, "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. To say the performance was underwhelming would be an understatement, and through the marching band season, it never really improved, either musically or technically. But I cut them some slack because they were young, and they SEEMED sincere in their efforts.
So, last night, we attended the holiday concert. No programs at the door - the band director's decided to "go green" and save paper. Probably a prudent choice, since there was maybe 100 people in the audience in an auditorium that must seat at least 800.
The concert led off with the school's jazz band, who performed a couple acceptable numbers, neither of which I had ever heard before. The evening showed promise, only 5 minutes in.
The string orchestra took the stage. Had they been merciful, they would have taken the stage and ran with it, instead of sitting down on it and inflicting 10 minutes of aural cruelty upon those in attendance. The allegedly performed a Kabelevsky prelude, and two selections from the Nutcracker. Now we know what REALLY killed Tchaikovsky - this performance. I don't think two instruments were tuned correctly. The director appeared to be trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. I videotaped one of their selections and am TEMPTED to put it on youtube...but I just can't bring myself to punish others.
And then, the concert band took the stage, the girls in a hodge-podge of black skirts, black slacks, black skirts OVER black slacks, the boys in ill-fitting trousers with their dress shirts untucked and unbuttoned. The director evidently doesn't have enough respect for the audience to make his band members DRESS THEMSELVES CORRECTLY. I'm not expecting concert-formal, but TUCK IN YOUR SHIRTS, YOU BURGER-PICKIN' SLOBS!
The music? Not bad -- a contest/performance piece, Rudolph the Red and Adeste Fideles. The trumpets over-played, but everyone was mostly in tune, and it was just disappointing that they only prepared three songs of less than 8 minutes total. The concert was over in a half hour, and that's factoring in two changes of bands.
The director thanked us for coming, said something about "don't forget to tip your waiters", and the band left the stage. I know this teacher's young, but show a little respect for your audience. I know that my band director, Mr. Powers, would have cuffed this guy upside the ear and told him how to run a band program in a correct manner. I know I wish I could...

Wichita's signature casual food item...

(Darn, I don't get around to blogging like I should...)

So ask people what's the signature food item in Wichita, and most people will say the NuWay crumbly burger. WRONG. I mean, yeah, former Wichitans who visit always say "I got to go get me a NuWay while I'm in town", and I live in the neighborhood of the "original" NuWay building, and for crumbled beef on a bun they're okay, although I still prefer a sloppy joe. The problem with a NuWay is it's a brand name for a regional chain item. You might as well say "I got to go get me a Dog n Shake hot dog while I'm in town!"
If you go to Philadelphia, you don't go for a Pat's CheeseSteak (unless you're completely partial to Pat's), but if you think Philly, you think cheesesteak. If you think Chicago, you think deep-dish pizza or a Chicago Dog. If you think NYC, you think of pizza by the slice or a humongous deli sandwich.
That's why I would like to put out there, for your consideration, what is really the signature food for Wichita: the Monterrey, sometimes just referred to as "the special" or "special tostada". Wichita has a LOT of Mexican restaurants, from taco trucks to 24-hour-drive-throughs to sit-downs with atmospheric lighting and their special house salsas, but almost every place has a version of the Monterrey.
What's a Monterrey? In almost every instance, they're as similar to each other as cheesesteaks in Philly: a crisp-fried flour tortilla, 7"-10" diameter, covered with refried beans or chili verde, lettuce, yellow cheese (think Velveeta consistency), meat - pork, ground beef or chicken, salsa, and in the case of the Deluxe, sour cream, guacamole or avocado slices, jalapenos, olives, etc.
Basically, it's a plate-sized tostada of yummy layered goodness, retail cost $3-$4 in the fast-food places, $5-$8 in sit-down restaurants depending on size and time of day.
For me, only the pork Monterrey will do, and I prefer them Special, with sour cream and jalapenos. The one I had today, at El Mexico Cafe (2544 S Seneca), was a luncheon-sized 7" tortilla piled high with beans, lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream, 2 slices of avocado, jalapenos, and green olives, then topped with shredded grilled pork. I think it was $5.99 at lunch, and more than enough for me...although I did finish it. I'm not holding this particular one up as the ultimate example in Wichita, but the pork shredded on top instead of mixed into the beans puts it in the running. But almost any respectable non-chain Mexican restaurant in Wichita makes one very similar. Don't bother with On the Border or Chili's -- they don't understand it and will never produce a respectable version.
Note: as I mentioned, these traditionally contain that gummy yellow Velveeta-like processed cheese substance -- they are not gourmet cuisine. It's Mexican comfort food, and an inexpensive
and filling meal.

Ever start a blog someplace and then forget about it?

I did.


Discovered today right before lunch we're overdrawn at the bank, so lunch plans changed from food someone cooks for us to food that comes out of the freezer in a plastic tray. Mexican TV dinners...yum.
I know this isn't the time or place, but I really need a new job that pays a living wage. 23 years in the same place, and after doing our taxes this year discover that our family qualifies for reduced lunches at the school. I knew this day would come -- all these years we danced precariously on the precipice of poverty level, and finally, after the last round of benefits increases at work, that now eat something like 30% of my check, we've finally fallen below the ceiling for full-price school lunches. Of course, the girls don't want to eat the slimy refuse that passes for nutrition in the Wichita public school system, so they'll still be brown-bagging it.
The department created a new sub-supervisory position, kind of an assistant manager, that I thought about applying for, even though 23 years of experience and a bachelor's degree doesn't qualify me for the job, and then I learned that I'd have to take a $6/hour pay cut to take the job, and move to 1st shift. Er, no thanks, not interested. Guess I'll just pin my hopes on Powerball for now, and the March Madness pool.

Dear United Way Campaign committee...
Just down the hall from my office they're having the United Way Campaign Kick Off Barbecue, an event that has gone from a free dinner to a low-cost by-the-item dinner to a nominally priced all-you-can eat ($3) to one-trip through for the low low low price of $5. However, they decided to have this dinner 2 days before payday, I've been overdrawn for about a week, and what little money I DID have went to buy my daughter lunch up at her tour of WSU with her 8th-grade Spanish class.
Maybe those nurses who got a 5% retention bonus in addition to a 3% raise in addition to a nearly-yearly pay-grade adjustment can afford $5 for an overcooked hamburger, can of pop, bag of chips and a cookie. I haven't had a pay-grade adjustment for 8 years, haven't seen an increase in my pay-rate for 3 years, since I've maxed out. So, with change in my pocket, I had to make the walk of shame past the barbecue with my bag of BBQ Ranch potato chips and listen to the girl at the door beg, plead and implore people to pay $5 for a crappy styrofoam container full of guilt. My only satisfaction...more people are walking past than going in.
Sure, it would have been nice to register for the one-month of prime parking giveaway, and I hear they had a dunk-tank for the 1st-shifters to drop a director in the water (I would have just thrown directly at the director...), but I guess they couldn't find anyone for 2nd-shift to throw at. I don't doubt that the United Way does good for the people of Wichita, but the last few years our employer hasn't even bothered telling us what they DO for the people of Wichita. They hand out a pledge card and tell us what would be a good and fair amount to give, they throw a dinner party that only some can attend, and then the CEO stands up at the end of the campaign at a big shindig downtown and takes credit for the money we're donating to his campaign. Well, eff it -- I've got potato chips here getting stale on my desk...And now, back to your regularly scheduled merriment...