The "Labor Day and Birthday", edition.

Good Monday morning!  It's Labor Day, the day after Brian's birthday. And Dad is still in Yellow Springs, Ohio. I'll start with Labor Day. My mom was a teacher with th Detroit Public School (DPS) system and she was a member of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). I remember when DPS teachers went on strike and mom was out there on the picket line. Several times.  I was a member of several unions while working with the City and Brian was a member of the police officers Union and the Sargent and lieutenant Union. So. When Shawn told us she was involved with the Graduate Employee Organization, which is part of the AFT at her university we we not only not surprised, we were proud of her activism. But wait. There's more. 

Not only was she active in the GEO, she was actively involved. She told us the GEO was sending her to task force sessions around the country and indeed it seemed as if once a month she was in a different city. Lol. I couldn't keep up with her travel for the GEO and the travel for the archeology conferences. Eventually I figured it out. At one Task force meeting, she called me because she was angry at one of the participants talking down to her and being patronizing...referring to her as "little lady". She was the youngest participant. She eventually was able to address the behavior of the participant and moved on. 

Eventually the task force document was published and Shawn sent us the link. "AFT, Recaliming thr Promise of Racial Equity". Color us surprised!  Lol. She is the master of understatement. I read through the document and at the end was the list and photos of task force members. I realized she was working with AFT members and officers from around the country. I recognized the photo  Keith Johnson from Detroit. And I mentioned that to her. Oh my goodness. That was the person she was locking horns with. This was the man that was disrespecting my child. >;-(  And this was the man my child stood up to and demanded respect!  Go Shawn! So now she is co-president of the GEO at her university. And we were delighted when she was sent out to Las Vegas for a conference. We got a piece of her time. Lol. 

And now Brian's birthday. The M Resort Sunday Seafood brunch. OMG. I mentioned that we initially we going to Caesars and mentioned that to our barber. He suggested The M. It was just as nice, but cheaper. Brian and I debated it and decided Caesrs would be out of control as this is a holiday weekend. Off to The M we'd go. Did I mention The M gives a locals discount?  In addition to the players club discount. The M did not disappoint. It was the largest buffet we'd been to. Did I mention they had sushi?  The crab legs were split, so no tools needed. Did I mention they had wedge salads?  Look, there was so much food I'm sure I didn't see half of it. I never made it to the desert area. I made it as far as the Hawaiian wings. There was still more food down there,  I was just overwhelmed at that point and plate was getting heavy and I needed to get back to the table. 

Brian was in seafood heaven. He had peel and eat shrimp, crab legs, calamari and mussels. He found lobster bisque...my favorite!  And the bisque had pieces of lobster the size of my thumb! I tried the lobster Mac and cheese. Yum!  And then we came home. And feel asleep!  Then we talked with Shawn and Dad in Ohio. Brian received calls all day from people wishing him happy birthday!  He says he had a great day!  

Today the sorority is having a bowl a thon to raise money  for scholarships. I heard Don Cheadle will be there (!). We adjusted my dialysis schedule so we can do things this weekend. And it's all good. Last night I cried during treatment because...well because I'm on dialysis and life can get really sucky. Brian pulled me out of the rabbit hole as usual, but it's got to be stressful on him. I'm feeling rather useless and hopeless. Who wants to live like this?  And yet I keep pushing. Not sure why. Except I guess for Shawn Brian and Dad. Love them beyond reason!  

That's it for today. I'm ok. No treatment today so there's that!  Have a wonderful holiday. I know we will. Lol...the Brian birthday celebration will continue!!