too far?

Speaking of appalling, my brother recently blogged on the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The appalling part is that this is what they have come up with. There's a whole series of posters you can peruse ... I've pasted my favorite one below.

"Stay Cliquey; Stay self-centered; Stay in demand"

I know that it will be a proud moment for me, as a mother, when I can say that my teenage daughter is a cliquey, self-centered individual who is in high demand. My dreams will have all come true in that one shining moment.


Here's a shining example of some of the postcards they are selling ... I won't post it here, I find it to be too offensive for this simple-minded, diaper-changing mother to handle.


In the interest of fairness, I'm sure that these folks have helped out a lot of teens as well as their families. I just think they might want to re-think the direction the current ad campaigns have them running in. Go here or here and make up your own mind.

We are not in China?

Yesterday morning, we opened our front door, and found a note* taped to our door**. Now, we know that association rules do not allow for items to be in the hallway, but we figured (as did many of our neighbors, if their shoes are any indicator) with all the inclement weather that it would be acceptable to leave shoes neatly lined up on our doormat. If this wasn't acceptable, we knew a small reminder note would likely be found next to or inside of our shoes at some point. Apparently, after more than a month of our doing this and who knows how long of several of our neighbor's doing this (one of which has done so every day since they moved in), someone has had enough. It looks very much like our exalted association manager's printing, too. I wanted to leave a nice little message for her, but my husband stopped me. We have managed to live here in relative peace for 7 years, and he is not interested in rocking the boat. I can respect that, so while I thought we should mark our door as the entryway to China, he contemplated putting a sign on the door with the Chinese*** translation of a phrase I will not repeat here. We were also wondering if this indeed a common practice in China, and why this is not common anywhere else. Perhaps the Chinese are the only one's that care about keeping their carpeting free of snow, rain and mud. We must assume that we are quite unschooled. To make any other assumption would be to call the writer of such grand notes ignorant, rude and condescending not to mention offensive, slanderous, and few other adjectives. We would never say such things, however, because our education has apparently been incomplete.

You should also check out the note I found taped to the window between the second and third floors ...

I put with my children not being allowed to play by our building. I put up with being told that my curtains must show white from the outside of the building. I put up with being told what I am and am not allowed to put on my balcony. I put up with being asked to tattle on my neighbors (which I will not do). I put up with being spoken to and treated as though I were three, on a variety of matters. I put up with a balcony that is unsafe for small children to be on. I put up with paying to have my dryer vent cleaned every year when I know that the space the vent occupies legally belongs to the association AND could be done by me for free if I was allowed to put ladder to the side of the building. I put up with the essential monopoly my wonderful association has made for Comcast cable services. I have even put up with being told that if I have to ask permission to use the parking lot when I have more guests than fits into two cars (if you saw the capacity of the parking lot you would understand why this angers me). I even put up with having to pay a $200 pet deposit when I own my home, and cannot figure out what on earth they need that much money for. Enough. Do I live here? I though I had purchased my own home!? I am writing this to vent and make people aware. This is not right but they can get away with it. We know that if we complain, they will find ways to be a thorn in our sides. They can do whatever they want ... they are the association, and by deciding to live here we have agreed to play by their rules.****

I cannot wait to move.


*Not the best picture so here's what it says: "We are not in China, please keep your shoes inside. Thank you."
**this picture is actually of a neighbor's door. My note hit the garbage can too quickly for me to think of grabbing the camera.
***He knows katakana, but I'm guessing he could get the mandarin for what he wants and do pretty well at drawing a representation of it.
****I would like to note that rules are added/amended every year and the way they condescendingly upheld was not covered when we moved in.
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update: My education is so lacking that my husband emailed me some editorial notes. My installation of "why I love my association" now reflects changes as suggested by him.