It is a bit homely but here is my first attempt at decorating a cake. A few weeks ago I saw a cake decorating class in the county recreation guide and figured it was a mature but unnecessary skill to insert between baking and eating. As as a parent, however, it is important to demonstrate occasional maturity. I felt obligated to sign up. I did it for the children.
The class follows the Wilton School of Chicago decorating techniques. I think the name has the whiff of the Chicago School of economics and Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, and admission could not be easier — $80 and supplies.
When I was looking into graduate schools, Princeton’s application was so intimidating that I did not apply — I vaguely recall essay questions that only Kissinger could answer satifactorily (”Describe the successes and challenges you faced using shuttle diplomacy to pursue peace in the Middle East”). Henry probably never made a cake for anyone and history has probably suffered for it. For that matter, I doubt that his chief critic has baked anyone a cake and that is probably a good thing since who knows what it would look like. Mother Teresa would not have appreciated a cake from Christopher Hitchens anyway.
In any case, the Wilton School sounds prestigious enough for a resume. I think I could sneak it in between project management and strategic planning experience and no one would be the wiser. And if we get sent to some remote military base, which skill of the three would be the most helpful? As Laura Dempsey mentioned in a recent opinion column in the Washington Post, the unemployment rate of military wives is four times higher than the national average. And who knows what that employment really looks like — a lot of dogwalking services, teacher’s aides, Navy Exchange cashiers. All on one resume. So why not cake decorating?
Elysia came home today. When Citrus woke up from her nap and I told her Mommy was going to be home very soon, she excitedly asked “Mommy is coming home and she is going to have cake with me?!” The best things, together again.
Citrus just started a new round of swim lessons, and you can see in this photo that she has yet to respect some simple concepts such as Don’t Drown Mommy.
The Navy also starts with the basics, such as making sure Mommy does not drown herself. If a new JAG does not know how to swim, in Officer Indoctrination School she has to at least learn how to stay afloat for five minutes and swim 50 yards. That way if you fall off a ship, you at least have a chance to be rescued. Of course, there was no practice involving a toddler attached to your head, which I believe could violate the Geneva Conventions under certain circumstances.
Perhaps Elysia can raise that question in class tomorrow at the Army JAG school. They are going to discuss the Geneva Conventions, and I imagine the lecture has the potential to draw on some interesting examples such as waterboarding. The Bush Administration surprised a lot of people last month by announcing that they consider it to be legal under certain circumstances, whereas Congress has already banned it (twice) and the Supreme Court ruled against the Administration’s treatment of detainees.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama condemn waterboarding and three Republicans in particular have been very critical of it as well: Senators Lindsay Graham, John Warner, and John McCain. In one of the Republican debates, McCain was sharply critical of Mitt Romney for not taking a position on the issue — it was TV worth watching!
Unfortunately, just two weeks ago McCain voted AGAINST a Senate bill that would ban the C.I.A. from using waterboarding and other harsh techniques. The strong convictions he displayed on camera seem to have disappeared when it came time to walk the talk.
In any case, it will be interesting to see if his change of heart comes up in the Presidential debates or if conservatives rally around him now that he is the GOP candidate and reserve their criticism for Senator Lindsay Graham. Graham, an Air Force JAG, has apparently angered many people by asking the most simplist of questions: If Iran captured and waterboarded one of our servicemembers, would it be torture?
Even if this is particular example is grandstanding, few officials – including the Attorney General — are willing to answer the question. I think military families deserve an answer.
I finally visited Charlottesville for the first time, and all I had to do was marry a JAG and wait for her to go for training in Virginia!
As I drove through the town I noticed a highway exit for the polo grounds. Several years ago when I was working at a NYC law firm on the word processing staff, I would often chat with a young associate whenever she dropped off work for our department. One Friday she said she was going to Charlottesville for the weekend and I jokingly said that I wanted to come along, figuring it is easier to be turned down for an outlandish idea than something mundane such as going out for coffee. Plus, what if I got to go?
As a general rule, I think I have successfully blocked out most experiences of date rejection for the same good reasons the body shuts out memories of events just prior to a horrific accident. But in this case, I was taken by surprise by her answer and had a hard time even processing the question:
Do you play polo?!
How would you answer that?