A Bill of Rights

This was posted on my best friend's facebook and I wanted to share it as a homage to her and my other multi-ethnic friends.

Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People

--Maria P. P. Root, Ph.D.

I have the right...

not to justify my existence in this world

not to keep the races separate within me

not to be responsible for people's discomfort with my physical ambiguity

not to justify my ethnic legitimacy

I have the right...

to identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify

to identify myself differently than how my parents identify me

to identify myself differently than my brother and sisters [and family]

to identify myself differently in different situations

I have the right to create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial

to change my identity over a lifetime-and more than once

to have loyalties and identify with more than one group of people

to freely choose whom I befriend and love

Maria P. P. Root is a clinical psychologist who studies biracial and multiracial identity in Seattle, Washington.

Happy Belated Halloween!

In all of the commotion, I forgot to post about our Wicked-Awsome Spookapalooza 2008! I know I had a blast and I look forward to next year!

I was a butterfly fairy.

Mattea gettin her bubbles on...

and me gettin my groove on!

My best friend in the whole world wore the awsomest costume and won a prize!

The Costume Contest Winners!

Olivia helping to make Mummy-dogs

Lily the Ladybug

Bad News

I have noticed the decrease in blogging now the elections are over! I've been so busy at work, I haven't had the energy for much of a life outside that would be worthy of blogging. But unfortunately, I now have something to blog about.

So the family and I went to the eye doctor, and amongst the myriad of tests, they dilated my eyes to check out the insides. Come to find out my optic nerves were swollen and the ophthalmologist said it may be caused by intracranial pressure. Thursday I saw a retinal specialist to take a closer look. (Possibly the most evil of professions... just above proctology. They dilated my eyes and proceded to shine just about as much light as possible into them. It should be added the the list of torture not allowed in this country, along with water boarding... I digress.) So the retina doctor confirmed my funny optic nerves are due to intracranial swelling and not eye disease. (And I thought my nearly-constant headache for the last three months was due to becoming a supervisor!). The two possible causes are Brain Tumor and Pseudo Brain Tumor. Whoa.

So I had two MRI's today and I see a Neurologist soon. The retina lady said she doesn't think it's a Brain Tumor (aka Arnold,"I don't have a tumah"). The pseudo tumor cerebri involves having too much cerebrospinal fluid and will be confirmed with a spinal tap and can be treated with meds and/or surgery, but it could come back.

Scary, huh? I'm trying hard not to worry... there's no sense in it yet, and we'll have a plan once we know what it is. What really scares me is it might not have been caught. I just happened to decide that I want a better eye exam than WalMart (with my family history and all) and this new doctor, randomly picked from the spectera website, routinely checks for these things. I would have never paid any attention to my headaches as an actual symptom. Probably not until I would have noticed a loss in vision.

Well, I probably won't know anything until after I see the neurologist in over a week... it's a long time to be brave, so think good thoughts for me!

Fess up...

Who else was moved to tears tonight?