Samantha Pierce

Apparently I have joined the ranks of the know nothing old fogeys. I guess some folk just need to reinvent the wheel for themselves.

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This story on NPR caught my attention today. The Laws Of Belly Dancing For years, Rachel Galoob Ortega earned a six-figure salary as an attorney. But Ortega now spends her days enjoying what she describes as her real passion: belly dancing. "Saphira," as she is known to audiences, explains her career shift and what drew her to the craft, as recently featured in The Washington Post Magazine. The following is an excerpt from the Washington Post Magazine article. An Advocate for the Shimmy A belly dancer with two law degrees comes to the defense of an ancient art form The belly dancer known as Saphira sweeps onto the dance floor, a pink scarf flowing behind her upraised arms. She's wearing false eyelashes and heavy eyeliner, a pumpkin-orange bra top with gold and pink beads and sequins, and long swirling layers of a pink-and-orange skirt. Tall and big-boned, she has a soft belly that is bared and shaking along with her hips as she improvises to the live band -- a drummer an...

1 Samuel 8 (English Standard Version) Israel Demands a King 1When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. 4Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations." 6But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7And the LORD said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and servin...

Exodus 14:13-15 (English Standard Version) 13And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." 15The LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. *** Psalm 37:6-8 (English Standard Version) 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil *** Psalm 46:9-11 (English Standard Version) 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spe...

1 Corinthians 13 (English Standard Version) 1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a chi...

I am thankful for the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm thankful for all the frustrating people and situations that have taught me the value of kindness and patience. I'm thankful for all of the rude people who have taught me the value of kindness and grace. I'm thankful for all of the difficult situations have that taught me to appreciate the simple beauty of things. I am thankful for unconditional love. I am thankful for compassion. I am thankful for those who make an effort to understand those who are different from them. I am thankful for God's grace and mercy. I am thankful for sacrifice.

My regular readers (all two of you) are used to my unannounced blogging breaks by now. But in case anyone is wondering I'm juggling a lot of details at the moment and don't really have the time or energy to blog about any of the topics that have crossed my mind recently. In fact I'm having a hard time remembering what they are. All I can remember is thinking, "Hmmm, I should blog about that." Then real life happens and everything becomes a blur. Hopefully things will cool down a bit soon or I'll get a bit more organsied (yeah right!). Either way enjoy your Thanksgiving.

I got a jury duty summons in the mail today. Finally I get to exercise my civic duty! The last time I was sent any information about serving on a jury the boys were still toddlers so they let me off the hook. I as a bit bummed about that but seeing as there's no juror's day care at the court house I really wasn't in a position to serve. Now that the boys are in school and Sophia is much less of a hand full than either of them were at her age (almost 3 no) I'm ready to give this whole jury duty thing a try. Scary ain't it?

More than a year ago when I first heard a news story about the autism pride movement I as not a happy camper. At the time I was a bit stressed emotionally and not ready to really hear and understand what the proponents of the movement were trying to convey. This is what I wrote at that time: I've been having a difficult time with hubby and the kids lately so this story didn't go down well with me at all. Autism pride indeed. The attitude expressed by the individuals interviewed for this story seemed to be a clear example of the autistic trait of not understanding how one's behaviour impacts others. As someone in an intimate relationship with someone with strong autistic characteristics and as someone raising autistic children I wonder what these people are really proud of. Are they proud of the isolation and frustration that their loved ones deal with because of their condition? Are they proud of focusing on their areas of interest so intently that their friends and famili...

Lack of eye contact is a big deal to non-autistic people. Especially to therapists, teachers, psychologists, and the like. Living with two autistic children and one autistic adult I've learned to make do without it. I have gotten to the point where I sometimes feel uncomfortable making eye contact myself. In fact recently I've had the experience of finding eye contact to be quite jarring. A bit like staring at a really bright light bulb after being in a dark room. I can't really recall the circumstances that led to this feeling but I do remember the feeling quite vividly. It has happened more than once. I've had conversations with myself (what, you don't talk to yourself too?) that go something like this, "Hey, you're not looking at person X. Why aren't you looking at person X? Person X is talking to you. You like person X. Person X is saying nice things. So why won't you look at person X?" At which point I look at person X just to get that inn...

All three of our toilets were out of commission today. None of the tanks would hold water. They had actually been that way for a few weeks but we had been keeping the water turned off until we needed to flush. Hey, it conserved a lot of water. Anyway, with guests due to arrive on the doorstep in just few hours I couldn't procrastinate any longer. So I took apart the guts of all three toilets and took what I thought were the offending parts to the hardware store with me. I bought some parts that I thought would fit based on what I had with me. Then I rushed home to install them. In about 10 minutes I had put the guts back in to all three toilets with no extra bits left over. As of this posting they all seem to be in good working order. Not an errant trickle from a tank can be heard. Yeah me! Something went right for once, after going wrong of course.

Well meaning people can be so annoying sometimes. Especially those times when they try to comfort you but are really just trying to comfort themselves. Especially when they ignore the reality of your life that you are trying to share with them to offer comfort to you which is really comfort to themselves. I had a conversation with someone this morning who frequently tells me, with regard to Isaiah, "Oh he'll talk when he's ready," and "One day he is just going to start talking." GRRRRRRRRR. This is supposed to make me feel better but all it really does is irritate me. It is especially irritating because it often comes in the middle of my responses to questions about how Isaiah is doing. It also tells me that this person hasn't been paying attention to all of the information that I have been passing on about autism. Nonverbal autistic kids like Isaiah don't just wake up one day and decide to talk. If a nonverbal autistic person becomes adept at using...

I made ice cream at home today for the kids. What fun! The boys weren't too freaked out by the noise of the ice cream maker. It is an old electric model that some friends from church gave us and it is loud . I think next time I crank it up I'll have to put it out on the back porch because after two batches the noise had me on edge. I made lactose free blueberry ice cream with thawed berries for my first batch. For the second batch I threw in some homemade strawberry jam that a friend gave us. Yum. Isaiah of course had to dunk something into the ice bath while I was cleaning up from the first batch. He went off looking for other trouble and didn't come back until the second batch came out of the ice bath...so he could try to play in the ice bath again. Ethan tried to eat the ice in the ice bath. We couldn't seem to convince him that salty ice water really isn't very good so I had to dump it into the skin rather quickly. Sophia was the only one who stayed clear of th...

Facebook has a new addition called Scrabulous . It lets you play scrabble with your Facebook buddies. It's great because the kids can't wander by and knock over the board. I'm currently being trounced by hubby in our first game. I don't expect to pull off a surprise win either but I am totally hooked. There's gonna be a rematch. Update: The final score was 260 to 228 in hubby's favour. The rematch has already begun. Update 2: Second game was 280 to 219 again in hubby's favour. I've got to find some easier prey for this game. Hubby's mind is just too well suited for this kind of game for me to have any hope of beating him, yet.

Sophia made it into the picture of the day . The caption reads: "Anya Burkhart, 5, center, attempts to catch some of the bubbles floating around the Upstate Cerebral Palsy's Promise Family Picnic Tuesday, April 3, 2007, to help celebrate Autism Awareness Month in April. Behind Burkhart is Sierra Larkin, and at bottom right is Sophia Pierce, 2." This picture and a picture of me rolling up Isaiah's sleeve made it into the Utica paper today. I haven't been able to find that picture yet. We were visiting Isaiah's school for the annual family picnic. If you're wondering why Isaiah is going to a school two counties away (two and half if you count the fact that we are in the middle of our county) it's because there were no programs for autistic children that we thought would be appropriate for Isaiah with openings any closer than that. It's a long haul out to Utica but it is the kind of environment that Isaiah needs.

I just spent yesterday and today sitting behind a table vending at a workshop. Who knew sitting behind a table all day could make you so tired? I think the last time I felt this tired was when the kids were newborns. It was a good first experience at vending though.

It's been slow blogging lately so I'll blog about this . I've been fortunate in the years that I've been blogging not to receive any of the hate mail or much of the venom filled comments that other bloggers do. I've gotten a few of what I call drive by comments from individuals who just HAD to let me know how much they didn't like me or my blog. Those I have either ignored, deleted, or taunted (once or twice). Mostly I've just ignored and deleted the few really foul comments I've gotten. Honestly there is nothing more frustrating than being ignored when you're trying to throw a tantrum. This morning I found the particularly incoherent and unoriginal screed linked above on this post from 2004 . I considered responding either by commenting or deleting the comment but I decided to just leave it be. Later in the day I checked the blog to find several other steaming gifts from my new fan. Alright dude, you got my attention. But perhaps not for the reasons...

I like songs that paint vivid pictures in my mind either with the lyrics or the music or both. "Icarus II" from the album Somewhere To Elsewhere (2000) by Kansas paints a stunning picture that moves mr every time I hear it. The first time I heard the song the music reminded me of an aerial battle between ace fighter pilots. I saw World War II era planes weaving in and out of the clouds. As I learned the lyrics I discovered that it was indeed about an aerial battle. The music alone weaves a spell that puts you in the cockpit with the pilot. It has you soaring in the air. The beginning of the song brings to mind a dark pre-dawn airstrip where pilots are suiting up and climbing into cockpits psyching themselves up for the task ahead. You can feel the sense of unease about what's about to happen along with the commitment to do the job and do it well. The music and lyrics evoke all of the phases of an aerial battle. The calm before the first sighting of the enemy, the rush ...

I've been corresponding with a reader who recently wrote: "I'm sure that you have been told by other black people that you're ashamed to be black. You seemed to acknowledge this by calling your blog 'uncle sam's cabin' a reference to Uncle Tom. What were the reasons behind that?" I may address that ashamed to be black thing on the blog some time (or may be not it's a really stupid accusation). But I have been meaning to write about the meaning of the name of the blog as part of my celebration of my one year bloggiversary. I chose "Uncle Sam's Cabin" because is has a many levels of meaning. The Uncle Tom thing is certainly one of them (Avery's got a post up about the Uncle Tom business). I know that black people who hold views similar to mine are often labeled as Uncle Toms. I also know that if I ever receive any notoriety as a blogger some joker will apply the label to me. I figured I'd acknowledge the stakes in the game righ...