The Unfortunate Circumstance of Being "Of Color" in Sheboygan County

I always feel unlucky that I didn't end up with my mom's skin darker skin color. I think that she has a beautiful skin tone, and unlike me, she never has to convince people or deal with eye rolls when she tells people she is Native American. However, although my mom is very proud of her heritage, she tells me that I am lucky that I have lighter skin because I don't have to deal with a lot of the stuff that she has had to deal with in her life.

As you would expect in a mostly white town in the 60's and 70's she and her family were not treated that well. Even after more than 20 years, she still gets treated poorly. Take for example, an instance from this past weekend:

Late one evening she and my dad were leaving my sister's house following a visit with their granddaughter. My dad was going a little over the speed limit in city of Sheboygan Falls so was pulled over. Everything about the procedure was normal, until the police officer asked my mom, who was the passenger, for her ID. My mom, being any normal person, asked why. The police officer said it was just normal procedure. Funny...I don't ever remember having to show my ID being a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over. I was once even pulled over in Sheboygan Falls (for going 45 in a 45 mph zone, by the way) and they didn't ask my mom, who was my passenger, for her ID.

Later that night, my mom looked up what was standard procedures for police officers when pulling over a vehicle. The information she found stated that an office would only ask for other passengers IDs when there is suspicious behavior. I guess the suspicious behavior would be being a person of color in Sheboygan Falls.

"Holland, I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but you are hard to read."

I was recently told this by my boss. She thought that I didn't like my job. I told her, honestly, that I did like my job. I guess I have to make an effort to show it, but I don't know how.

I guess I have been thinking too much about it, because I asked my sister what she thought it meant. She didn't know either. She suggested that I go skipping down the halls.

What does that mean, "you're hard to read"? That statement is more what you hear when someone is giving you relationship advice, not so much personality advice.

In typical, break-the-tension-Holland-way, after she told me that I was hard to read, I told my boss that it was the way that I kept up the intrigue. Because what am I if I am not mysterious?

Dora The Explorer and Immigration Supporter

So I was recently watching an episode of Dora the Explorer with my niece. It was an episode in which we find out how she became friends with Boots, Benny the Bull, and all her other friends (and nemesis if you count Swiper).

In the episode she lists off all the places she has to go to, to get to the mountain to drop off the Fiesta Trio's instruments. One of her "obstacles" was a big river. She told all the audience that the had to cross the big river, or as she called it the "Rio Grande".

OMG! She just told the kids to cross the border illegally! For shame Dora. For shame! You know you can't speak like that with this administration.

The Cheese Stands Alone

This is probably the meanest children's song ever. I remember always being nervous whenever we sang this song in kindergarten. I really did not want to be picked last. Who wants to be picked last? Having children sing/dance around you singing about you being the cheese that stands alone...all smelly and lonely. The song is as torturous as dodge ball (I still recoil from the noise of the ball being slammed against objects). But I digress...

Not much has happened since the last time I wrote. I went to my first big conference for work in San Diego. This is as much of San Diego as I got to see:

We worked 12+ hour days, dealt with a leaky ceiling and (some) snippy people and I had a blast. I actually enjoy that time to what I am doing now at work, which isn't much since it is a down-time.

My niece turned one. I would have a picture of her attacking her birthday cake, but I don't have one because my digital camera broke. I still shed a tear thinking about it. So sad...so expensive...such a rip-off Service Plan.

Also, its been almost two months since the season started and I already have gone to three Brewers games, one of which I won tickets to through a raffle at work. Those seats were close behind the Brewer's dug out and we got a complementary parking pass right next to the stadium. I brought my dad, sister and brother-in-law and they were all "geeking out" as my brother would say. Yes, my family gets super excited over the little things, it's what makes us so endearing.

Speaking of Geeking Out: I saw Persepolis, which I wasn't even aware was being made into a movie until shortly before the Academy Awards. I saw the English dubbed version. So good...I highly recommend it.