The Spaz mourns the loss of Chick Fil A's Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake laced with hate and homophobia

I think it was about a year ago that I learned that Chick Fil A donated a portion of its proceeds to organizations that support "the traditional view of marriage". I know it's been at least 8 months or so because I went through the entire holiday season without one of their incredible Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes that they make during the holidays because I refused to give the company a dime.


Even though those shakes are incredible.


Seriously - the chicken sandwich has nothing on that shake.


But I digress, y'all. Just because a company can make a fabulous milkshake, doesn't mean they're doing anything good for our society. Not to mention that the desire for a Chick Fil A chicken sandwich actually almost killed me and burned down our house once. 


So when Dan Cathy, president of Chick Fil A opened his mouth last week and told the Baptist Press that the company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of a family" and facebook went all wonky with people posting and sharing anti-Chick Fil A images and articles, I was sort of happy.


It's like when you know that your best friend's boyfriend is a jerk but she doesn't realize it... and then she finally does.  While you're sad that she's sad and you're sad that he's a jerk, you're just so darned relieved that she finally dumped his sorry ass.


That's right, Chick Fil A... you're like a jerky boyfriend. All pretty and alluring on the outside, but filled with nasty ugliness on the inside. 


Reading the arguments for "traditional family values" that have been sweeping the internet over the past week seriously make my stomach turn.  They're such bad arguments with no real basis on fact or research. 

Some quotes I've gathered from the Interwebz on the subject:

"I'm personally tired of intolerant leftist propaganda that hates, smear and mocks religious people mercilessly."  Right, because the Christian agenda that hates, smears, and mocks gay people mercilessly is so much more refreshing.

" it's just that fatherless and motherless homes produce criminals at a significantly higher rates. Fact, not opion. Look at prison stats." These kind of statistics make me insane. Where is the statistic that lesbian and gay couples produce criminals? This is the most basic example of comparing apples and oranges ever. What logic said "single parent households" = "households with parents of the same gender"?

"Can't a person or a company have a thought or opinion about something or somebody and people just say " Oh, that's how thay feel about that" and MOVE ON !!!" Absolutely, ignorant facebook poster! We can move on to the next establishment that doesn't support homophobia. Enjoy your hate sandwich!

"way to go chick its about time people start standing up for the way they feel and not all if us want gay anything shoved down our throats its a sin plain and simple and just the fact you recognize its not normal is wonderful Thank You Jesus and you too!!!!!!!!!"  This post would make Jesus cry. I am sure of it.

Oh... I could go on and on. But you can go look for yourself if you'd like. Chick Fil A's facebook page is just full of this garbage.

So what did I do about it?

I made a tee shirt. 

Of course I did. 

And 15% of the purchase price of this shirt will go directly to whiteknot.org in support of the right for everyone to marry the person they love, whether they have girl parts or boy parts or no parts at all. 

I'm proud to stand up for what I believe in and I fully recognize that Dan Cathy has every right to stand up for what he believes in.

Even though what he believes in is bigoted, closed minded, and darn right sad. He has every right to believe in it and give his money to organizations that believe in it, too.

That's the beautiful thing about Free Speech. I can say what I want, you can say what you want, Dan Cather can openly be in support of the "biblical family" and we can all give our money to whatever organizations we believe in. 

Oh, and about that milkshake?  I found a recipe here that will probably do just as well and one here that even makes it almost vegan! Isn't the Internet just a wonderful place?

WTF is a playdate?

Seriously, y'all. What is it?

As most of you know, I have three kids. I think, so far, I've done a pretty good job with them. They're relatively well-rounded and well-mannered. I mean, I guess Bug could stand to see sunlight a little more often, but he's my oldest and therefore my practice kid. I'm entitled to a little bit of screw up with him, right?

We have never had a playdate. I don't think we have anyway. I'm not really sure what it is exactly.

My kids have friends and they play with other kids. They have friends from our neighborhood, they have friends from scouts and other activities, they have friends they met at school, they have friends by proxy because I am friends with their parents, and they have cousins. Occasionally they ask to go over to someone else's house and hang out for a while or spend the night.

They've spent lots of afternoons over at one or another of my friends houses playing with my friends kids because I wanted to go see my friend.

But have I ever met another mom at the park and exchanged numbers so my little darlings and her little darlings can have a playdate? Ummm... no. Do people really do that?

What happens at these "playdates" anyway? Do the mom's hang out with each other and make painful small talk while the kids do crafts? Or do I get to drop my kid off at your house for two hours and go read a book in the park?

Maybe the ultimate question is actually why? Why do mothers feel the need to arrange play for their children when, based on my personal experience, kids do a great job of arranging play for themselves?

When my kids were younger, before school and activities where they met other kids, we just went to the playground to play. There were always other kids there and they made friends in all of 30 seconds. Sure, they never say Billy or Sally again, but I'm fairly sure the lack of long-lasting bonded friendships at age 3 isn't causing my kids any stress.

Bug, Munchkin, and Goober are pros at making friends at any random place. The beach, the park, the library, wherever. I've never once felt like I had to arrange a playtime for them with another mom. But I hear about it so much. Like it's the norm.

It is a mystery to me.

Everybody has those days. Mine was yesterday.

Yesterday was one of those days when nothing would go right. It was as if a general cloud of gray funk had settled over the Spaz household and it was stinking up the place. I won't go in to every little thing that went wonky yesterday, but suffice to say that by the end of the day I was drinking a mason jar full of cheap, boxed red wine and reading O Magazine in the bathtub... a sure sign of a rough day.

Days like that make me wonder where I went wrong. The Man and I are pretty honest. We don't cheat people, we don't lie, we don't steal. Aside from the occasional necessary mis-truth ("Of course that new haircut doesn't make your face look fat!"), we're pretty much on the straight and narrow. 

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up I was told constantly that if I worked hard and did the right thing that life would always work out for me. As I've become an adult, I've learned that sometimes that just isn't the case. There are times when I watch dishonest people continue to profit on their dishonesty, while people who stay true to themselves and work hard are run over by the crowd. 

Yesterday I reacted to all of this in a manner much like a 6 year old. "It's not fair!" I stomped and pouted and ate carbs. Lots of carbs. Covered in cheese. With my boxed wine. 

Don't judge. It stays fresh for six to eight weeks after opening and the packaging is environmentally conscious. That's right. 

Today I woke up way earlier than I should have, given the time I went to sleep, and decided that I needed to put on my big girl panties and just keep going. Life is hard, y'all. It's tempting to give up, hop in my trusty old minivan, point it north, and go cry on my mommy's shoulder until I feel better. 

But that's not going to get me anywhere in the long run. Eventually I'd still have to deal with all the problems I've left at home and one thing I've learned is that problems I ignore just turn into bigger problems that can't be ignored later. 

So here I am. Like Dory. "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming."