Our Newest Square!

From my most recent conversation with Squaresis #3:

SG: Hey sis, can I post a photo of you and my nieces on my blog?

C: Sure! Wait…you have one?

So here is a photo of the latest Square addition (the one who weighed nine pounds, five ounces when she was born and defied expectations). Of course, we are not all that certain she is all that square yet. I’m a little suspect myself, being that her big sister (pictured) is a big fan of circles. I’m talking HUGE fan. She draws entire pages of circles and runs in circles when she is excited, all the while saying “Circle! Circle! Circle!” I suspect it may be a generational thing. Plus feet. She LOVES feet. Yes FEET.

So whether she’s gonna be a square or not, it is most likely that she’ll be a little quirky (believe me, it’s in her genes) and already is and will certainly be very well loved!

So thoughtful, those Clippers!

They must be reading my blog.

The Clippers sent me a letter.

Looks like this site is turning out to be somewhat of a Clipper blog afterall!

Dear Square Girl,

On behalf of Donald T. Sterling and the entire Clippers organization, please accept our thanks for your undying support this season. (Why, you're welcome. My pleasure actually.) It has been a great season; full of record-breaking accomplishments – and you were there for each and every minute of it. (Yes I was, so nice of you to notice!)

Together, we were able to celebrate so many breathtaking experiences, including All Star Elton Brand's emergence as one of the NBA's elite performers (you can say that again), the development of Chris Kaman (yes, but someone really needs to work on helping his boost his confideence level a little bit more), and the introduction of Sam Cassell as the team's confident leader. (Amen!)

How about the tremendous growth of Shaun Livingston (Absolutely!), the steady influence of Cuttino Mobley (well sometimes anyway), as well as the consistent contributions of the ultimate warrior, Corey Maggette? (Well, except when he was injured. And whining about not being a starter. Plus the fact that you're probably gonna trade him before the next season...let's keep it real here!)

It all started with a franchise-best 9-2 start, and just kept rolling from there - all the way to a Los Angeles Clippers record 47 wins. And who will ever forget the sea of red and the Staples Center volume level during the playoffs? (Not Square Girl. I was there!)

The best part of it all was sharing it with you (aww shucks, that's really sweet of you to say). That's why I wanted to take a minute and send off this letter as a tribute to you and to your huge role in our success (me? You mean little old me?).

It doesn't stop now. Via our Full Court E-Newsletter service, we will continue to update you with the latest Clippers' information pertaining to the NBA Draft, team transactions, special offers and much, much more. And drop in at www.clippers.com every time you get a chance to keep up with all the happenings in the Clipper Nation.

We wish you the very best this off-season (thanks! You too!), and can't wait to see you at Staples Center for an even bigger and better 2006-07 (Right back at ya! Now this doesn't mean your gonna go and raise the ticket prices on us again does it?).

Sincerely,
Andy Roeser
Executive Vice President

Baseball Season has begun!

Well at least for Square Girl.

Baseball season actually has been well underway in the good ole U.S. of A., but I’ve been in denial about it because:

1) I had been devoting all my energy, good luck, positive vibes to my favorite basketball team, The Clippers while they were in the playoffs (I’m a one sport at a time gal)
2) I have been in mourning about the Clippers loss last week and have not been quite ready to move on to the next sport.

And I’ve had no good reason to move on and embrace the baseball season UNTIL I was e-mailed this photo of my favorite sister (oh hush C. and T. you know your ALL my favorite) and my favorite (and only) nephew.



So now that I have a good reason to move on and enjoy baseball again, it’s root, root, root for the home team! Because at least for Square Girl, baseball season has just begun.

My Little Weather Man

What’s the weather like today, like today, like today? What’s the weather like today…?

The weather is…Sunny!

Yesterday it was cloudy. Tuesday, quite sunny and Monday was rainy.

I perseverate on the weather. And seasons. And the lunar cycle (the next full moon in Southern California will be June 11th). Mostly because I think all of these things have an effect on any living, breathing organism and as I believe that autism is a magnifier of our environment, I think the these things have an even greater impact on individuals with ASD.

What’s the weather like Today? Is a script from a children’s book that I read to my class per my friend’s Stephen’s request during circle time. I cannot think about the weather without thinking about my little friend Stephen who had an avid appreciation for the weather and seasons as well. “My little weather man” is what I used to call him, and his morning job was to report the weather each day to our class and make sure the arrow pointed to the appropriate description on our weather circle (although someone needs to redesign one of those for Southern California…perhaps replace “Snowy” with “Smoggy” among other things). And whenever the weather changed during the day, he made sure to let me know “Miss Squaregirl, I’ts sunny! It’s not cloudy. Uh-oh! Look Miss SquareGirl, Sunny! Its’ sunny! See? It’s not cloudy!” To which I would respond, “Thanks Stephen! Well you better go change the weather report then!” And he would proudly run up to the front of the classroom to reposition the arrow to the correct picture.

And every morning, as soon as he entered the room, he wanted to talk to me about the season. Two days after it became winter, he began to ask me “Is it Spring? When is Spring? When is it Spring?” to which I would tell him “Not yet Stephen. It’s not Spring yet. It’s (number) many days until Spring.” And we would often go to the calendar and count off the days together. But Stephen really wanted it to be Spring. And everyday, he would ask me about Spring, want to talk about Spring, almost NEED it to be Spring, until one day, about three weeks before Spring, he asked me “Miss SG. Is it Spring?” and when I replied “Not yet Stephen. It’s not Spring yet.” He smiled at me triumphantly and announced “Yes it is! It’s Spring! The mom said! THE mom said it’s Spring! It’s Spring!” (Everyone was “THE” to Stephen “THE mom”, “THE twin”, etc.)

And I’m pretty certain that she did. Ahhh, the moral dilemmas of a teacher…Tell Stephen that it still wasn’t Spring (and THE mom was wrong) or let Spring into our little classroom a few weeks early?

I’ll leave it up to you to guess how I handled, but am curious what would those of you reading this do???

But I couldn’t help but wonder…why Spring? Why was it so important to Stephen to be Spring? He never asked how long until winter or even summer, but he looked forward to Spring ALL WINTER long.
I myself have a particular fondness for Spring. I find myself enjoying the mixture of rain and sunshine and longer days, anticipating my frequent summertime trips to the beach where the sun and the ocean induce calm and peacefulness in me. And while I love the winter holiday season (the spending time with friends and family part, NOT the consumer part of it), I find winter to be a little more dreary. I’ve read studies that talk about higher instances of depression, alcoholism and suicide in locations that don’t see as much sun, so I can’t help but think that we might find many some answers to questions we have about human behavior if we were to really study the impact of weather and seasons.

In the meantime, I make my own independent observations, noting the weather before I leave my house in order to anticipate the possible changes in behaviors that I might be seeing in myself and my little friends.

And of course, remembering that it is indeed Spring at knowing that my friend Stephen is happy. And so am I.

That Clipper Spirit

I have a confession to make. This blog was gonna be a blog completely dedicated to the Clippers.

Yes. The Clippers.

You know, the NBA basketball team from L.A.

The one that DOESN’T wear purple and gold.

And yes, there is another team besides the Lakers in L.A. Really.

I mean what else is a very square girl supposed to blog about?
Myself? Too personal and too boring.
Autism? Too controversial and intense, at least for me, to devote an entire blog to.

So yes, I strongly considered dedicating this blog to the Clipper Basketball team and in case you find it hard to believe, you can read my very first post about my love for Sam Cassell, which will erase all doubts of my intent and perhaps raise new ones about my sanity.

This basketball season began like any other season for me. Me telling all my friends and family that the Clippers were gonna be good this year, to which they responded with “sure…they’re the Clippers”. In other words, not THE LAKERS. They have no Kobe, no Odom…oh wait, they used to have Odom (poor Lamar).

And well, it ended last night in a less than stellar seventh game match against the Phoenix Suns who they could’ve beat in a couple of earlier games. And goshdarnit, I’m sure they could’ve beat Dallas too if they moved on.

But, I got to see all the home games at the Staples center for $15.00 each which included a free t-shirt at each game!

And I got a good couple weeks of teasing my Laker fan brother-in-law, who reminded me to look at the banners, as those Laker fans like to do when anyone dares talk badly about their beloved team.

And, maybe, just maybe, there are people out there who happened to catch a game or two as they were flipping through their cable stations (Unlike the Lakers, the Clippers only can be seen on cable during the playoffs) and realized that the Clippers are good. Really good. And as I mentioned in this post, pretty drama-free (In fact their big star Elton Brand was voted sportsman of the year by his fellow NBA players).

So it’s over. But it was fun while it lasted. And I got to see my Clippers play like the team I have always known they could be. Even if I have endured a lot of taunting about it over the last six years.

So to all of you Clipper players reading this right now, Congratulations on a great season and I’m looking forward to the next…even though I have a feeling the prices on my package seats is gonna be a little higher next year.

Peace,
Square Girl

Square Girl's Weekend Movie Trailer Reviews #2

For Square Girl's previous movie trailer reviews, go here.

Over the Hedge

Over The Hedge was a delightful little trailer about a ragtag bunch of squirrels and hedgehogs and porcupines and a turtle who were attempting to get, you guessed it…Over the Hedge. Their ultimate destination? A refrigerator stocked with food. The critters were cute and charming and amusing, but being that this was the trailer and NOT the actual movie, it is left up to the imagination whether or not the critters actually make it over the hedge, but I suspect they do. Definitely a recommended trailer.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Again we have Johnny Depp as the ambiguously sexually oriented, ambiguously inebriated Jack Sparrow, in addition to the lovely Kiera Knightly dressed as a male to fool those savvy pirates (although how anyone could EVER mistake Kiera Knightly for a male is beyond me) and a bunch of what seemed to be dead and haunted pirates with tentacles where their beards should be. In fact this trailer contained a lot of various sized tentacles, which was only semi-alarming for someone overcoming her fear of snakes (I’ve nearly done it). It was a fun little trailer and capped off by a fun little repartee between Kiera and Johnny in Kiera says (WARNING SPOILER ALERT) “There’s going to be a time when you have the chance to do the right thing”, to which Johnny/Jack responds, “I love those moments…I like to wave at them as they pass me by.” Oh, that Jack Sparrow!

Click

This is an Adam Sandler trailer, so in other words, the trailer is pretty good and the movie will most likely be really silly or just plain bad. Needless to say, I laughed occasionally in this trailer about a married father who discovered a remote that could stop, reverse and forward time. I have to admit, it reminded me a little, well a lot actually, of Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey and I’m sure that no one would have ever imagined that Adam would have used his remote to beat up a boss, get the neighborhood bully hit by a baseball and “recall” the song playing during his first kiss with his wife who hugs him and thinks that he is saying I love you to her, when he is actually saying it to the remote. So if you find those things remotely (haha) funny, I apologize for ruining every joke in the trailer, but of course, there is always the movie.