Beaten with the Pulp

When I arrived home today from Jesusland, where I photographed the children, there was a group of little Latino boys playing in front of an apartment building across from the flat where we stay. There were newspapers and their wrappers strewn everywhere.

One of the boys was dipping a full rolled paper along the curb in the filthy water. The others were grabbing their rolls and beating each other with them. No one seemed to be getting hurt though, but I'm sure they were as dirty as the water in the street considering the newspapers were laying on the muddy lawns and in the street.

I have to admit I was a little annoyed because I knew that some of those papers were from our building, built up from lazy folks not picking them up, myself included. Then I realized that our property was clean of them, and it looked good. I got to the door to unlock it and noticed another paper laying in the grass by the curb on our side of the street. I called out to them, "Hey guys!"

They looked at me like they were in trouble.

"You missed one over here."

One scurried over, grabbed it, and ran back into the fray.

One less gray hair for me.

Wedding of the Week

The wife and I were mentioned as the Wedding of the Week story last week on the St. Louis Post Dispatch's StlToday.com site. Since their links go bad after a few weeks, I cloned it and put it here on my site.

It's weird having someone interview you and select quotes from what seemed like a normal conversation to assemble into a condensed version of events.

Buy Matt A Drink

I have redone the main page of Diabetoboy.com for the month of February for a campaign to raise donations for the Vasculitis Foundation in memory of my brother Matt. February 3rd would have been his 21st birthday, so I'd like to turn a depressing occasion into something positive.

The way it works is that traditionally on one's 21st, drinks are bought for them. Since that can't really be done for Matt, who is no longer with us, I am asking for small donations, the price of a drink, generally $3-7, to his cause to help research towards preventing and treating this disease. On the main page, click on the button to donate and that leads you to the secure page on the Vasculitis Foundation's site where you can indicate that the funds are in memory of Matt Varagona. They will be in contact with me to keep up with how our effort is going.

I am also in talks to have events at several local bars and restaurants and will post them on here when I find out more.

Thanks for your support.



Previous posts on Matt:

• February Looms Large
• What the Hell is Wegener's Granulomatosis and Why Should You Care?
• Grape(fruit-sized) Nuts