Things you all should know...

• Shampoo and Hand Soap ARE NOT the same thing.
• Folding paper (lots of it) is way harder on the shoulders than one would originally guess.
• The weather can be -15 degrees one day and by the next be a balmy 55 degrees...in my part of the country anyway.
• I am not interested in being in the middle of any of your dramatic renditions of soap opera lives...unless it will make my life more amusing without screwing anything up for me.
• I am extremely territorial...even if the space I am in is technically yours, you should stay the hell out of it!
• Passive-aggressiveness is not a trait I envy in the slightest.  In fact, I suggest you take your passive-aggressive ass somewhere far, far away from me.
• I am fully capable of keeping a large secret when it is meant to be a surprise for someone special...but not for long!
• I am craving a good nights sleep like you wouldn't believe!
• Today, history was made and I didn't pay much attention to the media.  I did, however, feel the shift in the air of the country and I am anxious to see where we will go from here.
• I am tired.

 

Yeah.  You didn't need to know any of that.  But hey, I needed to write it.  Thanks anyway. 

A Difference in the Worlds...

My Hubby and I were born in 1980. Yes, just a little over 28 short years ago.

My son was birthed in 2000 (yet another Millenium baby).

My daughter in 2002 (a 9/11 "world is ending" freak out, I'm sure).

What a different world they are growing up in than we did.

Dear Hubby and I grew up in different worlds even though we were born the same year and less than a month apart. He was raised in the rural backwoods of SoDak. Me, the large city environment of Colo. He ran free with his siblings, played hide-and-seek in abandoned cars and learned how to ride a motorcycle at the age of six. I spent my hours in the seclusion of an apartment complex, played hide-and seek in the laundry room and needed an escort to go to the park. He spent all 13 years of school in one school district. Me, I attended six schools and lived in no less than 9 houses before graduating from high school.

So far in their lives, both children have attended only one school district. Bubba has lived in three seperate places (two apartments and a house) in two different towns and Teensy in only two both in the same town. They have a radius of about 3 blocks they are allowed to roam freely as long as they check in on time but they spend most of their time playing Hide-and-Seek in our basement or the houses of their friends. They are relatively sheltered even though we live in a smaller town in a rural state. Why? Times, they have a changed.

1980...
The world population was a meek 4.453 billion people with only 227,224,681 of those people living in the United States. The violent crime rate was at 59.5 per 1,000. People lived to be 73.7 years old and the unemployment rate was 7.1%. A household made a median amount of $17,710 dollars and a postage stamp only cost 15 cents. Those were the good old days.

Now...
The world population had soared to over 6.7 billion people. Life expectancy has gone down to 65.8 years old. Unemployment and underemployment are at 30%. Children are shooting other children in schools and terrorists have destroyed our security in the air. We have been in a constant war, sending our troops to perish in a desert in the name of freedom, for 7 years now. Postage stamps cost us 42 cents and gasoline at it's all-time high was over $3.00/gallon. An already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics, and famine. And now we on on the verge of another Great Depression.

And one wonders why my children are more sheltered? Have you seen this world lately, people? I have. And they will soon enough, but for now I would like them to enjoy their childhood...within a 3 block radius of my home. That is called protective parenting...and I'm all for it.

Hump day is here again...

It is totally Hump Day. Except it doesn't feel like the middle of the week or like we are heading into the down slide. It feels like the week is just starting! Argh!

The past week has been completely full of highs and lows and since I completely missed List Making Tuesday (what was I thinking!?!), I figured I'd make a list of the good the bad and the ugly for today's post.

THE GOOD
--I voted in the 2008 presidential election because I CAN vote! Go me!
--My hubby voted for the first time ever in his life! (Yeah, I know he's 28 and he voted the opposite of me but hey, I am still super proud of him for exercising his right and taking the privelege seriously.)
--OBAMA is president!!! Oh yeah! Ooh rah! Yay!
--I am, as we speak, simmering a pot of chili for dinner and it smells so yummy that my mouth is watering. (I may only be able to cook a few things but I do those few things really well and chili is definitely one of my strong suits!)
--I got an e-mail from my best friend in Iraq and she is alive and well and only has 4 1/2 more months of deployment.
--I got to pull out my old belly dance costuming and put it to use in a pirate costume for a Halloween party.

THE BAD
--My momma is going to be out of town until next Tuesday. :(
--I have a dentist appointment in the morning to get some cavities filled. (What can I say? Bad teeth runs in my family.)
--I had to leave work early on Monday because Miss Insanity's kid was sick and she couldn't take the daycare kids and my momma had a doctor's appointment herself.
--No new episode of HOUSE last night because of the election coverage on every fricking channel!

THE UGLY
--The WTF weather!!! It is fricking snowing! After a weekend of great weather and a picnic in the park, it is now blizzarding outside! Yuck!
--California, Arizona and Florida. They are ugly. Do you know what they all have in common? Yeah. A bunch of anti-rights mother f'ers that are causing this country to take 10 steps back in the civil rights department. Double argh!

So, yeah. That is about it. Now, I am going to go back to my chili making and getting the house ready for a slumber party on Friday! Lady K and her daughter, Missy K are coming to spend the night and watch movies and eat junk food with us. I am sooooo excited! Talk to all you in the blogoshpere tomorrow!!!

Election Day 2008!!!

Today...election day...my post was going to come later in the afternoon AFTER I had voted because I was going to run down all the issues on our ballot and tell you all how I voted, but...

...I haven't gone and voted, yet. I do have a date with my husband for a lunch time voting session. However...

...I needed to do a little head clearing right now and that is where you, the blogoshpere, come in. So get comfortable. Ready? Okay.


I DON'T KNOW HOW TO VOTE!! Okay, not how how to vote. I know that you have to color in a little bubble next to the way you are voting but I don't know who to vote for! And I am cranky and freaking out about this.

You see, I didn't watch the presidential debates. I didn't pay attention to the ads. I did go online and look up each candidates stance on the issues and decided which one seemed to fit in best with which direction I want this country to head in. And with that research and a gut feeling, I believe I know who I am voting for. BUT...I am scared!

What if I vote for Obama and he turns out to be the terrorist bringing the end of days as the radical christians want me to believe? What if his group of extremist friends have more say in our government than they should? What if we end up in a poverty stricken hell hole because I helped put Obama in the presidential seat?

On the other hand...what if I vote for McCain and he has a heart attack the second after he gets sworn in from all the excitement? That leaves Palin as our president and OMG people! Can you really imagine a woman president? 12 weeks out of the year that woman would put us through hell as she rides her PMS tirades. I can only imagine the violence she could issue seeings how she is already a hockey mom. That is one-quarter of the year. 1/4 of the time, this country will have to watch it's back because of the PMSing president. And that says absolutely nothing for what other countries will have to endure. I mean really. America would be like Palin's baby and other countries would be the gal at the grocery store that bagged her groceries wrong. Can you imagine the wars we would be in? The bombs she would drop during that quarter of a year when she is rightfully bitchy? That is a bit scary to me.

So lets say that I vote for McCain and he doesn't kick the bucket right away. Am I really interested in an ancient war vet running the country? I am 28 years old people. McCain is like 100. How could he possibly understand what my generation wants and needs in this country? He can't. Him and his other extremely old cronies would run the country based on their old fashioned principles and not on what is needed for today. Society has changed, our government has changed and we need to acknowledge that and put someone in who is younger and more versed in the ways of the people that are actually running this country...Generation X.

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I am not good at making decisions on my own. I hate to be the only one standing out on that limb and so my MO is to get the opinions and choices of everyone around me and decide based on whether or not I am comfortable with defending my stance. Today I will be voting. I will be voting my gut feeling (which is against my husband's as well as my coworkers stances) and I will be happy...or at least partially comfortable...with that. This is a big election and the stakes are high. I think we need a change and so I am voting for the person that could bring us that. There. I made a decision. Thanks for listening. :)

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On the same note at a different level...

My kids voted in school yesterday via sample ballot and Bubba will be walking down to the polling center today to cast his actual Student Vote.

Teensy, age 6, voted for Obama...because he might have a bomb and she would like to see it.

Bubba, age 8, voted for McCain...but against "the pregnant woman" because he doesn't want any babies in the White House. I think he was talking about Palin but I couldn't decipher for sure. He's afraid that Obama will try to take away all guns but I don't know where he got that information.

Both children are extremely set upon their choices and refuse to change their minds...and that makes me proud.

Where I grow an inkling...and act upon it...

I received an e-mail the other day that contained a detailed account of  Nov. 15, 1917.  Do you know what happened on that night, dubbed the "Night of Terror"?  I didn't either.  I was clueless as it isn't a lesson I remember being taught in school.  Let me enlighten you a little bit (or reiterate the facts if you already are ahead of me and know what I am talking about)...

Women were picketing the White House for the right to cast a vote in the election process and innocent and defenseless as they were, they were tossed in jail.  It seems that men didn't want to change and allow women the right to their own opinions.  On the night of November 15, 1917, the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists and by the end of the night  forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage and the women were barely alive the next morning. 

These woman suffered greatly in and effort to get their voices heard in the government.  Their picket lines, their nights in jail, their sacrifices...it all added up to women being allowed the right to vote.  To ME being allowed to vote.  For MY voice to be heard.

Confession time:  I wasn't going to vote this year.  I don't believe in voting if I am not informed and I have had no interest at all in watching debates or reading about the issues.  But this e-mail changed my tune.  Who am I to tell those women that their suffering was for nothing?  Who am I to cast aside the right that they fought so hard for me to have?  I am nobody.  But I am a nobody with a voice that can be heard through my vote.  And so, I am catching up, my dear readers.  Catching up on the issues.  Catching up on the research.  I am formulating my own opinion based upon what I know to be the facts of this election.  I am standing on my own two feet and declaring my right to be heard in this country.

As I have said before, I usually don't figure out exactly what my heart's desire is or what my deep down opinion is until I start talking (or in this case writing) so in the coming weeks, as I try to sort through the issues, my posts may become political in nature at times.  I promise to follow them up by light anecdotes and meaningless lists like you are already accustomed to but I need an outlet to figure out where my belief systems run...and I am afraid that if I start talking politics at home all the time, the family might mutiny!!!

So, here is me getting an inkling and acting upon it...and teaching my daughter a lesson in the process.  I will be taking her to the polls with me on November 4th so that she can see that she has the power to make a difference, too.  And maybe one day it will be her that I am out there voting for!!!

(Conferring over ratification [of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution] at [National Woman's Party] headquarters, Jackson Pl [ace] [ Washington , D.C. ]. L-R Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Pollitzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing, right))

What does an 8 year old think of the election?

Okay, so first of all, he's not 8 yet.  I keep telling people he's 8 already and yet we have another couple of weeks before his birthday.  Why am I trying to make him grow up so fast? 

Anyway, on to the actual topic of this post...

Who will my 8-year old vote for in the upcoming election?

"I hope that Obam guy doesn't  win this voting thing we have coming up.  He's gonna get rid of all the guns and bullets and shut down all the gun stores."

Um, my guess is that my son will be voting for McCain. 

Disclaimer:  This is just how my son's brain works.  He is extremely interested in being in the military when he grows up.  He has never played cops and robbers, it's always been GI Joes and war.  He wasn't allowed to play with guns (even water guns) in our home until he was about 6 years old and has never been allowed video games that are violent in nature. 

Bubba is quite a bit ahead of me in this election process.  I have no clue which candidate would be better for our country!

Life before?

I was in the dentist chair when it happened. Because of how young I look, the dentist had assumed I was a teen and therefore needed to watch television on the screen set into the ceiling above my head while he began the several hour procedure of working on my mouth. I was, in fact, actually 21. Several fillings, a cleaning and some regular maintenance that I had been putting off for sometime needed to be completed and it would be easier to do in one sitting (not to mention cheaper than coming back time after time). And with my history of gagging everytime a foreign object entered my mouth, this visit was going to prove to be a difficult one.

Laying there my mouth open as wide as it could go with the aid of a block and my eyes closed to try to stop the flow of the the watering, I listened to the shows laughing characters in the headphones surrounding my ears. We were quite a ways into the procedure when I felt another person enter the room. The energy she was giving off was one of terror, sadness and just all around confusion. As I opened my eyes, the headphones muffled the sound of her voice but what I saw the panic upon her face. An odd "Oh my god" sensation swept through the room.

Then I heard it--the chime of an up-to-the-moment new flash coming onto the television screen. I looked up and saw two buildings, identical in shape and size, that I didn't recognize with black smoke rising out of the tops. They looked like two pillar candles on a table that were not lit properly. I realized that whatever had happened would change the course of history in that exact moment but I didn't quite understand why everyone was beside themselves.

As I left the dentist's office that day, the world had become more gray. People were crying. People were in obvious shock. I...well, I was confused. I didn't really understand what was so completely tragic that it affected the people as far away from the scene as where I live. Don't get me wrong. I was saddened by the fact that so many people had lost their lives but really that happens all the time in volcanos, tornados, and hurricanes and since they are never where I live, they don't have that much effect on my personal life.

I went on my way and lived my life the same way I had always lived it for the next year. The only difference were the new (and I must say kick-ass) songs that I found on the radio stations and an odd sense of being proud to have been born in America.

Exactly one year later, I was driving in my car when one of those truly patriotic songs came on the radio. I took the exit into my town singing along when my brow wrinkled suddenly in confusion as the tears started to slide down my face. An overwhelming sadness and sense of loss overcame my entire being and my body shook with sobs so violently that I had to pull over onto the shoulder of the road to save myself from wrecking the vehicle. The song ended and the tears came to a halt and I did the only thing I could think of to do in times of crises.

I ran to my mommy.

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It took me a year to finally come to terms with what happened to our country but it's a reality that we deal with on a daily basis in this country...even 7 years later. My children will grow up and read about "the attacks" in their history books and will ask me where I was when "it" happened. It will be just another war in their minds--right up there with Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm because my daughter was yet to be born and my son was less than a year old. They won't remember what life was like before "the war on terrorism" because there never was a "before" for them. This is the way the country has always been in their lives. That's the sad, sad truth.

Today, I fly the American flag (several, actually) in support of my country and the service men and women that are fighting for our honor. I appreciate those troops...even if I don't agree with why they are there...and will lend my support. I hope you will, too.

Gay Marriage---a possibility???

SAN FRANCISCO - In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot. Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

I am a huge supporter of Gay Marriage. Why? Because...

1) It is a fundamental right of being a human being to be able to love and no one should be able to dictate who it is we fall in love with.

2) Gay people are not lesser people just because the choose to be with someone of the same sex and therefore should not have lesser rights than the rest of us.

3) There is supposed to be a separation between church and state. It is the church that says Gay Marriage should not be permitted and I am tired of "Christians" judging others when it is not their place. Leave it up to your "Big Guy in the Sky" to decide when the time comes. Until then, get over yourselves and "Love Thy Neighbor".

4) My best friend is a lesbian...and I want to help plan her wedding and be her Matron of Honor AND I want her to be happy and free to marry whomever she chooses!