Veteran's Day

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it; it's an important holiday and I feel it's necessary that were remember all veterans today, living and deceased, and remember the sacrifices they've made. And let's not forget the sacrifices their families make: time with their loved one, nobody to help parent the children, many women have to give birth without their husband present, mom's watch their babies go off to war, babies watch their moms and dads go off to war. It breaks my heart to think of how hard that must be, no matter how many times you have to do it. I don't care where you stand on war, soldiers devote their lives to defending all of our great freedoms and I am full of pride, admiration, and gratitude not just today but every day.

My dad and his brothers were all in the military, as was my aunt. My mom's brother was in the Navy. My cousin, until very recently, was active duty Army. The woman I babysit for, she's active duty Navy. I had friends in high school enlist; some are still in, some left after their four years were up. I remember listening to two friends, one of whom was in the Army, the other in the Marines, argue about which branch of the military was superior to the other. I remember thinking at the time how they were acting like little boys with the whole, "My [insert whatever object comes to mind here] is bigger than your [same object]."

I have a much deeper appreciation for all that our military does for us now and I'm so proud to be an American. So if any of you are military families or are in the military, thank you so much.

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~Elmer Davis

A Fresh Start

So you'll all be happy to know that I'm moving all my political mumbo-jumbo to a new blog, aptly titled California Misfit. Let's face it, the only time my presidential vote matters is during the primaries, otherwise it's only for my own satisfaction and that of my party's. So anyway, you won't hear about it here! I'm getting back to parenting and family and life in general. It was getting way to negative in here!

As for life in general, things are peaceful here. We're not-so-pessimistic about Christmas this year. Provided work stays steady, we should be able to eke out a decent Christmas for the kids and not break the bank doing it. My husband, unforunately, is sick. He started not feeling well yesterday and between last night and this morning has developed hot flashes and chills, a very congested head, and aches and pains. He's home today with plans to return to work tomorrow, but we'll see. On the upside, the rest of us are okay. The kids both had their flu shots at the end of October so they're just starting to kick in. Beth had a low-grade fever two days ago and a little rash on her chest, and she's developed a bit of a night cough but I'm really hopeful that's all it will be. I feel so bad for kids when they get sick! There's no easy way to explain to them that it's only temporary and that they'll be better soon; you can only watch them suffer through runny noses and being hot.

So anyway, that's what's going on here today. Well, that and my unbridled enthusiasm to watch Chuck.

The Friday Chronicles

This week, despite one sad day - for a little less than half the country - smack dab in the middle of the week, went fairly quickly. And in the interest of not inciting a riot or ruffling the feathers of The Three Democrateers [D, I didn't mean to make you typescream at the computer. I know that's what you were doing. *smile*]of Pennsylvania, I'm done talking politics for a while. I'm tired of it, it's played out, and no one cares anymore. What's done is done and I'm sure there'll be plenty to talk about come February, so I'm taking a breather. Here's to the next four years, for better or worse!

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Funny conversation I had with Beth:

Beth had just done something mean to her brother and I was working an apology out of her. We've been focusing on not just getting the "I'm sorry" out, but also on the "why" of the situation.
Me: Thank you for apologizing. Now why are you sorry?
Beth: Because I'm lazy? (A common affliction and cause for apology from her. She's now smiling impishly.)
Me: No, you weren't being lazy. Why are you sorry?
Beth: (She's looking at me out of the corner of her eye waiting to see my reaction) Because I'm a dingbat?

At least once or twice a day, Beth does something very Me-like - in otherwords, airheaded. So we jokingly say, "You dingbat! That's silly!" and we'll move on. Evidently, she's picked up on it.

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I can't believe how cheap gas has gotten out here! When I make a trip to the drugstore last night, the gas station across the street has regular unleaded at $2.49/gallon. I almost had an accident! Automobile accident, not tinkling accident.

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Mom left on Tuesday morning and I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. We get along so much better when we aren't cohabitating. I think she knows that, but her memory gets clouded when she gets it in her head that we need to move back home. I know she's lonely back there. My aunt is still around but she has her kids and grandkids to keep her busy. All this weight rests on my shoulders, like it's my responsibility to make sure mom's taken care of, or at least that's what I imagine. I'm sorry that she's lonely and more or less alone, I really am, but I have to keep reminding myself (Rob helps me with this a LOT) that I have to do what's best for my family which is, at this point, staying here and treading water. There are too many financial uncertainties back there and for now, we're able to pay our bills without running into big trouble. No certainty of that back there. So tread water we will...

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Did any of you catch "Grey's Anatomy" last night? How touching were those two old people? They say goodbye and kiss before each of her surgeries. I won't ruin the rest of that storyline for all of you who've DVRd it and have yet to watch, but make sure the tissues are nearby.

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My son is really trying to talk now! He has:

~ Mama
~ Dada
~ Beh-ee (Belly)
~ Goo-ka (Cookie)
~ Beh (Beth)
~ Rob swears he tried to say "weiner" last night. Ha ha.

Beth can write her first name all by herself and can draw recognizable pictures of trucks, houses, Spongebob Squarepants, and fish. My kids are awesome.

"A peacefulness follows any decision, even a bad one." ~ Rita Mae Brown

I've spent all morning going back and forth in my head about how to handle today's post. I can't not address what transpired last night because it's like the big white elephant in our proverbial room. It's sitting there, staring at me, waiting for me to say something. It's also smirking at me. Bastard elephant.

We lost. Not by a grand margin with the popular vote- currently, CNN's reporting it at 7% - but by fairly remarkable electoral vote, which has given Obama 349 and McCain 163. I could go on about where I think the campaign went wrong, where voters definitely went wrong, and how terrified I am of the next four years. I could direct you to a couple sites that offer perspectives I agree with and I could rant for many paragraphs about how I really feel about Barack Obama. But I won't. What good would come of it?

So I'll report on how the propositions I was concerned about turned out.

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Proposition 2. Standards for confining farm animals. Initiative statute.
- The long and the short of this is that farm animals raised for food - cows, chicken, pigs, etc. - be kept in larger, roomier cages allowing them to, "...fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up and turn around..."

Result: Yes. Damn. People just can't seem to think beyond the animals themselves. "Oh, those poor animals who'll be beheaded and butchered in a few months anyway and those awful cages!" Let's see how sympathetic they are when the price of their chicken goes from $2.99/lb. to $5/lb.

Proposition 3. Children's Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program. Initiative Statute.
- It would provide "...$980M in general obligation bonds towards construction, expansion, remodeling, renovation, furnishing and equipping of eligible children's hospitals..." It'll cost the state a LOT of money.

Result: Yes. I'm happy but a little nervous. It's a necessary thing, keeping up with current medical technology and accomodating all the needs of all the children, and one I'm happy to shell out for. But...$980M is a lot of money.

District Measure WW
- I'm assuming it's a measure, since it's not a proposition. All it's heading says is, "District." Anyway, it provides up to $500M to continue restoring urban creeks, protecting wildlife, purchasing/saving open space, wetlands/shoreline, acquiring/developing/improving local and regional parks, trails and recreational facilities in the East Bay Regional Park District.

Result: Yes. Yay! Hooray for nature!

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So my feelings after all is said and done? I'm resigned to the fact that my candidate - who I'll maintain to the day I die was far more qualified than Obama to run this country without running it into the ground - lost the election and that come February, I'll have a man I'm terrified of as my president. I'm resigned to the fact that the Democrats still have house majority and damn near senate majority as well (although, thankfully, not the two-thirds necessary to complete the monopoly and really turn Washington and our great nation on its ear as well as eliminate the extremely-necessary system of checks and balances) and that the next four years will be riddled with liberal agendas, government-sponsored healthcare, and small businesses having to close up shop due to an increase in their taxes. In my mind, I see a very long, very depressing four years ahead of me.

I hope I'm wrong and I hope Obama and his administration prove me wrong. That's the great thing about pessimism: you're never disappointed and occasionally, you're pleasantly surprised. So we'll see. And with that said, congratulations to all my Democratic readers. You won, fair and square. Well, a little superstition never hurts either. *wink*

My Weekly Writing Assignment

So I caught a little flack for being predictable last week. I always write about my past, my memories, etc. However, what the commenter doesn't know is that I'm horrible with creativity. I took a Fiction Writing course in college and never wrote a fictitious story. I took stories that actually happened, changed the names, and submitted it. I swung a B in the class. So I'm sorry if it's disappointing to some, but with my weekly writing assignment, I'm going to be predictable yet again. Here are the prompts, though, if you're interested:

1.) You awaken with amnesia in what looks to be an igloo. You have $4 and a rock in one pocket, and a toothbrush in the other. Someone is staring at you. Write this scene.

2.) Write a 16-line poem (rhyming or non-rhyming) about a moment from your childhood that changed your life for the better.

3.) You're sitting at work one day and receive a text message from an unrecognized number. The text says, "I have the money and hid the body." You think this is a practical joke from a friend, so you play along at first. But the more texts you receive, the more you realize that it isn't a joke. Write the text conversation you have with this unknown texter.

4.) 10 of my absolute worst pet peeves...

5.) Fictionalize an event that happened to one of your parents, friends, or siblings.

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10 of My Absolute Worst Pet Peeves

10. Nonsensical arguments. Don't pick a fight with me, or try to debate me, if you have no basis for your side of the debate. You'll end up plucking total nonsense, seemingly out of thin air, and try to sling it at me like a fireball. You end up sounding incredibly stupid and I've got nothing because I can't argue with stupidity.

9. Dog-earing pages of books. My husband is totally guilty of this and it drives me up the damn wall. I don't care if it's our book, the library's or someone else's. You DON'T dog-ear pages! Preserve the damn book! Use a slip of paper, a string, or - here's a novel idea - a bookmark.

8. The fact that the California Drivers License Handbook comes in nine different languages-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
. This is AMERICA! Did you know that until 2006, we didn't have an official language? It's absolutely absurd to me that people are allowed to take their driver's license exams in one of 8 other languages - aside from English - and get their license. Of course, that brings me to Pet Peeve #7.

7. That one can become a legal citizen of the United States of America and not want to embrace our language and culture. It's infuriating that there are people out there who simply want to make money here, send it back to their home country for years at a time, and the whole time they're here, bitch about America. "America sucks, Vietnam's great!" is a tune Rob hears at work all the time. Yeah, but the money you make here, that's no so bad, eh? The guy who chants his America Sucks Mantra every day also dragged an animal trap into work one day. Rob asks him, "Hey [name here], what's the trap for?" The response: "Cats." Yeah.

6. Maintenance staff, mechanics (other than my hubby, of course), and any man I deal with in the general public assuming I'm a complete idiot and treating me like one. The maintenance guy I get up here every time something in our apartment needs fixed automatically thinks I broke whatever he's fixing and that I'm just some dumb woman. I'm not stupid, I know how/why/when it broke and how to not break it again. Jackass. My hoo-ha doesn't knock 40 points off my IQ.

5. The gap in between my two front teeth. I had it before I got braces in 1992. The braces I wore through 1994 closed it. Then I got lazy about wearing my retainer and by the time I was 19, it was back. Now I have a gap that food gets stuck in constantly. So if I'm eating, and I make a disgusting thhhhhhtttt sound, you know why.

4. Parents that refuse to restrain or even watch their kids in public places, namely stores and restaurants. There is nothing more irritating than trying to do your shopping or lunch-gnoshing while there are small children running around, screaming, knocking things off of shelves with nary a parent or guardian to be found. Who lets their kids run wild? Don't they worry about kidnapping? Or even something so simple as their kid breaking something and them being forced to buy it? Aye yi yi! WATCH YOUR KIDS! I've taken three children under three years old to a store before, it's not asking too much, I swear.

3. Holy Rollers. Bible thumpers. Soldiers of God. I don't have a problem with your Christianity. Believe what you want to believe, you won't hear a peep out of me because that's the beauty and whole premise of America: your freedom of religion. In that same vein, I enjoy the freedom of not having to believe in any deity or dogma, so please stop waving your bible in my face, stop reciting passages from it, and stop telling me that all of life's answers are in it. The bible is your cheat sheet. If you need a bunch of mostly-fictitious stories to answer life's tough questions or you need a printed and bound moral compass, then by all means. But it's not mine and you can't force-feed Christianity. Besides, what about the Golden Rule? My religious beliefs, or lack thereof, shouldn't be a factor, right?

2. The reset time on my digital camera. I get my kids all set for a second picture, or I get the perfect smile on someone, and then they have to wait for the damn thing to reset. By then, I've lost that wonderful smile, nobody's looking at the camera, and the moment's over. I need this camera in my life. Seriously.

1. Opportunists. I'm not talking about my husband, although he is an excellent example of an opportunists. I'm talking about people who know you're relying on them for something and take every opportunity to use you. Rob and I have this happen to us time and again and it's really very frustrating. We never want to slight people and we're both helpers: we help even when we really can't or shouldn't. It's a compulsion, really. Anyway, we're often taken advantage of and it starts to suck. You want to believe in people, you know?

Eager Beaver

Wow, that sounded dirty.

I, like the rest of America - and some of Canada - am champing at the bit to start seeing election results tonight. I've been watching cable news all day (and no, not just Fox News, there's some MSNBC and CNN thrown in the mix, too), watching random interviews, a few exit polls, and prattle about young voters. It goes without saying that a lot of young voters are going to flock to Obama; the same thing happened with Bill Clinton in 1996. I would know, I flocked with the young herd. I was 17 when he was elected, thus having no say, but I saw him on MTV and thought he was the coolest president ever. I guess it's all a matter of perspective, huh?

Anyway, I'm wetting-my-pants excited about the evening that lies ahead of me. Naturally, the presidential election is my top concern, but beyond that, there are a lot of propositions in California that are on my mind.

Proposition 2. Standards for confining farm animals. Initiative statute.
- The long and the short of this is that farm animals raised for food - cows, chicken, pigs, etc. - be kept in larger, roomier cages allowing them to, "...fully extend their limbs or wings, lie down, stand up and turn around..."

Initially, without thinking too deeply about it, I wanted to vote Yes on this. Then I really thought about it: if animal farms are forced to accommodate these new standards, it'll cost them money and space. They won't be able to raise as many animals. They may have to raise their prices drastically, move their business to another state or close up shop all-together. All of these effects will adversely affect California's revenue. a rise in the cost of meat will cause a lower demand, and a move to another state or a closing will deprive California of the sales tax.

Proposition 3. Children's Hospital Bond Act. Grant Program. Initiative Statute.
- It would provide "...$980M in general obligation bonds towards construction, expansion, remodeling, renovation, furnishing and equipping of eligible children's hospitals..." It'll cost the state a LOT of money.

I hate voting for anything that'll cost the state that much money, but I can't look at my kids and say no. Children are innocent; they don't ask for health problems and certainly did nothing to warrant the horrors of the types of illnesses that land them in children's hospitals. It just takes knowing one child who's in and out of children's hospitals, or seeing a commercial about St. Jude's, to realize how much these hospitals mean to these kids AND their parents.

District Measure WW
- I'm assuming it's a measure, since it's not a proposition. All it's heading says is, "District." Anyway, it provides up to $500M to continue restoring urban creeks, protecting wildlife, purchasing/saving open space, wetlands/shoreline, acquiring/developing/improving local and regional parks, trails and recreational facilities in the East Bay Regional Park District.

It's impact on property owners? No more than the current rate of $10/year per $100,000 of assessed property evaluation. My family and I love all the East Bay parks, especially Lake Elizabeth, Lake Chabot, Del Valle, Quarry Lakes and Niles Pond, and the Hayward Regional Shoreline. I want to see them stay around as long as I'm here! So much of California is a concrete jungle anymore and one can only imagine just how beautiful California was before "progress" came in and mowed it down.
All it takes is one trip down Highway 1 to see what I'm talking about. Or this...

Lake Chabot in Castro Valley


Central Park in Fremont


Del Valle in Livermore

It's just another anxious Monday...

I've got two things to yap about today, both of which are causing me great anxiety. First, we'll address The Eagle (for those just tuning in, that's codespeak for my mom who's been here since 10/23).

Tomorrow morning can't get here fast enough. I don't know if it's that we're too much alike, too different, or if the cheese is sliding off her cracker but we are almost constantly at odds. She's spent the better part of her stay here trying to overrule our parenting, browbeat me with reasons we need to move out of California - ignoring all the reasons we can't right now and won't be able to unless Rob gets laid off, fired, or we've paid off a vehicle - and make thinly-veiled jokes about our weights. I'm pretty sure 10 days should be the time limit. She's been here 12 days and I. Am. Done. She's still very much convinced that I know nothing about parenting and said as much. I was in the middle of addressing a disciplinary issue with Beth and was handling it just fine. Mom butts in and tries to overrule me again so I say to her, "Mom, I've been raising her for nearly four years, I think I can handle it." She says, "Yeah, well I've been doing it since 1959. I think I can handle it."

*blink*

What???? For starters, she hasn't been raising Beth since 1959 and furthermore, she hasn't dealt with a four-year-old in 25 years! The woman needs to BACK OFF.

My other anxiety-attack-in-waiting is the election. I'm confident in my choice for candidate, can't wait to vote, and am eager to watch this election go down in history, no matter the outcome. However, I'm anxious because although I'd like to believe in the Bradley Effect, I'm worried about the Bandwagon Effect. What if America is full of lemmings and they all just vote for who they assume is going to win, just so their vote isn't "wasted" on a candidate who isn't going to win? It stresses me out that there are people out there who would actually do that.

That aside, we're eager as hell to be glued to the TV tomorrow night. Wheeee!