August 2008

Remember back when I won an iPhone from SmileBox just after BlogHer? Well, I was finally able to get it last night. I originally expected to get it tomorrow, so praise be to the fine folks at AT&T for moving up my upgrade date.

Of course, I love it and want to have its little iPhone babies. I actually keep forgetting that it’s a phone too. I’m pretty sure you could fly the space shuttle with this thing.

It has been an exhausting day. We got a lot of shopping done, though. We got a hip carrier for both Liam and Evie, something I could use by myself if necessary. We also got some outfits on clearance for Evie that I just can’t wait to try on her. I even scored some tshirts from Kohl’s for my trouble. And lest you think slackerpapa was left out in all this, he wasn’t. There was enough giftcard for him to get an iPod nano and a running kit to go with it. He also got some running shoes and workout clothes too. Come to think of it, he scored pretty heavily didn’t he?

So that’s our weekend so far. If you aren’t busy and you’re fond of yogurt (so NOT you, Rhi), stop by my review blog before midnight Monday and enter my giveaway, okay? Thanks, I owe you one.

The new iPhone camera rocks pretty hard (as does “My First Signs” on DVD)

This week’s list is pretty short and it’s peppered with political posts.  Not that that’s a bad thing, though.  There were some great political posts this week, after all.  I imagine we’ll see more in the weeks and months ahead.  In the meantime, I hope you like these posts.  I did, after all.

• What??! and I Hate Whatever Music You Like from Michael Ian Black.  I’m probably going to alienate the first half of my readers with the first post here and the second half with the second post.  Oh well.  In the first post, MIB essentially rips apart McCain’s VP pick, but in a funny way of course.  In the second post, he voices an opinion that I have quietly shared: people’s affection for music is boring.  I will admit, if someone posts an entry all about their favorite obscure band, I’m pretty sure to just skip it.  Maybe I’m just not that into music.
• Thankful from glow in the woods.  Here we have a post that voices something I’ve often thought, regarding my own loss.  In the most awful of situations, there can always be something to be thankful for.  I was thankful for quite a bit when Jackson was born, believe it or not.  So I was intrigued to see that other mothers who have suffered loss have felt the same way.
• Bring It, Biden from Surrender, Dorothy.  Rita expresses a lot of the same feelings I have and have had about Joe Biden and the Democratic National Convention, Obama and even the election.  I loved her point about voting for someone you “like” means you end up with George Bush.  Excellent point!
• O Time from Evolution of the Me.  Yep, it’s another political post.  But before you look away, this one is from someone who lives here in Reno and is a registered Republican.  And they’re leaning towards voting for Obama.  If that doesn’t give me hope, I don’t know what will.
• DNC Favorite Moments: Beau Biden’s Introduction of Joe Biden from MOMocrats^TM.  And, before we leave politics behind, I’ve got this one from Momocrats.  It’s a video of Beau Biden’s speech (he’s Joe Biden’s son).  The clipreel at the start and the speech itself were more than enough to drive me to tears.  Wholly inspiring.
• A Spoonful of Sugar from Fluent Brittish.  I think I’m a lot like her, in the way that I tackle household chores (when I tackle them, that is).  I should use some of her tactics here, I bet I might actually get something done oncein a while.  I love the idea of setting forth little challenges to make an unpleasant chore seem more fun.
• 49 from a little pregnant.  I’m so sad to hear that Julie’s (awesome) aunt didn’t get to finish her goal of visiting all 50 states.  She sounded like one of those utterly wonderful people that few people are lucky enough to have in their life.  I’m glad that Julie had her, but wish they’d been able to manage that Hawaii trip after all.

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.  Anyone have any special plans?  Just shopping for us.  The pantry is starting to look rather bare!  You’ll have to excuse me if I make this brief, I need to get a shower so we can get going and get our shopping done.  I, for one, don’t want to take all day (there’s lots of sitting around to be done, after all).  So tell me, what’s on your plate?  Anyone else doing the shopping thing like I am?

^{(To all of my Republican friends: you’re not going to like this post.  Warning you now.  I still lurve ya, but you might not lurve me after you read this.  If you read this.)}

It’s been a rough eight years. Back in 2000, I was still pretty young and idealistic.  I was coming off of eight years of Bill Clinton, after all, and was in my mid-twenties and had no reason to believe that what I wanted to happen in politics wouldn’t actually happen.  I mean, what kind of threat to Al Gore (who had been vice president for eight years already) was George Bush Junior?  SERIOUSLY?  It wasn’t a question to me.  I had faith.  I took my baby (not quite a year old, but only just barely) with me that rainy Tuesday morning and voted.  Easy peasy.

And then… Al Gore lost.  Of course, it did happen that quickly.  It was more like ripping a bandaid off one hair at a time.  And with that horrifying experience, I started to lose faith in the system.  Because, obviously, the system was NOT infallible.  And people are prone to error and problems and mistakes… It was a learning experience, that’s for sure.  I grew up a little during all that.

Still, I think I had more faith in the system and my fellow voters than I probably should have.  Yes, I went into the 2004 election completely expecting Kerry to win.  Looking back, I wonder how I could have possibly thought that, but I did.  I just couldn’t believe for an instant that anyone would want another four years of Bush.  To me, it was obvious.  I thought it was obvoius to everyone else too.  I was wrong.

I felt very disillusioned after that election.  The next day was practically a day of mourning.  I distanced myself from it all becuase what was the point?   What I wanted didn’t ever seem to amount to a hill of beans and no matter how many bumper stickers I put on my car, no matter how many rallys I went to, nothing seemed to ever make a difference.

When the election started with primary season this year, I guess I still felt cynical.  People would ask me who I was rooting/voting for, Hillary or Obama.  I always had a non-commital answer.  Often I would say Hillary but that if it was Obama that was fine with me.  I would just vote for whichever one got the nomination.  I can’t say I ever felt very excited about any of it.  And I wanted to think that it was because of “unity” and wanting to see a Democrat (any Democrat!) in office for a change, but…  I was jaded.  I didn’t care and I didn’t want to care.  I didn’t want heartbreak yet again.  I didn’t want to leave myself open to disappointment.

But with the DNC this week, I have started to feel the stirrings of hope again.  It hurts almost, as if exposing a raw wound to the open air.  I haven’t watched all of the inspiring speeches that have taken place this week.  I caught a few.  Beau Biden made me cry.  Obama made me… hope.

Just for a moment, I could see past all the damage of the last years and see a pathway out.  It seemed, dare I say it, possible.  Maybe, just MAYBE, my fellow voter wouldn’t let me down again.  That we could finally stand together again and do something good for our country.  I’m so nervous that we’ll drop the ball.  McCain doesn’t worry me.  His new pick as VP (Palin, the governor from Alaska) doesn’t worry me.  But my fellow voters do worry me.  All the Hillary Clinton supporters who stubbornly refuse to vote for Obama simply because they’re annoyed their gal didn’t get the nomination just drive me crazy.  That makes absolutely no sense to me and is about the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard of.

Don’t even get me started on the Republicans and the ridiculous lies that circulate about Obama.

I want to say that Obama is the obvious choice.  I want to say that I believe he will be President.  I don’t want to be disappointed again.  I want to hope.

Hey, I was actually tagged for something!  Of course, seeing as how I only recently complained that I was never tagged for anything, I’m starting to wonder if it was a “pity tag”.  But whatever.  I’ll take it.

It’s a “6 Things Meme” and I don’t even know if I’ve done this one before.  I know just about everyone and their dog has already done this on their blog, but whatever.  I don’t care.  I’m doing it anyway.  Because I was tagged, that’s why.  And because I need to post something. (Just being honest, yo.)

The Rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks you possess.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged. Dude, we all know I’m not going to do this.  So let’s just pretend there are only three rules, kay?

1.  I like mayonnaise.  In fact, on a hot dog, I would rather have mayo on it than ketchup (though admittedly I usually only put on mustard).  This is an unspectacular quirk because I’ve noticed that more and more people are decidedly anti-mayo these days.  And I’m not one of them.  I love mah mayo.

2. I prefer pie to cake.  VASTLY.  Not that I haven’t been known to enjoy a cake or two in my time, but if given the choice I will ALWAYS pick pie.  Cherry pie is my favorite.  In fact, when it comes to deserts, I very often will choose something fruity over something chocolate.  And if it’s got chocolate and fruit together?  SCORE.

3. If I had to pick a favorite chore, I would have to say laundry.  I would rather do laundry than just about another household duty.  This includes doing my 8 year old’s NAAAAASTY laundry (and that’s saying something).  I even don’t mind putting stuff away (though I often don’t put Kile’s clothes away because I never know where he wants them to go).  Sadly, laundry is a time-intensive task and I often don’t have the opportunity to get it done as much as I would like.  Plus, you’d think this would mean my laundry room wouldn’t look like a clothes-bomb went off in it.  You would be wrong.

4. I love to watch “Touched by an Angel.”  I may have mentioned this before.  I used to watch it all the time back when I was pregnant with Jackson and now that we have the Hallmark Channel again, I DVR it and watch it every day again.  I love it.  Sure, it’s a little cheesy.  But it’s also like a warm blanket or a soft robe or a mug of hot chocolate.  Comforting.  I used to also love watching “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” but haven’t been able to find it on any channel in a long time.

5. I am incredibly intolerant of the heat.  How it was that I grew up in California and have lived in Nevada for 14 years without melting into a freakin’ puddle is beyond my grasp.  I’ve long been drawn to colder climates and places that have milder summers and how I’ve gotten to be 32 without living in a cooler location just blows my mind.  I just can’t stand being hot. I want more cool.  IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

6. I’ve become something of a hermit in recent years.  I vastly prefer to stay at home over going out and being among people.  It doesn’t help that recent “forays” into a more social lifestyle have only reinforced this.  I’ve been slapped down so many times that I can’t help but want to avoid further problems just by staying home.  It’s easier.  Lonlier, yes, but easier.  Why are there so many politics involved with social relationships?  Why can’t everyone just be themselves?  Questions for the ages…

Hmm.  Not sure how unspectacular or even how quirky these quirks are.  Or if they’re even quirks at all.  But there you have it.  Now, if you’d like to pick up this meme on your own blog, by all means, do so and then let me know so that I can go learn more about you.