Monday, August 03, 2009

Checking in... testing 1, 2, 3

Yep still works. Apparently they didn't pull the plug on this dormant thing so here I be, back in the saddle.

Life is crazy busy for me (Brave Writer high season) and kids are ever busy with friends, King's Island, church, and preparation for the fall school season. Caitrin woke up today and before even opening facebook, opened her math book. We started the review. Time to dust off the long division skills and get back to work.

Liam will go to the freshman school for two classes so we'll enroll him this week. He says adamantly, "No one can make me go." But I think I may win this one. :) Oh, I'm non-coercive on the whole. Anyone who knows me knows that. I mean: stay up until 5:00 a.m. playing Warcraft - dooode be my guest! But this time, his main reason for staying home and not schooling it?? Sleeping in! Ha! (Maybe that Warcraft all nighter-ing is starting to take its toll.) So I'm more like, "Uh, not this time, pal." If he wants to ski in January every Wednesday, he's got to rise with the dawn and garbage trucks for the whole year. That's the only way it will work. And that, my friends, is what we call holding your child over a ski barrel.

I head out to be with the crazy liberals who want to impose healthcare on recalcitrant birthers and Republicans next week: Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh. Seriously excited about this. I'm such a complete political novice. But I came to love that "little" (cough sputter) community of 200,000 last year during Campaign "No One Can Stop the Man Born in Kenya." We hung out and bled our veins for Obama and ahhhh. Now he's in office and all the ones who hated him then, hate him more now and they ask me things like, "What do you think now that Obama is ruining the country and everything is worse than ever and no one has jobs and he wants to make us have healthcare against our wills and he's not even American and he has to read all his jokes off a teleprompter?"

I'm kind of at a loss. I mean, for crying out loud in the night! I gave freaking George W. Bush EIGHT years! EIGHT that we'll never get back. I let Bush invade a sovereign nation, allow for the deregulation of energy (which led to the Enron crime of the century - the one crime that made me think the death penalty is not punishment enough for white collar criminals - and the subsequent bankrupting of California), violate our citizens' rights to privacy, support and condone torture, and send our country spiraling into out of control debt as well as bailing out banks! And I'm supposed to convert to being a "hater" of Obama, who's been in office, what, 7ish months because it's taking awhile to get the economy righted after the disaster Bush left behind?

Come on! I gotta give the man a little more time and love than that! You know I do!

Anyway.

Life is actually pretty okay these days despite the obvious sources of angst. Had a great time in CA. Feels good to be home in Cincy. Really good. Like, I'm Beyonce "crazy in love" with this city. I knew it when I got off the plane this time that Cincy really is home now. I heart Cincinnati.

Okay, let's hope this little freewheeling freewrite gets me back in the groove for blogging. I've missed you all.

5 comments:

NoVA Dad said...

Glad to see you back here:-)

Colleen said...

She's ba-a-a-ack! Whew! Missed my political connection ~ especially a couple of weeks ago when a guy was stationed outside my local post office, protesting the current administration. Now, I respect people's right to express their opinions. Truly I do. But have some respect. Don't smear G.W.'s name with profanities (as some people did, while parked in front of my food co-op). And do NOT paint a Hitler-ian mustache on a photo of Barack. Don't even go there. Because, see, my mother grew up in Nazi Germany. She lost her childhood to Hitler's regime. Her mother lost her home and every single possession. Her uncle, active in the resistance movement, lost two years of his life, hidden underground (in the fullest sense of the word). They experienced the reality of totalitarian dictatorship. I in turn know of those realities of such a regime and Mr. Protest Guy, this ain't no totalitarian dictatorship. 'cuz if it were, you sure as h-e-double toothpicks wouldn't have the freedom to park yourself in front of my post office protesting.

Not that I said all that to him. I was, ah, much more succinct in person.

Ahem.

Glad to see you. Glad you heart Cincy. Who would've thought? *grin*

Unknown said...

Colleen!! I miss you! Love your profile pic below.

Yeah, you handled that with grace. You diplomat - in the Clinton school of smooth-talking and snake-taming. :D

Glad you popped in and nice to e-see you. How are the wonderful boys? Email me sometime and we can catch up/

(I'm not ignoring Matt, btw - NoVA Dad - he already emailed me and we did catch up!)

Daniel said...

We love you, too, in Cincinnati, Julie! See you on Saturday.

Elena LaVictoire said...

Um...where to start.

Well, in my most recent six months I watched my 81 mother slowly but steadily die of cancer. And she did indeed use a big chunk of medical care in her last six months. I'm sure she'd be the first to say "my bad." However she did teach school for over 30 years and then did volunteer work and even helped me homeschool for a decade so I think she earned it!!

Now our present POTUS thinks folks like mom shouldn't get that type of medical care because she was old, she had cancer and she died anyway. He thinks just a pain pill would have been enough.

And I would counter that she was worth every penny spent. From a practical standpoint the money spent for her care by Medicare, private insurance and out of pocket certainly helped the caregivers, nurses and institutions she relied on for help and in this economy, that's something. And from a personal standpoint, those last few weeks were precious to all of us. What a shame if she had been solely on Obamacare and drugged completely out of consciousness because it would have been more "cost effective."

Secondly, I oppose abortion. I certainly do not think I should have to pay for abortions on demand and from what I read in news reports this morning, that will most likely be in any bill that goes forward for a vote.

Of course we don't really know that for sure because no one has read the house bill in its entirety and as far as I know there isn't senate bill yet, although Senator Spector assures us that when we get one they will have to pass it quickly!

Ramming big spending bills through congress isn't exactly the type of hope and change I think you were looking for was it?

There's more, but that will do for starters.

Welcome back!