Tuesday Thoughts

I am in the middle of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and I don't want to do anything except read. How the heck did I miss this one since it was published in 2004 and when I start to talk about it, everyone is like, oh yea, I read that and cried. Oh great, so now I know the ending is going to be a tear jerker. Anyways, it's book with a lot of emotion and characters that you develop feelings for as they live deal with a family member with a terminal illness. The medical side of me is fascinated, the mother in me is repelled by the shafting of other's feelings for the good of one and the reader in me just wants to forget the world and just sit in bed and read.

Did I watch the Inaguration today? Unfortunately no, but as we went to lunch, we got a glimpse of President Obama walking up to the podium and I wished we had a public television in an eating area at the hospital. I mentioned to my co-worker that we should pull a Grey's Anatomy, find a room with an unresponsive patient and eat lunch there while watching the television. She asked how we were supposed to do that since our time on patient floor is non-existent. I thought just going in random rooms and asking how patients were would work. Say hello to those who respond and then when they didn't that would be our televison time. Unfortunately, my friend wasn't that keen on the idea, so it was cafeteria time and no tv.

Can you believe that we lived to see a day such as today? It's amazing to me that enough people voted to make the change in our government. My son is in school in London right now and in his classes he has students from Europe and the United States. There is a girl in one of his classes who is blaming the United States for everything wrong in the world. To which I replied, "If all you knew about the United States was based on the last 8 years....can you really be that upset with how she feels?"

Silly Tradition: Pardoning the Turkey

On my ride into work this morning, I heard the story of how the president "pardoned" a turkey. Don't you get pardons when you do something wrong? Or are we just being politically correct by not saying that he saved a turkey's life? Because really, if you think about it, the only wrong that poor Pumpkin and Pecan did, was to be born as turkeys on a turkey farm (yes, the pardoned turkey has a name and so does his alternate in case he dies en route to the White House). By pardoning a turkey, is that suppose to make us feel okay about killing lots of turkeys for Thanksgiving? I just don't see the need.

This is just a ridiculous tradition and in my humble opinion is a waste of executive time. If you want to know more about the tradition, head on over to this link at Infoplease.com. Do you think this is worth an internet petition to stop stupid traditions? Like anything else that goes on in Washington, it's probably a political thing. Gobble, Gobble, unbelievable it's been going on for 61 years!

If you really want to see a stupid turkey pardon, you can always watch turkeys being killed as Sarah Palin pardons a turkey in Alaska. It's a gruesome video. But once again, I have to ask...Is it necessary to pardon a turkey?

Whether you eat turkey or not, Happy Thanksgiving! May your day be a day of thanks, good cheer, good food and good company.

A Great Morning after a Long Election Day

I admit it, Obama wasn't my choice in the primary, however the Democrats in this country have picked a winner! It wasn't until Senator McCain picked Sarah Palin, that I decided that McCain was basing his vice president choice on just a small, vocal evangelical base. The Palin pick was the "nail" for me, it was a choice that demonstrated a lack of respect for the people of America when the vetting process was shown to be lacking. Did he really think that she could be a president? Was she really going to help him get the Hillary voters? I want a president smarter than me.
Obama gained my respect with each debate as he listened and gave thought out answers. Later on in the campaigning, Obama when asked a question would answer it postively without pointing fingers at the other side unlike his opponents. I wanted to believe that the Bradley effect was over and that more than just the young voters would see beyond the color of his skin to recognize how smart he is, just look at the groundwork and people involved! And yes, I even questioned whether he was electable, but he has shown us that "Yes we can".
Today on MSNBC, the New York Post editor was asked why they endorsed Obama and his answer reflected my own feelings, the republicans were in office for 8 years and didn't deserve another 4 years. This morning feels a lot better than two other Wednesday mornings and after the emotional day of voting and watching the results throughout the night...the future is brighter. ( The picture above is from the New York Post and is one of many great photos from last night.)
And you know what made yesterday even better for me? My oldest volunteered in the Get out the vote at school and my youngest spent the evening with us on a laptop following the results and learning about states. They have been bitten by the politic bug, good.

Autumn Ravelry Swap

Autumn Swap
Originally uploaded by jennymcb

Just participated in my first Ravelry Swap, and it was so much fun. Both buying for Skconley and receiving my goodies from Betsy023. Even Punky was impressed with the package today. Now I have to get my butt in gear and finish my second sock so I can start working with the yarn that Betsy sent with a pattern for Walk in the Woods Sock.

But I am once again a political junkie, just hopping from one web site to another reading about the upcoming election. I do care about who our next president will be, and I just hope that everyone who can vote will vote. All those who want to vote, will be able to vote and let's hope the mud slinging gets toned down.

Sneaking in an Unofficial Thursday Thirteen

There is just not enough time for me to do the Thursday Thirteens and give it my best effort at responding and visiting other bloggers. Like I said before, even a non-practicing Catholic still has the residual guilt effect which prevents me from "officially" doing a Thursday Thirteen. Blogging has not been at the top of my list of things to do with so many other activities taking up my time.

1. Presidential Race: I had lost that excitement with the upcoming election, but a certain vice- presidential nomination has made me become a political junky again. I can't wait until Tundra Barbie (or Caribou Barbie) is allowed to speak to the press. All information thus gained on the internet indicates that McCain has picked a woman who speaks her mind, and I don't mean that in a positive way. In four days, over 980 knitters/crocheters joined an anti- Sarah Palin group vs. 223 in the for Sarah group. Does this mean that a lot of liberals knit?

2. Football: My son is a senior football player, and I am involved in setting up team dinners. Then there are the games, first game for my son was exciting, he made an interception and ran it in for a 35 yard touchdown.

3. Cross Country meets: My youngest is a runner and we made it to one meet and missed his second. Sometimes you just have to make choices. Keep your fingers crossed and send up a quick prayer for his knee, tonight he came home complaining of pain in his knee after feeling part of his leg go numb while running. Ice and Ibuprofen have been used and he will check in with the trainer tomorrow.

4. Reading- Not enough time in the day to read. But I did finish Chocolat by Joanne Harris, which was a terrific book. The characters were well developed and there was a little magic going on. I liked the good vs. evil and based on what people have told me about the movie, I think the book was different. Good story!

5. Knitting- In the little brown bag next to me, I have a 1/2 finished shawl, one finished sock and an another 1/2 done and little special something knitted for my Autumn swap partner at ravelry. It's sad that I combine playing Canasta online with knitting!

6. Cat grooming- Hello blogging buddies!!! Nobody told me about long haired cats and the need to comb. I took a lot of grief from my friends last week as I missed a morning of golf to take my long haired Stash to the vets to get rid of the matted fur. I read on line not to cut the mats out myself and felt that $28 dollars was worth it. Now I comb him regularly, what a pretty kitty he is.

7. Work- Yuck, back to helping out another department that can't keep it's help. Can't complain too much, it's a nice way to save some extra money for our planned family trip to England next April.

8. The six tomato plants grown in various pots are now providing us with a lot of tomatoes. Ugly set up, but effective. (So what if you could see eggshells in the composted dirt?) Which leads me to the topic of food, do you really know how much a 17 year old football player and a 15 year old Cross country runner is capable of eating? The milk and food consumed is amazing!

9. Back to school, I think I like the routine, but it's still tiring. Let's see how the first progress report looks like for each of them.

10. Senior boy, will he or won't he get college applications to fill out? Repeat after me, not my problem. Last night we got a call from a small private Catholic college offering him a scholarship, and we had never heard of the school! Not sure it would be the right fit for this particular kid. Are some colleges that hard up to call homes based on SAT scores? His scores really aren't that high compared to others.

11. Exercise? Occasionally, how's that for a lame answer?

12. Family conversations- Sad to think that those after dinner conversations with the boys won't be happening in another 3 years...where the heck did the time go.

13. Senior portraits, I am going to say that Prestige/lifetouch is a huge monopoly and I will not be buying any "portraits" from them. I will happily pay a local photographer money to get pictures that I can afford of my child smiling!!

There's my random 13 for the week, a little bit of this and that of my life. Here's a question for you----> Do you really think Charlie Gibson's interview of Sarah Palin will be hard hitting or a fluff piece? ( comments on the internet indicate that we will see her goodby to her son heading to war)

It's All About Choices

When I first started blogging regularly, I tried not to be a political fanatic. We all have our opinions and perceptions of the candidates and issues which I try to respect. With the upcoming presidential race, I became apathetic due to the mess that our country is in, the war that we should not have started and the outright takeover of the Justice department of the religious right. (Vote Machine: How Republicans Hacked the Justice Department, By Scott Horton for Harper's Magazine) Surreptitiously having a degree from an Ivy League college was seen as wrong when compared to a degree from a fourth tier college with religious ties. Where was the checks and balances? Isn't there suppose to be a separation of church and state?

Back to choices though...I chose to become apathetic and after this past week's RNC nominations, I am choosing to learn more about the candidates. My opinion of the American dream is to work hard, go to a good college and raise a family. Even when we needed my full-time income, our choice was for me to work part-time to raise my family. We don't go to church, I believe in a woman's choice for abortion and even though I would like to think that my sons won't have sex until they are married, we have lots of conversations about birth control to ensure that they know what safe sex is. According to some people, I guess I am not American. But these are the choices that I have made and so far, knock on wood, no teenage pregnancies here and my sons are planning to attend college.

Senator McCain has chosen Sarah Palin as a running mate and it's my opinion that if she was a man, she wouldn't have even made the list, let alone the short list. She has chosen a political career over being home with her family. Beyond the whole teenage daughter pregnancy, I worry more about her youngest son and the medical issues that he may have. The first five years in any child's life is important to their development, even more so when there are disabilities involved. Ms. Palin has chosen to be a vice-presidential candidate. It's a tough call to say which one on the Republican ticket has made the worst choice. All I know is, that if elected, the republicans will try to limit our choices!

State of the Union and a Tax Rebate

Tomorrow night we will get to hear the last State of the Union Address from President Bush and he is going to give us some money in the form of tax rebates. I don't know where that money is coming from, but we're getting it. The country has spent over 1/2 a trillion dollars on the war...can't even fathom what that amount equals, I don't think I learned trillion in school forty years ago. Now we drop trillions like pennies.

Money in May, gee, I wonder what I will do with it. Today, our local paper had an article about what people will be spending their tax rebates on. Like a writer on the opinion page noted, anything we buy to "stimulate" the economy basically works to keep shelf stockers and cashiers in jobs, most of our goods are made in other countries. My prediction is that for those who have credit card bills, they will use the rebate to pay off some of their charges and those who don't have bills will be saving it. Rising gas prices lead to increased food bills and combine that with medical insurance increases leads me to believe that won't be much local economy stimulating going on around here. Based on where we will be bill wise, I think our rebate check will be going to the bank. Time to save for the leaner times that I see around the corner. ( Tough choice, HDTV or college tuition...NOT!)
I guess that means I have to thank President Bush and our politicians, but I would like to know, where are we getting this money from? Will this just be added to that debt that you have built for my children to inherit? What do you think about this rebate? Good or bad? Will it work to stimulate the economy?

#40 Thursday 13 Primary Musings

Our guests have come and gone and we won't be saying that we hardly knew them. New Hampshire's first of the nation primary is an interesting phenomenon......

1. Want to meet a candidate? Try to do it in the summer/fall, this past week it was epic madness and clusters.

2. NH is not as conservative as once thought due to the influx of people from Massachusetts and other states. It's a nice place to live and most don't leave after being transferred here.

3. As Mike Huckabee said in interviews on Tuesday night, we are downright friendly. C'mon up and talk, we'll listen and ask questions. We don't discriminate based on race, gender, religion or what part of the country you're from.

4. It's a small state and easy to get around to meet everyone.

5. Want to get phone calls? Tell the campaigns that you are undecided.

6. Getting sick of phone calls and polls? Lie and throw them off, I wonder if that's what happened this past weekend for the democrats, maybe we all got tired of the polls and made up answers.

7. It was an interesting contrast of spouses who appeared with the candidates and whether they went out to house parties to do the meet and greet. I will just leave it at that....

8. John McCain, is anyone else worried about his health? His speech on Tuesday was kind of a downer, just seemed exhausted beyond belief.

9. If you listen to the radio conservatives, it is sickening to hear them talk about Hillary. Can someone tell me why they hate her so much? At least I have a reason for the current administration. Really, what has she done that is so bad?

10. It's all about the money for being in our faces for commercials, ads and photo ops. It was one commercial after another, Hillary and Obama's were pretty good, but after the 10,000 viewing, they all sounded the same.

11. NH doesn't necessarily vote for money as shown by the Republican primary. McCain had to reduce his staff last summer and Rommney has been here for months with his flashy commercials. And Guiliani can say what he wants, but he was here trying, since there were so many commercials.

12. Weather plays a huge factor in getting out to vote in January, it was at least 30 degrees warmer on Tuesday compared to a week ago. As my son complained...."All the old people came out for Hillary"

13. When a small state breaks records for voter turnout, don't you think that's a clear message to all that we are ready for a change?
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This is what I love about blogging....

I can be in my own little suburban world with my own thoughts and feelings about the world, not really keeping up with the "stuff" going on in the world. But then I visit a blog like Philly Transplant where Sparky Duck's Thursday Thirteen just blew me away with the words to Pink's song and Pink's Video There are others out there who feel the way I do. What has happened to the idea that we are a democracy where we are governed by the people? This president just isn't one of us. Born with a silver spoon, coddled through prep schools and colleges, called National Guard serving his country when he basically skipped out through most of it and had all his failing businesses, and yet surround him with smart, rich neo-cons, he is now our president. Do we really elect the best person possible for president? Or are we electing the richest? (Or is the richest buying the election?)

Here's another blog that makes me think every week, Buck Naked Politics. This week it was the 13 differences between American and British Political Systems. Can you just imagine our president having to answer questions without a script? How about that voting system?

I love to smile and laugh through Thursday Thirteen (Thanks BohoRap for the introduction to the Urban Dictionary...) and I like to see that I am not alone in my domestic survival. However, I do love learning that others are out there being politically active and engaging others in political discussions. We can hate the war and support our troops, One Gal's Musings has a great post from July about Operation Shoebox and this is something that I plan on doing this month. I also plan to pay more attention to the candidates coming through NH and to listen with my brain and not my emotions.

I worry about a war that is putting our troops in danger. I worry that healthcare costs will cripple our country. I wonder who is paying for the ads that are linking 9/11 to the war in Iraq. I wonder who will be Karl Rove's next marionette. What do you worry or wonder about?