Stupak is Stupid.

I'm doing homework and so have very little time to update at the moment. However, I think that it is imperative that all US citizens read the Stupak Amendment, which has been conveniently tucked into the Health Care bill that is currently being debated.

Someday I will have more time to write about politics! As for right now, I'm scared of the country that my daughter will grow up, the country that I want to contribute to as a teacher and the country that I really believe in. Believed. I'm not sure which tense to use.

Scary shit.

Someday I'll Update For Real

In lieu of real though, here are more snippets:

- Why are all of these people flipping out about Obama's speech to students? Haven't seen it? Look on whitehouse.gov. When I was in 2nd grade, Bill Clinton was in office. We learned about him, Hillary and Chelsea as parts of our social studies/current events classes. We learned about what he was doing and we talked about our thoughts on all of it. We were encouraged to talk with our parents about all of it too. His speech wasn't about promoting socialism, promoting his agenda, or anything like that. It was a message to the students of America, who are grossly irresponsible, ungrateful and entitled, that they need to work and work HARD to get to their goals. If parents in general were talking to their children about this, the President might not have to.

What I was taught is that even if you don't agree with the leader, you respect and support the leader. I think people need to back the fuck off. Actually listen to the words in that speech and then probably follow it themselves. I'll say that honest to everything and anything holy that his speech inspired me. It was a swift kick in the ass to stop bitching about the semester I have, how much I hate it, because even though it doesn't feel important, that these baby steps will help me be who I want to be.

- Emily got moved up a classroom at school. Finally. She is disgustingly smart. And a little OCD. We were in her bedroom and she was lying in bed talking to me before she went to sleep. Tomorrow she's going to The Girlfriend's mom's house for a sleepover and said "Mom, I want to draw you pictures. You like pink and green and um, black?" I said no, I like pink and green and brown. And she says "Oh. OK. Wait! What if there're no crayons? What will I do?" And she flipped out, talking a mile a minute for four minutes before I stopped her and told her not to worry. Funny girl.

That's all for now.

Totally Unqalified Opinions.

I'm working (and not procrastinating at all with my blog) and have the TV on in the background (because I have a tendency to freak out when I'm alone) and Oprah's on. Darius Rucker, of Hootie and the Blowfish is on singing one of his country hits and, um, he looks high as a fucking kite.

But hey, props to him for singing live. Even thought he's flat (and I'm actually not unqualified there, I grew up singing in a pretty awesome choir). And apparently, I love parentheses tonight.

()()()()()

She's Back

Yes. I am. And it was awesome. I promise this won't be like the last lake trip that involved me procrastinating so much that it never got written about. I will sit down, I'm planning on tomorrow, to write.

So much.

But now, it's off to work.

So

Tomorrow The Girlfriend and I are leaving for a small vacation. Nothing fancy. But good times, good people, and lots of sunshine. Hopefully this trip will not include second degree burns. I bought some stronger sun block.

Anyway. I hope this weekend is a good one for all of you.

Oh To Live In Arizona.

They didn't pass the smoking in cars thing, which is GOOD. So hopefully now they can begin educating people and parents in particular on the damage of second hand smoke in children.

They did however pass new abortion laws. I updated about them a few weeks ago, and I am dismayed. I wish I had the money to fight it, to be on Jan Brewer's doorstep begging her to reconsider signing this in to law. But I can't.

Work this week has been outrageous. Someone has been sick, so we've all been pitching in, and it's tiring. Thus the lack of posting. And I promised myself I was going to sit down and post tonight and now, I just don't have the energy.

Sorry, internets. I need to get the baby in the tub.

Nostalgia?

This is an old picture. Emmy was probably, I don't know, a year and a half? Somewhere around there. Honestly, some days I miss it a lot. Things were far less complicated. However, I wouldn't trade the comic relief of three for the tantrums of fifteen months at all. The communication upgrade makes the previous model less admirable too.

But still. Some days, I ache for those days. I wish I had been as happy then as I am now, because I'm curious if it would have shed a different light on that period for me.

Aren't we cute?

Oh The Mondays

So that thing? In that movie? That movie that I love? A "case of the Mondays?" IS EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY.

This has been one of the longest Mondays in a loooooong time. Yes, long enough to warrant five extra "o"s. I have this horrible habit in the mornings of not wanting to wake up. I never used to mind it, but now that my baby sleeps until I enter her room and peel her body from her blankets, now that my linens are regularly cleaned due to owning a washer and dryer, now that my bed is filled with the furnace that is my girlfriend, I don't like leaving the bed. It's not a mad rush to wake up and get the day over with, it's a love of groggily rolling over and kissing the shoulders of someone I love; an appreciation of a quiet house, clean and settled, safe and warm, a house that surely enough, has turned in to my home; a peace that settles over me, a knowing my baby is dreaming, starting to roll around and mumble, an assurance that I am safe and loved. And I'll admit that even though I love my job, I do wish I had more days in bed past five in the morning.

I rolled out of bed thirty minutes after the first alarm (4:55a) and realized I had no time for a shower. Because, you know, there's mandatory computer time in the morning and YES MY COMPUTER TIME IS USUALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN A SHOWER. I read cnn.com, check the weather, check my email and facebook, and then I can go about my day.

I got to work and we had an incredibly busy day. This is a huge relief. Busy is waaay better than bored, and business enables me to have a job. But, it was a very long Monday. That's all I'll say about that.

So even though I didn't write about any lake adventures, I did update. This window has been open for two hours and tomorrow I have some legal matters that need to be taken care of. My mom should be home soon, and Emily loves to wiggle her butt.

I'll conclude with a conversation I had with Emily today on the car ride home:

Emmy: Mommy, how was your day at work?

Me: Rough, baby.

Emmy: That sucks.

Me: Yeah.

Emmy: Well, next weekend you can be a kid and The Girlfriend can be a kid and I'll be a grown-up, so remember, don't take your shoes off at school.

Me, laughing: Ok. What are you going to do when you're a grown-up?

Emmy: Work and make money and pick you up from school and hug you and kiss you and pick The Girlfriend up at school and make her mac and cheesearoni and watch her wiggle her butt and make more money and go shopping and watch a lot of Hannah Montana and never tell you it's tool late to watch Hannah Montana because I'll be the grown-up so YOU can go to bed and I'll watch Hannah Montana and eat mac and cheesearoni all night.

Me: ...

Emmy: That's how things should be, you know.

The Only Legal Form of Neglect.

I don't mean to neglect my readers, or my writing. I am grateful for the readers I have, and hope to get more.

My momma is in the hospital again. Nothing related to the cancer, but a pretty scary weekend anyway. I'm sure I'm not the only scared one. But, it's my mom. And I am scared.

Well, I was. Now, I'm better. And later today when I have more concrete details, I will be even better. But at the initial news, I was scared for her.

Anyway, duty calls and I have to go to work. It is a PROMISE though, that tonight I will update for real. Because the lake stories from last weekend are still in my head. And they're funny.

Teaser

So as you can see, I suck with deadlines.

Until I actually have time to write about last weekend, which I really need to do before this weekend, as we're going camping again, here is one picture.



I forgot to make coffee last night.

Adventures To Come!

I just got back from a small weekend vacation. It was wonderful, and I'm literally burnt to a crisp.

I want to update. But the movement of my fingers is hurting my skin.

Tomorrow! Promise!

More TV Commentary. You Know You Like It.

So I was watching The Freak Show a few mintues ago, and all I want to say is, how the hell does she remember all of their names? I wonder if she ever confuses them. Or if they're all named "heyyy, come here!"

amazing.

Bipolar

The weather today is once again supposed to be in the 70s. Perfection, right? Normally, yes. But the wind here gets so out of control that it's hard to enjoy it. The sunshine feels wonderful, but sometimes the wind? Too much.

Anyway, it's supposed to be 77 today (yayyy!) and isolated thunderstorms are supposed to start around one. I hope they do. I love the rain.

Pointless!

Lulz.

Emiyl was sitting at the table eating her breakfast (multigrain pancakes! Hey, internet, do I get any crunchy-granola points for that?) and I realized she didn't have any underwear on.

Me: Emmy, why aren't you wearing underwear?

Emmy: MOOOMMMMM, I'm GOING COMMANDO because it FEELS GOOD.

Me: Well, I don't want to see your privates, especially not at the table that we eat at.

Emmy: Oh. Well. I guess I could go find some.

Food For Thought

I have a whole post that I'm trying to work out in my head. Every time I go to type it, my fingers stop.

It'll come.

Um, Whoa.

Emily and I have been working on letters. A lot. Because her daycare thinks that by three, learning shapes is an appropriate use of time. So. The green one is mine. The pink is hers. Squee!

Baby Fever.

(Note: The title has nothing to do with the post.)

Emmy, sitting in her car seat on the way home from daycare: Mommy, will you make me another CD?

Me: Of course I will. What do you want on it?

Emmy: Um, the No One* song, the Faster Disaster** song, um, more Hannah and um, Spiderman songs and um, um, CINDERELLA SONGS! Yeah. Cinderella songs. And the spider song, too.

Me: For sure, baby. It'll have to wait for this weekend though.

Emmy: Ok.


*No One, Alicia Keys
**I Run To You, Lady Antebellum


I love that her musical taste is broad. The CD in her stereo right now has some oldies, some devil incarnate Hannah Montana, some Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and a couple covers. Nothing too cool, but beyond the average kid CD. So this one I'm going to add some stuff she's never heard. I'm so excited to watch her taste develop and grow. We'll be driving and she has clear and distinct likes and dislikes. Journey? "Turn it up!" Kanye West? "I like this song, Mommy!"

I think the next CD I make her, after this one, is going to be indie stuff. It has to be fast for her though. She likes stuff she can dance to.

Kids.

Life's A Climb

Dearest Emily,

YOU'RE FUCKING WELCOME for taking you to see the Hannah Montanna movie today, big jerk. I hope you liked it. Judging your attitude though, you won't be doing anything fun for a looooong time. Yes, so long that it requires three extra "o"s in the word "long." The lack of nap today may have something to do with this. I don't know.

Anyway. You're lucky I love you.
-Momma.

Cold Feet

You'd think that title was metaphoric for something, right? Like, "The groom has cold feet," or something similar? Yeah? Well, IT'S SO NOT.

I have this unbearable condition called CATT. Cold All The Time. It sucks ass. Cold ass. Every night when I get in bed with The Girlfriend I nestle my butt on to her furnace of a body and she shrieks and squirms and I delight in my ass being warm for the first time since I woke up, and she flinches every time I adjust my position as a new cold body part hits her.

Today, instead of unpacking and doing the massive amounts of laundry and hanging pictures, I got talked in to going fishing with a friend and his wife. So The Girlfriend, Emily and I got in the truck and left. It was windy, and cold, and I do not like the wind, nor do I like the cold. It was fun. Emily had a good time and so did The Girlfriend. I, however, got cold around two pm and by the time we left at SEVEN PM I was frozen solid. The Girlfriend had to peel my crossed legs from the ground, complete with fingers attached to the bottom of my thighs and carry me up a hill with the fishing poles as if I were some type of sitting statue and let me defrost on the ride home. OK, not really, but damn. I'm still cold. Freezing. Can't feel my toes, my butt, or my nose and my backspace key is totally getting abused by the amount of frozen finger errors.

Brrrrr.

ZOMG

Internet! At our new apartment! Like, legal, paid for internet :) It's pretty awesome.

I'll be back in commission within the week, once we're all unpacked. I love saying "I'm going home." Because now, "home" has The Girlfriend in it. Love.