November 7th, 2006 — 7:47pm
Day 7
Mood: Worried
It’s election night. So I’m sitting here waiting for the returns to start coming in. I’d love to write something witty or incisive about the elections or the candidates for office, but frankly I’m just too concerned about the outcome to do much else than hit refresh on the CNN website.
You can’t swing a yard sign in the DC metro area without smacking an idiot who will tell you just how powerful they are. It could be very easy to get drawn into the mutual masturbation that goes on regularly in this town, but then you must always be looking over your shoulder to make sure someone with better technique isn’t trying to cut in. I realized early on that I just couldn’t take that kind of performance pressure. It’s no wonder Bob Dole started hocking Viagra.
When you’re around all this self-importance it’s very easy to think that the fate of the world is determined by what happens in the 61 or so square miles that make up the District of Columbia. I resist that temptation as best I can. I know there is a whole world outside the beltway and many people who never give a second thought to who their elected representatives are or the decisions those legislators make.
But today…I just can’t maintain that perspective.
The war in Iraq, the rise in nuclear capabilities of unfriendly nations, an ever-increasing debt, prohibitions on life-saving research, attacks on self-determination and oh yeah the fuck nut some folks thought would be great to lead our country after proving that he could lead every business he touched into the ground…all of these things have me a bit worried.
If it were just me, heck I could go live somewhere else. I could keep my head down and just live under the radar screen. But what kind of world are we leaving for our children? As I tuck my three angels into bed at night, I worry. And I’m sitting here now praying (and I’m not a religious person) that others are feeling the way I do. I’m hoping that these elections will offer some hope for a change in the direction we’re heading. I need something to hold on to.
3 comments » | People Who Piss Me Off, Politics
November 5th, 2006 — 6:02pm
Day 5
Mood: Rested and Ready
Okay, last week we started Merit Badge Day here at Mamma Loves… Every Sunday we invite readers to share with us the merit badge they earned this week.
PFunky had some techinical difficulties, so here is her’s and the others reported in last week.
Firetruck Voodoo Merit Badge: Won for getting my 2
1/2 year old son to take medicine for a very runny nose (that sent him home from nursery school) by telling him that the firemen take their medicine so they can ride the firetrucks. Since firetrucks are my son’s favorite things on the entire earth, it did the trick. In fact, I can get him to do many things as long as we talk about firetrucks along the way…
Oh, The Joys earned one for not getting malaria in Africa
and
One Weird Mother takes home the Bags Under My Eyes Badge. DST=toddler convinced that we should all get up for the day at 3am.
This week Mamma awards herself the Restraint in the Face of Temptation badge. Now this has nothing to do with keeping my hands out of the candy bowl or the kids bags on Halloween (or the day after, or the day after that)–though my jeans would fit much better if I had–but for not laughing directly AT my client who is worried about the outcome of the elections.
While I haven’t yet pronounced my political affiliation directly on this blog, I do think it’s pretty obvious from past posts. The elections are only two days away, so why not do it now?
I’m a Democrat. I work in DC. My first job here was working for a women’s health organization. The elections of 1994 were a heartbreak for me and especially my friends who worked on Capitol Hill. We watched the town we owned change over night. The bars we patronized were in the diverse neighborhoods of Adams Morgan and the U Street corridor. But after ’94, the new kids in power went to martini bars and smoked cigars in Georgetown {she says with a sneer}. It was sad.
ANYWAY, when my client–formerly a fundraiser for the Republican party–literally moped to me this week that the elections were going to be SOOOO bad, it took every ounce of willpower I had not to blurt out nah, nah, nah, nah heh heh and laugh maniacally. I kindly mentioned that I had lived through ’94 and I was sure he’d do the same. I then hung up and did a little jig in my office–though not a long or involved jig because I’m far too cynical not to think the Dem’s can’t still screw it up.
Whew! Sorry for getting on a roll–that happens sometimes.
Now it’s your turn. Let us know what badge you earned this week. If you don’t brag about yourself, who will?
10 comments » | Merit Badge Day, People Who Piss Me Off, Politics
November 1st, 2006 — 8:10pm
So today is the day. Thirty consecutive days of posts. I think I’m up to the challenge, though I can’t promise any level of quality for thirty days in a row.
The two big hurdles I see are Thanksgiving (can you say turkey coma?) and the business trip I have in a couple of weeks. Business trips of course mean cocktails. So here’s a question (or three)…is it better to miss a day during NaBloPoMo or to engage in drunk blogging? Is it possible to booty blog? Maybe more likely to booty comment, huh? If you get comments from me on your blog any time between the 15th and the 17th and I’m telling you how hot your posts are, just copy and paste it back to me so I can die a thousand deaths of embarrasment. Cause I would understand and expect it. What good is a drunk person if you can’t make fun of them?
Please excuse me while I step into the other room to turn off the Little Einsteins DVD that seems to be stuck on the menu screen–playing that blasted song over and over and over again.
Ahh, relative quiet.
While the Little Einsteins are in theory great, and not so bad when you have to sit through them, I can’t help but be pissed every time I think about how much money that Julie what’s her toes made off of some badly filmed sock puppets. How the HELL did she convince Disney to buy her little fiefdom? And why the HELL did every mother my age (myself included) feel compelled to buy those tapes/DVDs for their children?
Because it kept them quiet for twenty minutes in a row!
Mr. 4 first exhibited his Y gene trait of TV tunnel vision at six weeks whenever Baby Mozart was slipped into the VCR (yeah we were late to get on the DVD train). Just enough time to shove a plate full of dinner into my face before it was time to feed him once again.
Okay, so maybe that woman deserves a Nobel prize.
2 comments » | music, People Who Piss Me Off, Spirits
Day 7
