Long Weekend? How About a Nice Discussion of Human Sexuality?

Hope everyone is ready for the Holiday! I have to bake a pie later on...we will have to see how that goes;-) Short day for me, I think. Munchkin is out of school at 1:30, after their big Thanksgiving celebration, and my motherly intuition says that that makes a good time for me to knock off for the week. We can bake together all afternoon:-)

So, kind of a random subject, but I have a "Woman's Physiology" question today. This may fall into the category of TMI, and if it does, I apologize;-). But let's be honest...I have written much worse...

I had a super weird orgasm last night. There was nothing really unusual about the circumstances...we were in bed having regular old sex like we do just about every night before we go to sleep. But, for some reason, I had a really short, really acute orgasm that was totally different than my usual orgasms (and...I am...um...very orgasmic...so I am really familiar with them;-)). It didn't have the slow build that they usually do, but rather hit me like a ton of bricks really fast and really intensely.

The really noteworthy part was that the accompanying vaginal muscle contractions were like totally out of this world. Strong enough to cause The Boy to stop and say "whoa, what was that?!" (In a really good way...lol.) It was so strong that he thought I was doing something intentional...but it was all completely involuntary.

And I don't mean that this was just a normal orgasm that was a little more intense. I mean that it was a totally and completely different kind of orgasm than I ever have. Obviously, they are all a little different...some last longer or hit harder, but this one was like a whole different species.

I would sort of like to know what caused it, because I would kinda like to bring it back again...lol. But for the life of me I have no idea. I didn't do anything unusual yesterday, didn't eat anything weird or take any medication. It hadn't been longer than usual since we had sex last (um...actually it had only been like 16 hours...hee hee). And we weren't doing anything different than we usually do, either.

So...I am calling upon the deep medical knowledge of my readers...anyone have any thoughts on this or any experiences like this?

Gobble Gobble Gobble

I have been blogging for over two years now, and have written nearly 600 posts. My unhealthy love of comments has been well documented (I literally smile when they come into my inbox...yea, I am a dork that needs the validation of the attention of strangers...you have a problem with that?).

However, in all of those 600 posts and, oh...maybe 4,000-5,000 comments, never has one made me stop and say "Oh, my God, how did I not think of that?" Which is not to say that there haven't been loads of them that made me stop and think, or that gave really useful and helpful advice. But, yesterday, Nilsa left me a comment that I think was probably the most insightful one I have ever gotten. And that go me to thinking...how can someone who never met me beyond a handful of emails back and forth and a week's worth of blog reading be able to figure out something out me before I did? She may be in a tie with I'm Not Carrie Bradshaw for "most perceptive blog reader"...

I don't have an answer for that, I was just wondering...kinda makes my head hurt.

Anyway...today is a really, really foul day outside. It is warmer than the last couple of days, but it is probably 45 degrees and pouring like a motherfucker outside. I had a strong urge to curl up under a blanket and watch TV all day rather than go to work. It took a lot of willpower not to...

Not sure I have filled you in on Thanksgiving plans yet. As Aaron has written about today, the merging of families makes it kind of hard to accommodate everyone on holidays. I know that my local "family" is not really a family in the strictest sense, but for this purpose, it certainly is...i.e., I wanna spend Thanksgiving with them! For this year, at least, The Boy's parents and Twin Sister's family are coming to have dinner with us at Big Sis' house, so everything is gonna work out really well.

Normally, The Boy's parents have Thanksgiving at their house. The two older kids usually come up from New York, and some other family members usually come over as well. His brother and sister are staying in New York this year, though, and since his mother isn't feeling really festive, they took up Big Sis on her offer to come into the city for dinner. So, that should be fun...and I can get a little tipsy and not worry about having to drive anywhere:-) Hee, hee.

Who's working tomorrow? Friday? I am probably gonna put in a half day tomorrow, and none on Friday. Not sure if I will blog, so if I don't get a chance to...Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Breakthroughs

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is loving that this is a short week:-) I know I am!

Right down to business...The Boy fell asleep the second we sat down on the plane, which gave Munchkin and I quite a while to chat. I suppose he could have been pretending to sleep because he knew I wanted to talk to her, but he has been NUTS with work lately, so I imagine that he was super tired.

I brought it up, pretty straightforward. This is, in fact, something that I am not ashamed to say that I have learned from her. It could be the best of her many admirable traits...a willingness and ability to discuss everything head-on, before it is allowed to fester and create bad feelings. So, I started very simply with "Hey, I want to talk about what you said last night about Mom being an alcoholic." I don't think she was specifically waiting for me to bring it up, but she was more than willing to talk.

First of all, the answer to the question of how she knows this really made me furious. She knows because my one of my whore-bag aunts told her last year. I have no idea what possessed her to do that, other than just basically being an evil bitch. Munchkin didn't really remember what context it came up in. I probably won't ask her...although it does seem like maybe a good reason to speak to her again after like three years of ignoring her...yell at her, drop a few C-bombs, and then go back to ignoring her...plan?

She had some pretty extensive thoughts about it beyond that. She said that she figured that this was a lot of the reason that our mother and I struggled to get along. She seems to be very aware that our Mom was a very different person with her than she was with me...and that, to me, is an extraordinarily complex idea for a 13 year old to have. She seems to have a pretty good grasp on some complex relationships without really affixing blame to one party or another. I am no psychiatrist, but that strikes me as some pretty advanced social thinking.

One thing that she said that I hadn't even thought about...she is definitely aware that our Mother's drinking played a part in her death. I don't know if our Aunt told her that, too, or if she just connected the dots...but she knows how our Mom died, and at this point she is smart enough and has had enough health education to know that liver and kidney failures are not independent of being a complete booze bag for 15 years.

All in all, it was a very productive discussion. I actually got kind of emotional over the whole thing, and I am not sure that I can really explain why. I think maybe it is a recognition that she has a little better idea of who I am, and that makes me feel good. She is a sister and sort of a daughter, but she is also one of my very best friends and I think this was a really important moment in our relationship. As time goes on, she will become much more of an equal and less of a little pipsqueak, and I think it is neat to sort of be able to mark those moments so clearly. I dunno...I guess I feel like I can say that I felt differently about our relationship when I got off the plane than I had when we got on it. And that's cool.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. Munchkin spent most of it with her brother and his very pregnant wife. She is a super adorable pregnant girl...all belly! In fact, she has put on very little weight in her legs and arms and neck and face, but she has this giant baby belly! Super cute...and Munchkin is quite excited to become an Auntie:-)

So let's see...The Boy and I had breakfast on Saturday with an old friend. Lunch with Tinkerbelle and dinner with BFFg and her new boyfriend (that I set her up with:-)). We met up with BFFb and a couple of his friends...including Sam. I still get a little anxious before I see him, because things are unlikely to ever be relaxed and normal, but I do look forward to it, and I am glad to be speaking again.

Saw my Father's family for brunch on Sunday, which is always a treat. I got to see Tinkerbelle again and a whole bunch of our aunts and uncles and cousins and such. Then we picked up Munchkin and went to our (non Whore-Bag) aunt's house to see some of our Mom's family. That was nice, too...although it was hard to bite my tongue about the people that weren't there that I have some choice words for...

Got home without incident and back to the condo at about 8:00, just in time for some Chinese food and bed time:-)

I slept very soundly!

Oh, the things kids say...

The auto industry bailout will have to wait...because I have an interesting little ditty for you...

First, Munchkin went home early and took a nap, so by the time The Boy and I got home from work, she was feeling better and was up for chicken fingers. Yay!!! Just the three of us, and it was as good as ever:-)

We got home, and after she did some homework, we were watching TV and a preview for Celebrity Rehab came on (still love that show) where Steven Adler was fighting with his mother about what a terrible mother she was, blah blah blah. And The Boy and I had a brief conversation about how all of these people like to blame their drug problems on their mothers. And how a couple of them actually share drug problems with their mothers.

To which Munchkin said, "That's not always true, though. Mom was an alcoholic when you were young, and you don't have any problems."

What?!?!?

Until then, I was unaware that she knew anything about our Mother's alcohol history before she was born. As I have written a couple times, she and I had very different relationships with our Mother, and view her very differently because of it. At least I thought that we did. Now I am not so sure...

I probably should have asked her about it further, but it caught me so off guard that I just sort of said "Yea, that's true", and we moved on. But now I want to know how she knows about this. Did our Mother tell her? Someone else in the family? Outside of the family? And I wanna know how she feels about this, or if she even thinks about it at all. And why has it never come up before? She knows that our Mother and I didn't get along real well...she was old enough to realize that I was banned from the house for almost two years. And she saw us fight on a bunch of occasions. Did she always know that things were rockier before she was around? Did she always know why? Or did she find out recently?

So, once again, I seem to have underestimated her perceptiveness. And, I also seem to have an awful lot of questions, but I am not sure if I should bring it up again or if I should wait and let her bring it up. Seeing as we are gonna be on a plane together this evening for a couple hours, it seems like maybe a good chance to do it...

Thoughts?

Catching up on trashy TV

Did I forget to mention that it is super fucking cold outside? Yea...I think I did. And Yea, it is. We had a nice warm fall, and then all of a sudden...BAM...winter hit us like a motherfucker!

I am in the mood to talk Reality TV today, so that is what you are getting. First up, Top Chef, which I caught up on last night. It is always hard to tell who is gonna be around for a while just from the first episode, but it looks like the two European guys (who mentioned that at least 50 times) and the lesbian are the strongest thus far. There is some serious dead weight...

Anyone else notice how sun burned they all got in the first challenge? They had them outside for what seems like it was probably the whole day, and by the end, every one of them was red like a beet! Even Padma's feet were all red. Did no one think to bring any sunscreen?

Top Model. I didn't watch much of this season, but the girl that one seemed like she was the strongest the whole time. I was surprised that the runner-up made it as far as she did, since she seemed to be sort of...I dunno...uninspiring? But again, I didn't watch a whole lot.

Real Chance at Love? Absolutely phenomenal. VH1 continues to top themselves in their constant quest to produce the most embarrassing television around. This show literally kills brain cells. Charm School? Same story.

I think Munchkin will be well enough to go to Chicago tomorrow. She came home at 3:00 yesterday, but she seemed to be pretty much herself this morning. I actually wouldn't mind if she came home early again today to rest up, but I will leave that up to her. She has play practice this afternoon, which is not going to wear her out as much as, say, basketball would have;-) Chicken fingers are up in the air at the moment...

I guess that is about it. I sort of feel like writing about the Auto industry bailout, but I don't have the energy at the moment, so maybe I will cover that tomorrow. I, not surprisingly, have some thoughts...

The Default Position

I want to send a little shout out to everyone that did Blog Secret yesterday, it was really fun! And, I imagine a lot of people feel better about things that they wrote just because they got to say it, and a friendly audience got to read it. Also, it seems like Nilsa was the brains and the organization behind it, so she gets a special shout out. Great job!

Munchkin is feeling much better, which makes me happy:-). She didn't quit make it all the way through school yesterday, but she got through all of her classes, and just bailed on her orchestra practice at like 4:00. (In case you never read that part, she is in school until 5:00 every day. They have classes in the mornings, and then "stuff" in the afternoons...art, drama, music, sports, field trips, etc.) She is supposed to play basketball from like 3:00-5:00 today, so I imagine she will want to skip that and go home at 3:00. And, maybe I will make her even if she doesn't want to!

So, I have a random question for everyone. I feel like everyone has a "default position" at home. It could be sitting in a certain chair, or on a certain couch with your feet on a certain table. Whatever it is...I feel like everyone has a place that they put themselves when they are relaxing at home. I have found that, at least recently, mine is laying head to toe with Munchkin on the sofa. She lays at one end, and I either sit or lay at the other, depending on whether I am working on my laptop or not. It's cozy:-)

Now, if she is not around, the default position totally changes. The Boy and I don't fit that way, so we need to work a totally different set-up! But, on a standard weeknight when we are all home...you can find me and Munchkin all tucked in and cuddled on the sofa.

So...do you have a default position at home? If so, what about it makes it so comfortable?

p.s. We made chocolate chip cookies last night, and I intend to eat the entire rest of the batch tonight:-D

Let's hope the contagious phase is gone.

Sorry for being out of touch for a couple of days, I got sidetracked with some stuff. And I am WAY behind on reading blogs, which I hope to catch up on this week...

I am sort of wishing that I had done Blog Secret, because I think it sounds like a lot of fun. And I have PLENTY of secrets. But, alas, I sort of chickened out. The things that I would write, well, I am kind of certain that they would be easily traceable back to me, and, well...then it's not a secret anymore, is it?

Anyway, moving on...it has been a crazy couple of days, and I am glad to be in the office with just my own notes from the last couple of days to go through and no pressing items. I guess I owe you some updates...

To start with, Munchkin really was sick...and not just a cold. We went to the doctor on Friday morning and found out that she had something of a virus tied to a respiratory infection that needed some drugs to get rid of. Also, later in the day I found out that two of her best friends had the same thing, so whatever it was, they caught it together, or one got it and passed it to the others.

Unfortunately, I had a bunch of stuff that I HAD to do out of the office on Friday, so I had to leave her home for pretty much the whole day. Just getting her to the doctor and back totally zonked her out, though, and she said she went back to be when she got home and didn't wake up until 3:00 in the afternoon. I stayed in with her on Friday night while The Boy went out with some friends. Digression...how could they kill Jim on Ghost Whisperer? Seriously, that is total bullshit!!!

Anyway, Munchkin was still a mess on Saturday, but started to feel a little better by Sunday. She was still super tired and kind of foggy, but he color was back and she was up and around a little bit more. I kept her home yesterday to be safe, but she is back at school today and feeling most of the way back to herself. I am hoping that this little bout is completely gone in a couple of days or else I may have to rethink our plans to go to Chicago this weekend. If she is still fighting a lingering illness, traveling will only make it worse...we will have to see.

Despite all of this, I managed to get an enormous amount of little shit done this weekend...random errands and such. So I feel pretty good about all of that. That oil change and new watch battery are really improving my quality of life!

OK...back to work now, I guess. I have three days worth of interview notes to put together into a cohesive memo, and I am loving that I have a whole day of peace and quiet in my cube to do it. Well, except maybe for lunch:-D

Quick notes

Brief post today because I have no time, but I don't think I will post again until Tuesday, so I didn't want to just dissapear.

Munchkin is very sick still, so I have to take her to the Doctor this morning to make sure nothing is seriously wrong. Fingers crossed.

The Boy is the most awesomest boy ever for staying home with her yesterday. He was amply rewarded in ways that only I really know;-). And his condo sale went off without a hitch. Yay!

Work stuff today and Monday, so I have to get her home and back to bed and then skedaddle as fast as I can to get to more meetings all day long.

And kind of a busy weekend, lots of little things to do, all of which could be cancelled if my little nugget's health does not improve.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Catch ya on the flip side:-)

On Romance

Oh my poor Munchkin is really sick, and she is not getting better:-(. She stayed on the couch pretty much all day, went through a trillion tissues, threw up a couple times and basically just felt miserable. She did keep her dinner down, which is a good sign...and I made her get up an shower, which made her feel better.

We also watched "The Game Plan", starring The Rock... Kinda cute, actually. And not just because it was filmed here! I know, it is campy and cheesy and predictable and blah blah blah. I thought it was cute!!!

Anyway, Munchkin is still in rough shape, so no school tomorrow. I was home with her all afternoon today, and I'd love to stay home with her tomorrow, but I have to go to an all day (or most day) meeting out of the office. This is also part of the reason that I am blogging tonight;-) So, this is tomorrow morning's post...

The Boy is being super awesome and staying home with her. He was only going to work half a day anyway, since he is closing on the sale of his condo in the morning (I am not supposed to jinx it until the papers are signed, but everything is in place...i.e., the loan is funded;-)...so I think it is safe.) But now he is gonna stay home except for a quick trip to the lawyers office to sign some stuff.

I have to be honest, this could as romantic as anything he has ever done for me:-)

Random Facts About My Father

I have one awfully sick little Munchkin at home:-(. The poor kid is really a mess, and I kept her home from school today. I am going to try and get out of here at lunchtime and work from home this afternoon. She has a fever and a runny nose and she is coughing and she couldn't keep her dinner down last night. Look like more soup for her today:-)

The Boy has already said that he can stay home with her tomorrow if she is still sick...how sweet is he? Best surrogate big brother ever! Hopefully she is feeling better, but I have a feeling she will be home again...she will have to make a pretty big recovery by this afternoon for me to let her go to school. I will know that she feels better if she gets mad at me for not letting her go out this weekend!!!

So...I found out something really interesting yesterday. I called my Aunt (father's sister) to talk about our visit in a couple of weeks. She told me that she had just gotten a really nice phone call from one of my father's friends. It was Veteran's Day, so he was calling some of his army buddies.

Say what?

Um...my father was in the army? You wanna know a good way to tell that you didn't have a real close relationship with your father? When you find out two years after he died that he was in the army. So, I got the whole story from my Aunt.

Not surprisingly, this was related to one of his many brushes with the law. Several years after I was born (she thought it was maybe 1985), he enlisted as a means of diminishing or possibly eliminating some sentence for doing something. My Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents were all, understandably, pretty excited about this. They hoped it would clean him up, instill some discipline and get him onto the right track.

Of course, none of that worked out. He wasn't in the army very long, and in fact got kicked out after like six months for doing something that gets you kicked out of the army. That explains why there were no pictures of him in uniform at his funeral...the whole thing was pretty well forgotten. But, apparently he made at least one friend who wanted to call his baby sister on Veteran's Day to share stories...so I guess it wasn't all bad.

And that, friends, is the story of my father the (not so) Veteran.

OK, maybe not potato chips, but how about ice cream?

First of all, this is the funniest picture I have ever seen, over at Snarky's place.

So, Tinkerbelle isn't coming for Thanksgiving, which is sort of a bummer. But she is coming around Christmas, which is super awesome:-). Munchkin and I are going to Chicago the weekend before Thanksgiving, and it seemed kind of silly to have Tinkerbelle then come back three days later. So we all decided to put it off for a bit, which will make for a very festive Christmas:-) I'll need another stocking!!!

Speaking of Munchkin, she is sick:-( She came down with a cold yesterday and it isn't any better today. Poor thing...she slept from about 7:00 last night until I left this morning. Fortunately she has no school today, so she can stay home and rest without missing anything. Hopefully I can sneak home at lunch to check on her.

I think maybe I need to reign her schedule in a bit...she tends to run herself sort of ragged between school and sports and friends and everything else. I will have to keep an eye on it. I should also do a better job of trying to make sure that she eats well...I find myself having fewer meals with her now, and I have to figure out some way to make sure that she is not eating total garbage when I am not with her. Potato chips are NOT one of the four major food groups;-)

Teenagers...what are you gonna do?

Totally on another subject...have you ever noticed that random situations tend to come in waves? This is true of the blog world, too...it has come to my attention that at least three different female bloggers have found themselves in a very similar romantic situation in the last couple of weeks. Details and identities are unimportant, but the short version is "meeting someone at the tail end of another relationship."

What I find odd is that I actually think, based on what they have written, that I would have totally different advice for all three of them. Hmm...maybe I should work on my consistency;-)

Juno

I have two things today, unrelated to each other. First, I have seen a lot of blog outrage over the State of California's rejection of gay marriage last Tuesday. I can't say that I am super surprised...whenever given the chance, voters have resoundingly voted against gay marriage... but like a lot of people, I thought maybe California would have treated this a little differently than some other states.

And, in truth, it was different. Just not different enough. Several years ago, a ballot initiative in California turned down gay marriage by something like 70-30, and this time it was 52-48. My question is...how much (if any) of the opposition was a reaction to the Supreme Court's "activism" of last year? I haven't really seen it discussed, so I don't know if it was a factor at all, but there is often a lot of resentment towards judges "overreaching" and making laws from the bench. So, maybe some of my California readers can chime in let me know if that was at all a factor...if some voters just didn't like the idea that the Court had thrown out a ballot initiative and this was just a way to get back at them.

Just a thought.

-----

Totally separate subject.

I watched Juno twice this weekend. I had never seen it before, and while I always wanted to, I just never got around to it. But I saw it Saturday and then it was on again yesterday so I watched it again. Not surprisingly, I have some thoughts.

First off, I had no idea how complex the relationships were. Between Juno and Bleeker, and the three-side relationship between Juno and Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. But you know who my favorite character in the whole move is? Juno's Dad. Right, I know...deep psychological jealousies of girls and their fathers, blah blah blah.

I love him because he is kind of a simple character who is almost completely absorbed with the happiness of his daughter and the rest of his family. And, at the very end, he says something to her that I think is more perfect than anything that anyone could really ever say. She is laying in bed in he hospital, obviously exhausted from the delivery, and also probably overcome by the emotion of immediately giving up the baby. Her father says "Someday you will be back here. On your own terms." I dunno...it just got me. Every girl should have parents like that.

One more week closer to retirement

Happy Friday everyone:-) Seriously, there is almost nothing bad about Fridays...they totally rule.

Yikes...the fire alarm just went off!!! LOUD!!! I just realized that, instead of sit here for a minute and a half while it went off, maybe I should have been evacuating? Are fire alarms really that effective if everyone assumes that they are always false alarms? Hmm...I will have to leave this for another day...

I don't really have a whole lot to talk about today. Pretty big crowd for chicken fingers last night...The Boy came, as did Smoking Hot Roommate and the Rocket Scientist. Big Sis met us there, as did The Boy's Twin Sister. When Munchkin is in college, am I going to make her meet me for dinner every week? Probably...lol.

Not a whole lot up for the weekend. I have a whole bunch of little shit to do tomorrow...I have to get the battery in my watch replaced, pay some bills, go to the grocery store, buy some other shit...nothing terribly exciting. We are going out with some of The Boy's friends tomorrow night, which will be fun...we haven't seen them in a while. I think we are having Chinese food with SHR and The Rocket Scientist tonight, that is a little up in the air.

Oh, I know what I meant to cover...Celebrity Rehab. I think this is one of my favorite shows. It has some really funny parts, but it can also be really insightful into the mental, emotional and physical manifestations of substance abuse. I think much of the interest is to see people that are naturally self-absorbed and spoiled become sort of vulnerable and accountable. It shows you a more accurate picture of people, me thinks. Jeff Conway, for example, is just an asshole. And Gary Busey...yikes...

I think my favorite people are Rodney King, Steven Adler and Amber Smith. Although, Tawny Kitaen is sort of growing on me, she seems to be losing her facade a little bit. I thought I would hate Rod Stewart's son, but maybe he isn't so bad...we will have to see.

Capsizing the boat, though? That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen...

Election Recap

Sorry to not post yesterday...it had nothing to do with a post-election hangover, and everything to do with the boys at work convincing me to play hooky and go golfing with them:-) How could we not? It was like 70 degrees outside! It's November! We are morally obligated to take advantage of that.

I learned a valuable lesson about golfing in the Fall, though...you lose the ball under leaves a lot! That was kind of super annoying:-)

OK...election. Very few surprises, really...things pretty much followed the final polls pretty closely. A pretty resounding win for Obama, obviously. I do, however, have some issues with the analysis of the event. Namely:

1) Obama went to great lengths to not be "The Black Candidate". He did an enormous amount of work and was hugely successful in being and standing for so much more than that. So, I was a little disappointed when, right when they called the race, the talking heads all of a sudden reverted exclusively to talking about his race. I don't want to say that it was insulting to him, but I really feel like it sort of belittles what he has accomplished. He deserved a more robust reading of what he had just accomplished.

2) I heard at least three different people refer to Obama as a "transformational figure." How absurd is that? Don't you kind of have to be President first before you can transform anything? Can we maybe let him actually govern first? George Washington was a transformational figure. So were both Roosevelts, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Heck, I would buy Andrew Jackson as a transformational figure. And Obama very well could be...but let's actually let him transform something first.

3) Can we please ignore this nonsense about whether the country is right-of-center or left-of-center or whether this is an acceptance of Obama's ideals and yada yada yada. This election was about exactly one issue: George Bush. Obama won because McCain was more identified with Bush than he was, and Bush is wildly unpopular. Everything else was basically a rounding error in the polls. When we try and take lessons from this election (as we always do) it is foolish to look much beyond that.

4) I sincerely hope that the worldwide love for Obama is not based on a feeling that he will consider the interests of other nations ahead of our own. Or, if it is, I hope that they are wrong. I am all for open communication, and for articulating and promoting our ideals. In fact, that could well be Bush's greatest failing: an inability (or unwillingness) to properly articulate why his actions were in our interest, why they are in others' interests and why we have to do things that others disagree with. But make no mistake...the President of the United States of America should be concerned with serving no constituency other than the citizens of the United States of America. I trust Obama to effectively articulate whatever message he is trying to get across...I simply hope that the message is appropriate.

So, there are my flash thoughts for the day. I didn't vote for him, but I am not really unhappy with his election. I am sure he will make mountains of mistakes...they all do...and will almost certainly struggle to meet the absurd expectations that every President starts with. But I know he is smart, and I trust him to work hard, and that seems like as good as start as any.

And honestly, he has to be cool... he is from Chicago after all;-)

Election Experiment...um...Inconclusive

Ahh...the big day is here! There may be very little suspense left in the election (unless the pollsters are totally and completely wrong, which is possible, if unlikely) but it is still a great day. It is like the Super Bowl for civics geeks! I should warn you...this is gonna be a very long post, so beware (even though I cut out the parts about why I would rather we didn't encourage people to vote. Seriously, if you can't figure out why it is important on your own, then I would rather you not dilute my say.)

First, my election experiment proved...um...almost nothing. I am not sure that I initially set out to be impartial, but I was never really strongly in favor about any of the candidates, so I think that my thoughts came off pretty much down the middle. I have been leaning for some time now, but as the election neared, I made a more conscious effort to focus on objective analysis of the candidates instead of opinions.

I assumed that there would be some correlation between people's leanings and their perceptions of my leanings. Either you would assume that I was voting for the other guy because the criticism of your guy would sting too much, or you would read the criticism of the other guy as evidence that I was on your side. In the end? It made little difference. I got 23 responses...11 thought that I agreed with you and 12 thought that I disagreed. It didn't matter which candidate you liked...pretty evenly mixed on both sides. So...my grand experiment proved...um...nothing!!!

It did prove that there was little leaning apparent in my thoughts. A summary of results:

Who are you or would you vote for?
Obama 13
McCain 9
Other/Undecided 2

Who do you think I am voting for?
Obama 13
McCain 10
Other/Undecided 1

Where do you live?
Georgia (5)
California, Connecticut (3)
North Carolina, Virginia (2)

Oregon, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New York (1)

Germany (2)

Canada, Wales (1)

So, people maybe sensed a minor leaning, but not much...and there was very little correlation between who people are voting for and who they thought I would vote for. Also, Georgians love me... I should move!

So, anyway, my experiment was kind of a letdown...I didn't get the results I was really hoping for. But...I still have to vote! And I am sure that you are all dying to know who I am going to vote for! Or, maybe not...but you are gonna hear anyway:-P

I am, through somewhat gritted teeth, going to vote for McCain. I could give you like 40 reasons why I shouldn't, and why I don't really want to...but in the final analysis, I simply agree with his view of Government more than I do Obama's. For me, this involves prioritizing issues...I agree with Obama on abortion, and guns, and on parts of his education ideas, and some other stuff as well. I agree with McCain on taxes, spending and entitlements and immigration. I think McCain is more prepared and willing to do what is in the best interests of the country abroad...I feel like Obama would be much more concerned with being liked.

I find them both to be embarrassingly wrong on energy and (especially) health care. When I tally these things up, I agree with McCain on what I consider to be the more important issues. I think it is important to note here, that I firmly believe that energy will be THE defining issue of the next 40 years. I would have voted for either of them if he had put forth a coherent, reasonable energy plan, but neither did. Obama is more specific and environmentally conscious, but McCain's is more realistically effective ("throw everything at it...we shouldn't be eliminating any options right now").

Basically, I would like the next President to address our long-term solvency. We have a massive budget deficit and national debt that is a complete pox on my generation. There are basically two ways to try and close that: raise taxes and cut spending.

Actually, there is only one way...the structure of our entitlement programs is such that we can not pay for them, no matter what we set tax rates at. We HAVE to cut benefits, and the math is simple enough for everyone to understand. Which of these two do I think is more likely to control spending? That's actually an easy one...McCain, despite some recent lapses, has been a pretty avid controller of spending throughout his entire career in the Senate. Obama has no record on this, but his entire philosophy of government says that he will continue to grow the size of government.

So, there you have it...in a nutshell, I am voting for McCain because I think he will spend less. How is that for summing up the longest, most expensive and most interesting political race in the history of the world...

By the way, I am going to vote tonight after work, so you can still try and change my mind;-)

Ladybug

Gooooood morning:-) Did everyone have a happy, festive, candy-filled weekend? I did...and I am currently eating a leftover cupcake that was in the kitchen for breakfast. Score!!!

Excellent responses so far on Friday's election question...please keep them coming if you haven't responded yet! Brandy is sort of onto what I am doing, but I will give you the full details tomorrow, along with the results. In other, random election news, Obama's illegal alien Aunt lives near me...whoo hoo!!!

I am fairly certain that none of you had a more fun weekend than I did:-) Not that you would have had as much fun doing what I did, but it was fun for me. I got to Tinkerbelle's house in plenty of time to Trick of Treat on Friday, so I got to take her over to meet up with a couple of our cousins and take them all out:-) Tinkerbelle was a lady bug, and she was so cute that it gave me chest pains to look at her...lol. Black tights, big, round red sack with black polka dots, antenna...adorable!

I stayed with them both nights, so I got up Saturday and made her breakfast, and then we went out to...um...kinda to do nothing. We went shopping but didn't really buy anything. We met BFFg for lunch, then went over to our Aunt and Uncles house to hang out for a bit...a bunch of cousins and whatnot were there. I was hoping to go out with the BFF's and BFFg's new boyfriend (that I set her up with...) but I decided to babysit instead. Tinkerbelle's Mom had a date:-D.

Sunday was sort of the same...woke up, made breakfast, hung out, took her to a birthday party, helped her with some schoolwork and then had to go home. All in all, a really nice weekend with lots and lots of Tinkerbelle time! When Munchkin and I go back soon I will fit in some other people, but I really missed the little nugget, so I was glad to spend some time with her. Oh, and who thinks she should come spend Thanksgiving with me:-D?

Got home at a pretty reasonable hour...in time for The Boy to make us dinner, which was lovely of him. OK...so dinner was frozen tortellini, but it was still yummy:-). I don't keep him around for his culinary skills;-).

And now, back to work, with the election looming! My gut says that Obama wins in a rout...like, not at all close, but pollsters have been wrong before... More on this tomorrow. Until then, keep warm!