Rainbows! Ponies! Hearts! Love! Hugs! (bleargh!!)

“She must not air out her mind much” – Robin

That quote from a comment by Robin  (which makes me laugh every time I think of it) – is sooooo apropos for that which I am about to rant.

Raise your hand if you are on Facebook.

Now tell me if you have a friend like this in your list. One whose every status update makes you think of something like this:

Their lives are constantly *awesome!*  Their status updates cover things like “I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!” or “Looking forward to the weekend with loving family and hubby!” or “Thanking God every day for my many blessings!” or…well..you get it right? They are never stressed, or busy, or cold, or hot, or sick or in any way posting about anything other than Love & Happiness!

Now, I am largely a very very positive person. I mean, I’m the gal who treated the Power of Positive Thinking for Teens book as my bible in high school (and drove quite a few friends a little batty with it!). It really is my first instinct to view anything/anyone in a positive light.  And sure, the title of this blog seems on the surface to be all sweetness & light right? But it’s a cover for something a tad more – ironic. As anyone knows, I don’t ONLY think that way. There are times when things irritate me. Occasionally. Maybe. (oh shut up and stop laughing!) I think I strike a pretty good balance in my twitters, facebook updates & blog posts between rants & positive observations. Because that is LIFE. A mixed bag of nuts. There is just NO WAY that anyone can live in My Little Pony world all the time, right?

Don’t get me wrong. I am VERY happy for those who are so so happy. Really. I can cheer lead with the best of them. But, around the umpteenth straight update like that and I’m rolling my eyes and making the gagging gesture because honey, that’s all just a little too piled high and deep for me. Who are you trying to convince that life is all peaches & cream? Your friends? Or you?

 

Washington DC Trip Part 3 – The Capitol (Steps)

Friday after the first White House tour we traveled by metro to the Capitol & went to pick up the tickets for that tour (hence the photo outside of Congressman Joe Wilson’s office).  I just loved that anyone who could pass through a metal detector could just wander in the halls of the Congressional offices. There were staffers in all the offices and while the doors were mostly closed, they were unlocked and you didn’t need an appointment to be there. If I knew where my Congressman’s office was, I could have popped in to have a chat with his staff. Now *that’s* open government!

Think of it – everything in DC is free. It all belongs to US. Every museum & monument & government building we visited was free. THAT is pretty damn awesome.

So, the Capitol. A truly stunning building.

This is not the side where the oath is given, I was never up close to that, but I did see it from up in the Washington monument on Sunday (that post comes later).

We entered the Capitol in the newly opened visitors center which is pretty amazing all by itself.

View of dome from visitor center glass ceiling entrance

Now, here I stupidly forgot I had a camera. I’m just a terrible picture taker & often feel it’s a burden more than fun. Once inside the center, I could have and should taken more photos, especially of the version of the Liberty Statue (which sits atop the dome) that they had in there. Also should have taken more while on the Capitol tour, but other than some inside dome shots below – nada. Sigh. So off to the web I go to fill in some blanks!

Freedom statue

The Capitol tour was guided thank heavens. The inside of the dome was every bit as breath taking as you’ve heard. (These are my pics amazingly)

I really loved that painting I’ve focused on up there. Yes, it’s a painting, not a sculpture. See the man running kind of in the center? That’s the END of the painting. It starts up just to the right of that with the discovery of America. It then continues with scenes through history leading up to the Wright brothers flying their plane. Really cool.

Now to steal from the web again because I am a lame photographer:

Ronald Reagan statue in Capitol

I chose this one because you can see the base. You may need to click on this photo directly to open a larger version to really see the interesting part of this statue. Between the dark marble ledge and the lighter marble pedestal is about a 1 inch layer of broken bits of concrete. Why? “Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall!” Yes, they are pieces of the original Berlin Wall which came down during his administration. Lovely touch.

The Capitol Tour group

Still only 5 of us, but when we made our way to the the restaurant for an early dinner that evening we met up with three more. We ate at Ten Penh

- a lovely high end Asian restaurant that offered a pre performance meal that included an appetizer, entree & dessert. Sadly, I again stunk as a photographer & took no photos of the food. I should have – it was yummy! I had Lumpia Spring Rolls, Grilled Beef Tenderloin (Bi Bim Bop), and Saigon Cinnamon Sugar Dusted donuts served with Dark Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding. Altogether now YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

We raced from dinner to the Reagan Theatre of a performance of The Capitol Steps:

Go to that website right NOW and see if they will be *anywhere* near you. Then GO! Oh my gosh we laughed our cheeks off!! A couple of us literally laughed until we had a headache. Their satirical songs about current events in politics will slay you. They are so so darn spot on. The gal who played Hillary? Nailed it! But then so did all of their characters. Obama, Pelosi, Bush (W), Bill Clinton – all brilliant. One number wasn’t even using political characters – it was the Cher & Bob Dylan impersonations that had us falling out of our chairs.And Lirty Dies? Amazing!! Stunning! Tongue tying! Spoonerisms used to tell political tales. DIED laughing.

Anyway, enough telling you about, just trust me – all eight of us completely loved it. Just GO!

Despite being exhausted from the laughter, we still gathered in one hotel room and talked and laughed more into the night. Those conversations at the end of every day are the cherry on top of our reunions.

Quickie DC report

I’m sitting in the hotel restaurant having lunch as I wait for my airport shuttle. Last one here. It’s been the usual weekend of wonderful company with tons of laughter (gobs really), counselling, great food and sightseeing. Here’s the few photos I took with my phone that I can post right away. The rest, and there are a lot, will have to wait until later this week when I can get them off my camera. It’s been so liberating NOT having the laptop!!
We had to leave cameras behind on White House tours so here’s a few from the North lawn as we exited the grounds on Sat and then a Capitol shot and the Washington monument from yesterday.

New blog recommendation

Everyone take some time this weekend to check out the essays of one of the best damn writers anywhere.

My Imperfect Truth

The writer is a lady who started referring to me as her Cyber Twin when we first ‘met’ on the MotherTalkers site. Being on the east coast she would be commenting on topics many hours before me – and almost ALWAYS saying exactly what I would say! I would just drop in and say “ditto what Katie said” and leave Recently Katie started writing these wonderful essays on Face book and some she would post at MT. And they floored me. For here is where we part ways. Girlfriend can flat out WRITE. She pours her heart out in such a clear and concise way with descriptions that take you right *there* with her and often up piercing your heart in the process. She lives out in New Hampshire and I’ve been no where near there since our cyber meeting, but one day I WILL meet this fantastic woman and her family.

I promise you will be mightily entertained!

NN09 Day 3, Sat Aug 15, Part 1

First thing in the morning as always – shake off that veil of weary, find food and settle in for a morning conversation between Baratunde Thurston and President Obama’s Senior Adviser – Valerie Jarret:

Just as with Howard Dean the morning before, they took questions via Twitter and also via the audience’s written questions on note cards. My takeaway from the session? The country is in way better hands with a President with THIS Special Adviser than we were with the last one (Karl *gack* Rove…sorry…reference to him always makes me gag). Sharp on her feet and a very worthy representative for the White House to send. However, now a week later I have to admit that I don’t remember a lot of what was said! Mostly because she wisely did not make news. Also because she spoke with us *before* Obama and some others started to walk away from a firm support of a Public Option in health care reform which is a HUGE issue with Progressives. She dodged a bullet with her timing for sure!

I moved on from there to a panel on Citizen Funded elections which have been successfully implemented at a few local levels. One of my favorite speakers from NN08 was on the panel – Professor Lawrence Lessig. His organization is called Change Congress and he is really trying to get the special interest money out of the election process. Realistically I see this as an uphill battle, but as a practical matter it is certainly (IMHO) the right way to go and he has some vocal and wealthy supporters from both sides of the aisle in his movement.

Then on to lunch with included a conversation on the Economy which included Gov Corzine from New Jersey, BUT, I was finally sitting with two of my buddies who I had yet to talk to and well, we talked! So I truly have no idea what was said in the panel (oops!).

From there I went to the panel on DOJ scandals which featured former Alabama Gov Don Seigleman who we at DailyKos grew quite attached to as we watched in horror at his arrest and subsequent jailing in a maximum security prison (even doing time in solitary) over a charge of appointing a donor to his campaign to a symbolic post. Umm…doesn’t that sound rather vaguely like something that EVERY Mayor/Gov/President does?? Anyway, no matter how you slice his case, it had politicization and Karl (gack) Rove’s fingerprints all over the case. The Free Don! campaign was huge on DK in 2007-08 and we were thrilled to have him with us in Austin for NN08 and we continue to watch his saga unfold. Now, of course, the tables are turned and while it has since been made QUITE evident that the entire DOJ was used for political gain under Bush, it remains quite a travesty that so many Bush appointees are still serving despite their obvious bias in their posts.

And before anyone starts to cry out “oh, that’s just a zany left wing loony conspiracy theory!” just remember how MANY of those supposedly zany accusations during the Bush years have ended up being TRUE. Shoot, another just was revealed this week when former Homeland Security head Tom Ridge confirmed that the threat level was raised just before the 2004 election for purely political reasons. Something Keith Olbermann alluded to at the time it happened and of course, he was vilified. Trust me – I *wish* the tin foilers on my side were wrong!! I really do! But damn, after so many cards fall, how can I not take some of what they suspect seriously? At least when it comes to the Bush admin and Rove (gack) and Cheney and Rumsfield, I don’t take ANY accusations against them lightly. Chances are, they did it.

So after that I was supposed to join the Packing of The Boxes with the Netroots For the Troops gang. An awesome tradition born last year where we pack and send care packages to our troops in combat. However, they were done when I got there! It was so well organized this year that their 2 hour window of packing was not needed – they were done in less than an hour. So I was just around to photograph the aftermath – sorry for the quite crappy photo, but the iPhone has no flash, however, you can get idea of the group effort and see the finished pallets of boxes:

The NNFT group with their finished product

Now comes a fun little bit In the run up to NN09, funds needed to be raised in order to gather the supplies put into the boxes and of course for postage and packaging and customs forms. So the group you see up there took turns writing diaries to inspire folks to make donations. People would pledge based on the number of recommendations a diary would get or pledge a 1$ per comment (that got expensive let me tell you!), and then one fine day Bill got the brilliant idea to promise to dance if a certain amount was raised during one of his diaries. The promise was that he would dance on command anytime, anywhere during NN09 if he was asked. Well, some folks who had donated but couldn’t be at NN09 were clamoring for video of the dance. Hmmm…who just got the new iPhone with a video function?? So I waited for just the right moment – which I thought was right there in the middle of the exhibit hall with all of the NNFT crew around. So, I told Bill to dance:

Bill is such a good sport!

Meanwhile I just realized that this has gone too long already and I have more to post about the evening! I’ll pair that with the sad goodbyes of Sunday and some more pics of my dear dear friends.

NN09 Day 2, Friday Aug 14 (Part 1)

I realized after going through all my pictures that I was going to have to break this day up into two parts! I’ll push the total file up into Flickr, but even picking and choosing what to show in here was hard!

Day 2 started off with my only panel of the day – a morning town hall type event on health care with Howard Dean:

Gov Howard Dean

He picked up where President Clinton left off the night before by reminding us that elections don’t stop just because our candidates won – we have to keep communicating with the folks in DC on what it is we want them to do. Of course he addressed the near riots that had taken place in some town halls where debate was squashed as opponents simply shouted their rep’s down and largely shouted about utter lies being spread by the GOP opposition. And, of course, he was preaching to the choir Still, it was great to hear some sane, fact based discussion on the health care reforms.

But – that was it of political substance for me. The Boys and I started a tradition in Chicago in ‘07 of scooting out for some sightseeing and this was our day for it.  Thanks to some Guide to Pittsburgh diaries preceding the event, we knew we wanted to take what’s known as the P&LERR incline up for some city views. It was about an 8 block walk away from the hotel and across the Monongahela River. Gorgeous day, a little warm and humid of course, but not unbearably so at all. Here’s our desired destination, just to the right of the P&LERR building (more to come on that plain looking building)

P&LERR incline

Unfortunately I did not take any pics going up the incline. I was a tad nervous These little railway/gondola type cars are actually part of the city’s transit system. A round trip ride was $2.50. A lady riding with us as we went up had been using it as part of her commute for ages. Cracked me up since it seemed like a total touristy thing, but is really quite functional! Anyhow, it was from up on the overlook at the top that I posted some earlier pics, but here’s a few more:

Michael pretending he's scared

Ed, me, & Bill at the overlook

Cool building that looks like it belongs in a Batman movie

Zooming in with iPhone on the football stadium

From the overlook we went back down to the Riverfront Park where there were lots of places to eat and hey, it was lunchtime! Now, here’s where I tell you to back and look up there at the brick building. Looks like an office building right? Well, it’s the original Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rail Road station. Down there at the river’s edge was a rail road. Inside the bottom 3? 4? stories of the building was not offices, but a HUGE restaurant and saloon. I didn’t take pictures but here’s one I snagged from The Google:

Grand Concourse Restaurant

Pretty awesome eh? Since we were seeking a quiet, air conditioned, slow paced lunch, this fit the bill nicely. And I must say they served some of THE BEST soups ever! We each ordered a different one – Black Bean, Lobster Bisque and both types of clam chowder and then shared.  MMMMMMM. I’d go back just for the soup!

Walking back I noticed this cool ooking building kind of sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the usual down town office buildings (like the Batman one):

19th century bank building

Pittsburgh is an awesome city blending old and new. Very clean, walkable and easy to navigate. The rivers and bridges make it just beautiful. We were staying at The Westin which is across from the convention center and are LEEDS certified – meaning very very environmentally friendly. The hotel rooms had a key control for the lights and ventilation system so that rooms are not draining energy when no one is there.  As a tourist, it was a really fabulous location and I would go back again in a heartbeat. In fact, I might suggest it for the August moms one year!

Part 2 covering the evening at PNC park coming later.

It’s a Hard Knock Life!

Tonight SportsBoy and I took a trip down memory lane to his elementary school. You might remember last year when his then 6th grade class put on The Sound of Music as their play. The 6th grade play is a fantastic tradition at this school that all the kids look forward to as they progress through the grades. Since SB is good friends many of the kids from this year’s 6th grade group there thanks to football and baseball it was a given that we would go back to see this year’s production. One of his buddies is like SB and it was a given that he would try out because the lure of the stage and being a ham is as much a part of their personalities as is playing sports Not surprisingly, our #51 from baseball fame won the role as Daddy Warbucks and will see him performing that on Friday. They split the casts up and our remaining friends were on stage tonight.

 This 6th grade play brings out the ham in kids you would NEVER guess would try out!  I guess because they watch kids older than them who they look up to year after year go up on that stage and just have a blast. Tonight, 2 of those kids who are good friends of ours took to the stage with pretty prominent and damn funny roles. Seriously, I would have put down money that there was NO WAY our football coaches oldest son would go NEAR this! Sure, he’d maybe pull the curtains or run the lights, but perform? Heck no! Yet, there he was tonight, playing the the role of Rooster – aka, Mr Muuuudge. You need to say it like that you know. Drag out the uuuuu as you lower your voice.Given that not only SB, but also Muudge’s younger brother and two other football teammates were in attendance? Oh yeah, his name is Muuudge! Oh, but he was GOOD! He sang and danced and just had me giggling like crazy.

Then there was another baseball buddy who played radio announcer Bert Healey. And oh did he PLAY it! He had to sing “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” and also dance and truly BE a spotlight hogger. Again, as SB would tell you – this is a kid who you have to almost *force* to smile. He’s not morose mind you, just a very quiet, mellow kid in public. Well, then he is a heckava great actor because he was just the opposite tonight and I really busted out laughing as did the entire audience because many of us knew how out of character that was for him.

Truly entertaining for sure! I cannot wait to see the other cast do this again on Friday.

Another one bites the dust

It’s an odd thing when someone frays your last nerve.

It takes a lot for that happen to me.

You see, I am an optimist by nature. Power Of Positive Thinking (POPT) and all that. Now, I am not unrealistically so. Not Pollyanna. It’s just that my way of dealing with life is to think of the glass as half full. I’m hopeful. I’ll think about the worst case scenario just to address it as a possibility and figure out how I would deal with it, but then I walk back to a position of optimism and focus on a positive solution to whatever the issue may be. As such, my first impression of most anyone is usually that I will like you. It’s a VERY rare time when I don’t like someone on sight. I’m also very forgiving. I’ve been accused of  ‘making excuses’ for people in the past. Sure, I see that, but I believe we should all be given chances ya know? It’s really truly a rare thing when one human being, in the average life, does anything truly unforgivable to another. Really. On the whole, you are not going to encounter pure evil. Also on the whole, people may do unkind things to each other, but again, rarely is it pre meditated. Most likely in the course of going about your day you will rub someone the wrong way or step on someone’s toes and should that be brought to your attention before you figure it out, you will feel remorse and perhaps make amends. That is just my overall, high majority experience with people. So, I am not black and white all or nothing, you’re with me or against me, ya know? I’ll find something to like about you when I first meet you, I’ll focus on those positives and I’ll forgive your transgressions for the most part, especially if you show a capacity for learning and growing. Oh, and an open mind will get you close to my heart pretty quickly.

Though I do get actually more riled up if you transgress against a friend of mine vs against me. I’ve also been called loyal to a fault

So there ya go. A recipe for the dog house. Repeated offenses against me with double point value if friends are hurt. An incapacity to learn and a mind closed like a steel trap. If I really think about it, I think I can count 4 people who made their way there in my life. That’s not bad really. But it really does take a LOT for me to write someone off.

And now there are five.

See ya!

Happy Cinco de Drinko de Adoption Day!

I could also throw in Happy Gay Marriage in Maine Day since the Maine house voted to support a gay marraige initiative, but they still need the Governor to sign to make that Official so I’ll hold off the true celebration just yet.

No, what REALLY has my heart filled with joy is the arrival of Adoption Day for a wonderful Fmaily in Wisconsin. I’ve known Dan and Jen online since 2005.  Pastordan and Mrs P. The only church services I’ve attended the last few years are PD’s Interfaith Service gatherings on the Sunday of Yearlykos/Netroots Nation. They were blessed with their children two years ago. Read all about it here and here (with pics). Of course they have been a family from the start. But much like gay couples who have been ‘married’ forever, that validation from a judge and signing those official, legal papers has made it all seem that much more real and permanent. So Cheers to the Schultz Family on Adoption Day!

And hopefully Cheers and a wedding invite soon from a certain couple in Maine.

Oh yeah – Happy Cinco de Mayo too

Blessed rain

One would think from reading here and knowing about my typically busy lifestyle centered on my son’s sports activities that a 4 day block of rain would be most unwelcomed especially over the weekend. However, given the week I’ve had, I said Bring It On!

It was just one of those weeks. A couple of nights with not the best sleep. A couple of nights with my stomach misbehaving (toast! must have plain toast! ). Month end at work meaning staying focused no matter what. I stayed home after the worst sleepless night and still ended up working for 4 hours to keep up with the pace. Pop Warner board meeting one night. Sports Boy at his dad’s but I still stay on top of his homework since he is here after school most days. I also still coordinate his baseball practices and the necessary gear. Been on the prowl for properly fitting baseball pants for both Little League and travel ball (different colors for each of course!) along with the right color belts. His new LL coach (did you hear that old time readers – I said NEW LL coach! Huzzah!) is being rather particular about thei”r uniforms so I had to get just the right brand/style/color.  One of the other baseball moms has been a godsend recommending a great store for the gear and introducing me to the very nice guy who runs it  who called around to get the right size for me so I think after today I finally got it all together. I texted SportsBoy as I left the store that I got the pants and belts, because, you know, I was excited that it was all DONE. His response? “k”

K?

Sigh…someday he will understand just how much effort I make coordinating between my full time job and the volunteer jobs and all his activities. Wont he? I know. Don’t hold my breath.

But hey, there were highlights this week too.

I think it is majorly cool that Senator Claire McCaskill is on Twitter. And that she tweets like a regular user, not like..well..a Senator!

I am blown away that I have over 300 friends on Face Book. But I am also LOVING it there! I even now have at least two examples of “crossover” friends who I know two different ways so the social circles are intersecting. I found out how to ‘group’ friends which is fun. I love how every day I have a conversation there with someone. This morning I chatted with Bill & Michael before I got going for the day. I have online conversations with literally dozens of friends each day. No way I would be keeping in touch with so many with just the telephone!!

Twitter is the same way for me. For instance, my friend Patti is taking a huge step in her life and has left Connecticut to move in with her boyfriend in Denver. Again, for old time readers, yeah, it is the same guy she met at Yearly Kos in Chicago when she was my room mate. The loss of sleep was SO worth it to see her find an awesome guy who adores her! Anyway, I’ve known where she was every step in her drive because she has sent regular updates. She’s stopping to visit friends along the way who we both know and then I get updates from them as well. Again, no way the phone would work out the same way!

SB is starting off 2nd semester well so far. No missing assignments – yet – which is, I think, a record for him for # of days without a zero He also got an 85 on his first math quiz this week proving that he was right about being confident about the chapter they were working on. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about his chances of success at school.

Trader Joes! I know, probably the last person on the planet (you’ll notice that’s a theme with me) to fall in love with that place, but the thing is, there isn’t one convenient to me! I’m all ABOUT convenience. But recently I did end up places that were close to one so I popped in. The first two times I had SB with me which meant kind of quick trips but it was enough to find things that we all LOVED. Their frozen section? Heaven! Our Super Bowl eats were all from there and it is the perfect source of single serving food for me when he is not here.  Today though, I was on my own and could browse. Dangerous. My freezer is now full and I should have enough food for two weeks. I better! I think I will be finding a way to get to TJ’s from now on

John and Kate + 8! I saw Kate on Larry King the other night talking about Octo-mom (you know, the mom with the octuplets who already had 6 kids?) and I just loved her right away so I finally caught a couple of episodes tonight and was just laughing like crazy. I love how real they are. And those kids are adorable. I love how one of the boys said “I fall down every day” so matter of factly as he brushed off his pants. Not a whimper. Brushed off his pants and kept on going. Just shrugged it off. “I fall down every day” I think we can all take a lesson from that attitude eh?

Down time – not feeling 100% every night meant some forced down time away from the computer and despite all of my ravings about some fun interaction on the social networking sites, I do need time away from it too. And that forced time helped me see that. So this weekend I am enjoying the rain. The sound of it outside and on my skylight. The fact that it is doing my outside chores for me. That it means no baseball events. So after a lazy morning after a great night of sleep I caught up on some running around chores and then settled in from a couple of hours of reading. Reading words on paper. Not a screen. With a fire in the fireplace. As the rain came down. Heavenly.