Hip kid or sensible parents? I say both!

Leave a comment

picture from www.dwell.com

As my conversations begin to include health insurance premiums and family alongside the old reliables of beerfests and artfests so do my thoughts of little ones. Three friends of mine have children well beyond the baby age but a whole new crop of babies have been born to friends in the last year. As my friends continue to procreate I am learning the many do’s and don’ts of parental decor. And the best way to achieve fashion and function for baby’s living space.

Last week Joe and I took a jaunt OTP(that is outside the perimeter for you non-Atlantans, AKA the ‘burbs) to Newnan to visit a former coworker of his. Newnan and its neighbor next door Peachtree City are where most pilots go to spawn their young. It is sterile and suburban(30 minutes outside of the city limits), with a little bit of kitch (golf carts are the low mpg auto of choice in Peachtree City).

When you walk in to their home you see that the couple have a seven month old son, he does not have them. Allow me to explain. While watching HGTV this weekend I saw a couple who were unable to sell their home after many. many months on the market. Upon further inspection it was painfully obvious that its lack of saleability had to do with the obscene amount of baby stuff that had taken over the house. Kudzu had nothing on the teetering piles of balls, baubles and binkys. The beautiful hardwoods in the dining room had been covered by a foam puzzle piece mat of the alphabet. The amazing black granite counter tops in the kitchen were covered with formula containers and baby bottles. They were told the home would never sell in it’s current Baby’s-R-Us state and they needed to do a clean up immediately.

Flash to Newnan, GA. The perfect balance of baby and sanity. Baby Preston sits on a palette in the living room with several toys and his Baby Einstein activity walker close by. He is the picture of class. No piles of toys or gargantuan playpen/castle/dinosaur houses; only a baby gate and the staircase to protect him from his own curiosity. During dinner he sat in a smaller more demure walker that was housed in the corner of the dining room. Used during meals with guests, the walker was equipped with one of his favorite toys, a plastic water bottle half full of marbles. The toy, his fathers invention, kept him captivated until he surrendered to sleep.

Oh Lord (and opinionated friends) tell us when Joe and I go wrong. Actually never let us go into the black hole of baby clutter. Never let me say, “Oh well you know…the baby…” Let me keep my anal retentiveness that has brought me so far in such an orderly fashion! And let yu live by the same tidy rules with your very own spawn.

One person

Leave a comment

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~Edward Everett Hale

I really like quotes and the one above is a good one I think. I am only one person but several of us one persons gathered at a house in Kirkwood, Atlanta. We found each other through the internet, where one persons of similar ilk find each other. We were all Democrats and gave our Sunday afternoon to calling other Democrats in the relatively red state of Indiana. Their stories were of lonliness and feeling as if they were the only blue fleck in a crimson ocean. Many lived in small suburbs of medium suburbs. They were not used to seeing or hearing from other blue flecks. We continuted to call anyway. Urging them all to go to their local Democratic headquarters and volunteer their time and their voices to the cause. Trying to give them hope and the encouragement to go out and volunteer in their communities.

During the posting of results on Tuesday night I kept my eye on the state. I knew it was considered a battleground state and was not sure how it would go. I remembered one of the women I spoke with who had four kids and a full time job but she had managed to find the time to volunteer. She could only give a few hours, but she knew she had to give something. She was one person also. Obama won Indiana. I hope that woman tells her children of the lesson she learned during this election. The power of one person is still power.

Just as we have worked together to see our candidate be named to the highest office, we must also work together to keep this wave of positive change progressing in our communities. We are in dire times but we know the impossible can happen. Bad can turn to good and darkness does turn to dawn even if there is only one person there to flip the switch. I am not some naive fool who thinks that all of our problems will be solved over night. But I am excited to see That One take his shot at flipping that switch.

Drinking the Kool-Aid or the Malt liquor??

Leave a comment

Just a few things before this show is over. I always have an opinion on just about everything and this is my final rant about this election and all of the craziness that has ensued.

  1. I worked at an Obama campaign office yesterday calling voters making sure they knew where their polling station was and asking if they needed a ride there. Most people were happy and talk to me and many had already voted. One 70/80 something woman said she hated Obama and said he was a charlatan. Now that’s a word I haven’t heard that word in a long time. Then she proceeded to tell me that he was risky(HOW??) and hung around with bad people(Do you mean that Ayers guy that he worked with on that REPUBLICAN education project?). Then she brought out the clincher! She said, “It’s not because he is black!” OK folks let me tell you something. If your reason(s) for not voting for him dosen’t include “Because he is black” please don’t mention it! As soon as you say, “It isn’t because he is black” it is painfully obvious that that is the reason. Just shut your pie-hole ok!!!
  2. The concept of Palin energizing the Republican “base” mystifies me. I consider the Republican base the bottom-of-the-barrel extremists right wingers. Do you know what else comes from the bottom of the barrel? Malt Liquor. That is what remains after the good beer has been brewed and bottled. These are your go-to people that you are so glad you could energize?? They are the Mickey’s widemouths of your party!!!!! These are the very same people who don’t let their kids read Harry Potter. Ariana Huffington calls then the LUNATIC FRINGE and that is a really good description.
  3. I came to my voting decision after a lot of fact checking and numbers running. Not because I drank the Kool-Aid or believed the hype. McCain’s tax breaks don’t help me because I am MIDDLE CLASS!!!! I am sure most of us don’t fall into the $250K pack. He is a vet himself but I have seen too many troops struggling to get by after returning from war. This Republican administration has failed them most of all. Find out the facts please!
  4. I did not vote Obama because he is black. Alan Keyes wants to be our leader too but you won’t find me writing him in on my ballot because of the shade of his skin. If race was the case this fool would be talked about more and it would be a split decision in the black community over who we wanted in office.

Now I will shut up. And wait and see…

Ooh ohh nasty. But in a good way.

Leave a comment

Do you remember this episode of Married with Children…

Al must choose between paying for son Bud’s visit to the White House, or financing the efforts of daughter Kelly to become “Miss Weenie Tot.” Well. . .since Al will get a year’s supply of delicious Weenie-Tots if Kelly lands the job, there’s no contest, is there? Trouble is, Al will never get to enjoy these special snack treats as Peg wrecks his entire Weenie-Tot supply while searching for a winning prize ticket because the “food” rapidly disintegrates upon contact with air.

Today for lunch I had a side salad from Wendy’s and a box of Michelina’s Lean Gourmet Buffalo-style Chicken Snacks(basically weenie-tots). While I give myself a big thumbs up for the salad I know you are all groaning at my second food(I use that term loosely)choice. I was drawn to them in Kroger a few weeks ago when they were priced 88 cents per box. You heard me 88 freaking cents! Oh I had to try those. We are going through a major economic crisis in this country and I have to know all foods that fall into the ‘affordable’ category. Back in the day they would make soup out of whatever was around… these days we have other options. My list of foods for the broke now looks like this:

Ramen noodles
Tuna
Pasta with Ragu sauce
Soup(store brand)
Spam
Peanut butter and jelly sanwiches
Anything with a ‘Manager Special’ sticker on it at Kroger
Michaelina’s random flavored snacks!
I got a box of pizza flavored and a box of the the buffalo chicken. They both rock for quick appetizers and are great with with salad for lunch.
Although the box says Lean Gourmet, while low in calories they aren’t so good for you. 520mg of sodium is not what you want in your meal and the ingredient list is a roll call of everything processed but what do you expect for 88 cents. And I guarantee they will not disinigrate when they hit air. Or maybe I just eat them to fast too find out.