I know it’s cliche’… but there really is joy in childhood. Moments where grins are full-on smiles and laughing isn’t just laughing but giggles and glee.
We took the kids to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory this morning and came face-to-face with the many components of the Mars rovers. Yes, THOSE Mars rovers…the ones that the kids have only watched 3,000 times on the documentary that is now so worn it doesn’t play.
There were smiles, giggles, and glee.
Meet BooBoo Kitty.
BooBoo Kitty (and you have to say the whole thing, not just Boo or Boo Boo, it’s BooBoo Kitty) and I met many, many years ago on one of the many, many Spring Breaks I spent with my grandmother, aunts, and cousins, and family in Florida.
Every year we headed off to the greater-Orlando area and every year my Grandmother would spoil me rotten. BooBoo Kitty was one of the many “under the table” gifts my Grandma slipped me when the other kids weren’t looking.
We were at Disney World, sitting near a tree. And it was a “shhhhh, don’t show anyone” peak into a bag that contained the whitest, pink bow-y-est, make-a-girl happy kitty in the world.
I then spent my entire childhood with this stuffed cat. It was comfort. It was girly. It was Grandma love. It was magic.
Of course BooBoo Kitty was slightly tainted because my Uncle had named her. He was making fun of me for being so attached and playing off Shirley from Laverne and Shirley, he named the cat for me. But it didn’t matter. She was my BooBoo Kitty and she meant magic. She brought me back to the bench by the tree and the “you are special” feeling that was instilled.
When you’re little, a Grandma gift at Disney World is pretty much the best thing ever.
Which is my round-about way of telling you we’re going to Disney World next week and I have every intention of making some magic.
*in light of recent discussions I wish to disclose that after this post was written I spoke with Disney PR and was offered media passes to the park. I did not blog about Disneyworld after, in order to remain above the board and not write advertorial content. I, instead, twittered my experience at Disney in which I had planned, paid for, and previously expected to, other than media passes to the parks. In my twitters I acknowledge Disney PR’s assistance.
My children can easily open a web browser and play games. They can turn on the Wii, the DS, and will ask me to find them the ‘blahblahfill-in-the-blank.com’ they heard about on tv.
They are 3 and 5- years old.
Mom and Dad both use their computers for work and play. So laptops are always open and it’s just a way of life for the adults, so it stands to reason it’s a way of life for the children in the house.
Is this the new standard for families or are we entirely too plugged in?
Don’t get me wrong, there is a very healthy amount of NON-wired play around here. Legos, dolls, imagination run rampant.
So why do I feel guilty when they do plug in?
Is that a throwback to some bygone era where this wasn’t commonplace? Leftover guilt akin to my mother telling me I was sitting too close to the television?
If they are monitored, if their time is monitored, if it’s all well and good…why am I even questioning their wired lives when everything comes with a .com?
Perhaps it’s just like everything else in motherhood: am I doing this right? That nagging, never ending feeling in the back of your brain that you can be better, try harder.
Or maybe we just need to go for a walk.
On Saturday the family is going for flu shots. It’s not something anyone wants to do. It will be unpleasant and painful. There might even be some after-effects that sting for a bit.
But we’re going.
I’ve come to the conclusion Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin need to treat the upcoming debates like a flu shot.
You’re going, whether you like it or not. So just get over it now. Roll up your sleeves, take a deep breath, and prepare to hurt.
In case you missed it, the McCain/Palin circus is now trying to skip out of the VP debate too.
Maybe they need lollipops?
How about a video treat instead…
The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.
Sarah, John, the childish games are getting old. You can stall all you like, just like my 5 and 3-year olds before bedtime and just like they will attempt to do on Saturday before their shot, but these debates are going to happen.
I’ll get the bandaids ready.
I don’t know how else to write this, so I’m just going to be blunt.
It can be very depressing to hang out in metro-Detroit.
I’ve been back “home” visiting family for 48 hours now, and the stories of lay-offs and foreclosure and moves out-of-state are overwhelming.
In all honesty, downtown looks terrible. The suburbs are littered with for-sale signs.
My family and friends continue to keep on, keeping on.
At a family gathering on Sunday, the typical occurred.
We ate and the kids ran around.
The adults sitting around the patio talked about what the ‘Big 3′ needs to do, my Aunt got animated discussing how she doesn’t like Senator Obama (she doesn’t ‘trust him’), another Uncle told a racist joke (no one laughed this time), and I very quietly listened.
While I attempted to be stealth and ninja like listening…my blackberry gave out a huge DING DING DING, and all eyes fell on me.
They know what I do at BlogHer, and had been careful choosing their words around me all day.
With a half dozen pairs of eyes on me, I looked down, and read aloud: “Sen Obama to Unveil His ‘New Energy for America‘ Plan in Speech Monday. From Lansing. ”
Everyone got quiet.
We ate desert and talked gradually picked up again.
Cynicism and cautious optimism abound.
“Lansing …from Michigan. Could be risky. Could be brilliant,” said one uncle.
“He should do it here, they need it most here,” said my Mom.
“I don’t care what he says, I just don’t like him,” said an aunt.
So it was with great interest my mother, my aunt, and I watched the Senator speak from Lansing this morning.
As the Senator discussed his very detailed New Energy for America plan, touted by Climate Progress as “…easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party…” republicans were emailing me to let me know they were handing out tire gauges to mock Obama’s reminders that keeping your tires properly inflated saves gas.
They were mocking a gas saving tip while sending this to my inbox:
“Today, I’m asking for your help in putting Senator Obama’s “tire gauge” energy policy to the test. With an immediate donation of $25 or more, we will send you an “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure gauge. Will simply inflating your tires reduce the financial burden of high gas prices on your wallet?
It’s clear Senator Obama has no plan to address the energy challenges we face as a nation. He has said no to offshore drilling, no to expanding domestic drilling and no to nuclear energy. He has no plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”- Rick Davis Campaign Manager, John McCain 2008.
I read this aloud to my Mom.
She threw her hands in the air, entirely disgusted. She was watching Senator Obama give detailed information, point-by-point, on a plan that not just reduces our dependence on foreign oil but rids of us reliance on Middle East oil on 10 years.
“Why do they do that?”
My Mom asked, still shaking her head over the McCain Campaign email.
For the record NASCAR and the US Department of Energy agree with Senator Obama on the whole tire gauge thing, and the GOP is trying to make a joke of this:
Sugar writes, “Oh gosh I know the Ozoids are writhing even as I write this! lmao I tell you, the McCain camp is making this fun for me again because it is such a joy to see an opponent who doesn’t have the constraints that Hillary did, giving it to Obama raw. Hillary couldn’t ream him like she should have because of that party unity bullshit, but the McCain camp doesn’t have anything to lose…but the election…and they are going all out to ensure that they don’t. I’m loving it. “
But if they’d like to know how their “joke” played with Michigan voters….jokes on them. I’ve got several here either not getting it or disgusted with the gimmick.
They don’t want campaign gimmicks. They want jobs.
The tit-for-tat over who misspoke where over what isn’t playing well with this crowd. Not unless those jokes can pay their mortgage.
Meanwhile, my Aunt (undecided who she is supporting) is listening closer than I thought she would.
I can tell.
My Mom let’s out a ‘WOW’ at Obama saying his plan will create five million new green jobs. My Aunt raised an eyebrow and says “well that’s good.”
TankWoman writes, “I switched to CNN, and was pleasantly surprised by Obama’s plan. Okay, I take that back, I was more than pleasantly surprised, I was excited and inspired by the ideas that Obama spoke about this morning in the birthplace of the auto industry. And though I know that this speech was tailor made for Michigan, and designed to strengthen his poll numbers, I believe that this energy plan is the only way forward for our nation, and that if Obama is serious and dedicated to these issues, we may have a solution not only to climate change, but to the ailing economy.
The things that we need to do to stall the oncoming danger of climate change, are the very things that Obama outlined in his speech. We must invest heavily in alternative energy, if we don’t come up with the capital to take the risk out of these start-up industries, they will fail. We need investment tax credits for solar energy, and wind power, without them, there are major solar projects that will move to Europe, and the wind farms will not get built here, but move to Germany. Our auto industry is near bankruptcy, Ford and GM have reported the lowest sales in nearly 30 years.”
She’s right.
I’m here.
I’m seeing the factories empty and the friends and family members collecting unemployment. It’s been happening for a long time now, and there needs to be a real solution in bringing back not just this state’s economy, but the nation’s.
Tomorrow Senator McCain comes to town to tour a Nuclear Plant. Fermi 2, to be exact.
The same plant I see every time I visit my hometown. I’ll be watching and listening closely to compare the Senator from Arizona’s ideas to the Senator from Illinois.
And after spending the day with my family excited about Obama’s ambitious plan to provide real solutions to the people of Michigan-
Senator McCain had better show up with more than a tire gauge.
Cross posted at blogher.com
I really don’t think it’s too much to ask that if I take my daughter to a football game, we walk to get a pretzel and some nachos without being harassed by a drunken mob. Call me crazy, but I’d love to actually sit near Gate D at a New York Jets game and not be groped or screamed at or if, heaven forbid I’m feeling prudish that day, have to duck spit and flying bottles from hundreds of angry men.
Of course my daughter and I could just sit somewhere else. We could go get Mommy a beer and kiddo a hot dog near some other, non infamous gate, and avoid the whole thing- and then I remember this is 2007 and women do have the right to walk in public.
I suppose if I were to take my daughter and I on over that way, I would have been asking for it, right?
And people wonder why I still yell and scream and write about women and gender equality.
Many sports fans (my entire house included…yes, the girls too) are discussing the New York Times article by David Picker describing what happens at Jets home games on pedestrian ramps near Gate D.
Huffington Post contributor Leora Tanenbaum says, “I hate to sound like a broken record, but the sexual double standard is alive and well. Boys will be boys, and girls will be sluts. And across the land, people continue to believe that this is the way it’s supposed to be.” Tanenbaum drew attention and questioned the behavior while commentors asked for proof.
Let’s watch some YouTube, shall we???
As the NYT reports, this whole Gate D party is a tradition at Jets homegames. Meaning, Joe Jetsfan brings Joe Jr. Jetsfan, they share a beer, and join the mob out in the concourse to see how many women they can get to lift their shirts. Tradition. Happy Thanksgiving.
Some women comply. Some women walk away clothed and get heckled. Some women are spit on. Some women have bottles thrown at them. Some women are groped. More importantly…
hundreds of men think this is ok.
I attend sporting events. I am used to the one or two drunken idiots who scream four letter words and spill their beer. Security usually hovers near them and if they get out of hand they are escorted out. There is an entire mob getting out of hand at Jets games, and it’s tradition.
It’s Free Speech! We’re just having fun! Don’t come near Gate D if you don’t like it!
Let me speak in words you Gate D Jets fans understand, “Fuck you.”
Free speech is not harassment. Fun isn’t intimidating. And I’ll go anywhere I damn please, despite the fact I’m a woman. In fact, how about I come with a few thousand of your mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and girlfriends? We’ll exercise our free speech to teach you all about mob mentality, harassment, sexual abuse, intimidation, and gender equality issues.
I called Jets’ media relations to float my idea of taking Gate D back for the women. The nice PR phone-answering person took a message and I told them I was working on a deadline. “Yes, the HUFFINGTON POST, no, no…not Hubbington, HuFFington…and yes, BlogHER dot com. H-E-R, yes, BlogHER, yes, a network of over 13-thousand WOMEN…yes, I’d like to talk about the NY Times article, yes, the one about Gate D…yes, Blog H-E-R…”
…I’m still waiting for a call back. In the meantime, I’m going to really mess up Thanksgiving tradition and NOT spend it in the kitchen.
The Detroit Lions kick-off in an hour and my daughter and I have a game to watch.
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