Politics

I have refrained from being political on my blog. Not sure why. It is, after all, my blog. But tonight I feel like I have something to say.

I welcome and respect the fact that my friends and family do not always share my political beliefs. I love a good, thoughtful debate. Your political beliefs do not dictate whether I love you or not.

Barack vs Hillary. I thought that I would go for Hillary 20 months ago when all of this madness began. After all, I love Bill and I respect Hillary and what she stands for. But then I started to pay attention to Barack Obama. His speeches sounded fresh to me. His point of view was interesting. He said some things that needed to be said within the African American community. He said some things that white people needed to hear. He is close to my age. He is a parent of two children close to the ages of my children. He is happily married to a successful, strong woman. Hillary's ideas felt like I had heard them before. I was and am proud of the run she made to the White House and I think she would have been a great President. But when it came to making a choice, I felt like Obama was the man who could bring people together and inspire change.

It is not lost on me that Barack Obama is a black man. The historical impact of a win for Obama is huge. I grew up in an environment where the use of the "N" word was liberal. It always disgusted me. My oldest friend in the world is an African American man called Maurice. We have known each other since the first grade. How could he be my friend when the message at home was so negative? It was hard to understand as a child. I fought against that influence and it is something I still fight today. I am proud that in my lifetime I could see a black man elected president. Dr. King is my personal hero. I did my senior leadership thesis on him. Dr. King dreamed of a day when we would all be judged by the content of our character and not by the color of our skin. Today could be that day.

John McCain. I have a ton of respect for John McCain and the service he has given to our country. I even was intrigued by him as a candidate eight years ago. But his voting record with President Bush (whose leadership I believe has been less than stellar) bothers me a lot. When he declared that the fundamentals of our economy are strong back in September as all hell was breaking loose, I felt like he was out of touch.

Sarah Palin. I have nothing against Sarah Palin. I think if our kids went to school together I might even be friendly with her. But I am not going to vote for her just because she is a woman. I didn't choose Hillary because she was a woman. In addition, Sarah Palin and I are on the opposite end of every issue. Why would I overlook that and vote for her because she is a woman?

I am an issues voter. I have certain things that are non-negotiable to me and frankly, I don't think the Republicans will field a candidate who is pro-choice, pro-gay, more dove than hawk, and so on. To do so would alienate their core. But if they ever do, I'd give them an honest look.

So, I am rooting tonight for Barack Obama because he aligns with who I am.

Republican or Democrat, they key is to vote. You are not allowed to complain about the way things are (or aren't) if you don't vote.

So, regardless of your affiliation, as long as you have a thoughtful opinion, we'll be cool. Peace.

Stopping Time

Right now, the biggest thing in my life that is causing me anxiety is how fast my children are growing up. I feel like time is rushing by and sweeping my small wonderful babies away from me and replacing them with even more wonderful people. It'a all too fast. And lately, I have been so busy at work and traveling that it feels like someone hit the fast forward button.

I have quite literally had episodes where I couldn't get my breath when I realized my son will be 10 in March. Sometimes I look at my daughter and see her dedicated to completing her homework and I wonder who is that determined girl sitting there.

I realized that I will never stop time and that my children will be gone sooner than I'd like but, I think I may have figured out a way to at least slow it down for small chunks of each day. It isn't rocket science and there are parents out there who already do this but the simple thing is that for a moment in the day, I chose my kids and gave myself fully to them instead of trying to be attentive while doing several other things.

On Monday, we took our son to buy a new skateboard. I let myself settle into the moment. I didn't hurry him to make his selections because there were five other things I needed to do. I engaged in a conversation with him about the deck, trucks, and wheels he was choosing. I enjoyed watching him talk about what he knows about skating. I noticed how good his manners were. I was in the moment and for the briefest instant, I could feel time slow down.

Yesterday, I came home from work and instead of hopping on the computer or even starting dinner, I spent time with my daughter teaching her how to ride her skateboard. It wasn't a huge chunk of time but I devoted my attention to her and helping her gain the confidence to ride and even to fall. And for the briefest instant, I could feel time slow down.

To give credit where credit is due - it was actually my husband who helped me to realize that these were the opportunities I needed to slow time since I'll never succeed in stopping it. It's amazing how committing yourself to one thing, one person, one activity for even a small part of the day can help slow down the passage of time and in the process contribute more positively to your memory bank.

Even so, the kids are still growing too fast. Peace.

Gratitude

I have this thing about gratitude. My opinion about people - famous and not - is influenced by the level of gratitude they exhibit in their lives. I can remember watching Pearl Jam accept an award (maybe a Grammy) years ago and being appalled at Eddie Vedder's Speech and his obvious lack of gratitude. It seems that when you achieve the dream you struggle for and benefit from those blessings, then gratitude is required. I haven't bought a Pearl Jam album since and even change the channel when their songs come on the radio.

Gratitude is hard. I try to live each day in gratitude and it's tough. Setbacks are part of progress but it can be hard to remember that. I had the good fortune to meet a man this past week who personifies gratitude. He has lived a life that would have broken most people yet he never gave up. Every setback only served to remind him that he needed to stay focused on the dream. He knew in his gut that life was going to hold more for him and even at the lowest point, he was grateful for the things he did have and for the promise of a new day. He has achieved all of his goals and lives a comfortable life. Yet, he hasn't forgotten the struggle and is gracious to all he meets. When I thanked him for his graciousness, he said (and I am paraphrasing) that when you have been blessed, being gracious and kind is expected.

I was inspired to re-commit myself to being grateful for all in my life - good and bad - since each is a step on the road to my dreams. Peace.

Opening up to Abundance

Finally, at age 41, I am trying to get my financial house in order and wouldn't you know it...the stock market and indeed the entire financial system takes a huge dive. I didn't have much to begin with and now I surely have less. Money is funny. Some people understand it yet to me it has been a complete mystery. My family didn't have money when I was kid and it was not an acceptable dinner table topic.

So, imagine the glee when in my sophomore year of college a bank offered me a credit card. It was seriously a rush. I think the first thing I did was buy a pair of shoes. But the sad thing is I didn't understand credit and I think I paid for those shoes for a year. They turned out to be some of the most expensive shoes I have ever owned.

I struggled with money up until recently when I finally waved the white flag and had my husband take over. He is a puzzle solver so fixing the mess I had made was a challenge for him and an eye opener for both of us. You see, you cannot have wealth in any form until you understand it and respect it. Together we are learning that. We cannot be open to abundance with a wasteful mentality. The two do not mix.

So, my sweet husband manages things and we are beginning to make forward progress. Neither of us wants to work at Walmart when we are 80. So, we are taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen. What I am learning is that when you are respectful of the resources and gifts provided to you or earned by you, you are rewarded. When you are wasteful, it all catches up to you in the end.

So we are riding this wave of economic craziness with an eye toward the future and the goal of receiving abundance because we are finally respecting our resources. No smiley face pin and tacky blue vest for me. Peace.

Gotta Love My Terps

I am a die hard University of Maryland sports fan. I love my TERPS and one of my favorite things to do in the Fall is go to football games. It is a family affair for us - we have eight seats between Larry and me and my parents. It's been a good way for us to spend some quality time with my folks. Although, the past two years I have not been able to attend as many games as I would have liked. I made a vow that next year, I am saying NO to any social invitation that will disrupt my tailgating and game watching.

It was a thrill for the Terps to win against Clemson yesterday. Death Valley is a hard place to win but the Terps did it yesterday. After two less than stellar seasons, I feel good about the Terps this year. The heart of the team and the desire to gut it out is evident. I hope Fridge can keep them motivated and take them all the way. I'd like to see a 10 win season. I'd like to see a bowl game in someplace warm.

My heart belongs to the Terps for a lot of reasons. The person I am today was formed largely during my time there. I developed my political and social beliefs there. I met people from all walks of life who broadened my world view. Perhaps most importantly, I met my husband.

So, go Terps! Play with heart. Make it a winning season. I'm rooting for you. Peace.

How about a wave?

Today I was driving to Baltimore to visit my parents and became very annoyed at the people who don't acknowledge road kindness with a wave. I let people merge onto the highway and creep over in traffic and no one even gave me the wave. Now, if this was an incident of road rage, people would have tossed me the message in the middle right away.

I am a waver. When people are cool to me on the road, I acknowledge it with a wave. When I do a bone head move while driving, I apologize with a wave. It's the decent thing to do. Maybe I should start a one woman crusade to bring back the wave.

I am not sure why this one small gesture means so much to me but it does. Then again, I really appreciate the small gestures. I love to get handwritten notes. I love an unexpected squeeze or hug from family and friends. There is something civilized about these small acts and I think it speaks to a larger lack of manners issue in the world today. Everyone is lost in their cellphones and satellite radio or distracted by the noise from the back seat. Small acts like the wave are lost.

So if you see me on the road, and I do something to make your commute on the Beltway a little better, toss me a wave. I'll appreciate it and I'll even toss one back. Because that's how I roll. Peace.

Going With the Flow

So, here I am home from Mom's Gone Wild. Definitely an interesting weekend. My friends and I hit a bump this weekend that was not part of the original Margaritas and Chocolate plan. All I can say is how lucky we are to have each other. What an incredible group of supportive, flexible, funny, amazing gals. This past weekend we were able to catch up, laugh, shop, counsel, and just generally strengthen the ties that bind.

I want to give a shout out to the girls for one helluva weekend of rainy beach walking, browsing, eating, drinking, hand holding, pants shopping, and Jack Sparrow watching. Thanks so much for "going with the flow." Love you all. Peace.

Mom's Gone Wild

Everyone giggles when I tell them that I am leaving this weekend for a trip to Florida for a Mom's Gone Wild Weekend. What is the definition of a MGW weekend you ask? It is no kids, no husbands, no PTA, no hauling kids around from game to game. It is chocolate and margaritas and sitting by the pool and keeping the US economy afloat with a little retail therapy at an outlet mall. It's chatting about everything and nothing. It is realizing that we have more in common than the fact that our kids went to the same pre-school and we all belong to the same pool.

Pre-school? Pool? Sheesh. My life really is suburban. There is a song by Bowling for Soup called 1985 that always speaks to me. In college, I raised a little hell (I knew a little about going wild), smoked and drank too much, and studied way too little. After seven years (yes I said seven), I got out with a C average and my degree.

I went to college to become the next Barbara Walters or Katie Couric. I was going to live in a fabulous apartment, marry a wealthy man, have the perfect kids, and a house on the beach. It is always amazing to me how different my life is from how I imagined it.

No job on the Today show. No fabulous apartment, no house at the beach, no wealthy man (but he is a good man who loves me). I did get close to perfect kids! :) My life is rooted squarely in suburbia and there is nothing wild about it. But, if I am honest with myself, I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing.

So, tomorrow, I'll get on a plane with some of my favorite women, head down to Jax, and relish our Mom's Gone Wild weekend. Bring on the Margaritas. Bring on the chocolate. That's my kind of wild. Peace.

The Biggest Loser

Here I am at 8:45pm watching yet another season of The Biggest Loser. I am hopelessly addicted to this show. Jillian is a total bee-atch and I so wouldn't want her to be my trainer. Meanwhile I have a crush on Bob and he can be my trainer any day.

I wonder why I am attracted to this show and then again I don't. Like most women, weight is an issue for me - rational or not. I know I watch this train wreck because it makes me feel better for myself. I always sit here and think - "okay tomorrow, the running shoes are laced up and I am getting back in shape." Inevitably, sleeping late wins; the chocolate chip cookie wins. I need to do better but where is that in my mind? Where is that required determination.

The hysterical thing about Biggest Loser, is all of the junk food commercials. My guess is you have an audience of overweight folks who are looking for motivation and they see bags of Doritos and plates of potato skins. It reminds me of the time I was watching Howard Stern on late night TV (I think it was E!) and he had Richard Simmons on with some of his weight loss disciples. Howard proceeded to interview Richard while dangling Twinkies from fishing poles in front of the overweight folks.

So, am I a loser to watch this? Probably. Hopefully I won't be a bigger loser and instead I'll find the inspiration from the show. Now where are my running shoes? Peace.

Designed to Sell Day Three

So, the work on our kitchen has begun. The Designed to Sell crew is here and they couldn't be nicer group of people. We are actually their last episode and then the show goes dark. Our brush with reality TV is really a blessing for us. Our desire to sell our house has been dampened by the fact that our kitchen was a disaster and the market is soft. Being chosen by Designed to Sell has truly been a blessing. We were not sure we would be able to afford to fix our kitchen so that we could put our house on the market - now we will be able to in the Spring when the market rebounds (fingers crossed).

The kitchen, breakfast room and master bedroom all look amazing even though they are still coming together. It makes me sad to think that we lived in the squalor that was our kitchen for five years. It's hard though to find the time, money, energy to do those type of large repairs.

It has been nice to be around a TV crew again. I am not sad I left the business but it is a nice flashback moment for me. Being in front of the camera has been fun. I spent so many years behind the camera that it was cool to get this chance.

It's weird how the universe responds to the things you need. I spent a lot of time and energy obsessing over all the things we need to do to get our house ready to sell - and here we are. The blessing of Designed to Sell has taken a huge burden off of us. We are so much closer to having our place ready to sell. For that I am truly grateful. Peace

Kickin off the Weekend

Friday night and I am curled up in bed with a laptop. What!? Seriously, everyone has those little things in their lives that they look forward. Mine is the end of the work week and my Friday night curl up. My husband has a slate of sci fi shows he watches, the kids go to bed and I get to curl up with my thoughts, a good book, or even a laptop. I remember in college when I started my weekends with a Thursday Happy Hour (at Santa Fe Cafe), slept in on Fridays (I tried hard to never have classes on Fridays), went to Happy Hour again, then went home for a quick power nap and was out again around 10:00. Even better were the weeknights when I'd study and then meet my friends for last call. Jesus, how I ever got out of college with my liver much less my degree, I will never know. It's all good though. I am a married, 41 year old mother of two. Those old school Friday nights would kill me now. This new start to the weekend works for me. Peace.

Designed to Sell

So yesterday we spent our first day shooting with the folks from Designed to Sell. We had a blast! We are prepping our house to sell in the next nine months or so (quote from our agent - "this is a terrible time to sell your house") and we were selected by the DTS team to have our kitchen done as part of a kitchen special. How cool is that!? We had such fun filming our before shots. The real work begins on Monday with the demo of our kitchen. By the end of next week, we will have a new kitchen, breakfast room, and restyled master bedroom. Love that! Thanks DTS.

This is another bucket list event for me. Participate in a reality show can now be crossed off the list. Although I am sure that DTS is not technically a reality show by the strict definition (which is what exactly?) but it's a much better pull than getting your a$$ chewed by Simon because you suck as a singer. Besides, at this point in my life, I'd rather have a new kitchen than a record deal. Peace.

90210 ...Here we go again

Okay, all through college and into my early twenties I gave in to the weekly, not-so-guilty pleasure of 90210 (or Bev to some fans). I love that show and still become glued to the sofa when I hit it during a channel surf. So now, here I am, guiltily checking out this new version. There is Kelly (always my favorite), and Andrea's daughter Hannah, and Kelly and David's sister Erin. And Nat at the Peach Pit with a Cappucino machine! Is that Dylan's kid with Kelly??? Brenda!!! I was prepared to hate the new version but I admit, it doesn't suck. The drama the kids are dealing with has bumped up a notch - blow jobs in the school parking lot - oh my! So here we go, at 41 a guilty pleasure reprised. Peace.

Everybody Loves a Parade

Or at least I do. I enjoy the Kensington Labor Day parade every year. I love the small town feel of it. I park myself in a lawn chair and get caught up in it all - Marching bands, drill teams, politicians in convertibles, I love it all. I grew up in a small town and frankly, couldn't get away fast enough. But every once in a while, unplugging from the daily grind and enjoying simple pleasures really can recharge the batteries. Of course there needs to be funnel cake to make the whole thing complete. Peace.

Bloggers Block

Okay, now that I have a blog it seems to have killed all of the random thoughts I have been meaning to write about. Lord knows I have plenty of opinions. However, it seems I have Blogger's Block. Sheesh. Sitting in front of the laptop, fingers poised to transfer the ideas, and I got nothing. Do I write about personal stuff? Work stuff? Rants? I guess we'll take this blog thing one day at a time. I am sure I'll find my online voice soon enough. Peace.

Personal Branding

I have been wanting to start a blog for more than a year but my own laziness has prevailed until now. Finally I can take the post-it note reminding me to start a blog off my computer monitor! The final push came when I went to a conference and attended a session on Personal Branding. The speaker emphasized how important it is to own your online presence and real estate. (own your domain, start a blog). So, here is my blog. Now, to get my domain. Thank God I kept my unique last name when I got married. I am pretty sure I am the only one in the world with my name. Hopefully the value of online real estate won't tank like the value of my pile of bricks. Peace.