Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thankful, Still

These are certainly uncertain times. The excitement of my last post was quickly drown out by the sheer weirdness of what's going on with our economy. My company has experienced a severe slow down in the due diligence practice area due to the real estate and credit market, so much so that they let four people go. Since I am a casual part time employee, my work load has been cut significantly. In a way, it's been nice to have some time to work on a couple projects, but it makes us want to hang on to that stimulus check we were about to spend on a new mattress...

Still, I have a lot to be thankful for. Here's a short list before I have to get back to my Thanksgiving feast preparations...

My job... slow as it may be, and not exactly what I want to be doing, but very handy in paying the bills.

My husband, who is very smart, very handy, loves his job, and loves his family and who was born on Thanksgiving 39 years ago tomorrow.

Sofia, who amazes me with her stories and illustrations lately.

Sofia's school, where she's doing journalism, yoga, Spanish, and drama.

Maia, who is such a good friend to her sister.

Maia's school, where she's learning her letter sounds, learning to pump on the swing, and making new friends - her favorite new friend? Another Sofia.

My friends, who have been so willing to help out with my kids on the days I have to work later than normal, and who my girls love.

Open enrollment, so that we could switch back to a PPO starting in January and finally take Maia to some real experts in the vascular anomaly field and figure out what's going on with her leg.

Recipes from epicurious.com.

My food buying group that buys monthly from Azure Standard. I'm preparing my first organic turkey this year!

Back to work! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Ohhhh, yeah

So, I guess we won't be moving to Sweden. Heee. Yet. Chris and I have joked (mostly) over the last 8 years that we're going to move to Sweden. Yes, yes we know, life is not perfect there, but one can dream, right? It feels good. Really good, to have the election over and done. And it feels good to be on the winning team this time. Too bad we have to wait so long before we can actually move on.

But I am truly disappointed with the results on Proposition 8. I feel it is a step backwards and I have not heard one compelling argument in favor of it. It almost always boils down to a religious belief and last time I checked, we live in a democracy not a theocracy. And no, I don't buy the biology argument either. Marriage is not always about procreation. If it were, then we'd have to stop letting post menopausal women get married. I saw a post on flickr that said, "if we were going to "restore traditional marriage" we should reinstate things like dowries, prohibit divorce, and stone people who have babies out of wedlock. You know, just to be thorough." Seriously though, Sofia was in tears one night because someone at school had told her about Prop. 8. She was so distraught that someone might be able to tell her she couldn't get married. Now, why she worries about these things at age 6, I don't know, and she really didn't understand that it had to do with a man and a man or a woman and a woman, but it really struck a note with me.

For now, we are going to continue to try to raise our children to accept people for who they are, and hope that when they are old enough to understand what Proposition 8 actually did, they will reject such inequality. And another thing, I have a message to the woman who pulled up in front of my house and let two very young boys out of her car to tear down and deface my and my neighbors' yard signs for Barack Obama and No on 8. I hope your children will learn to value and defend free speech, to accept people different from themselves, and to respect other people's property, from someone, because they clearly aren't learning it from you.

And since I wouldn't want to leave on a sour note, here's picture of Sofia reading one of her new birthday books to Maia. It is truly a joy to see her reading to her sister. One of the best things in life.

Now, I think we've got some work to do.