Sunday, November 30, 2008

Christmas Shopping Already?

I had every intention of attempting to participate in NaBloPoMo.. but I missed it didn't I? Ah well.. sometimes life is just too busy.

The feast is over and I'm still doing dishes. At least a majority of the pots and pans are in the dishwasher now. I'm determined to have my kitchen cleaned up just in time to have my mom, aunts, gramma and sister-in-law over to celebrate the December birthdays next weekend. Mine, my mother's and my SIL's. December is expensive for my brother.

We don't have our Christmas tree yet, but probably will in a couple weeks. I did pull out decorations yesterday and put my Christmas village up on the mantle. I also found cute indoor/outdoor pre-lit 2 foot tree's at Tar-jay... except that the indoor part is only the lights. There was no way to stand them up. I made do with a planter and a big styrofoam ball though.

We have yet to get lights on the house in spite of the fact that I've had them in the garage for 3 years now. Maybe this year..

My Christmas shopping is almost done except for two people. My mother being one of them. She always claims to only want socks. One of these years she's going to get a big empty stocking. That's a sock right?

Happy Holly-daze!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Additions to the Family

NO, I'm not pregnant. But Sugarplum has expanded our family. I'm not sure why, but sometimes she picks out random people in the grocery store and proclaims that they are her new parents. Most recently it was a nice looking lady at the meat counter. She had her back turned to us so she didn't know she'd just inherited a carefree, imaginitive 3 year old.

Most recently, we went out to dinner with my mom and on the way back to mom's house she announced from the back seat that she had quite a large family.

"I have a brother and a sister and a mommy and a daddy and you and daddy"

"Really? That's quite a family. What is your brother's name?"

"Twinkle Little Bug"

"Really? Wow. What is your sister's name?"

"Twinkle Butt"

My mom and I dissolved into quiet laughter. Our attempts to contain ourselves were almost successful.. until Sugarplum started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little BUTT!"

The things these kids come up with... I hope her imagination will always soar like that.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap Backward for Mankind

So the election is finally over. The people have cast their ballots and the first black man in the history of the United States has been elected to the office of President. This is a monumental moment in our nation's history. One that makes me proud. But this is only a small step.

Never have I witnessed the amount of racism that came running out of the woodwork during this campaign. Slogans like "Keep the whitehouse white" Allegations of Barack Obama being a muslim terrorist. Really? I thought Americans were smarter than that these days. So, while this is a really important moment, it's a small step on the way to ending racism.

In California though, we are witnessing a giant leap backward for mankind. Though it hasn't been called and there are still absentee ballots being counted, it looks as though Prop 8 is going to pass. For those that don't know, Prop 8 was a proposal on the ballot to re-write the California State constituion to say that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and will be recognized. So far with 95% of the precints reporting, it looks like a 52% vote in favor.

I have never been so disappointed in my fellow Californian's. It's one thing to morally and religiously oppose same-sex marriage. It's quite another to actually write that discrimination into the foundation of our state's laws. That's what this is. Pure and simple, discrimination. Disagree with it all you want. Don't marry someone of the same sex then. It does nothing to harm you. It is no way a threat to your heterosexual marriage. My marriage is not diminished in the slightest because my best friend's brother-in-law gets married to his partner.

The ridiculous arguments supporting this change are the same arguments that were used to outlaw inter-racial marriage too. I hope that people who voted yes on this prop have a child who turns out to be homosexual who will not have the ability to marry the person they love. I hope they can live with themselves knowing that they have denied their own children the rights they get to enjoy. I hope they agonize over that guilt of denying their children happiness. Maybe once it hits home, people will start to think about other people's happiness instead of their own personal agendas.

I am sick to be a Californian today.