I Can't Wait to Vote

In an unprecedented break from my non-political tradition, I'm going to say something, and it's not going to be popular: I can't WAIT to vote. I am truly excited to vote for my candidate--whose name I shall not divulge because I don't enjoy hateful comments, which would be thrown at me no matter whose name I give. I'm not saying my candidate is perfect, but I like him. And I hope he wins, and I have a positive outlook for the future if he DOES win. Ha! There. I said the unthinkable thing. Call me naive, but I prefer to think of myself as. . . childlike.

Honestly, though, I'm tired of all the cynicism over politics. In my opinion, cynicism is often just an excuse to avoid thinking about things--I know, cause I've made the excuse so many times in my life. And enough with the media-blaming, already! We GET it! The media is biased. So what? The world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and there are no good candidates for president. I hear it every time we have an election. For once I would like to hear someone say something like, "I am so full of hope over this election that I just can't WAIT to vote!" But people would rather say "I don't know what I'm going to do because there are no good candidates and the whole thing is just such a mess that all I want to do is curl up on the couch and drink hot chocolate." Suck it up, dudes. Democracy ain't perfect, but it's the best thing we've got. We might as well try to drum up some enthusiasm for the process, especially since our country is currently trying to establish a democracy in other parts of the world.

The British Reality Invasion

I've noticed lately that we Americans don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to raising our children, running salons, and owning successful restaurants. That's why we rely on mean, outspoken, potty-mouthed, sharply dressed British people to come and whip us into shape. You know who I'm talking about:



(To be fair, Supernanny does NOT have a potty mouth, and I really like her. But still, she is a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is type like the other two).

Honestly, what has happened to us? After all our founding fathers sacrificed to get us some freedom from these people, we are just welcoming them with open arms to come into our homes and places of business and boss us around. And who are THEY? Just because they have accents does NOT make them any smarter than us. Didn't we establish this back in 1776? So what if we Americans want to spank our children, refuse to listen to our clients' hair requests, and serve leftovers at our restaurants? That's our right. We claimed it when we declared independence.

Let's take back our tv! Let's dump that English shampoo into the Boston harbor! Let's take those chore charts from Supernanny and burn them! Let's tell Gordon Ramsey to take his fancy mushroom truffles and shove 'em someplace where the sun don't shine! Let's tell them that they can't tread on the sacred right of Americans to ruin their kids' lives, cut ugly hair, and serve mediocre food. Because we're Americans, and that's what we like to do.

Hazel's Birthday Message from Mommy: "Never Go Against the Family"

My dear, sweet, little Hazel turned three yesterday. As a special birthday surprise, I hid this in her bed:











It'll be a looooong time before Hazel even THINKS about going against the family again!


Here's a photo tribute to my little pink-pony-loving princess: