January One

I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I last posted. That’s ridiculous. Life has been kicking my ass, but we’re hanging in there. I’ve been at my sister’s for the past two long weekends, and when I’ve been home, I’ve been literally pulling all-nighters in order to get the work done. I have some packages to get out and one more card to do and then I’m done for the year! I’m grateful for the work, don’t get me wrong, but it sucks that most of it gets condensed into a six week period.

Meli turned nine months old while we were away and she’s doing all sorts of fun stuff. She talks nonstop, pulls up on everything (especially her mama) and is FINALLY cutting two teeth. Of course, she also has a cold at the moment so we’re talking copious amounts of snot, drool and tears. Poor baby girl! She’s absolutely miserable, which is so unlike her.

Here she is at a happier time!

At my sister’s, we celebrated Hanukkah early as they’re away for the real Hanukkah and Meli had lots of fun with her cousins!

Of course, when it came to opening presents, she was way more interested in eating them than opening them!

Her cousins gave her a new doll that she liked very much!

I know I’m biased, but she’s too cute!

I’ve had lots of fantasies about what I’m going to do with my self when I’m back to being unemployed (things get VERY slow in the winter.) Besides clean, organize and babyproof my house (ah, what delightful fantasies!) I’ve been dreaming of knitting again (REALLY!!!) and blogging again. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’ve been seriously considering trying to blog every week day for the month of January. I really miss having something to say and someplace to say it and just thinking about things. My mind feels so blank. Probably because I’m exhausted, but I think blogging may just jump start my brain again. We’ll see how I feel in the next week or two. I have a birthday coming up as well (DUH) let’s just say Good Ol’ Jack Benny and I will finally have something in common. Well, if he wasn’t dead, of course.

I hope you’re all doing really, really well and I hope to see you very soon!

PS – All photos courtesy of my sister. I tried to take pictures of Meli for our holiday card yesterday and they all came out crap. I guess I’ve used my good camera mojo for the year. Wasted it all on clients. 😉

The relief I feel this morning is palpable.

My “come to Obama” moment came fairly late in this election. I voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary and wasn’t going to give in to all the hype surrounding Obama. My sister, who at 26 is in a very different stage of her life than me, was all about the ideology of the election. “Things are changing! Even if we lose, look at all the young people who have mobilized because of him.” But I was very, very afraid. For me, this attitude change wasn’t enough. We needed to WIN at all costs. This country has been so severely damaged in the last eight years that it might not be fixed in my lifetime. I wondered why the democrats couldn’t just put up an easy win. What were our choices? A polarizing woman who had dynasty written all over her, regardless of her intelligence and readiness for the job and a fairly inexperienced man of color. Were they kidding?!?

I didn’t just vote for Obama because the other choice was not an option (and in my opinion, offensive on many, many levels), but because I came to respect his intelligence, his pragmatism and his thoughtfulness. He ran an admirable campaign – especially in this day and age. And the idea that we would have a leader who was (FINALLY!) smarter than me – well – that was just the icing on the cake.

Still, though, I was very scared. This election, while historical and significant for our country and the world, is historical and significant for me on a whole other level. This election, I voted as a mother. As a parent, I’m making decisions that will affect my daughter’s life on a daily basis. I will never forget the day I voted in the primary – I was pregnant and the whole walk over to the polling center I talked to my baby. I told that baby that we were going to vote in an historic election. That we were going to choose a woman to possibly lead our country. But I also told my baby that there was a man of color on the ballot and the fact that I had to choose between a woman and a man of color was the hardest and best possible choice to make. Everything they had ever told me in my life might possibly be true.

In the end, I didn’t vote for me or my country. I voted for my daughter. I elected a president that can change the trajectory of her path in this world, the vision she has of our country, her own self-esteem. I elected a president that truly shows her – not just with platitudes, but with action – THAT ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

Thank you America. Thank you for helping me make all things possible for my daughter. Thank you.

We don’t care who you vote for (well, actually, we care very, very much – but it’s still more important that you actually VOTE!)

JUST DO IT! GO! VOTE!

We came home from a lovely Rhinebeck weekend to find we had no Internet. It JUST came back on about an hour. My week was at times relaxing and crazy with work piling up like a sonabitch, but lots of fun times with Meli, who, incidentally, had a fantastic time at the festival.

Stolen from Annie‘s Flickr Set. Thank you!

She’s been saying BAAAA all week.

I wonder why? 😉

See a lovely Rhinebeck family portrait here. (Thanks Annie!)