Randomosity

I recently re-read the introduction to my blog (see above) and did a self-assessment on how well I have or have not met the intentions of this blog. It seems to me that lately I have been heavy on the mindless-train-of-thought type blogging, and very light on the liberal rants and raves. Don't worry, you're not in for a rant today. Today will be quite a potpourri as I have a teeny bit to say about like a zillion things.

First of all, Saddam Hussein. He's dead. Anyone who gloated or was actually happy about this: you are off my In List. The whole affair is so so so sad and I only wonder why we could not have stopped this man's despotism before it killed so many people. One more death does not resolve the larger problem in my mind.

However, I am reminded of the day of September 11, 2001. I worked at a middle school in the next tiny town over from this one, and all the staff were exhausted, distraught and just wanted to go home. Our principal held a called, mandatory faculty meeting that afternoon and ranted at us for 35 minutes about what a tragedy this was. Duh, and duh-huh. I kept wondering, "who the hell cares what she thinks?"

The difference is that you have checked this blog intentionally, and presumably to see exactly what I do think. You're not captive in a smelly lunchroom just wishing you could go home and snuggle on the couch with your family and thank God they are ok.

Next: New Years' Resolutions. Most of you know I am a big resolution-maker. Some I actually keep. Like, giving up wearing my watch as a visible reminder to not be so A-personality. After the first year, I renewed the resolution last year and now I am so not-A they have to scrape me off the floor to get me to do anything. I am soooo laid back. However, I am not renewing my anti-watch resolution as I may head back to the workplace soon and may well need to know what time it is on occasion.

I am reading a pretty good book called Julie & Julia, subtitled, "365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen." It's the semi-true book about a young woman trapped in a dead-end job in NYC who feels really crappy about her boring life, so she decides to make every recipe in Julia Childs' cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or MtAoFC, as she refers to it. She makes all the recipes, and eats them, even though she was a pretty picky eater before. I mean, she had never eaten an egg in all her 29 years and suddenly she is making omelets of every possible persuasion. I'm about halfway through it. It's a riot. So far, the best part is the marrow bone.

I call it semi-true because of her own introduction: "For the sake of discretion, many identifying details, individuals, and events throughout this book have been altered. Only my self, my husband and certain widely known public figures, including Julia and Paul Child, are identified by real names. Also, sometimes I just made stuff up. Case in point: the scenes from the lives of Paul Child and Julia McWilliams Child depicted throughout are purely works of imagination, inspired by events described in the hournals and letters of Paul Child, the letters of Julia McWilliams, and the biography of Julia Child, Appetite for Life, by Noel Rily Fitch. I thank Ms...." and she goes on with her acknowledgements.

How cool to start with the true story and freely make stuff up on the way and not be committed to having written something entirely original, (very hard) or something very real (also very hard.) It's not really a novel but not non-fiction, either. In our library it was shelved near the cookbooks in with the theory of cooking stuff.

I have a new story coming out in the paper later this week about one of the garbagemen with whom I worked last year. I mentioned it last week with hyperlinks and stuff to the article. It's scheduled to print either Friday, 05.Jan or Sunday, 07.Jan.

Little One has one more day before returning to school. Hallelujah. I love love love having her home -- she is great company, but she really needs the structure of going to bed, getting up, doing things, actually doing things, and...so do I. She's been up till after 10 almost every night over Christmas Break, and sleeping to at least 10am in the mornings. Her days have consisted of TV, Internet, music (stereo, piano, flute, in that order!) and of course, Fly Pen. She has done a little work on her Social Studies project but none on her Science Fair Project. She has read 2 books but the next in the series is checked out of the library, overdue, in fact, and she sort of refuses to read anything until she has completed the series.

She is the absolute best candidate I ever saw for a Montessori school. She loves to learn, explore, practice her music, learn for the sake of learning, but wants to do it all on her own schedule. Try to make her do something at a given time and ho boy, you better have your Tactful Hat on for sure. I spend half my time trying to outfox the eleven year old in the house.

I am so so so intrigued by Barack Obahma I went to the library to get on the waiting list to read The Audacity of Hope, NYT Bestseller List #1. Is this someone in whom we can believe? Could he be as smart as he appears? As good? As directed? Could he rub off on some others?

I'll have to report on the book later, much later. I am #12 on the waiting list at our Small Town Library. Seems half the town wonders the same thing. They have 2 copies and 2 more on order, though, so it could be as quick as six weeks for me to get the book, or it could be quite a while.