I am so bad at this!

My posts are getting fewer and farther between. So sad.
Anyway, the bright spots of yesterday...
1. Kudos to the Dupage County Dept. of Health for running such an efficient vaccination operation. Matt and I got our H1N1 up-the-nose shots last night and it took no time at all. Yes, we trust the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. No, I don't think it's Obama's attempt at mind control.
2. My cousin Ali is staying with us this week and she is inspiring us all to eat healthier. I think she's definitely got a point that we rely too much on wheat products and should try to eat more fresh produce. I love it. Matt is suffering through it.
Dim spot of today...
1. Carrie Prejean rears her ugly head on the Today show this morning to promote her new book (seriously?) and to sort of address her sex tape scandal. Will she never go away? I was particularly disappointed to see Meredith drop the ball entirely on follow-up questions. Her skeptical, slightly disapproving look was just not enough. Carrie says something about the media's liberal bias and how only CONSERVATIVE woman are attacked by the press (Keith Olberman  and Sean Hannity are the press? So many questions here.) Her example: If Hannity had criticized Sonia Sotomayor, he would have lost his job. Really, Carrie? Do you only watch Hannity when it's your overly made-up face on the screen? Really? You didn't catch Sotomayor being called a racist by every right-wing talk show host in America? Really? Who is coaching this idiot?

Mad World

I've never been to Maine, so I couldn't tell you why I think it should be one of the more progressive states, sort of a "Why should I care what you're doing behind closed doors?" kind of place. California was slightly less surprising, only because there are so many crazies living there, you never really know what to expect. It could really go to either extreme. But Maine... it really seems like a place where people would not only be more socially progressive but just more laid back. A place where you can do whatever you want, be whoever you want to be, as long as you're not hurting anyone else.
As a former Catholic, I think Matt has been most upset by the Catholic church's involvement in the campaign to repeal the marriage law in Maine. For me, though, it's not much of a surprise. Organized religion is pretty much like any other organized group governed by a central authority. Take this analogy - although I hate to make comparisons like this, I think it works. If I had more than two readers, I think I might lose some here, but no worries... Think of the church as a larger, more civilized version of a mob. Let's say one or two members of this mob start to commit a crime, maybe beating the hell out of a passerby. Now you'd expect someone to break up the fight, or at the very least yell "Stop!" - but mob theories abound about how often that is just not the case. All the members of this mob are friends, no one wants to become an outsider by sticking up for the poor guy getting beat up. So you'll have some in the mob cheering on the thugs, some actually helping out by blocking the victim from running away, and maybe even some who feel bad about this poor guy getting beat up, but hey, maybe he deserved it. I know this is a really negative way to view the church, and I know the church does a lot of good works, charity and so on, and provides a refuge and all that. But sometimes it just acts like a big bully, and in this case, the big bully thinks it should have the power to decide who gets to marry in the state of Maine. Unfortunately, if there are any progressive, fair-minded Catholics living up there, not one yelled "Stop!" - at least not so we could hear it down here.

Happy holidays!

So this morning I saw my first few Christmas-colored TV commercials, as well as a few that explicitly mention the holiday shopping season. My favorite holiday-decorating-obsessed Facebook friend announced her Halloween lights were packed away and she was starting to decorate for Christmas and Thanksgiving. And then Dylan and I headed to Kohl's to spend the Kohl's cash we earned during last week's buying frenzy - which, by the way, is my new term for what I can easily do at Target and have now done at Kohl's. As I explained to Matt, it is not a shopping spree if it is done at either of those stores since it depresses me that I now buy most of my makeup/clothing/accessories there because my only other option is the overpriced stuff at the mall or the insanely priced boutiques in my little town. Anyway... So we were browsing the crappy nylons section, where you can get 3 different shades of tan in the cheapest nylon material ever created, when I suddenly realized we were listening to Christmas music. Not even Hannukah music, which is usually well before Christmas, so slightly more time-appropriate, although I have no idea when Hannukah is this year, which reminds me that we really need to just stop procastinating and join a synagogue. But no, it was Christmas music, which just felt weird since we finally got a day that feels like fall - 50 degrees and sunny and still lots of pretty leaves falling all over us. Normally I love the holiday season and it can't start too soon for me, but for some reason I resented all this today. I really just want to enjoy the fall. One of my many, many problems is that I can't live in the moment. I'm constantly obsessing about the future - tomorrow or 10 years from now. I obsess about the good stuff but also, of course, about all the bad things that can happen to me and my family. I mean, what if we can never afford that amazing house on the corner, or we can't afford the patio, or Dylan never grows any more hair? And this swine flu thing is just killing me! But then I have to remember what Matt said to me the other day when I was freaking out about something or other. He said something like "All we have is today and nobody can take that away from us." Which, of course, made me all teary. But it's true. I think that's why babies are so peaceful. They have no sense of the future, so they can't worry about it. They just live in the moment. Which is something I need to try harder to do. Even if it's difficult to do with the Grinch showing up on TV any day now.

Dear Leader, please watch Vampire Diaries instead!

Matt has suggested I write about President Obama's inclusion of Entourage as one of his favorite TV shows. I'm a little hesitant to make too much of it. I have a feeling he enjoys Entourage as much as his predecessor liked Camus's The Stranger. Perhaps it's Barack's way of appearing in touch with his fellow beer drinkers the way Bush tried to appear to have a thought in his itty bitty brain. But if it is true, I'm hoping he watches the show the way I forced myself to finish Exit Ghost: It's certainly not anyone's best work but it's (morbidly) fascinating to see thinly veiled depictions of someone you know.
I watched Entourage's first season and appreciated it as a male version of Sex and the City. It was doubtful an accurate portrayal of anyone's life before these characters were created to imitate. Now, just as we have far too many women trying to be Carrie Bradshaw, overlooking the obvious misery that would plague such a materialistic and vapid lifestyle, we also have groups of idiot men receiving the validation they need to continue treating women like objects with no threat of consequences of any kind.
Now I know several of my friends will disagree, but think about it. Four grown men living completely dependent on each other, no real female friends, well beyond the age when "bros before ho's" is funny but still treating women like ho's. And yes, girlfriends stick around now and then, but do the relationships ever seem mature? (Confession: I know too much about this show because my husband still watches, even though he knows how f'ing horrible I think it is.) Four man-children living a fantasy that is nowhere near reality. Yes, I know it's a TV show and suspension of disbelief and all that. I watch Heroes. I get it. And I don't think all TV needs to have a positive message - this is not the Land of All Back to School Specials. But come on! These guys are total douchebags!
So... if Obama really does spend his free time watching Entourage, what does that say about him? Probably nothing. Even smart guys like mindless crap once in a while.

Priorities

Things I like right now: The swine flu vaccine, Jemaine Clement in a movie, leaving the house before dawn to get to the gym, catching The Great Pumpkin two nights in a row, finally hearing from a long-lost friend, painfully spicy pumpkin seeds, my huge new couch, pictures of my niece in her Homecoming Queen sash before she's even old enough to worry about finding a date.

Things I don't: Any talk of the World Series, trying to pick out nylons to wear with a blue dress and silver shoes, rain, wrong washing machine parts, rain, my brother's faulty memory, rain.

Trend Pieces Define Me

Surprisingly, the New York Times has not picked up on this yet, but it seems that I and thousands of others are iPhone moms. What does this mean? That we use our phones for email, scheduling, organizing, distracting our ADD-afflicted toddlers, and, yes, as a tool for neglect. Our moms' generation used soap operas to drown out the mundane and/or the whining. We use cool technology.
So how long before the term "iPhone mom" replaces "green" as the new annoying classifier?
On the other hand, I was thinking about what this says about me and my cohort. Not too long ago we had soccer moms. They came to be known as this because they drove minivans or SUVs to take their kids to soccer games. They were defined by what they were doing for their children and advertisers/politicians/Jay Leno were all over it - selling them useless toys, tools, and ideas, and cracking jokes at their child-obsessed expense. That's what makes this iPhone mom thing kind of interesting. We're being defined not by what we do for our kids but for what we do for ourselves - in some ways the family but mostly ourselves - even as we are still being defined as moms. Does this mean we are more selfish than past generations? Or do new national obsessions ultimately lead to new ways of categorizing consumers, and I'm just wasting time giving this one any legitimacy?

Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes!

If I take Disney up on its offer to refund money used to purchase Baby Einstein DVDs, am I somehow admitting that my son is not a genius? Am I admitting that I was relying on a video to make my son a genius?
On the other hand, this could be the kind of slippery slope that makes me some money!
First, I’d like to sue the writers for Popeye: I have eaten plenty of spinach in my day and still my biceps are small and free of anchor tattoos. I’d also like to sue the creators of Diego and Dora: If Hayden is ever at a South American zoo, I suppose he’ll be able to ask for help before being eaten by a baby jaguar or its mother, but will he know how to ask for the bathroom or say “Do you have a pencil?” or “Which bus will take me to the library?”
What else? I know I’m missing some good opportunities here.