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.