Down The Rabbit Hole

OK, just got home from a fundraiser where I watched the debate, and I must say that I am a little in love with John Kerry right now. I thought he was wonderful. He was in control the whole time, made his point and made it well, and countered any point Bush made with eloquence and ease. Bush looked like a nervous, blinky, twitchy, uncomfortable, smarmy kid.

Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo is more cautious than I am, which is probably a good thing, seeming as how I am quite biased . But even he says:

“If President Bush’s current lead is built not upon confidence in him or his policies but in a simple belief that Kerry isn’t solid enough to be president, then I think this performance could help Kerry a good deal.”

I think this is key. What the Bush administration has been saying over and over is that Kerry is not decisive leader, that he is not resolute, that he will not follow through on the war on terro and that America will not be safe with him at the helm. So many people, even hardore Republicans I have spoken to, say that they don’t necessarilt agree with Bush’s policies, but they doubt Kerry’s ability to lead.

I think all of us saw tonight that that is bullshit.

36 Experts: Bush Bad for Children.

This was the headline link on the Apple Netscape home page, which lead to the article. A group of pediatricians and social workers released a statement today which attacks Bush for introducing policies which erode the health care system, which, in turn, is bad for kids.

I didn’t need another reason to hate him anyway, I just loved the headline.

Wow, check out the always classy Britney Spears at her wedding. LOVE the dress, babe. Miniskirts are SO appropriate for a wedding dress, why didn’t I think of that? I’m totally regretting my own lovely, long skirt with train in favor of a dress where my ASS CHEEKS would be hanging out. And the bra strap hanging down your arm? Perfect. But I think you forgot to wash your hair.

Image found at Go Fug Yourself

Cynthia Nixon, aka Miranda Hobbs from Sex and the City, is dating a woman. She has two kids from a previous long-term relationship, but has been seeing a woman for ten months. Good for her, hope she’s happy. The headlines I’ve been reading about this are kind of irritating though. Netscape had one that was “Sex star a LESBIAN?” Oh, heaven forbid anyone should date a member of the same sex. My god, people.

Having trouble with my candles today. They keep turning out with little pits on the sides. I think it’s just too damn hot. When will this heat be over? So ready for it to cool off…

Check out this article about why Gallup polls are bogus. Mainly, they skew the results by polling way more Republicans than Democrats. If you ask me, we need to be shouting this from the rooftops, because part of the GOP strategy is to discourage Dems from not going to the polls at all.

A message from Michael Moore to kick us all in the ass and get us motivated again.

And there’s way more pictures (around 300 to be exact), but these are just a taste of my week.

This is where most of the festivities took place this week – Grandma’s house. Too bad in this picture you can’t see the green shag carpet that matches the walls.

We spent most of the weekend hanging out and playing cards. There were marathon games of Bullshit (or, if there were young’uns involved, the name of the game was changed to Baloney). Go Fish and 99. If you’ve never played 99, you haven’t really lived.

A rousing game of PickUp Sticks.

My cousins Amy and Anny. I hadn’t seen Anny for almost ten years.

Cousins Jamie, Anny and Tracy. Jamie and Anny (and Amy from the last picture) are my Uncle Donn’s girls, and Tracy is my Uncle Bruce’s daughter.

I suppose this picture needs a little explanation. See, my Grandpa and Grandma were both big archery buffs in their day, and all of us, kids and grandkids, from the time we could walk, were taught to shoot bow and arrow. So in a fit of nostalgia, Tracy came up with the idea on Friday night that it would be really fun to pull out the old bow. So we set up a cardboard TV box in my aunt Carol’s backyard and shot some arrows. So fucking cool.

Hawk proves that you can look good AND be well armed at the same time.

All of us at Saturday night’s big dinner. Grandma was just starting her speech.

Grandma with Blake and Bari, my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Carol’s twins.

Mom and her older brother, my Uncle Donn.

Well I head home tomorrow from my week at home for my grandma’s birthday. It’s the first time in probably 10+ years that ALL OF US (aunts, uncles, cousins) have gotten together (pictures will be forthcoming once I get home). There has been lots of stress and anxiety for many months surrounding this weekend, because any time you get family together, there’s always some kind of drama. So and so doesn’t like so and so, don’t start talking politics with Uncle whoever or we’ll never hear the end of it, stuff like that. But we ended up having an amazing time, culminating in a great dinner at my grandma’s favorite restaurant where all the waiters flirt with her. At the end of a great meal, she stood up and handed out to each one of us 11 grandkids a photo album that she had made for each of us with pictures taken throughout our whole lives. Let me tell you there was not a dry eye in the house.

There was also a $1000 check on the second page of the album. Which was great, that will help immensely with the Europe travel fund. But the money was totally secondary to the pictures. Seeing those pictures reminds me of who I was growing up and that a lot of what I loved then as a little girl are the same things I love now – mainly, my family. There is something about getting together with your family, those who have known you the longest, those who understand where you come from like no one else ever could. No matter how much time passes, you get the group of us together again and it’s just like it always was. Tomorrow we all go back to our separate lives, and who knows if we’ll ever have a chance like this again, to all be together. But Grandma gave us this wonderful opportunity, maybe for the last time, to remember where we all came from, and no matter where we go or what we do, we still always have our family and our memories of Grandma’s House.