Monthly Archives: January 2008

I’m confused….can big girls cry or not?

January 11, 2008

By now, I just can’t avoid it anymore. The presidential campaigns of 2008. Though intrigued by the outcome of the Iowa Caucuses (disturbed is actually a better word. I mean – Obama and a crazy Baptist Preacher? Huh?), I kept ignoring the predictions for the New Hampshire Primaries because it’s still so early in the game.

But then Hillary went and cried.

And now no pundit worth his or her salt can avoid that subject. So I am officially sucked in.

But after spending some time just on the NYT web site, reading all the banter and opinions about it, I’m still confused. Was it good for her that she cried? Was it the very thing that defied all the polling predictions and pushed her over the finish line victoriously? Or will that show of emotion, in the long run, be the end of her? Is it the final nail in her coffin – to reveal that she has emotion? Can she really stand up to the evil-doers of the world now that she’s shed a tear? I mean, she could have her period that day and all hell could break loose, at least that’s what Rush wants you to think.

Separating my extreme confusion after reading about what the pundits want me to think, I’ll instead revert back to my initial reaction.

Hillary is a total fake. There, I said it.

That was completely staged.

Come on people, we’ve been witness to staged Town Hall meetings for 8 years with the Bush Administration. You can’t have access or pose a question to the President in those “town hall meetings” unless you are a full-fledged card carrying member of the Republican Party with your NRA membership card proudly placed in your wallet and your question written, then edited, then written again, by the President’s advance people.

So, am I to actually believe the Democrats don’t use the same tactics? Now now. I’ve been living in DC long enough to not be that naive.

Come on people, get your head out of the sand. The D’s have to take pages out of the R’s playbooks because the R’s have a long track record of winning, even when anyone with a brain would think the odds are against them (anyone else thinking Bush’s re-election? I still can’t believe he won again. Ohio will always be dead to me).

So, there isn’t a person in the world who could convince me that Hillary’s sudden outburst of emotion, the first in decades of being a public personality, conveniently timed on the eve of an important Primary that she was slated to lose, was anything but staged.

Now, you could convince me that she has more acting chops than many of today’s overpaid Hollywood stars, but you cannot convince me to support her as the Democratic candidate in 2008.

What surprises me is how many people automatically assume I am supporting her because I am a woman. Like, they don’t even want to slow down for one second to hear my objections as I’m trying to speak for myself and actually point out that I can’t stand the woman.

When I finally get through to them, they look at me in disbelief and horror. Many women accuse me of not supporting women and how dare I?

Look, the truth is, I think Hillary is as good as a robot. She is like a freaking machine. She can study and memorize better than anyone up there, but is there anything real about her? Is there anything that’s not programmed about her? Why does she stand up there and tout her 8 years of experience in the White House? What the hell? She wasn’t President.

I actually don’t trust Hillary much more than I trust Bush.

At the end of the day, when push comes to shove, if, as I shudder, she actually receives the nomination to be the Democratic candidate, then there’s a good chance I’ll vote for her because at the end of the day, all I care about is that the Democrats take back full control and start to clean up this horror scene and mess Bush has created in our country and around the world. But right now, in January of 2008, I do not believe that Hillary is the best candidate and I do think her crying was totally fake, staged, and planned.

The first and only time I felt the least bit inclined towards Hillary was yesterday when speaking with a dear KT reader, who actually inspires many-a-postings here. She also despises the woman. But she made two really good points.

The first. This dear KT friend was an intern for the House of Parliament in 1994, back when we were in college. A woman she worked for told her a really charming story that has stuck with her all of these years. At that time, Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister for so long in England and apparently a little boy in this woman’s kid’s elementary school class stated that when he grows up, he wants to be Prime Minister. Turns out all the little girls in the class started laughing and told this boy that “only girls can be Prime Minister.”

OK now. Regardless of the fact that I now have a little girl of my own, that is a very compelling story and one that I would LOVE to see play out in elementary schools across the country. Odds are almost all of my millions of fans feel the same way.

The second story this same KT BFF told was this. She then went on to write her honors thesis on whether or not having a woman hold high office in a country, ultimately impacts women’s issues in that country. And her findings very conclusively showed that, it does. Having a woman hold the highest office in the country means that important issues to women are taken seriously and change can happen.

Again, this would be another point in the column for Hillary.

But see, this same friend and I, after discussing these two stories, still concluded that while we would LOVE to have a woman hold the highest office in the country, and we want to see this for our sake and the sake of our daughters, we still don’t believe Hillary is the right candidate.

Michelle Obama?

I’ve said it before – go for it. She has my full support.

Elizabeth Edwards?

Again, sign me up.

But Hillary?

Don’t trust her as far as I can throw her. I’m well aware of the complex dynamics at play here. As a woman, many people assume I should support the only female candidate to take a stand for all women nationwide. But I think that is fundamentally flawed reasoning.

The truth is, that isn’t enough for me. I just genuinely do not trust her or like her or believe her to be the strongest candidate with the best chance of beating the Republicans. I just don’t. And I have to also believe that in my lifetime, Hillary will not be the only female candidate for President, I have to believe that  we will have more chances in the future for other female political leaders to inspire a generation of little girls.

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Motherhood, Politics

The Cougar

January 9, 2008

I have been remiss in blogging about the Cougar. The whole idea of the Cougar has been something that’s intrigued me for months now. I’ll be honest, I love the term. It’s much sexier and hipper than being a “Sugar Daddy.” A cougar is fast, stealth, not easy to catch, well-built, can pounce on a second. I mean – come on. Being called a Cougar is pretty sweet, in my mind.

I know some of you might disagree but there you go, I said it, I love the Cougar. I want to be a Cougar, except the part where I married a man who is older than me.

But there are some questions lingering out there around Cougars.

The first – at what age are you a Cougar? My co-worker, he loves the Cougars of the world but being a man in his 30s, he does not believe I am old enough to be a Cougar. A puma? Perhaps. But I’m not old enough to be a Cougar, according to him.

I’m ok with Puma.

But what about the man in his 20s? Would he consider a woman in her 30s, a Cougar, I wondered.

I just got my answer.

I just had a working lunch with my co-worker and a man in his 20s. Towards the end of the lunch, he commented that he’s dating a Cougar. He’s 25 and she’s 36. The entire dynamic of the lunch changed at that point. It was like we all had three beers under our belt and just rolled up our sleeves and dove into the pros and cons of the Cougar.

I’ll admit, until this younger guy admitted to dating and loving Cougars, I wasn’t overly impressed. But then, his reasons for preferring Cougars really got me. He went on to explain that women in their 20s are still trying to find themselves, they are still rife with insecurities and they complain about their bosses. Apparently this guy’s brother said “Dude, your girlfriend will never complain about the boss because she is the boss.”

I loved that.

So basically, he loves a more confident, self-assured, successful business woman. He loves the Cougar and claims he can never go back to women his own age.

Which then brought up the other issue that I’ve wondered about the Cougar-younger man relationship. That pesky biological clock.

So, knowing this man all of 45 minutes, I felt we had enough history together for me to inquire about this particular challenge.

I said, “It just seems to me, that at the end of the day, that the relationship between a man in his 20s dating a woman in her mid-late 30s might not be able to withstand time if the woman wants to get married and have kids.”

My fellow lunch mate was open to this and just said he doesn’t know where he stands with kids, given his age, but the Cougar said she doesn’t want them. I mean, who’s really thinking about having babies at 25? Certainly I wasn’t.

I still have my suspicions that at the end of the day, a relationship with that great of an age difference can really withstand time, in particular with the woman being more than 10 years older, but we all know Demi has made it work. It’s just the kids issue. If the woman wants children, her own biological children, I just don’t know how it can work out. Call me cynical.

But setting that aside, I am all for Cougars. Love the term, love how much people want to talk about it. Love it.

Cougar it up, kittens.

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Husbands, Motherhood

Can there be order amidst the chaos?

January 7, 2008

Good Monday Morning Kittens -

Here it is early January, a new year, a new week, frankly the first full week back to work for me in like three weeks. I’m dreading it. Aside from diets and exercise, the other topic most heavily covered in the news (also setting aside the primaries) is ORGANIZATION. Everyone loves to slim down, tone up and get organized in a new year. Indeed. At least on the Today Show they do. But what about real life?

Well, I don’t know about you, but of all the areas of my home that need organization and structure, I will go out on a limb and say that my daughter’s playroom tops that list.

Maybe you are different than me, maybe you have some kind of highly organized, structured, focused toddler, but in my reality, playrooms never look like this:

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/room/rom/romply/romplycbs/index.cfm

Or this:

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/room/rom/romply/romplycam/index.cfm

Or this:

http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=149&f=2649&pc=9

In fact, the playroom more closely resembles the disaster zone similar to the playroom pics on this person’s blog (scroll down a bit under the Messy Room entry to see):

http://jsvh.blogspot.com/2006/11/messy-rooms.html

So what is a gal to do?

First of all, we built a separate room with a door so that our darling cherub could have a place for her toys and her chaos and her mess…and we could just close the door at night and not have to look at it. It was well worth the money.

But even so, I still spend a lot of time in the room and there are times it drives me up a wall. I try to bring order to the chaos. I have really great baskets with pretty liners (that get pulled out and tossed around the room..along with all the contents of said basket… when my daughter decides its time to sit inside the basket and play). I try to organize the baskets. Balls, cars, other shaped items in here, dolls and little people in here, books in here.

Indeed.

That lasts about as long as she is napping.

And then I wonder to myself, what kind of “organization system” actually works the best. Baskets provide easy access for the toddler set but their contents are quickly emptied and dispersed around the room. Bookshelves can come tumbling down quite easily. Yeah yeah, I know you can anchor a bookshelf to a wall but still, the contents are going to come tumbling down quickly and it’s never going to look organized or neat.

So is it better to have the toys “organized” on a few bookshelves or “organized” in baskets dispersed around the room? Or is there another way? Anyone?

I mean, is it me, or is it just the Pottery Barn Kids or Land of Nod catalog that has beautiful organization systems with themed baskets all neatly organized and labeled? Does someone out there live like this? I mean, I get really tempted to just start dropping money and buying all these baskets and wardrobes and dressers and bookshelves in all the neatly matching colors and zen like state each time a new catalog arrives on my doorstep.

I settle down into the couch on those nights, pouring over the catalogs, analyzing the organization system, assessing the costs, laying out the new system in my mind – visually – in the playroom. Then I go to sleep and wake up to my daughter the next morning and face the reality of how that beautiful, trendy, coordinated system would actually look.

And so I ask you this – fellow moms with toddlers and playrooms – how do you do it? Do you have a room that looks like Pottery Barn?

If so, who are you?

And how do you do it?

And how long does it last for?

And don’t lie about it.

Surely Oprah’s got a guy who can solve all my lack of playroom organization and structure problems.

Afterall, I’m great in 2008…so long as you don’t come for a playdate and see how I actually live….

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Motherhood

I’m great in 2008……

January 4, 2008

Happy New Year Kittens!

First, let me apologize for my long silence. You know that you are always on my mind but sometimes there are a few hurdles in my way. It seems that with parenthood, I am still learning and re-learning the lesson that the best laid plans are, well, just that. In fact, rarely does something actually play out how you imagine it would.

Example? Well, my darling daughter, husband, parents, nanny and myself were all struck with the horrible Norovirus the week before Christmas (I swear that trip to that hideous Elmo Show with the terrible fight with my husband is the culprit. I swear we picked it up there). If you’ve experienced this drama, well then, you know what kind of hell we endured. I had the best intentions, that week before Christmas. I had so much work to do, I had errands to run during my lunch hour, I had presents to wrap, cookies to make, cards to send, manicure, pedicure and haircut appointments to enjoy, I was a gal with things to do. None of those things included laying on the floor next to the toilet, wishing for death, and thanking God for Elmo who kept my daughter quite distracted while I puked my guts up, hoping someone would come home soon.

So that’s why you didn’t hear from me before Christmas. And I’ve yet to get that manicure, pedicure or haircut.

Then we went to my parent’s house for Christmas and it was fun. Until the night of Christmas Eve. When the Norovirus struck my parent’s house. And tore through me, all three of my sisters and my mom again. You got it. Twice in the span of one week. Fortunately it spared my darling daughter and husband the second time. So, again, that same dreaded lesson reared its ugly head again. I imagined a really fun Christmas day, watching my daughter REALLY enjoy Christmas for the first time, sipping coffee, laughing and joking with my family. I didn’t quite imagine all three bathrooms in the house being occupied with an adult female body laying next to the toilet, wishing for death.

But really, who does imagine that when they think of Christmas?

Probably me next year. I’ll imagine it.

So what’s my point? Well, my first point is that this is largely why you heard nothing from me for so long. My other point is, maybe it’s best not to really internalize the reality that the best laid plans are well, just that, because then you’d walk around being all negative and Debbie Downer for the rest of your life. This is parenthood and life, right? It just sort of happens, whether you like it or not.

Many really sweet things still happened over Christmas. My two-year old was pretty oblivious to the misery and sickness that was happening around her and she still loved Christmas. She graduated from a sweet, innocent request by calling Santa before Christmas and asking him for a “gingerbread house” to calling Santa after Christmas and just saying “Bring presents.”

Now that’s what I’m talking about, a gal who appreciates gifts and knows how to state what she wants.

The other fun thing to discuss is the fact that it’s, well, a new year. I, for one, am opposed to New Years Resolutions. It’s like giving up something for Lent. Haven’t I given up enough already? I mean, what do they say, in the first year of a baby’s life, you lose like a year’s worth of sleep. Need I get into what happens to our bodies from pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Isn’t that enough?

So instead, I will resolve the following:

1. I resolve to make sure my husband completes all of his assignments on his “to do” list every weekend.

2. I resolve to make sure I am equally, if not, more, pretty and funny by the end of 2008 as I was at the end of 2007.

3. I resolve to still drive like a maniac at the end of each work day and honk and swear and wave my fist at any annoying slow driver who’s delaying my efforts to get home quickly to play with my darling daughter.

4. I resolve to continue to be as dedicated to fashion and shoes and accessories in 2008 as I was in 2007.

5. I resolve to remain steadfast in my commitment to celebrity gossip and spreading it around as fast as I can.

See, kittens, it’s 2008, we’re great…….what else is there to say?

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Celebrities, Fashion, Husbands, Motherhood
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