Street Cred

I've noticed an unexpected side-effect of dying my hair; Grace's friends think I'm very cool. Hey, whatever it takes. I'm clearly not going to be the mom handing out condoms or buying them beer, but I can totally keep it real in the hair department. Nice.

Grace is the smartest, bestest, most beautiful daughter ever. Yes, she is. Of course, yours are too; let's not fight. Last night Grace and I had a conversation about wanting to grow up to be beautiful. She's concerned that it's not going to happen:
"I mean, Mom. I look like a little kid. I don't want to look like this forever."
But then she said:
"I just want to be respected for who I am. I feel like my friends don't let me just be myself and respect me."

Um, yeah. That's what we all want. We then talked about all the people who love her and respect her. If you're reading right now, your name was probably mentioned (unless I don't know you, in which case, I'm sure you're a lovely person and maybe your name will make the list next time). Thank you all for being on that list. It meant a lot to her to hear your names.

I remember this time in my life so well. Of course I wanted to have friends and fit in. Of course I wanted to be beautiful. (I also wanted to always wear my older sisters' clothes.) The struggle for respect among friends was a hard thing to go through, and even as an adult it can be unpleasant.*

I wish so much that I could convey to Grace how little the spats she has with friends will matter as she gets older. She won't care when she's thirty if she didn't get to hear the secrets the other girls were telling each other. Being told she's not rich enough(?!) isn't really a big deal (yes, a little girl totally told her that. You better believe I wanted to call her up and say mean things, but water under the bridge. Not to mention, who even cares about that in third grade?!)

But that's not entirely true. The person she becomes and the coping mechanisms she develops as a result of her childhood experiences will shape the adult she becomes. We all had to go through it, right? We all survived. We're all mostly nice and normal. Kids are resilient, right?

I don't want Grace to feel that she has to fit a mold and act in a way contrary to her nature to be accepted. Cue appropriate books, movies, conversations. What have you, did you, will you tell your daughters (okay, and sons too) when this stuff comes up?

I really wish children were born with the collective understanding of both their parents. Children would have more perspective on the short span of childhood. Maybe they would enjoy it more, knowing that life only gets more complicated. Think how wicked smart each new generation would be. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that.

Until then, we're going to need so many more conversations.

*BTW, I have awesome, wonderful, lovely, wicked smart friends. Thank you all.

A Farewell to Like and MissKitti Goes Brown

I say the word 'like' entirely too much. How embarrassing for me. In an effort to stop embarrassing myself I am trying to only use the word 'like' in case of emergency. It's a lot harder than one might think.

Who knew that my inner child is actually a teenaged-valley girl? Yes, it's true. So. Please bear with me if we are talking and I suddenly seem tongue-tied; I'm merely trying to say something without the use of my secret favorite word.

What word can you not live without?

And. Me with new and improved color:
Yep, that's right. I'm a newly minted brunette. I totally admit to being inspired by Lauren's own fabulous brown locks.

New Information on SIDS

Click on the title to read the article, if you feel so inclined.

Interesting. Also, I'm so happy to see that SIDS-related infant mortality has gone down.

Conference Weekend?

While listening to conference on Saturday morning, first talk of the day,

Grace in sotto voce, "Mom, I just filled FIVE MINUTES of time! Just like that! I filled five minutes."

Um. Yeah. I didn't get to listen to much conference the weekend. I do remember a talk on hope. Would anyone like to fill me in on a few details?

In Other News

GingerGold is the new way to go in apples. Honey Crisp is a close second and a nod goes to Pink Ladies.

Any other honorable mentions?

Well Played, Joe Biden

And to S.P.- not so bad. She clearly had talking points that she was asked to stick with: energy, taxes, the word 'maverick', and being middle-class.

Hated the winking -I found it both annoying and insulting, but whatever. The bottom line, she didn't provide SNL with as many jokes for this week. Definitely a plus. And now we are all aware that she is a middle-class mom trying to make ends meet (yes, heavy sarcasm intended).

Senator Biden -he was able to answer the actual questions with specific examples, less skirting around the issues. He addressed criticism towards McCain, which is appropriate as SP hasn't been on the radar long enough to be anything other than a face (sorry, but it's true, unless you live in Alaska and I would totally say this even if she were a he).

All in all, a good debate and it left me with the same impressions that I had to begin with. Biden good for the job, able to reign in the speechifying. SP needs more experience, also one hell of a fighter.

I've discussed the experience issue with coworkers and we all agree that there is a certain amount of on the job training. A learning curve, if you will. One can't know what it is to be President or VP until one has walked in those shoes. Granted.

However, there needs to be a certain base of knowledge already in place to effectively build on. In the case of SP, there's no shame in not being familiar with foreign policy or the Bush Doctrine. However, being as she's running for VP, she needs to already know this stuff. She doesn't have time to play catch-up. Just my opinion.

I appreciated that Biden acknowledged that, while he does come from more modest roots, he is now well-off and does not fit into the 'middle-class'. Also, that he admitted that the office of VP doesn't really get to set policies or legislate. Important information to understand.

Who did you like? What were your impressions? More importantly, Can we still be friends?

Please Watch The Vice-Presidential Debate Tonight

Then let's talk tomorrow.