Who Is Sarah Palin?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

• She was elected Alaska's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.¹
  
• Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.²
  
• She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. ³
  
• Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.⁴
  
• She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.⁵
  
• She's solidly in line with John McCain's 'Big Oil first' energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.⁶
• How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.⁷

From MoveOn.org - see full article for sources and more info

We've Moved!

Shew! What a lot of work it has been, and the old place still has some things in it and needs to be cleaned. Thank goodness for the kind landlords who let us move in a week early. We finally ate off real dishes last night. Fortunately all the boxes are in the basement so I can't easily see how much unpacking we still have to do!

Living with a teen and a tween is a big adjustment. I'm used to having some semblance of control over the children I live with. I thought I had a good number of years before I'd have to deal with deciphering when a 14 or 10 year old is being irresponsible and when I'm just expecting too much. Is it too much to ask that they scrape their dirty dishes or hang up their wet towels? And the loud music. . .it's like being back in the dorms. I will adjust, perhaps begrudgingly sometimes, but these two kids are really amazing and I'm a better person just for having them in my life. And by the time Alex and Spencer are teens this will all be old hat.

Right now my sister's eight year old twins and five year old son are here and they're all in the living room playing Rock Band. They've had such a good time together today and have already come to the conclusion that they are "cousins." That family isn't defined by pieces of paper, but by relationships, appears to be intuitive to them.

I love our new family and our new home. I am so happy to be going to sleep and waking up next to the man I love, to be drinking our morning coffee and talking about what to have for dinner that night, to be watching our children get to know each other even better and to see things coming together in a beautiful routine that will be our life together.

Friday Night

My sweetheart arrived at my house tonight with a bottle of wine. We hadn't seen each other in nearly a week, but that's the last of those long stretches. He is with me all week, and next weekend we move in together. "This is to celebrate the end of single parenthood for both of us," he said of the wine. Funny, I hadn't been thinking of it as the end of single parenthood for him. I hadn't even realized until recently that life is going to be easier for me after we move in together. The thought that life would be better for him, as a parent, hadn't even occurred to me. I'm so happy to be doing this with him.

I'm So Blue

I love the house we're moving into. Sure, it's a little small for a family our size, and there's only one bathroom, but it's clean and well maintained. Newly refinished hardwood floors, brand new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, and freshly painted. That's where the problem is. Most of the interior house is painted a nice, neutral, easy-to-match tan. The master bedroom and what will be the twins bedroom are light blue. Light blue! What I call "mental health blue," because it reminds me of the paint that I've seen used in many mental health facilities. It doesn't match a damn thing I own for my bedroom. And the landlord won't let us repaint the room. Okay, he doesn't trust us yet, I understand. Why can't he just through some of the paint they used in the rest of the house up on the walls? It's not even like painting a whole room, since the bottom half of it is white wainscoting. Yes, it totally goes with the Cape Cod house, but it doesn't match the print of my favorite painting, La Belle Dame Sans Merci or my bedding. I've always hated the plain white walls of rentals, and love the tan the landlord picked for the rest of the house. Couldn't he just have stuck with that color?

Have I mentioned that for years I have sworn off decorating in this color because I dislike it so much?!!? Aargh!

Okay, done venting.

School Days

I just got some incredibly good news today. Spencer is going to school this fall! He was on the waiting list at Head Start and they called to let me know that he's been accepted. I'm very excited, for him and for me. He needs to be away from me and with his peers, and I need to get back into the "real" world. Whether that means more grad school or back to work, or both, I don't know. I'm just looking forward to whatever may come.

Sleeplessness and Moving

I worked myself into exhaustion today. By late afternoon I felt like I was dragging around giant logs for my limbs and that I could easily lay down on the floor and fall immediately into a deep sleep. Then I got a second wind...and I can't get rid of it. I'm tired, but my brain doesn't want to shut off. I tried distracting myself with my usual bedtime ritual of reading, but I got to the end of my latest Koontz book and I was still wide awake.

Maybe it's just that I have so much on my mind with getting ready to move. Oh, I've been meaning to blog about that. We're moving. Not far, just south 30 miles or so. Into a four bedroom cape cod. In three weeks and two days! I have so much to do. So many things to organize and get rid of and pack and clean. And I can't wait for the day to get here. I can't wait to move. I'm just a bit overwhelmed by it all.

I've been in this little house for over two years, on my own with my little guys. But then again not really on my own. From day one Caroline, Caitlin, and Kirsten have been here, if not in the house then just a few steps away. They've become like sisters to me, and like aunts to the boys. Caroline is like a guardian angel, and Cate and Kir, almost young enough to be my daughters, are my constant companions and friends. Leaving them is going to be hands down the worst part about moving. I'll miss them terribly.

But look what I get instead. To be with a wonderful man every day. To go to sleep and wake up next to him every night and every morning. To spend my time with this person with whom I share so many interests, passions, and philosophies. To have a partner for life. For this, that which I had all but stopped hoping for, I'll gladly suffer the temporary stress and exhaustion that comes with moving.