Fucking Hell......

I have been going over my entries and have decided I need to come up with some that are not so fucking serious. I will work on that, but it may require a couple bottles of wine. At least a few beers.....

The Veep Debate

What do you expect me to say, really? While I wil go out on a limb and say that Palin did not wholly embarrass herself, one cannot help but feel a little bit sorry for her. Her tactic of trying to appear so "aw shucks" makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. First and most important position that I feel should speak for itself (which was not really touched on tonight): Palin is pro-life. She does not believe in abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. This is a WOMAN who does not believe in a WOMAN'S rights over her OWN body. Need actual proff beyond what she has said herself? Look at her 17 year old daughter, currently about six months pregnant. This really upsets me, how a woman can be so ignorant of how important WOMEN'S issues are, not to mention how so many other women - any number, even one other - could possibly support that viewpoint. It speaks to a basic stupidity so rampant in the American populace.

Palin was so incerdibly pre-programmed that I thought I was watching an automaton on that stage, that this wasn't actually a vice presidential debate, but rather an episode of "Terminator" The Sarah Palin Chronicles". Her answers were contrived and constructed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, her "joe Six Pack" and "Soccer Moms" everywhere. Granted, this is what makes up the lower aqnd middle classes. But one has only to ask: "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?"

Given that we are embroiled in two failing wars that make Korea and Vietnam look like kindergarten recess, the looming collapse of our country's entire financial system (this bailout is NOT going to do much of anything that the market couldn't have done on it's own were the "free market" allowed to run it's course....), a deficit that dwarfs anything this country has ever seen previously, and even a fear of Tech Bust 2.0 with massive jobs lost in the tech industry this year alone, home foreclosures across the country.....need I continue? Some feared that if this bailout package was not passed, we would be netering into a recession. I have news for you, baby: This country has been in a recession since 2006; it's just that no one wants to say it out loud or admit it. And since it has been under the Republican Party's watch that these black marks have occured....do we really want more of the same for another four to eight years? McCain has already confirmed that he will strive to continue Bush's policies, and Palin will be right there alongside of him.

Forgive me....I rant. Bottom line, back to subject: Palin lost this one miserably as far as I am concerned. She looked good, she has a certain appeal (if you live in a fucking trailer park)...but she just could not hold her own on an even keel.

Trust in that I will be watching the poll numbers in the next few days to see the general consensus of results about how the country viewed this singular debate, probably the most watched and most intersting in recent (or ever) history. The first editorial I have come across is located here. Even CNN is reporting that while Palin "beat expectations" (do you REALLY want a VP that only "beats expectations"?), the early polls show Biden winning by a nice percentage.

The Great Schlep

Ok. This is probably the funniest fucking thing I have seen Sarah Silverman put out, and it actually also serves a purpose: Trying to whip up the young Jewish vote for Obama.

You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate; it's just absolutely hilarious. Check it out and then go over to TheGreatSchlep.com.

Be warned: If you are easily offended by bad language...well, then what the fuck are you reading my shitty blog for, asshole?


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

.....and thus The Great Experiment ends.....

I am speaking of our experiment of having Amy's mom stay with us to help out after Devlin was born. Before digging too deep into this, please allow me a moment to provide some crucial details by way of background.....

For some months prior to Devlin's arrival, we had been speaking to Amy's mom about coming out (she lives in Florida, staying with Amy's grandmother). The original deal (henceforth referred to as "The Plan") struck was thus: Candy (Amy's mom) would come out and be here for the birth, would stay with us at the house, would make herself available to help Amy out when I couldn't because of my work schedule. The understanding was thus: Amy should not have to "do" anything other than take care of herself and take care of Devlin. No domestic chores, just focus on Lil D. Come October, we were going to examine our daycare needs and the subject of having Candy handle weekly daycare - at least until the first of the new year. Candy would stay in our office - which I spent considerable time converting for her use - and would actually even have a car available to her (when we bought the RAV4, we decided to keep the Cavalier in anticipating of gradually fixing it up to hand over to Sloan when she was ready to drive). This was the original plan.....

Now stay with me, because this gets really convoluted really fast. The first wrench in The Plan was Candy coming to the conclusion that she needed to retain her insurance through IKEA (she was working there in Florida), so she explored her options of transferring to a store out here. That worked out for her and she had a position waiting for her at the Palo Alto location before she even came out. How this became problematic to our own needs was that she arrived on a Tuesday or Wednesday and started working on Friday; she was unavailable, really, on the level we had discussed and needed. Now, we can totally understand and accept that she needed to retain her insurance. And she has always claimed that "whatever you guys need comes first". However, I became annoyed with this because it was obvious from the get-go that "whatever you guys need comes first" was not really anything more than mere lip service. On my end, I simply shut up and focused on D's arrival into the world......

As most great plans go, this one started off ok at best. That first wrench was understandable and we worked it out as much as we could. But Candy is not one to typically "do" anything on her own that much. In the time frame she has been staying with us, she has cooked a handful (or less) of time, done dishes here and there. She has helped to clean house perhaps once, and that was after Amy relayed my orders that the house needed tidying up. This was all a gradual progression. Add to this the fact that after she says "goodnight" in the evening, she is then up and about, wandering the house for a variety of reasons a minimum of 5 or 6 times....highly annoying.

The worst incident that really pushed our opinions downhill was when Candy took some pain meds (she had had hip surgery a couple of months prior to coming out) one afternoon. From the afternoon until late in the evening, Candy could barely speak, let alone really function, and yet she continued to get up and wander around, once mistaking Sloan's room for the hall bathroom (thankfully, not seriously so...we were able to get her to where she needed to be....), and generally just out of it. Now, as a parent - new or otherwise - would this inspire any amount of confidence in you to see your potential daycare provider whacked out of her fucking mind on pain meds and barely able to stand up? It didn't with us either and we - Amy moreso than me at first - decided we could not trust her enough to leave Devlin in her care. What if she was in pain and stumbled while carrying him? What if she takes a pain med after we leave and is barely able to function on her own let alone and take care of a crying baby? Not gonna happen. Another aspect to note - which I have not really commented on - is that Candy is an alcoholic supposedly working through recovery, although it should be noted that she has never gone into rehab and - to the best of my own knowledge - had yet to accept and admit she has a problem. However, due to this, I was forced to essentially hide all of my alcohol when she came out. This irked me as well; I am the one who has to change MY fucking life because this supposed adult doesn't know how to control herself? See where my patience level is going here?

Oh! And to top most of this off, Candy smokes. Or at least she did and claimed to stop before she came out. However, Amy noted one time that the Cavalier was starting to smell of smoke and her mom was going for walks periosically. Amy read her the riot act - we are non-smokers and will not tolerate anyone smoking on any level around us and then handling Devlin; cigarette smoke clings to all surfaces and stays on clothes and smoke - second-hand, first-hand, or lingering on surfaces - has been proven to contribute to developing allergies and illness is children.

These things as well as her own smaller foibles (asking us if we "need" anything literally every ten minutes as she enters a room, crying openly about her own personal financial issues, etc.), have driven a wedge between us. Sloan, for her part, is much more tolerent (although it should be noted she does not know all of the details anyway) but has lost some respect for Candy in having to witness her on pain meds. What is truly amusing - on some bizarre level - is that last week Candy sent Amy an email (yes, she sends text messages and emails even when we are sitting right in the next room....its her way of avoiding confrontation) asking to "talk" because she is unhappy and has sensed we are not happy either. Her email veers into actually blaming us for how she feels and for not really needing her. To top all of this off, she came home yesterday from IKEA, locked herself into her room, obviously took more pain meds, tried to sneak out to smoke - eliciting a hardcore scolding from Amy and forcing her back into her room - tried to speak to me at one point but not having the ability to actually formulate a sentence, and then proceeded to wander around the house after hours making noise at every turn - which then pused me beyond my limits of patience and forcing me to order her back to bed. Basically, everything that has drievn Amy and myself to become annoyed with her, she pulled out in one night and simply drove the final nail into her coffin as far as I am concerned. And Amy agrees.

So, thats where we stand. I had to vent and get this out. This has been a little piece of Hell. Amy said it best when she said, "We not only have a newborn in the house, but also a teenager; we do not fucking need another kid to take of right now, especially when they were supposed to be actually helping US out!" That said, it looks like she should be headed back to Florida sometime around the end of next week. Or, at least, one can only hope.....