Remembering and Looking Forward

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, on Wednesday. Here’s a great article from Salon.com that gives the top ten reasons why we already miss her: http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/09/14/ann_richards/

Ann Richards always impressed me, even from a distance. She and some of the women that I worked with in local politics in Illinois were wonderful roll models of women willing to invest their time and energy in changing the system from within. We need more women in national politics, but the ones we really need are too smart to want to get involved in all those PACs, lobbyists, corporate donors and other corruptive influences that prevent you from doing what you actually set out to do when you get elected (represent the actual people in your area).

While dealing with the Tower in my tarot reading (Jody suggested it represented Ann Richards’ passing) and the card that represents feeling a bit trapped in a world that is too small…I have a lot of good stuff in my life.

Forward Looking (to the future)

I am so happy with my children. I left work yesterday and drove to the high school to get Older Son, so we could go shopping. For what? For a jacket to wear to debate tournaments, of which he has his first serious one today. Photo will be added when it will load.

We had SO much fun at Kohl’s looking in the men’s clothing department. I was impressed that he is developing a sense of style and fashion, at last. He picked a very nice navy blazer with festive gold buttons, and asked for suit pants to go with it, and who could turn down a boy who wants to look nice? (Plus everything was marked down, so I did not spend the fortune I could have). We wisecracked, joked, teased and had fun through the entire process. And he didn’t pout or sulk at having to try stuff on…sniff, my boy is growing up. The most fun part was when I said he could get a shirt, and started pointing out bright colors (figuring he’d want a white one). He went straight to a beautiful medium purple shirt and said, “My favorite color is purple.” Wow! Then he found a very nice purple tie with some navy in it that really tied the look together. He looks modern, but very “kempt.” He even suffered through his mother looking at a few things, hee hee, but did an exaggerated teen pout that was hilarious.

When we got home, he very seriously watched as I showed him all the things you need to do to dress clothing before wearing it (opening pockets, etc.), then tried on the outfit. He decided he looked like Fabio with the shirt open and tucked in (he looks SO cute in the dress pants, with that teeny little rear end and broad shoulders above it). I had to take a couple of “Fabio” pictures for him. It was sweet how serious he took getting his first suit—kept repeating how nice I was to get him such an expensive piece of clothing as the jacket. It should last a while, though, through a lot of weddings, funerals, dances and debate tournaments.

I am also enjoying the younger one, who likes to share his homework with me so we can both learn vocabulary and do math projects. His conversations are also great fun, and we have some interesting discussions when we watch plastic surgery shows and other oddities on the Discovery Health Channel. Such joy. He’s very interested in the challenges faced by little people (there’s a show about such a family) and other people with challenges. What I like is that he views them first as people, and second as people with physical challenges. That may be because he has known quite a few people with various issues at church, and can see that they are parents, students, employees and thoughtful people, as well as those with handicaps. It’s good that the kids are kind and interested in something other than World of Warcraft (interesting article on that in Newsweek this week: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/ ).

As for me, I am doing well—dealing with work issues as well as I can, though everyone says I take my work too seriously. Well, how on earth are you supposed to do a good job unless you do a good job? Yeah, Suna the overachiever. My work friends have been so nice. And I find that I will miss the techie dudes as they all spend 5 weeks in various foreign lands teaching our stuff, and the ever amusing Lee, who is on vacation next week (note, ALE employees seem to get a LOT of vacation—I miss vacations).

Music

After something of a drought, I have gotten a lot of good CDs in the past few weeks. Here are some I have really liked (the latest from each artiste):

Wailing Jennies – oh they sound wonderful, ladies singing harmony, mmm
Bob Dylan – this is his best since Blonde on Blonde as far as I am concerned, and his voice sounds really cool
Tom Petty – there are a couple of very amusing rhyming songs in this one
Linda Ronstadt – I can’t remember who she is singing with (sorry lady) but the lovely, spare Cajun style background to the simple folk tunes is music to my Linda-lovin’ ears
Slaid Cleaves – stop snickering John. I can’t help that I only got the Unsung CD last week. It’s a lot of fun and I like the arrangements

On another note “The Who” were on Dave Letterman last night. Sniff, it was just Roger and Pete. It’s more like “Who’s Left.” Pete played a beautiful acoustic guitar, so I am glad he didn’t smash it. And Roger had cute round glasses on, and looked MUCH better than he has in a while. The song…it was weird. I will be sure to get their next CD, because Pete is My Hero.

translation: Note that while I said I'd miss him, it was just because I thought he was amusing. Because he made me laugh and didn't treat me like I was stupid. I got through the endless vacation just fine. I did not call him. I did not send him email at home (anyone who read his email would note I NEVER sent an email to his home until we moved past the friend stage). I actually did not dwell on his absence. I did other stuff, talked to my other friends, and was fine. No relationship other than friendship at this point.