Seriously, I should be getting some Nablopomo extra credit for all these posts today.
I am done canvassing. Now I am going to rest and watch the news until Mr. A gets home from work. Then I think I will try to convince him we should go out to eat because I am so tired.
Then we are going with friends to the O.hi.o Democratic Party (hopefully) Victory party downtown. The friends in question are semi-VIPs with the Party so maybe it will be extra interesting. At the very least, we will have a good parking spot because we are riding with them. It has been a long time since the Democrats have had much to celebrate so we are going to live it up.
P.S. You will be glad to know that many of the houses I spied on were very lovely and suitable for me to live in some day when we have enough money to purchase a new house.
Have been hanging doorhangers for 3 hours in a neighborhood where the houses are too close together to drive, but just far enough apart to ensure that it takes for freaking EVER to hang the darn door thingies.
My feet hurt.
I am sunburned.
I am very tired.
Now I am on to door knocking, but this time it is in my part of town. Actually, I will be canvassing the streets where I want to buy a house. I selected my packet so I can peer into all my potential new homes.
Obama better win, damn it. Because this canvassing work sucks.
I will come back to the exchange student thing, but I am going to try to whip out a few questions while L is napping.
NaechsteHaltestelle asks:
Do you have any tips for taking a young child to China? We’re thinking of going and taking my 2.5 year old. I’ve been before, but never with a kid, so I’m sure there are things I’ve never even considered.
The biggest thing that comes to mind is that you can not depend on a stroller for dragging the kid around. In some places sidewalks (where they actually have them) are terrible, don’t have ramps and are very crowded. I would advise an ergo or other sturdy backpack for the kiddo, unless you have a kid with unusually high stamina for walking. If the kid is walking, beware of the crap laying on the ground. There is a lot of spitting and peeing (hopefully by babies with split pants), not to mention litter all over the ground in China. Once M tried to pick a shiny something off the ground in China and my admonishment about the dirtyness was where M first learned the word “Hepatitis”. Bring a lot of hand sanitizer and wet wipes to keep the grime to a bearable level. (And let me assure you, I am not a germ freak at home.)
If your kids is potty-trained, there is the issue of Chinese toilets. Before we left for China, I had M practice squatting to pee in the back yard. In China, she also once peed with each foot on opposite sides of a crap-filled trench filled with mosquitos. Practice making your kid pee/poop while you hold him/her in the air over the potty. Also, always carry your own toilet paper because most Chinese toilets do not have any for you.
Also, getting food that is acceptible to your kid in a timely manner can be a huge hassle. Not to mention the issue of food-safety in China right now. We ended up packing a ton of snacks for M and it was well worth the luggage space. Another thing is that old ladies in China love white-looking babies. Plan to be stopped, oogled, stared at, touched and generally bothered no matter where you go. The same goes for white adults who have anything except brown hair. If you are blonde or redheaded, maybe you should bring a hat!
I know it doesn’t sound like a glowing recommendation, but I love China and M had a great trip while we were there. These were just the most notable hassles.
LawyerChick asks:
Totally interested in what your neighbors (the people, not the foreign countries) are thinking as we enter the final sprint in the election. Also – do you talk about politics with family members, esp Mr A’s family, and if so, how do you keep it civil?
Because we live in the midwest, in public, most people are pretty polite. I don’t talk politics with my neighbors unless I know where they stand. I almost didn’t put up a sign in my yard because I heard that the old-guy next door was hassling our next door neighbor about voting for “those Liberals”. We are generally a polite private people here, I think. (I have my own theory about why all those Ohio people are so over-the-top racist at the Palin rallys: They suppress those real racist feelings during their daily lives, then they finally find somewhere where it is socially acceptable to spout them so they do. I like it better when we all keep our worst selves private.) The politeness and desire not to offend makes me particularly proud of the canvassers. It is a hard job.
Mr. A’s family mostly votes for Democrats. His dad sat Mr. A down when he was young and told him that he should always vote for Democrats because Chinese people were not allowed to immigrate until the Democrats reformed the US immigration laws. We had a close call with Mr. A’s Dr.-sister this year. She was undecided for a while, but eventually voted Obama. My own parents are Republicans, though, and we try not to talk politics. Mostly because I get upset, not because it bothers them.
I spent the morning volunteering at M’s school. If there was ever any doubt that I made a good career choice by NOT becoming a kindergarten teacher, it was confirmed today. Seriously, that poor teacher expended more energy in 1 hour than I use in two days.
On with the questions. Elise asks:
Do you know Joe the plumber? How is he playing on his home territory?
Given that you have identified youself as pretty non-religious, how do you feel about the fact that it seems mandatory that political candidates profess deep and profound religious beliefs in order to have any success?
Heh. No I don’t know Joe the Plumber. I am personally very tired of hearing about Joe, his unpaid taxes, lack of a plumber’s lisense and how his DMV file was illegally accessed three times. If Joe makes as much money as the plumber we paid for our leaky faucet last year AND he is concerned about taxes Joe probably should vote for McCain. Since even Mr. A the Corporate Lawyer and Me the somewhat Slacker Housewife will still get a big tax break under Obama, we will not be voting for McCain. (Actually, taxes don’t have anything to do with how we are voting. I would vote for Obama even if he upped our taxes because as Oliver Wendell Home said: “I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.”)
I am so tired of religion getting mixed up with politics. At the risk of sounding like I am huddled over here wearing a tinfoil hat, I believe there has been a calculated effort by evangelical religious extremists and fiscally conservative Republicans to create the insanity that is the recent Republican party. Because if there wasn’t why the hell are those guys hanging out together? Abortion is the only glue in that relationship, it seems to me. Because show me in the Bible where Jesus says that it is bad to “spread the wealth”. Or where Jesus says we should do more to screw the poor? And where, oh where, is the part of the Bible where Jesus says we should bomb the hell out of other countries and hate people because they have different religious beliefs?
*ahem* /soapbox.
Along different religious lines, Shelley asks:
Did you have M babtised, or L for that matter? Can you talk about that a little? It’s a current mosquito in my ear..in-laws. As far as I’m concerned, the monk blessing in China was very meaningful for us. I don’t see the need. However, other people do..perhaps even hubby, and while I wouldn’t be persuaded due to peer pressure, I was influenced by Xia Xia’s fosters mother in China who pulled me aside twice to convey to me that she is Christian, as is my daughter. I feel sort of like I have some sort of duty in that regard when I think of how well my baby was cared for and loved by her foster family.
No, my girls are not baptized. I tried to google the purpose of Baptism, but I found about 10,000 links with different explanations, so I am probably just going to show my ignorance here. My understanding of baptism was that the parents were making a committment to raise their children to be Christian. I am not willing to do that because I am not Christian. Mr. A is Christian and if it were important to him that they be baptized, I would be happy to let him handle it. If the girls want to be baptized when they get older, they will have my full support.
As for your concerns about the foster mother’s religion, well, that is a sticky wicket. If it were me, I would be grateful to her and tell my daughter what she had said, but I wouldn’t feel any obligation to raise my child in a religion I do not care about for someone else’s sake. Even if I found out that L’s parents were of a specific religion, I don’t think I would feel the need to raise her in that religion. I would probably try to learn the cultural implications of that religion and give L the opportunity to explore it when she was older, if she wanted to. But then, I generally believe that my kids can decide for themselves when they are older anyway.
I was running on the treadmill when I saw the clip of Colin Powell talking about why he will be voting for Barack Obama this year. I had to stop running because I got so teary.
Also, it appears that after about 47 emails from me (and none in return from them), Bloglines has finally started carrying my most used feed again. Welcome back, bloglines exiles!
I have to get moving so we can get to Chinese school on time. Seriously, aren’t weekends supposed to be restful?
|
|
