Dream Big Dreams....

When I was way too young to almost remember I believed I would grow up to be Mary Poppins. Christmas of 1964 Santa brought me her hat, her umbrella, her bag, a tea set and a table and chairs.
When my daughter was 4 she announced (repeatedly and to anyone who would listen) that she was going to be a doctor. She's scant moments away from making that real. I'm completely in the moment and way more Mary Poppins that not.
It's only been very recently that I've remembered that all I wanted to do (when I was 4) was to be that person who could show up with flashlights and monkeys and socket sets and duct tape and oatmeal and hot chocolate in my purse. And, here it is.... today...and I am that person.
I am a nazi... I expect everybody to use their manners. I believe that we all wake up... every morning, and we do the best we can... and, every once in a while...somebody will show up with all the tools we need to do our job right...or have our backs tickled....or we'll spoon and laugh and sing the songs our mom taught us.
I'm just amazed at how everything you wish for will come to you.
You just have to remember what it is that you wished for.

Meagan Has A Birthday

My Sister turns 40 Today
Meagan is my little sister. She was born 7 years behind me and we share very limited memories of living in the same house...growing up together.
Over the course of the last year I've gotten to know her more than I could have ever hoped. And, she is one amazing person.
She lives in Colorado (as she has for the past 17 years) and she has 4 amazing boys. She has perfect nails and unbelievably enviable hair. She can sing like a lark and either doesn't know it or hasn't realized it yet.
When she laughs it's like a perfect wind ripping through a strand of evergreens.
She has some serious back bone.
She will sometimes tell me things I don't want to hear and other times tell me things that nobody has ever told me about myself. I value her for both of these.... Her candor is so precious.
Once, when she was very little I told her that my best friend had a tail. She believed me. Another time I told her that all those little utility stations along the turnpike were UFO tracking stations. I think she believed that till she was in college. And, once Meagan believes something it IS the truth. You've really got to work overtime to make her believe otherwise.
She still sends my brother money in prison.
She has hope.
I am so blessed to have her in my life...as are my children...and her children...and her great big ol' Irish Catholic family.
She is amazing.
And, it's her birthday.
So...Good vibe Meagan today.
Life is short...good vibes are forever.

Things I Remembered

To be fair, I may have known a lot of this stuff at some point in my life, but apparently that information got squeezed out and replaced with (what I can only fiugre is) random stuff that doesn't matter all that much.
1. You have to have the right tool for the job.
2. Even though something may look like it works and it's all good, it could be tragically and dangerously broken.
3. You really can't believe most anything you hear or read and it's probably best to hedge your bets.
4. You simply can't go back.
5. If you do lots of dishes by hand all your callouses will magically disappear. And, not in a good way.
6. Warm and clean clothes can turn a day around.
7. There really are no bad kids, just sadly misinformed and/or lazy parents.
8. Holding people to the same standards you hold yourself to will only lead to heart ache.
9. Expectations may, indeed, only be premeditated resentments, but there's no real way to live a full life without them.
10. There seriously is NO gain with NO pain.

So, there y'have it. Perhaps I just needed to leave this here so I can come back and find out what it is that I think I know.

Eight IS Enough!!!!

YES WE CAN!!!!!

For the first time in my adult life I am full of hope... hope for the future....hope for our children and parents...hope for the legacy I believe we can and will leave behind. GO OBAMA GO!!!! The DNC is taking place about a half an hour away from where I sit, but I can feel the energy clear out here on the plains near the western slope.

I actually had little tears of joy. The last time I cried about anything political was the 2000 election, and those tears came from a place of absolutely hopeless disillusionment and disbelief.

I sincerely believe we are on the brink of a change in America and I believe even more strongly that Obama is going to lead us to that change.

I wonder if this is how our parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy.

Now, I gotta go sign up to volunteer... You ought to do the same. Be the change you can be and do NOT let your dreams be deferred for one more moment.

There Are Never Bad Kids....

This is Riley, one of my nephews and king of my fan club.This morning, just as soon as he brought his naked little self down the stairs, this beautiul blue-eyed boy walked right up to me and acted like he was going to hug me.
He got to where I could almost wrap my arms around him and he smiled and spit in my face and said "I hate you Aunt Moses." Then he laughed and ran away singing something that I couldn't understand.
It's another bright and joyful day in the neighborhood.
Nothing but love love love and good times.
At least I always know what to expect.

Sometimes You Just Have To Stay Up All Night

Sometimes you just have to stay up all night.
or something just like it...
I'm pretty sure you have to experience hunger and exhaustion and a little fear and just a smidgon of hope.
I'm pretty sure, after tonight, that it's the hope that carries us forward....
Mighty powerful claim to fame for such a small agent.
I'm back in the land of no humidity.
Consequently, my hair looks like a million bucks.
Go figure.

OK, I guess I'll Run For President

So, my main complaint about politicians is that they invariably have some miserable skeletons in their closets if they've achieved the kind of success necessary to run for the highest office in the land.
I've threatened to do this for years now, and it's clearly time to either dive in or take off my suit. Nobody wants me to take off my suit, so I'm diving in.
I believe it's completely unproductive to claim any kind of affiliation (like Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Independent) and am therefore going to run, most specifically, without affiliation.
I'm banking on a fresh and clever platform to grab the attention of big time sponsors (like Tang and Oreos) to help me sell my new and much greatly improved political ambition to the largely uninformed and scary-simple masses.
I know I will probably have to acquiesce to some of the conventions that Americans embrace when being aggressively marketed to, and to that end I will recruit Sponge Bob or Flavor Flav to speak favorably about me in strategically placed medias and I vow to post hundreds of thousands of promo stickers above urinals and in bathroom stalls in all the bars from coast to coast.
My platform will consist of just a couple important elements.
1. In order to procreate (make new babies) all persons involved will have to pass a series of intelligence and personality tests. Failure to comply will result in mandatory sterilization. Failure to pass said tests will result in one of several different consequences that I will develop with my crack team of cabinet members.
2. All methamphetamine production will completely disappear and meth addicts (who make up, like, 70 percent of all incarcerated humans here in America) will have some sort of meaningful rehabilitation and be returned to society as useful and productive members of our culture.
So, there's my top two reasons for tonight.
One last thing: Respect. Just like Aretha said... Show it to me show it to me show it to me. Respect your families, respect your mad-expensive "stuff" that you can't stop acquiring... Respect the fact that everybody you do meet, for real, is fighting some kind of battle. We just need to see, feel, teach and be: Respect.