Politics as Usual

In my younger days, I fought tooth and nail against the Republican party and the politically conservative, but today I do not consider myself a very political person. I am still a left-learning moderate, but gone are the days of heated discussions and table-pounding pontificating.

I am registered to vote and like to do my research. I hate watching any kind of TV coverage because I inevitably end up getting annoyed. I find there is often too much opinion (MSNBC? Fox?) mixed in with coverage and if that's what I wanted to know, I would read it in a newspaper or magazine without annoying broadcaster's insinuations and accusations. Nor do I care much about speeches at conventions, personalities, or families for that matter.

What strikes me about this election is that both parties are trying to embrace the message of "change". And Democrats and Republicans alike are excited! Obama (despite his inexperience) strikes a chord with me, I dislike Palin (read this article from the Wall Street Journal that pretty much makes up my mind about Palin and says a lot about the Republican party), and actually did like pre-election, pre-Rovian McCain. He was a speaker at my youngest sister's graduation and read up on him (back in 2001) afterwards. I was impressed and said to myself, "If I had to vote for a Republican, I would vote for McCain." In fact, at the early onset of the election, I continued to like McCain even more because most dyed-in-the-wool conservatives hated - no, despised - him.

In the spirit of that statement, I am trying to keep an open mind about this election, not an easy thing to do with the usual mud-slinging and hate-mongering. Lately I've been reading both the Times (liberal) and Journal (conservative) for campaign news to get a balanced account of the day's events.

Unfortunately, I am leery of McCain not because of him, but because of his party. There are many things he says that make sense. I am impressed that he promises to work across party lines and appoint Democrats into his cabinet. But as of late, many of his messages seem barbed with nasty attacks on Democrats and the so-called Washington elite (which I don't understand). Ugly stuff.

It's politics as usual. Never pretty and always disappointing.

Big Girl

ESK is growing up really fast these days. All of a sudden, she looks like a girl vs. a baby. She's slowly losing the Michelin man arms (her thighs are still quite hefty), and her entire body is getting longer. Pants are becoming floods and tops are becoming belly shirts.

Besides physical growth, she's unfortunately become a lot more mischievous and stubborn. Crayon murals, freely using parents' clothing as napkin, whining about, well, everything. It's definitely fun to see the world opening up around her, but sometimes I wish she was just the little bundle of protoplasm that just lay in her crib.


Babysitter Incident
For the past year, SK and I have been looking for a good reliable sitter. We had one for awhile, but she started flaking on us once the summer started. So, we started our search again this summer and through another mom friend, met a girl named Susan (not real name of course). She works in the Kids Club at the gym we belong to so I would see her from time to time and she seemed nice. And obviously, she had experience with kids. Best of all, my friend used her on a frequent basis, often entire days to watch her own 18-month-old daughter. There were nothing but glowing reviews.

After her first gig with us, we chatted with her for awhile about her plans and turns out she had been accepted to medical school. We immediately feel even more comfortable with her and talked to her about medicine, medical school life, financial aid, etc. An hour later, we wave good-bye and SK and I agree that we're lucky to have found her.

Then a few weeks ago, I called her to see if she was available for a Saturday evening. We begin chatting and I asked her if she was excited about school. She admits that she's nervous and will probably defer for a year. Then she adds that she has time to think about it since her medical school doesn't start until late September.

This little comment set off a silent alarm in my head. What kind of graduate school (let alone medical school) starts in late September? After I got off the phone with her, I reluctantly checked the academic schedule for her medical school. Sure enough, orientation for first-year medical school students had already begun! She had lied about being accepted to med school and elaborated on it for an hour with SK and I. I felt nauseous.

What really gets my goat is that she really didn't have to lie about medical school. We would have used her as a babysitter anyway since we don't need anyone with an MD to watch Elise (although that would be really nice). But now that I've uncovered this lie, it's hard to know what other falsehoods she's already told or will tell in the future.

I awkwardly shared my discovery with my friend as I knew she would be using her on a weekly basis. But as it turns out, she was starting to have her doubts about her as well with other bizarre behavior, like calling my friend at all hours of the night about a break-up with her boyfriend??? Weird.

We are still going out this Saturday night, but we are ponying up more money to use a sitter service that thoroughly vets all their employees. This particular sitter has been employed by the service for seven years. SK and I will actually be able to enjoy ourselves at dinner. Whew...