Where is My Groove?

Dear Reader,

I am not a fan of change. Some people may find routine boring, but I kind of like it. I like knowing how things should go and then being pleased when they go the way I think they should (read "the way I want them to."). But it turns out that when you've got two small kids, change is sort of a fact of life. Add to that a husband who's job situation changes drastically during the summer and it's kind of hard to find a routine at all, let alone stick to it.

So I'll be the first to admit that having Craig go back to work has been hard on me. Much harder than I expected, actually. I was finally getting used to working with him home, and now he's gone again. I spent all of last week trying to remember how to take care of two kids at the same time. The one time I got them to both nap at the same time, I wandered around the house trying to remember what it was that I normally did during nap time. Pathetic, huh?

But the biggest challenge by far has been finding a chance to shower. I remember that last school year, I usually did this during Kendra's morning nap. But she's been napping later and later these days, which means that last week I kept not showering until noon or later. And that's just gross. (Craig showers at night, but if you have hair like mine that tends towards oiliness that just isn't an option.) It was when I was visiting teaching and looked around and realized that the other two moms in the room with me were both showered and clean while I looked like I'd wandered in from the homeless shelter that I decided something needed to change.

So this is one of my goals for this week: shower before leaving the house. The logical solution, of course, is just to just wake up early and shower while the kids are still sleeping. And I have every intention of doing that one of these days. But last night I kind of sort of stayed up WAY too late finishing a book (War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk-- it's a good one!) so I certainly didn't get up any earlier than absolutely necessary today. Maybe tomorrow I'll pull off this stunning feat of achievement. But for today, I had to try a different tactic: TV. After the kids were both fed, I put on a movie for them while I showered. And it worked-- I'm clean and they were still happy by the time I was out and dressed. But I do hate the idea of relying on the television every morning, so I can't say that this is a great solution.

So, reader, I'm asking for your advice on this one: How do YOU find time to shower?

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely yours,
Desperately Seeking New Groove

Music You Have to Love

There is a lot of music out there that I really like, some of which I don't listen to nearly enough. A great example is bluegrass music-- I think I have one CD of bluegrass music, but every time I hear that banjo-fiddle-bass combo, I LOVE it. My sister Natalie recently posted a great video which I encourage you to check out. So fun!

Another of my great loves that I need to listen to more would have to be anything that comes out of Bollywood. It is SO fun! A particular favorite is the "Punjabi Wedding Song" from the movie Bride & Prejudice. (And for all you Lost fans out there-- you can especially enjoy seeing one of the Lost cast in a very different role!) When Bentley was a baby I used to dance around to this song while holding him. It made for great exercise and a lot of laughs. Enjoy!

The End Is In Sight

After working on our bathroom all summer long, it's finally getting close to being done. Here's what's left:

-finish installing shower door (this is half done-- the glass panel is in, just not the door)
-install vanity, including countertop, sink, faucet, etc.
-put in medicine cabinet and mirror
-paint
-put up towel rods
-buy towel set (none of the ones we already have match the bathroom, and I've been saving my 20% off your entire purchase coupon at Bed, Bath & Beyond just for this!)
-put up blinds (I love my new bathroom, but I don't need to display it to everyone outside!)

Okay, so it sounds like a lot when I put it in list form like that, but considering all that's already done, none of this is really very complicated or very time-consuming. Just to give you some perspective, here is what's finished (sorry that some of this is a repeat-- if it's too boring, just skip it):

-one wall moved to give the bathroom a little extra space
-all drywall removed
-insulation replaced
-studs moved to better locations
-wiring re-done
-drywall replaced
-shower inserts made and installed (two for shampoo, one for soap, and one as a footrest so I can shave; guess which one is my favorite?)
-window replaced
-floor heating installed
-pipes replaced
-floor, shower, and half of one wall tiled & grouted
-toilet installed
-lights and fan installed
-vanity rebuilt* so it fits in bathroom (did I mention before that this is a very small bathroom?)
-everything spackled and sanded many times over
-door and window frame finished and caulked
-shower door ordered and partially installed
-granite ordered to be cut

So most of it really is done. Just a few things left to wrap up.

And we bought new knobs for the vanity. Maybe I'll go put those on right now-- then I can pretend like I contributed!

And yes, oodles of pictures will be posted once it's all done. Never fear!



*Cannot thank my father-in-law enough for doing this in the little bit of spare time when he wasn't here working on the bathroom. Thanks, Tom!

Suspicion

Am I the only one who wonders if the shaving cream companies purposely make it so those plastic dispensers leak just a little bit of shaving gel so that you'll use more and thus have to buy more?

Deep Thought

Is it just me or are the cicadas starting to sound more and more desperate as we get closer to the end of summer?

And just now Craig pointed out-- all the noise of the cicadas somehow makes it feel even HOTTER outside, doesn't it? I'm not sure if that's purely psychological, or if the vibrations of their chirping is actually helping heat things up, but whatever the case, I think Craig is on to something here.

If heat could have a sound, it would be the buzzing of thousands of cicadas looking for each other in the tree tops.

Green Thumb

My neighbor gave me this beautiful orchid as a house-warming gift back in February. It was in bloom when I got it, and-- lo and behold!-- I managed to get it to bloom again!

I was so excited, I had to document it:

Isn't it so pretty?

Yeah, within a week of these pictures, it's two leaves turned yellow, shriveled and fell off. My neighbor said to just throw it away; apparently orchids can't survive without those leaves. I went ahead and watered it one last time and moved it to a less-sunny spot, and the blooms revived for another couple days and then withered and fell off.

Now I have a foot-long stem sticking out of a pot of dirt. It looks like this:

I hate to just chuck it, because you just never know, right? Maybe it will suddenly shoot out some new leaves, right??? But I'm pretty sure the lesson I'm taking from this is that I should never ever spend any money on living things. (Lucky those kids were practically free, huh?)

Anniversary

I had trouble deciding if I wanted to do some sort of post for my anniversary, which was yesterday. I didn't want to bore you/make you gag by singing my husband's praises, but I didn't want to ignore the day, either. So as a sort of compromise, I'm sharing this story as a general summation of how I see Craig and my marriage:

Last night, after our date and everything, we were in the bathroom getting ready to go to bed. I was brushing my teeth, Craig was flossing or taking his allergy pill or something. I went to wipe my hands off on my bath towel and realized that we were both standing there drying our hands on our matching towels perfectly in sync. And then we burst out laughing at each other and just kept laughing.

It's been a good four years. And I look forward to many more.

And the actual story...

Well, the protest on Friday went about as well as I could hope. The biggest problem was just that I should have checked the facts better because the Senate was on recess as of noon, which means there were no government people there (not that they would have seen us anyway), but also that there were no other protesters! That made it kind of awkward because my whole goal was to join with other people protesting! So suddenly I was all nervous that maybe we'd be in trouble for not having permits after all! I have to admit, I got sort of nervous the first time a police officer walked past us and also the first time one approached us!

Just as we were finishing up and about to leave, a police car came towards us and I ended up doing one of those annoying "are you waiting for me to cross the street so I need to hurry up and get out of your way or are you going and I should mosey back to the sidewalk before I get run over" dances, and they suddenly flashed their siren at me and told me that a different cop wanted to talk to me. Awkward. And scary. I admit that my heart was racing at this point. Anyway, the other officer told us that someone wanted to talk to us, and it turned out that an undercover cop for the Capitol Building wanted to just ask us who we were, if we were associated with any other groups, etc.

This new cop was super-polite and kept assuring us that we hadn't done anything wrong and that everything was fine. (I do wonder why she took our information? Something that I wouldn't even care about at all if it weren't for the freakiness of flag@whitehouse.gov...) Apparently you only need a permit if there are more than 15 of you, and since there were just six of us, we were fine. I should explain-- our group consisted of me, Natalie, two friends from church, and two older women who saw our signs and joined us right from the beginning; they were sisters who just RV all over the country and had decided to visit the Washington Monument since they'd missed it the last time they were in DC. But they figured they could spare some time for a good cause. People are fun!

Anyway, after we were done talking with the undercover lady, we headed back to the metro and home from there. While we were marching around, we had a lot of people give us thumbs up and say things like "Amen!" or "We're with you!" There were a few people who were rude. One woman muttered, "You guys are stupid" as she walked by us (times like that when I really wish I could advertise my master's degree-- I'm so vain about that), and another shouted, "You guys don't even know what socialism is! Freaks!" Natalie pointed out that she'd lived in a socialist country and had a pretty good idea what socialism was, as a matter of fact, but that person was long gone. Oh, well. And one person muttered something about ridiculous rich people-- that one sort of bothered me, because I am certainly not rich! It annoys me that people are making this out to be a bunch of unsympathetic rich people who don't want socialized health care!

There were also a few people who didn't necessarily agree with us who came and spoke with us-- they were very polite and respectful, as were we. One of these groups was a French couple, and Natalie was THRILLED to be able to explain our "cause" to them in French! All in all, we had more positive feedback than negative. I don't think that means much, though-- it's always easier to agree with a stranger than to disagree, so I imagine it would have been similar if I'd been campaigning for health care, too. But I guess I'll never know about that one! (And, of course, I'd like to think that the people who agree with me are more respectful, but there are probably jerks on either side of the fence!)

We also had several people take our picture. I can only assume that they were tourists who were excited to see real live protesters. Look at me, giving them the true DC experience! Yeah, I'm nice like that!

So that was my protest! I doubt it did a lot of good, but I was glad to be trying to do something, at least. Maybe it will get people thinking more, which would be a good enough outcome for me!

I also signed up to join the Tea Party March on September 12-- let me know if you want to come, too!

Protest Pictures

So this is what we looked like last Friday:

Left to right we have Bonnie, Sandy, Kathy, me, and Tracy

And again, L-R: Bonnie, Natalie, me, Tracy

And then here are some of our signs up close:

This one was mine.
Natalie brought it to a town hall meeting this last Monday and some woman from Planned Parenthood asked her to try and ask a question for her at the meeting! I guess she didn't actually read the sign very closely...

And this one was Natalie's, which I also thought was very clever.

I made this one (very quickly) for Tracy to carry.
On the back was a smaller sign that read, "In God We Trust. In Obama and Congres... eh, not so much."

This sign was Bonnie's. I thought it was brilliant; probably my favorite, actually.

I'll do my next post on the actual details of the protest. Stay tuned!

Speed Chores

Kendra has decided that her help is needed when Mommy empties the dishwasher. As soon as she hears the clanging of plates and pots and pans, she drops whatever she is doing and hurries to my aid.

This, of course, makes things difficult for me. Because about half the things in the dishwasher are either breakable or sharp. So every time I empty the dishwasher, I find myself frantically racing against when I will hear the patter of little helpful feet. I'm getting it down to quite the science, these days. The first thing I do is pull out all the knives and practically throw them into their holder. Then I grab the plates out in stacks. And by then Kendra has usually arrived.

She always begins with what's left of the silverware, and carefully hands me each piece one at a time. I grab them from her as fast as I can-- mostly so they won't get dropped on the floor, but also trying not to think about where her hands may have been-- and murmur "Thank you, Kendra," the entire time. She responds by saying, "Tank oo" right back at me, so we have a very polite time of it.

Once the silverware is done, I can relax a bit. Everything else is either too heavy or too high up for her to reach very easily, and what she can reach are mostly plastic bowls that she can't hurt. I race around putting things away while placing everything she hands me carefully on the counter to be put away next. And then when we're done, Kendra gets to push the racks back inside and close the dishwasher door.

We always finish in five minutes or less. And I'm exhausted every time.

Minimalism, Abstraction, & Utility in Smith Family Artwork

Now I need all of you to remember that I did write my master's thesis on a work of art (the Isenheim Altarpiece, to be exact), so I think I'm qualified to talk about the fascinating trends I see in my own family's artistic endeavors.

First, we have Bentley. This is what he brought me after nursery a few weeks ago:
As I took it from the nursery worker, I chuckled and said, "I guess he's not much for coloring."
"Oh, no!" she reassured me, "He colored this for a long time! It's just that he was using a white crayon!"
Ah, well. My son is a minimalist, I guess.

So then a few days ago, I walk into our under-construction bathroom and find this taped to the wall. Apparently my father-in-law drew it:

I figured it had to be a joke, but then Craig assured me that this was how they were planning to lay out our radiant floor heating mat.

And, even more to my surprise, this was what it ended up looking like-- not too far off!



Anyone need a topic for their thesis? Anyone? Anyone?

Quick Update

The protest is still on. Friday, August 7th at noon. (Or meet at my house at 10:30 and we'll carpool!)

Apparently there are enough people protesting that we should be able to just join another group of protesters, so I'm going to gamble on not needing a permit. If I wind up being arrested, then it will make a great story for my grandchildren some day!

Join me if you can!

Issues

I promised to explain why this new health care program scares me. This will not be a complete list because I don't know enough about it still (at over 1,000 pages, I'm not sure anyone can claim to be an expert on this), but this is a start, at least.

#1 (and Most Important). It's a Bad Idea.
I'm against the whole principle of government running health care. I've stood in line at the DMV, and I've tried to figure out the forms for filing taxes and hiring employees, and lots of other programs implemented by the government and there is too much bureaucracy and red tape ANY TIME THE GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED. The very idea of having the government run something makes me cringe, and something as important as health care is one of the worst ideas ever. I don't see why it's the government's business at all which doctor I see, or how much I pay him to take care of me. I should have complete control of this. When have you ever known of the government doing a single thing efficiently or correctly the first time?

But what about people who-- unlike you-- can't afford health care? I have three-and-a-half answers for them: i) find a better job. ii) don't get sick. iii) find a charitable organization (there are a lot out there and most hospitals budget for a certain amount of charity cases). If all these things fail, iv) apply for medic-aid, or whatever it's called in your state. The government has already intervened to help these people, so why it's suddenly a big emergency is beyond me.

#2 Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About the Rising Costs of Health Care.
A. I keep hearing about the "rising cost of health care" but very few people seem to be pointing out WHY the costs are rising, and that's something we CAN'T afford to forget. Health care costs are on the rise because medical knowledge is on the rise. The drugs and procedures we have to fight cancer, replace hips and knees, screen for diseases, etc, etc, etc, have all grown exponentially during the last century. And these things cost money. That's fine-- I think it's reasonable to pay something for the miracles of healing that we enjoy living in this day and age.

B. Even if I felt that the rising costs of health care were completely unreasonable, how is a government take-over going to help? How can the government make health care cheaper? Possible methods include:
i) cutting your benefits. It's already been stated that elderly people will be given pain medication, but not much else. (Sorry, grandma, no new hip for you. You can lay in bed taking painkillers.) This is not an option I like. I want to be able to choose what I will pay for. I don't want to be forced to pay taxes only to lose all my options.
ii) rationing health care. I have the same problem here as I did for (i)-- if I have to pay anything, then I want all options available to me.
iii) forcing drug companies to make a smaller profit. A lot of people seem to be on board with this idea, and I can't understand why. Yes, drug companies make a lot of money. But they also spend a lot of money to develop these new drugs, test them, get government approval, and then market them. I think they deserve to make a few bucks. Why else would they bother doing it? That's called capitalism. It's also the reason that most medical technology over the last fifty years has come from America. The minute the government tries to limit their profits, these businesses will shut down and we won't have any new drugs. Is this really what we want to encourage?
iv) paying doctors less for their services (see #6 on my list for why this is a bad idea)
v) awarding doctors for spending less to treat patients. This was done in the early days of HMOs and it was a complete disaster.

NONE of these are a good idea. Cutting costs in health care is a bad idea.

C. The other reason that health care costs are on the rise is due to the way health insurance works-- HMOs, co-pays, company benefits. All these things have effectively eliminated competition between health care providers. The patients don't know how much they're paying for anything because it's "covered by insurance," the doctors don't particularly care, so what happens is that the cost goes up because there's no reason for it to come down-- no one knows how much they're actually paying for anything. (Ask me how surprised I was when I got the hospital bill for Bentley's birth-- $23,000! But insurance covered all but my $100 co-pay, so what did I care?) The price for things that aren't covered-- such as LASIK and most other elective surgeries-- get driven down as people compete for business. That's also called capitalism, and in this case it should be working for you, but previous government intervention has halted that process. More government intervention won't help.

#3. What's the Rush?
I have a problem with the fact that this is being done in a hurry. Obama makes it sound like we need to push this through Congress as fast as possible because there are uninsured people out there who will die if we don't hurry to their aid. Even if passed, this bill will not go into effect until 2013 (although, in typical government form, taxes will be raised to pay for it in 2011-- any bets as to whether or not this money will actually be set aside for health care? Anyone? Anyone?). This is WAY too important to rush. The real reason for the hurry is that Obama is worried the 2012 Congress will be more conservative and thus even less likely to pass health care. Fair enough. But that's his problem, not mine.

#4. No One's Read It.
In connection to this big hurry, I'm against the government passing anything that they haven't read first. I think this should be a requirement before Congress votes. Only people who have read the proposed bill get to vote. And no, having your aids read it does not count. Check out this youtube video if you think I'm making this up. If it's too long to read, then it's too long to make it law.

#5. I Have to Pay For What Exactly?
I'm against forcing everyone to pay for everyone else's health care. Call me selfish, but I try to live a fairly healthy lifestyle and I don't think it's fair for me to have to pay the medical bills for people who don't. By the same standards, I don't think people who choose to not have children should have to pay for my pre-natal care and hospital delivery charges. I'm actively saving up money right now so I can continue to pay for my health care when I'm old and decrepit some day. If other people couldn't be bothered to save for that day, then I don't see why I should have to pay for them.

Of course, this also leads to another scary concept. If the government decides that it agrees with me on this point, then the obvious next step is to punish people for their unhealthy lifestyle by raising taxes on them. That's why we have huge taxes on cigarettes. Legislation has already been suggested for raising taxes on fast foods and soft drinks ("Obesity Taxes"). I don't even like soda, but I should have the freedom to drink it if I so choose. If it makes me overweight and leads to health problems down the road, then I'll pay for it myself-- in dollars and pounds!

#6. And We're Not Going to Pay Doctors?
I don't agree that doctors should be paid less and I certainly don't think their salaries should be cut by over 60%. Read it, it's in there-- anesthesiologists would take nearly a 70% pay cut. Personally, I could not be a bigger fan of the guy who gave me three epidurals and morphine for Bentley's labor and subsequent c-section. PLEASE pay the man for that! But all jokes aside, doctors are highly intelligent people who worked hard and spent a lot of money to go to medical school. Why shouldn't they be paid well for that?

And if you don't agree with me on that point, let's think about what the consequences will be if we decrease doctors' salaries. The first thing that will happen is that medical school enrollment will drop. The few people who still enroll will be those who aren't smart enough to realize that they won't ever make enough money to pay back their student loans. You want these guys treating you? And then, very quickly, the remaining vacancies will be filled by all the people who weren't smart enough to get into medical school before. I doubt you want them treating you, either. We'll then have to flounder around with sub-par doctors until eventually this will become a big enough problem that government will, once again, intervene. This time they'll offer rewards for going to medical school in the form of tuition which you, as the taxpayer, will supply. (But this won't happen until after at least one generation of really bad doctors.) I can promise you that it will be much more cost-effective, not to mention beneficial to your health, to pay our doctors up-front and bypass the middleman.

#7. What If This Doesn't Work?
Once started, it will be next to impossible to stop. Have you ever heard of a government program that ended? Even one that failed miserably? Once instituted, government programs don't go away.

#8. Lies About My Remaining Options
Although Obama is claiming that people would be free to keep their own doctors, this is not strictly true (which, in my book, makes it a lie). The fact is that you might be able to keep your doctor for a few years-- five years, maximum-- if your employer doesn't make any changes to the health care already provided you. If there are any changes-- and of course there always are-- then you immediately get bounced into the government version. Additionally, government subsidies (which YOU are paying for-- don't ever forget that) will make it impossible for other health care providers to compete. They'll go out of business quickly and then the only option left will be whatever the government offers.

#9. It Creates Dependencies
I believe that it's a bad practice for anyone to get something without "paying" for it. Margaret Thatcher insisted that even low-income housing require some payment and it turned out that people took better care of their homes when they were contributing to the cost of them. Government-run health care will give people absolutely no incentive to take care of their own bodies.

#10. The Constitution
In case these other arguments haven't convinced you, I have one last point: it's completely unconstitutional. Read the constitution. It's very short-- unlike, say, this bill-- and very clear. Read the Declaration of Independence, too, while you're at it. The freedoms we strive to ensure are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. No where is health care mentioned as a guaranteed right.

Let's keep it that way.