I'M SO EASY

Our phone died and Tom brought home a new one with 2 phones, so one is plugged in at the desk in the kitchen, and the other is in the family room. This is cool because it saves us from having to jump up and charge into the kitchen to answer it within the 3 rings allowed before it goes to message.

The feature we didn't realize it had was the mechanical voice stating who is calling. After we got over being startled by it, we were creeped out. (Does anybody say creeped out anymore?) The strange thing about the voice now is it's complete inability to say the names of my children correctly.

Which brings me to the subject I have seen discussed on various blog about using the real names of your family and others you write about. When I started blogging a couple of years ago, I never used the names of my kids. When my oldest daughter asked why, I thought it was to protect them, but, really? I can't think of the danger to them unless someone actually finds this blog and recognises our family and then ...what?

So, the phone voice can't pronounce Ally or Zac or Mags, well, it does ok with Mags. It would really sound funny if I programmed it to read Maggie. I keep thinking of things to program it to say - just for a laugh. Sometimes I amaze myself with how easily I am entertained.

Why Mrs. Brightside?

I have gone through several names and templates and host sites and I think I have settled in to Mrs. Brightside. I am, by nature an optimistic person. Which is not to say that I am always Suzy Sunshine. I tend more to looking at both sides, walking in the shoes, making lemonade and it could have been worse, a lot worse.

This blog naming thing catches me when I am working to lose MOM as my first identity. I will always be mom to my 3 children - but it is the MOM I need to put move down the list a bit. So when I started out with a blog title I was thinking about "A Little Less Laundry" in reaction to the reality of having 2 fewer kids at home. And "Mosaic Mom" because I make mosaics as a hobby or "Momrocs" because that has been my e-mail address and vanity plate for years. When I became resolute to drop the mommyness - I was lost.

So who am I these days? I am in my mid-fifties and I am still wondering who I am, what I will become - who woulda thought?

What I do know is that at the core of me is a thoughtful, smart and positive person. I have a gift for looking at the bright side of things. And that is a good place to start.

WHAT I WITNESS

The street we live off is the main cut through to get to the high school, so unless we get out the door early, it is bumper to bumper with cars. Sometimes someone slows down to let us turn right into the traffic, more days not. So I force my way In or wait until there is a break in the flow.

So, these folks are using my residential street as a short cut, but don't have the manners to let the residents enter the road. Nice.

What floors me is that car after car zipping by has little emblems and bumper stickers proclaiming the folks inside the cars are "good" Christian people. My understanding is that these emblems are intened to identify the driver as a "witness" as explained here:

The VALIDITY of our witness will be shown in how we live our lives. Philippians 2:15 sets this goal for us: “ the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” The effective Christian witness will live his/her life above reproach in the power of the Holy Spirit, whose fruit we exhibit when we remain in Christ (John 15:1-8; Galatians 5:22-23).

So, I wonder about that when I am driving to work and the car in front of me has all kids of "witnessing" messages, yet they don't let merge the car stuck in the wrong lane - the driver signaling desperately trying to get over before being forced to turn left?

There was the woman behind me at Costco with her "Jesus loves me" lanyard who swings her cart in around to be first in the new lane when the clerk has asked the people who have been waiting longer to move over. Another day, three teens at the mall were swearing a blue streak and when I asked them please to watch their language around my children, swore at me. They were wearing t-shirts from a church teen group.

This is what I witness.

What we didn't learn in High School

Perhaps if Sarah Palin had been more focused on her future, she would have pursued debate in high school rather than basketball.

Per the New York Times:
At the insistence of the McCain campaign, the Oct. 2 debate between the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, and her Democratic rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will have shorter question-and-answer segments than those for the presidential nominees, the advisers said. There will also be much less opportunity for free-wheeling, direct exchanges between the running mates.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

A BIG THANK YOU TO "THE VIEW"

No matter what you might think about the TV show "The View", they were actually ground breaking last week when they interviewed McCain. Joy Behar, used the word LIE with regard to some of the McCain ads. My husband and I have been wondering why all the media folks have not been calling the candidates on all the lies. They have been so namby pamby, not calling either candidate on their ads and statements. But since footage of The View was shown around - all of a sudden CNN can't say lies often enough.

I am sure this has been an effort to appear unbiased. After McCain cancelled an interview on Larry King because his handlers thought Campbell Brown went "over the line" when attempting to elicit an actual straight answer from one of McCain's spokesmen. Right on cue Bush and the Republicans started in on their "elite media" and "angry left" rant and everyone backed down. At least until the ladies of The View got a positive response for calling a lie a lie.

I do fault the media for making every little gaff or misstatement a circus. Enough with the damn pigs and lipstick. But I must say I can't see the Palin/Clinton Saturday Night Live opener enough. My only complaint...Clinton should have offered up a pair of ovaries - not balls. We all know which equipment is made of stronger stuff.

Now What? New to the Personal Blog

I have been blogging work related content for about a year. I keep wanting to go beyond the boundaries of that role, so this is it.

I want to write about politics because I am becoming obsessed with the election. I want to write about being a mom to older kids - a 15 year old girl and boy girl twins, almost 21. About being in peri-menopause for like forever. About making mosaics! My hobby. Reading, my other hobby. Being married for 24 years to a difficult man. About trying to reconstruct myself after the years when mom was my first identity.

And, like so many women on the web - whatever floats through my day.