Finally...I saw the speech!

Those who regularly read this blog (hi, Mom) are probably curious as to why it took me a whole long day to post anything about the inauguration of my big crush, Barack Obama.

It's because I didn't see it.

I saw about three minutes of the inauguration speech while standing at the Hertz counter in the Philadelphia airport, waiting on the shuttle to take me and my coworkers to the terminal. I was mad when the shuttle came, because I was just starting to get into it. (They all reminded me that my fascination was well and good, but we had to, you know, get to our plane and go home.) By the time we got to the terminal, checked in, through security, etc., and to a place with a TV, everything was over and it was showing the Obamas walk into lunch.

I was greatly displeased by this. I was especially mad when I got home and watched the news, and the reporter said something to the effect of, "When you've been a reporter for many years, it takes a lot to make you really pause and reflect on the moment. But this is an event we'll always remember - and we'll always be able to say, 'I watched that.'"

But I didn't watch it! Can you believe it? I must really like my job. At any rate, I do very much want to keep it.

Thanks to a DVR snafu, none of the inaugural festivities ended up being recorded when I got home. But Brock found a bunch of videos on hulu.com for me, so I've spent the evening catching up. Here's my summary:

• Oath of office: not Barack's fault it got goofed up, and thank goodness he's still the president anyway.
• Speech: awesome. Well done. Still, a day later, I haven't heard a word against it.
• Poem: didn't quite get it, but I don't usually quite get poetry, either. Nice enough - but the shots of the crowd leaving during it made me feel bad for the poet. It can't be easy to write a poem for an event like that.
• Benediction: I have the sneaking suspicion that the pastor slid in his ending comments without anyone knowing he was going to do it, which make them even more entertaining. Good for him for trying to have some fun with it.
• Crowds: it was extremely moving to see the mall packed with so, so many people...I don't know if the country really is more united, or if I just feel that way because the guy I liked finally won, but it's a nice feeling to see so many people coming together and getting behind the president.
  
• Inaugural ball fashion: Michelle Obama seems so freaking cool. I think she would be fun to hang out with. And I thought her inaugural dress was very pretty, and not what I was really expecting from her. That said, I liked her yellow dress and coat for the inauguration better.

It's a new day in America, people - I hope it lasts at least a little while.

Housekeeping

I spent some time reworking the categories for my blog this evening...I decided the "random" category was getting a bit too random, so I tried to clean it up a bit. I've added "deep thoughts" to capture those posts where I am waxing philosophical about something, and probably will segment out a bit more as things occur to me.

For anyone else who reads this and has a blog, how do you decide which categories you want to include? I hate having categories with just one thing in them...which is a personal thing, and also probably why my "random" category is so scattered.

For instance, I had to put this one in random. Mmph.

Potato soup

This is what we had for dinner tonight. It is maybe the easiest recipe ever. The only remotely time consuming part is grating the pepper jack cheese. I like it because it's super-fast, tastes good and makes me feel like I put in slightly more effort than just heating up a can of soup.

Zesty Potato Soup
Adapted from a recipe that originally appeared in Simple & Delicious, I think
3 - 10 3/4 oz. cans cream of potato soup, undiluted
2 - 12 oz. cans evaporated milk (or just use regular milk if you'd rather)
2 large baking potatoes
2-3 tbsp. cooked and crumbled bacon, optional (the "real bacon pieces" in the baking aisle work great)

Toppings:
Shredded cheddar jack cheese
Shredded pepper jack cheese (If anybody finds this ready in a bag, let me know - I just grate from a block of pepper jack. Skip this if you want to, but it's worth it to have it.)
Fried tortilla strips, available near the bagged salad in the grocery store (The Santa Fe flavored ones are particularly good.)

1. Bake the potatoes in the microwave, and cut them into chunks.
2. In a large pot, combine the potatoes with all the other soup ingredients. Heat 5-7 minutes or so...until it's heated through.
3. Top with cheeses and tortilla strips.

It really is so good. It does make a lot for two people, but it's easy to adjust the amounts to make less.

Congratulations Jen & Doug!

Congratulations to my good friends Jen and Doug on the birth of their beautiful new baby girl, Olivia, who was born early this morning.

Way to go, guys! :)

On pregnancy

I'm not pregnant (sorry, parents, all of you). But one of my very best friends is, and she's due literally any minute (technically, tomorrow). I'm so extremely excited for her, and can't wait to meet the new little one! I have been obsessively checking my phone this weekend, just in case I somehow missed the call that they were at the hospital. Which is impossible, because I have also been obsessively carrying my phone everywhere, so that I wouldn't miss the call that they were at the hospital.

Watching my dear friend go through every step of pregnancy has reminded me how much I like not being pregnant. I've only done it once. It was reasonably pleasant, actually, as far as pregnancies go. I would probably remember more of it if I'd had a blog then, because I could have typed everything out. As it is, I didn't write very much down about it, so I don't remember a lot of it. I do remember that I didn't have morning sickness, but I had something flu-like for pretty much the whole second half of my pregnancy. I had a lot of fevers and coughs and couldn't take anything good for them. Having the flu stuff for the second half worked out, because for the first half my skin was so bad that I was embarrassed to have to go out into the world (in a PR job!!) and talk to people. Again, couldn't take anything good for it. So having them both together would have pretty much done me in...although if I'd had them both together, I suppose I could have just stayed home sick and avoided seeing people. I had a lot of very weird food issues. It was the only time in my life I've been a vegetarian, though briefly. But I had this very textbook delivery, with nothing weird, and a great epidural. And I came home with probably the best little girl in the entire universe (no offense to other mothers of other wonderful little girls). So it was worth it. And I know that I was very, very lucky to skate through as smoothly as I really did.

But you know what? Being pregnant isn't really very fun, and it really feels like it takes forever. (Anyone who says, "I LOVED being pregnant!" is either lying or doesn't accurately remember the details. These are also often the same people who say, "Oh, you forget the pain.") I don't feel this big urge to do it again anytime soon. I may, someday. I don't know. We've decided we're not going to think about having another baby for awhile - at least not till we know we can't live without one, the way we knew we couldn't live without Hannah. I say you know when it's time to have kids, and it has nothing to do with calendars or finances or anything else - it has everything to do with that feeling in your gut that your life is not going to be complete or fully happy until you have a child. That's when you know. And if you don't feel like that, don't do it. That's what I say, anyway. And we are just really happy being the Three Musketeers right now. But if we ever feel like that again, then sure, why not?

But the last thing I will say about watching my friend go through pregnancy is that it goes WAY FASTER when it's not you!

I made something!

Today, I conquered sewing. Allow me to explain.

Yesterday, we went shopping to buy Hannah the few school supplies that she needed to start preschool tomorrow. Because she's still little, she didn't need the standard supplies like pencil boxes and glue; instead, she needed a small travel-sized pillow and a blanket for naptime. We found the pillow (after a great deal of searching), but we couldn't find any pillowcases to fit it.

"Well," I said, "I could probably make a pillowcase if I put my mind to it."

See, I have a sewing machine. I even made something on it once, about six years ago, during a brief period in between jobs. And then I put it away. It's been in a closet in our spare room since we moved into our house five years ago. But I reasoned that I could probably remember how to use it well enough to make a pillowcase, which is, let's face it, comprised entirely of a few straight lines. So this morning, Hannah and I went to the fabric store so she could pick out exactly which fabric she wanted for her special school pillowcase. She quickly and forcefully chose purple (her favorite color) with butterflies.

It turned out that the hardest part was figuring out how to wind the bobbin. My sewing machine has a helpful diagram on the front telling you how to thread it, but it doesn't have a similar diagram for winding a bobbin, and that's what I really needed. I called my mom. She said every machine is different, so she wasn't sure how to do it on mine. She suggested I look in the manual, but considering the various supplies I needed for sewing were scattered all over the house anyway, the chances of finding the manual were (and remain) extremely slim. No help was available online (amazingly). Brock finally messed with enough stuff that he figured it out, which was a little funny.

And soon, I was off and running:


And, only two hours and three calls to Mom after I started, I was finished:


Hannah was really excited about her new pillowcase. She was "breaking it in" this evening by lying on it. And I don't mind saying I was pretty proud of myself for making something for her, even if it was very simple. I remembered why I bought the sewing machine in the first place: it is a great sense of accomplishment to make something yourself.

Of course, I have no free time usually, so the chances I'll be making anything else again soon (besides, maybe, a spare pillowcase for school) are not great. Still, today I made something for my kid. Hooray for me! :)

Happy 2009! Last year's results & this year's goals

Happy New Year! As I said last year, I do like New Year's a lot. And I still do, especially this year, when 2008 had a lot of crummy stuff in it (financial crisis, corrupt governor of Illinois, blah, blah, blah). However, there were some very high points in 2008. Hannah is potty trained and Barack Obama won the election - these are equally important in my book. I turned 30 and had a very fun party. One of my best friends got pregnant after years of trying, and is expecting a little girl just about any minute. Another of my friends had her first baby. My kid is awesome. My husband is awesome. I got all A's. I got a promotion. So even though times are tough, I am trying to stay "up" as much as possible, because there are lots of good things to over-balance the bad.

Still, I thought it would be fun to revisit my goals from last New Year's, and see how I did. Since I didn't really look at them - ever - after I wrote them, I found the exercise of recording my "progress" to be quite humorous. (Below is an abbreviated version of the goals. For the full missive, go here.)

What I Said I Would Do in 2008, & Whether or Not I Really Did It:

• Give more to charity. RESULTS: I don't actually handle this; Brock does. I think we did okay. :)
  
• As an addendum to the above, I would like to find a good place to donate Hannah's used toys. RESULTS: Still no luck. Not even the homeless shelter near work takes used toys. Bah.
  
• Get more organized. RESULTS: Ummm, I DID clean my desk on New Year's Eve...does that count?
  
• Try to cook from scratch a little more often. RESULTS: I'm happy I put the "a little more often" qualifier on this one. I probably did.
  
• Encourage more of my faraway friends to start blogs. RESULTS: No luck with this. Everyone's on Facebook and I'm not. My own fault, I know.
  
• Try not to be so snarky. RESULTS: I've learned that I gotta be me. And I'm snarky. This was a misguided goal. *chuckle*
  
• Try to finish praying before I actually fall asleep at night. RESULTS: Yeah, not doing so well on this one.
  
• Remember to use my new reusable grocery bag. RESULTS: Not only am I now remembering to use them, I've got like 8 in my car...
  
• Remember to use our new cloth napkins. RESULTS: We do remember to use them, when they are actually clean. Getting them washed in a timely fashion is much harder.
  
• Remember to water my plants (when it's actually summer, that is). RESULTS: It rained a lot this summer. Hooray!
  
• Potty train Hannah. RESULTS: Done and done.
  
• Take another family vacation. RESULTS: Stupid economy. Nope.
  
• Try not to freak out too much about turning 30. RESULTS: Mmmm, sorta.
  
• Actually join LinkedIn. RESULTS: I did it. I've never completed my profile and I don't maintain it at all, but I did join.
  
• Figure out a really great birthday or Christmas present to get for Brock. RESULTS: We bought ourselves a TV this year. That's the best I can do.
  
• Continue not eating cabbage. Or carrots. Or haggis. RESULTS: Total success.
  
• Eat more dark chocolate. It's good for me! RESULTS: Totally.
  
• Enjoy the knowledge that this will, without question, be the last year we have to endure George W. Bush in office. RESULTS: Wahoo!
  
• Vote well in the presidential election. RESULTS: You know it!
  
• Hope others vote well in the presidential election. RESULTS: Well done, people of America.
  
• Listen, and laugh, and love...a lot. :) RESULTS: Yep, did this. Good for me! :)
  

And, Here's What I Want to Do This Year:

• Get through Hannah's first day of preschool without crying in front of her. (It's Monday.) I am so proud and excited for her...but I'm struggling with the fact that she's so big and grown up now!
• Help Hannah learn to read and write.
• Get through 5 more classes for school, so that 2010 will be rockin' with just one left!
• Join Facebook. I'm starting to feel it's inevitable. Like I can't fight the movement.
  
• Get through a very long business trip in March without anyone in my family, including me, having a nervous breakdown.
  
• Be more thankful for the following: fuzzy socks, my daughter's smile, my husband's laugh, chocolate, cheese, friends and family, cars that give you directions, my job, my husband's job, Mario Kart for the Wii, Rock Band 2 for Xbox 360, plus our health and happiness and all that jazz.
• Get a tattoo. (Sorry, parents. I really think I'm going to do it...someday...I promise it will be very small and you'll never have to even see it or know it's there.)
• Sell our house and buy a new one. This is my stretch goal.
• Get new bedroom furniture, because we gave ours away in August and now we don't have any. And our bedroom looks like a dorm room. *chuckle*
• Have a garage sale.
• Figure out how to have or attend more parties. I learned this year that I like having parties.
  
• Really take a family vacation. Somewhere.

Next year, I'll let you know how I did.

My surprise 30th birthday (Or, Why I have the best husband in the universe)

We went to visit family right after Christmas...and there were some extra friends visiting, too, which was wonderful. Little did I know they were all there to celebrate my birthday!!

On Sunday, one week to the day after my birthday, we all went out to lunch. I asked where we were going, and my mother-in-law said, "Oh, there's this new place I thought we'd try." So we got there...and it was a surprise birthday party for me, all organized by my awesome, wonderful, amazing, thoughtful husband! It was my very first birthday party, because I never had one when I was little - my poor mom would try to plan them for me, and then I would get sick (because I was born on the first day of winter!), and then she'd have to cancel. So I finally told her to stop trying...but had I known having your own birthday party was so very fun, I might have kept up the good fight a little longer. I had an awesome time!

Most of my good friends from college were there, some having traveled great distances to do it...I only missed one friend who had conflicting plans and couldn't make it. My friend Vic came, and I hadn't seen her since her wedding reception two years ago. That was a pretty great surprise. And of course, all my family was there (except my dad, who was sick!). Pretty much everyone interrupted their Christmas breaks to come to my party, and I was just blown away that they would all do that for me. I got some lovely gifts (Swarovski crystal necklace) and some very funny gifts (a hula hoop, which I was completely hopeless at using), and just had a fantastic time with everyone.

But the best part? My party was at a place called Bounce About, which is a big room full of those giant moon bouncer thingies you see at kids' parties...but these were big enough for "big kids," too, so we all ran around and bounced and ate pizza and cake and drank way too much pop, and had a terrific time. I have got to be the only person in the history of birthdays who had her 30th birthday at a moon bouncer place. It was AWESOME, and the best, most creative idea for a 30th birthday party, and I could not believe my fantastic husband did all of that for me. He started planning it in October! He made sure everyone could come! And he thought of the very most fun place ever to have a party. (Hannah loved it - she ran up to me when we first got there and said, "Mom, I LIKE your PARTY!!")

It was the best day ever. I have rarely, if ever, had that much fun. I am so lucky to have the family and friends that I do!!

Thanks to everyone who came, or helped, or had anything to do with pulling it off. I was completely floored. I never suspected anything, and have never been so surprised. I like surprises when they're good. :)