Monthly Archives: August 2008

Family matters

Such stuff as dreams are made on

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It’s one of those dreams that start in a sparsely attended, gaudy old movie theater. And then suddenly there’s a snake the size of a freight train, and everyone scatters, and it’s chasing you out toward the swimming pool. Then the swimming pool’s gone and you’re running down a gravel road and you look behind you. And it’s still there, only it’s not slithering so much as doing this horrible leaping thing like a rope being whipped about.

Then you’re in a tunnel. You’re in a tunnel, and you think you’ve lost the giant snake. And you’re relieved, momentarily. Until Zombie Shakespeare and his team of Zombie Actors stumble out of the dark, spouting iambic pentameter and coming right for you. You turn to run, and there at the other end of the tunnel? The giant snake. Loping again. Of course.

Then, blissfully, you wake up. You tell your husband, “I had a terrible dream about a giant snake and Zombie Shakespeare.” And he looks at you like you’re off your rocker.

And you wonder if maybe he’s on to something, there.

Flotsam / Jetsam

I wish I'd written this three months ago and then heeded my own advice

We’ve moved five times since 2005. I think the most recent move has been the most stressful for me, even though it was an in-town move that we’ve known about for months. I was less prepared than I should have been when moving day arrived, and my dad brought down most of the things that we’ve had in storage at his house. Which means that we have far more to unpack than we packed.

The alarming number of boxes left to unpack has me feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment, so I’m taking a break to share with you a few things that I wish I had done this time.

Channel your inner Bob Wiley.
The last time we moved, I was a little obsessive in the labeling of boxes. I wrote the room and the box’s contents on an index card and taped the card to the top of the box. It made packing a little bit slower, but it made unpacking a breeze. We didn’t do that this time, and the unpacking has been chaotic.

Make a “Clean Sweep.”
Have you seen that show? A group of organization experts go into a house and show its occupants how to clean it up. The houses are usually just filled to the brim with stuff. The first thing the experts do it take everything out of the house and put it into three piles: sell, trash and keep. I don’t think we qualify for the “Clean Sweep” experience, but we do have a lot of stuff we don’t need. And we moved a lot of stuff that we shouldn’t have. As I’m unpacking, I’ve set up a “Donate” box. Next time, I’ll try to remember to do it as we’re packing.

Be forward-thinking.
In the past, I’ve kept a few meals in the freezer, ready to be heated up or prepared when I needed them. Having five or six meals ready to pop into the CrockPot would’ve been a big help this week.

Stay out of the closet.
Shoving boxes into closets might give you a little more floorspace, but it’s going to mean trouble once you start unpacking. If the closets are already full, where will the stuff go? At least, I’d imagine that would make things more difficult. I certainly wouldn’t know from experience.

And stay off the porch.
That uncovered porch looks like a good place to put a few things in the short-term, doesn’t it? And seeing as we’re in these extreme drought conditions, we sure won’t get two-straight days of rain. Right? Wrong. Things will be more crowded if you resist the urge to use that outdoor space, but at least you won’t have to haul sopping-wet furniture into an already-packed room later.

Now then. Back to the boxes.

Flotsam / Jetsam

5 things I love about Joe Biden

My brother has been a Joe Biden fan since reading his book. We had a heated discussion about Biden two weeks ago. I respect Justin’s opinion, though, so in light of the newly minted Obama-Biden ticket, I’m making him share this with you. -N

5: Joe Biden says what he means, and he means what he says. Sometimes this is to his detriment, but at a point in our nation’s history where transparency in politics is more important than the game itself, this is a plus for me. Ex: In one of the Democratic debates when Biden was still a candidate for POTUS, he was asked whether Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was something we should think about abolishing. He said something like, “Of course! It was a means to an end, and as far as I am concerned, and as a good friend of mine says, ‘You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.’ ”

4: Biden doesn’t strictly follow party lines. Ex: He voted against the Iraq invasion, but after it began he voted for funding it. He was criticized for this move as a flip-flopper and for jumping the Democrat ship. He responded with something like, “Call me what you want to. I didn’t want to go in, but now we have young men and women over there fighting. I can’t deny them funding, because I can’t deny them body armor and proper equipment.”

3: Biden is resilient. In the early moments in his first term in the U.S. Senate, his first wife and child (maybe two children) were killed in an auto accident. In his book, he says that he gave up at first. He went to work everyday, but it was just work. Many of us would have given up for good. Biden didn’t. After a short while, he bounced back and did his job better than most who came before or after him.

2: Biden is principled. In his very first campaign for public office — which came just a few years after he graduated from law school — he was running for some local position most of us would probably consider insignificant. So much so that I can’t remember what it was. At any rate, one of his messages was that he thought corporate America was taking a strangle hold on the government through undue influence on officials. So he promised the voters that he would do everything in his power to remain free from that influence. He promised them he would not ever own a single share of stock. As of a few years ago (the last time I saw any information on it), he had kept his promise. Biden still didn’t own (and I believe, still does not own) a single share of stock. Financial advisors would call this ignorant. I call it keeping a promise.

1: Foreign Policy. There is a lot of debate about which issue is the most important one facing America. Many say it is the economy. I say it is foreign policy. Whether we like it or not, we now live in a global economy, and our nation’s foreign policy has a direct and substantial impact on our place in that economy. Take a peek at Joe Biden’s foreign policy resume. It is pretty amazing.

Obama’s message for change will likely get him elected. Joe Biden’s experience on (at least one of) the most important issue(s) we face will allow him to do his job.