good stuff...and not so good stuff.

let's see. on monday, i got a promotion. you're reading the words of a bonafide manager. i feel so old and grown-up and responsible. and grateful. i have a new title and a new blackberry and a new laptop. and i feel very connected. most of all, though, i'm just really glad that i have the opportunity to get paid to love on people. it's my job to make sure that people love theirs. not a bad gig, right?

we decorated for Christmas last weekend. the house really does look good. dennis likes the tree, though not well enough to put one in his room..."what if i accidentally throw dirty clothes on it?" good question, champ. let's not tempt fate.

got some not-so-great health news on my mama today. not to go into details, but it'd be great if you could pray...fervently...for a good test result on Wednesday. when the results come back STELLAR, then we can all have a cyber-laugh and prayerfully thank God.

it is not. fun. to get bad news about your parents. ever.

on the flip side, though, we got great news about my dad...see, his cancer numbers were WAY down after just two treatments, but his heart's been acting funny. so he got all sorts of tests run, and it looks like we get to resume chemo...YAY. he hates the chemo, but if it's working (which it is), then daddy says, "hook me up...fast."

mom and dad have just been spending an awful lot of time in doctors' offices and hospitals lately, and they could use some good news.

life now, well...it's just a big roller coaster ride. don't care how cliched it sounds. that's the only way to describe it.

officially american

dennis didn't get to vote in this election...but guess what?! he's now an american citizen and he can't wait until 2012!

we went to memphis last friday for him to say the oath. it was an experience i'm glad we had. it's not often that you're in a room full of people who have been waiting to be americans. i'm guessing there's not a room in eastern europe where people gather who've waited 15, 20, even 30 years to pledge their allegiance.

no one could figure out how we all fit together...it makes me laugh that we're not conventional and when people like to see if they can name that birth order. "so are you the sister or the mother?"

nana and pops met us down there - we tried to make it a surprise for d, but it didn't quite work. mom and i haven't always been "ahead of the curve girls," so i was on the phone with her trying to get her to memphis, since she hadn't printed directions. the picture isn't a great one, but pops got tickled, which doesn't often happen when cameras are involved, and so this was a great picture. no one would brave the photo-op until we did it, and by the time we'd taken our round, there was a multi-cultural line forming behind us. 

Then we took dennis, whose favorite american food is ribs, to the rendezvous for lunch. here he is having finished a whole rack. almost. he made pops proud. it made me thankful that pops finished a small order. he looked great. and so did nana.

so, we really, truly have an american son. and have the papers to prove it. next step? drivers license. maybe next month?

explaining america

i'm playing catch up. i realized i hadn't posted about the merryman  family election experience quite yet and that made me sad, because it really did impact us...

it's no secret which way the merrymans roll. we were early adopters of the huck for president campaign. in fact, the first money i ever gave to a campaign was during this election for huck. i still wear my t-shirt to target and i faithfully drink my saturday joe from his mug. that's joe - coffee not joe - plumber. anyway...

dennis goes to a pretty progressive school - it's an art school, and encourages free thinking - sort of. he came home nightly with reports of intellectual throw-downs, where kids would call each other to the carpet about to whom they would cast their vote. only if you said mccain, like dennis did, you were ridiculed. denounced for being racist and said to be a lemming. when dennis asked what the hubbub was about, why no one voted for mccain, his classmates said, 'we're voting for obama because he's black. unless you hate blacks, you'll vote for him, too." 

we had many conversations over pasta about this phenomenon. that we vote for conservative candidates because of how they spend our money and because of their belief that babies have a right to live. we don't vote for people based on the color of their skin. he was torn up about why the students at his school didn't think for themselves. he wanted to know if they knew what obama stood for and why they couldn't talk about that instead of the color of his skin.

so the election happened. and...i'm not a sore loser. i firmly believe that you don't get to be a candidate for president without at least a small inkling of how to run a country (although i'd love to have been a fly on the wall when he went to his first national security briefing). 

but the morning after - as i was hoping for a repeat of 2004 when we went to bed with one guy as president and woke up with another - the saddest thing happened. the channel 4 news interviewed a student that goes to d's school at the bus stop downtown. and she said, "i voted for obama. i didn't care if he was democrat or republican...i voted for him because he was black."

and this proves to me that racism is alive and well. we vote for someone because he looks cool...he probably has an ipod and talks a little like we do. we vote for someone because we want to be cool..."i voted for the first black president." we vote for someone for all the wrong reasons. and there's a country that will live or die based on the choices this man makes. and i know this is not the majority, but just to know that the thought process exists makes me very, very angry.

the day after the election, i was driving home and listening to npr. bill moyers was interviewed and basically said that if you wanted to see if racism was alive, you need only look at the electoral map. he said that people in the south clearly voted only for white men, and that republicans were so out of touch because they continue to campaign based on "values." i got so angry i ran home and commented on npr.org. 

i voted for mccain because i believe what he believes. i voted for him because he stands for what i stand for. i voted for him because he's got some years under his belt and has done more than visit our enemies on a press trip.  i did not vote for him because he looks like me.

it makes me happy that history has been made and my son was alive and in america when it happened. i just wish our dirty secrets weren't exposed on such a public stage.

the morning after.

so...the birthday party went well. really well. i was a nervous wreck and am considering going in yet again for something medical to help me through strenuous social situations.

but, really, we couldn't ask for a better day. i made dennis his first cake, which was delicious and looked like it had been decorated by a 3rd grader. nice, right? dennis thought it was beautiful - or at least that's what he said. 

all of his buddies came over and roasted s'mores and ate candy and chick-fil-a nuggets (because gourmet cooking would be wasted on teenagers, right?) i didn't order in to be lazy, i promise. i did make frozen waffle fries because chick-fil-a doesn't sell those on a platter. one little guy stayed over, and here's what the morning after looked like. Notice we're all in PJs and D has a giant mug o' coffee (and so do i). that's a birthday napkin in my hand, because the party's not really over until the party supplies are gone.