Long time no see

It's been ages and ages since I've written. I shouldn't even be writing now, because I have SO much work to do. But here I am.

Strangely enough, I've been following the blogs of two women who had difficult pregnancies. One of them (http://cak-micropreemie.blogspot.com), whose daughter was born at 24 weeks gestation back in May, is still waiting to take her daughter home from the NICU. The other one (http://bhcalaway.blogspot.com) gave birth in June at around 26 weeks gestation, I think, but sadly her son died after only an hour. The first woman is in Pennsylvania, and the second is in Idaho. It's amazing how you can be touched by the stories of people you've never met. And I think it's amazing that the second woman is still blogging and sharing her thoughts with interested readers after going through such a terrible tragedy. One interesting thing about her, in my point of view, is that she is a religious Mormon and probably pretty right of center (although I'm not sure what left, right, and center mean anymore). There's a lot on her blog about her faith in God and her religion, and you can see her drawing upon it to help her through this extremely difficult time. So, for someone like me, who was raised by atheists, it's a fascinating look into what almost seems like another culture.

I'm not sure why I've been so drawn to these blogs. Maybe I'm missing the baby days, or maybe something inside me really wants another baby (but that's not going to happen, so don't worry...). But in any case, it has kind of given me a feeling of connection to touch base with these women. Maybe it's a general human connection, maybe it's a mother thing, or maybe it's just that their stories are so compelling. I don't know. But I keep reading.

So, Hilary, the Idaho woman just noted in her blog that she was watching Glen Beck (Argh!!! Make anti-vampire sign!!! Bleah!!!), and he challenged viewers to fill themselves with "faith, hope, and charity" for the next 40 days. Why 40 days? I don't know. Something to do with Noah? (I've always hated that story...such a testament to Old Testament cruelty.) 40 days seem to be significant in many cultures. Maybe he can't count any higher than that? Who knows... In any case, I'm going to take the Evil Mr. Beck up on his challenge and try to do this for the next 40 days. Each day in this blog, I'll write down something I'm grateful for. And I'll try to be a nicer person too, and not jump to negative conclusions about people, including myself. (Sarcastic inner voice: Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts!)

So, for today, here is what I am grateful for:
--My kids
--The trees and nature
--Hilary Clinton (Sorry, Hilary from Idaho, your name got me thinking about how lucky we are to have such a strong, hard working woman as a high-level public servant.)
--Barack Obama (It would have been great to have Hilary as President, but I chose to vote for Obama for many reasons. See earlier postings.)
--The fact that I have a job and can afford (barely) to provide my kids with a good education.

Speaking of jobs, I'd better get back to it. I have to say that my listing of Hilary and Obama feels kind of yucky. I mean, who am I to be listing the top politicians in our country...no politician can really be noble, right? On the other hand, maybe I should be grateful that I still have the naivete and enthusiasm to feel this way about our current leaders (and also grateful for the fact that we don't have to be calling someone Madame Vice President right now, God forbid).

Okay, enough chattering. Time to get back to the grind. I'll do my best to post each day. Hope it won't be too boring!

Eve