Well that didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to

I can hardly express how disappointed I am with the election results. I am so proud to have supported Hillary and voted for her. I feel like we let her down, though, by not bringing this home. She deserved better. In an email to supporters, Hillary wrote:

And to all the little girls watching right now, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.

She makes me proud. I'm proud that a woman was finally the presidential nominee for a major political party - it took long enough. I hope it won't take quite so long for it to happen again.

Amy is upset with the election results, especially the fact that Hillary won the popular vote while losing the Electoral College. It actually helped me to have to explain to her that even though our preferred candidate didn't win, we have to stay positive. It's not as if we can root for him to fail, because then we fail too. And I'm also telling myself that even though the Republicans have control of the House, Senate and the Oval Office, Congress really doesn't see eye to eye with the Donald, so I don't think he can implement every frightening thing he's proposed.

It's going to be even more important to support the LGBTQ community now, and all people of color. I'm frightened that they may lose the slow, hard-earned progress they've made. The rest of us will have to step up more and support him.

I do honestly believe that the long months on the campaign trail have had some affect on Trump. I doubt he ever in his life had so much interaction with "real" people, and I think maybe he 'gets it' a little more. The question will be - is it enough?

For the sake of our country's future, I certainly hope so.

Heading into the election tomorrow

Tomorrow is election day. It's been truly the worst election cycle in history, as far as I can tell, and I think our country is worse off for it. The level of discourse has been lowered to such a level that I'm not sure how we'll recover.

But what I want to say, for the record, that I am appalled by the popularity of Republican candidate Donald Trump. The laundry list of things he's said and done that should have disqualified him from office began with his campaign announcement where he called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers and has only gotten worse. I really cannot fathom how people support him, I think he is a truly terrible human being. His campaign has brought out the worst in our fellow Americans, allowing racism and sexism to be more acceptable. From everything I know about him, his primary mission in life is to make money for himself, at the expense of anyone who gets in his way. He is not someone who is capable of having others' interests at heart. We cannot let this country go backwards in how we treat LGBTQ people, or further erode the rights of non-white Americans. We cannot. We don't need to "Make America Great Again" because it's already great.

Hillary Clinton is not a perfect candidate. But she has lived a life of service to Americans, working to improve the lives of people who need a little bit of extra help. In this election cycle, she has been painted in a negative light for living a life of public service – that really ticks me off. I have seen first-hand how dedicated public servants make a real difference in people's lives. I think the email 'scandal' is a case of much ado about nothing. Benghazi was horrible, but is the unfortunate cost of doing American business internationally – it's not the first time and won't be the last, most likely. She has done the best she can (though I'm guessing if she had it all to do over, she'd probably not set up a server in her home). HRC has my support, and will have my vote tomorrow.

I hope Clinton prevails tomorrow, because I honestly fear for the future of our country should Trump be elected. I just wanted our kids to know that their parents were not 'fans' of Trump....I want you to know we were on the right side of history.

Let's hope it's the only thing he's picked up from Donald Trump!

Today we went out to a corn maze, about an hour from home - had a great time! In the car on the way back, though, things went south between the kids. There was laughing at someone's dancing, there was great offense taken...there was more offense taken at laughing at the offense....it didn't go well. (I'm sorry, but who among us WOULDN'T LAUGH at their child who complained that her brother's arm was too hard, that it hurt her hand when she hit him????)

Anywho, I told both kids to keep on their side of the car (why do I still have to say this??) and Reed motioned between the seats and told Amy "I'm going to build a wall. And I'm going to make you pay for it."

Both parents LOL'd. There was more offense taken. Lather, rinse, repeat. Good times.

A rose by any other name...

Clearly I am no poetry expert. As I mentioned earlier, Amy had a poetry assignment in her sixth grade English class with Ms. Brown. For some reason she was really worked up over it. She can get really fixated on making things perfect, and make herself nearly sick in the process. There was plenty of class time available to work on this project, which if I gather correctly, required each student to do a variety of poems, each with a different value, to reach a certain total. In the end, she finished the project just under the wire (after a few tears), and she got a 100%. I think the poems are pretty awesome.

Grateful for the National Book Festival

This past Saturday was our second time attending the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Amy and I had a great day - lots of standing in line, but again we both got to hear talks by authors we enjoy (Sarah Vowell for me, Raina Telgemeier for her).

Amy getting her Raina Telegemeier books signed,
after hours waiting in line.

Once again this year I am SO grateful that the authors/illustrators that Amy likes take the time to interact with their fans and talk about their work. Raina Telgemeier talked with the kids about how she grew up drawing, and even showed some of her early work. I was glad to have Amy hear that this famous author was like her, and had always been drawing, getting better over the years through lots of practice. Raina also went through how her artistic process works as she's doing a new book, even including photos of the favorite kind of pencils and pens she uses. And BTW, I think Amy's drawings compare very favorably to Raina's work at the same age (Amy argued about this with me, of course). Last year with author Jarrett Krosoczka, he also showed a lot of early work (his parents apparently saved everything!) and talked about how his work was rejected so many times before he finally got a book deal. So fabulous to have Amy hear these messages of working on your craft, and being resilient!

Amy also got to get Lois Lowry to sign our copy of "The Giver," which Reed is currently assigned to read in eighth grade English. He was banking on having a signed copy giving him an automatic A. LOL

On one hand, these past couple of years there've been lots of authors at the festival that I missed out on seeing and meeting, because we were focusing on things Amy wanted to do. I know it won't be too long before we can go to the festival together and basically head in opposite directions. But for now I am glad to have this shared experience with her, and expose her to things that she really loves, where she really fits in.

Amy wrote this poem for a poetry unit in her sixth grade English class. I love this too!!

Secret art

In the last couple of years, Amy has started to be a little secretive about her artwork, mostly just not wanting to share things before they were finished. But lately she seems to not want to share her art with us at all. I can't really understand why – if I ask, she says it's because I'd just tell her it was good whether it really was or not. I've tried to assure her that if she wants total honesty, I'd be glad to give it to her, but yes I do think she's an amazing artist.

So I'm a little sorry to say I've resorted to snooping a little bit (I'm sorry, Amy!!!). One day when she was at school, I took photos of a bunch of her artwork, because I really want to save this kind of thing so she'll one day be able to look back at her work and see how crazy good she was as a kid.

This is an example from her sketchbook....

...I've tagged her stuff in our Photo system with 'artwork' and of course her name. Looking back on it, it's clear to see her progression. She IS a really good artist, and that's aside from my admitted bias. She works so hard at what she does, erasing and retrying – it's what she's most persistent about. However what hasn't come her way just yet is an art teacher who believes in her too – I really don't understand that. Maybe this will be the year? I sure hope so. And I hope she never stops drawing and expressing her creative side – it really is like therapy for her, it calms her and makes her happy.

And as I said, she's really really good at it! (For some reason, she's signing her art as "Shelbypants" - I think she's got plans for some kind of online presence under that screen name.)

Wish I'd thought of this

So let's say that one day I really do follow through with my plan to have this entire blog printed for the kids to have as a remembrance. (I better!) Here's one thing I want to remember to remind them about when they're grown and maybe have children of their own.

Aug. 2001 – Hanging out with Jay at the Birchmere.
Going to concerts was always one of Mom's
favorite activities too.

A guy named Jay McDowell was the bassist for the country/rockabilly/bluegrass/hard-to-classify band BR5-49. Smilin' Jay and his doghouse bass. Met him a couple of times after shows, seemed a really great guy (aside from being a Flyers fan, but we'll forgive him). 

Nowadays he is a curator at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville (somewhere I really want to visit!) and I'm 'friends' with him on Facebook. A while ago he posted about a family ritual that I just loved, and only wished I'd thought to do myself. He's got 3 kids, and each night (in addition to reading to them, I hope) he plays them a song that's important to him, or important to music, or just a song he wants them to know about. He also knows a lot of music history, so I'm sure he throws that in as well, but even absent that aspect, what an awesome thing to do! Think of the musical education a kid would get, having that kind of focused listening attention!

If only I could time travel and do this myself!