If you haven't already read about the feline Grim Reaper, do it--it's not scary, I swear! Actually kinda heartwarming.

When I read this, I couldn't help but think of my fat kitty Harold's final days. There were a few occasions during his illness where I just cried and cried with him on my lap, including the day I knew we were taking him to be euthanized. I'll never forget the way he got up from my lap, climbed up toward my face, and started meowing insistently. It made me laugh...I don't know that I've ever experienced anything so bittersweet as his efforts to comfort me. And I know that's what it was; I'd lived with this kitty fourteen years, and he'd never before seemed to care much when I cried about things unrelated to his dying.

I've long thought animals sense things in the spiritual realm that humans don't. I don't understand why, but I've not yet seen anything that contradicts the suspicion, and I've seen many things that confirm it.

All right, I don't know about you, but I need some comic relief about now.

What up? I've been a little preoccupied lately.


Nevertheless, I am managing to serve you, humble readers, with a major update on the continuing shenanigans in the state capitol. This has now gotten so absurd that even the reporters covering it aren't bothering to hide their snark. To wit:

Tuesday looked like most days around the Illinois Capitol lately.

The House and Senate met briefly and did nothing. Lawmakers griped about being in Springfield with nothing to do. The budget impasse was not resolved.

But lawmakers hit a significant milestone Tuesday, setting a record for futility by being in session longer than any year since the state adopted a new constitution in 1970.

And I can only guess that Finke closed the article with the following so as to punctuate the absurdity with a big, fat, offered-without-comment exclamation point:

Jones’ top deputy, Sen. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, said she believes everyone is scaling back their demands, a first step toward reaching a compromise. She also said the overtime is not necessarily a bad thing.

“I think this is a message we are sending that we care about the people we represent,” Halvorson said. “People are standing ground on their special issues and things they care about because the people sent them here to stand up for them.”

Wow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Herewith I present, in order of importance, the coolest things ever to happen on this date:

1.












2. Technically, this didn't turn out to be all that cool. But I still put it at #2 because it was cool that it ever existed, and even cooler because it was named after MY BIRTHDAY.

3.

I think a lot about whether I'm doing the right thing in working full time, rather than quitting my job so I can stay home with the girls. Even more so this week, since their daycare is closed and I'm on "vacation" from work so I can stay with them.

Although I mostly work for the money, I also work for myself. I like what I do...I like contributing to a team that produces products that help people. I like talking to grownups about things other than children.

I also work because I like the environment my girls are in at daycare...I know they have more fun than they do with me, and I like the fact that they are learning from an early age how to interact with their peers. Julia is a shy child, and given that her father and I were both shy children, I expect Maddie to be the same way. I found new social situations paralyzing for many years. I really do think that being in daycare from an early age will help my girls be more open to interaction that they might otherwise find threatening.

Still, there's this nagging sense that in working full time, I'm not selfless enough. I don't know whether that comes from listening to too many self-righteous stay-at-home moms who think their choice is the only appropriate one for a mother, or from the steady stream of mommyguilt that is somehow activated the first time you hold your child in your arms. On my worst days, I fear that it's an expression of an instinct I should be listening to but am too selfish or afraid to.

So where I'm at now is where I've always been: I'm not absolutely sure I'm doing the right thing now, and I probably wouldn't be if I did quit and stay home with the girls, either.

Articles like this one reinforce my inertia, either fortunately or unfortunately, in that it delineates dispassionately the various arguments for and against full-time work. This is the most interesting part to me:

And that was even more striking when viewed along with the survey's primary finding — that fully 60 percent of working mothers now say part-time work is their ideal rather than full-time, compared to 48 percent a decade ago.

That ideal is not tenable in today's work environment. I wonder: will we move in that direction? Would it ultimately benefit businesses to be able to offer parents jobs at reduced hours with full benefits? I know that I thought 30-hour weeks were much easier to live with than 40-hour weeks. For me, psychologically there was just something more palatable about being with my children three days a week (vs. four when I wasn't) than being with them two days a week (vs. five when I'm not).

I guess it's like anything in life--you just try to make the best decision you can, and be open to changing it if it turns out you were wrong. It's just that the stakes are so high.

Woohooooooooooo, 30 days of updates!! I made it! Now who knows--I might actually keep posting crap regularly, even if it's lame. Then at least y'all will know I'm alive and can still form sentences.

This week will be tough, though, because I'm on "vacation"--by which I mean, staying at home with the girls all week because their daycare is on "vacation." So far, I dub it the most.annoying.vacation.ever.

OK, so, the queen didn't walk out of the sitting in a huff. That's a relief. Before I knew that, I was thinking maybe that monarchy is one of the most ridiculous ideas the human race has ever devised.

Am I the only one not deterred from speeding by these things?

OH MY COW, I CAN SEE MY SPEED!!! I'D BETTER SLOW DOWN BEFORE THE SIGN COMES AFTER ME!!!!

Three Tidbits

1. BOO-URNS!

2. Dear Pope,

I can't believe you don't shut up!

3. "Ginormous" is now officially a word. I wonder whether M-W has an entry for "hurl"?

Hey kids! Did you know that if you don't have butter handy, you can spread mayo on your bread to make an awesome grilled sammich? That's a tip from me to you! (OK, fine, it's really from Rick Rodgers to me to you.)

Sorry about the lack of updateage Friday--I was sick. :(

Forget being offended by the nudity or slams against the church or whatever--what I wanna know is, how did the freaking limeys get first crack at the Simpsons movie?!

Happy Forf, Everyone!!!

Dear Escobar's:

The Independence Day holiday is not really a good reason to close on a perfectly beautiful and unfortunately adjacent Tuesday afternoon. It's not like I was disappointed with my lunch at the backup joint (the always solid Farren's), but it's just that I've been wanting to sample your fare for soooo long, and now I have to keep waiting.

Also, your website is brutal.

Until next time,

~Jackie

You know who's still got it? Simon LeBon, that's who.

Sure, the years have made him kinda doughy, like most fiftysomething dudes. But this right here looks a lot like the olden days...I can just hear him singing The Reflex!

Well, no, really I couldn't, so I went to YouTube to watch the video. This video wasn't exactly their high point conceptually, but it didn't get much better visually, at least from a fourteen-year-old girl's perspective.

Also, I love this song, although I never understood what the heck it meant. It sounded cool, the video was fun to watch, and they look great, and isn't that what Duran Duran was all about?

Yes, that's exactly what they were all about, even from their very early days. I could've told you they were music video pioneers, but looking at this now, over 20 years after it was made, I'm nevertheless struck by how ahead of the times they were. I'm also struck by how hott Simon LeBon looks. Good night, no wonder I crushed so hard on him. And no wonder the video's basically an homage to his sexy self, leaving spare seconds to the poor other dudes in the band. "Hey Simon, thanks for letting us sit on these tree limbs for a few seconds while you vamp your way through the entire song!"

You might think it's a little ridiculous for me to dedicate two posts in a half-year to Duran Duran, but then I might think you're a big jerk who should quit whining if you don't like it. Wait, I didn't mean it, come back! I've got other 80s videos for you!

I must have gotten sick of this song at some point in the 80s, but now I love it as much as the first time I heard it. It has a certain emotional quality that really evokes that time period for me.

Same here.

And because I could just keep watching and posting 80s videos all day, but then I couldn't get any work done, I'd better wrap it up here with something in the awesome-song-with-a-brutal-video genre. In case the orgiastic feast didn't clue you in as to the song's meaning, the cat walking around should remove all doubt. Hey thanks, I needed to be hit over the head this morning!