C (otra vez) es por crespo

Crispy.
One crispy mommy.

It was a rough morning.

Afterword--I love a "p.s." inserted into the top of a story. It's kind of like a pre-script instead of a post-script. Or kind of like a prequel without the idiotic jarjar binks and other disappointments to what could have been a timeless epic. **AHEM ** Back to the Afterword--I have just returned from the park with my lovely friend and her two lovely children. I feel distinctly less crispy & less lonely. The girl is also completely tuckered out. This helps sometimes. It certainly helps tonight. So moving from "it was a rough morning" to "it was a lovely evening" is pretty damn good. Please read the post below with a sense of calm and forgiveness. It was written in crispiness.

First, the wedding was marvelous! I'd never been to a Buddhist ceremony before and it was beautiful, Samm looked exquisite (of course), the children had a great time in the hotel pool and many of the adults had a great time as well (I did get in my swimsuit, not unlike a guinea pig tunneling through a paper towel roll and having just as good a time)

The trip was full of adventure for our girl. Khubz sat on a grassy lawn for the first time. She crawled forward for the first time. She got in a pool for the first time (looking devastatingly cute in her swimsuit.) She went to her first wedding. She wore her first ridiculously poofy dress.

Two sisters traveled from Iowa to Colorado via Missouri (this has the added benefit of making an 11 hour road trip a 16 hour road trip.) The parents and my brother & sister-in-law traveled from Colorado to Iowa via Kansas. So, all things being relative, our drive was painless (though also endless if you're trapped in a rear-facing carseat.) On the trip back I learned to absolutely love rest areas. Not only did the girl have well timed bowels but the mommies needed a place to stretch.

Now for the crispy mommy:
Khubz had a pretty clingy day once we were out of the car. The mommies made multiple attempts at a romantic interlude and the child thwarted each and every one. I don't know who designs mobiles for baby cribs but they sure as shit need to run the music for more than 5 minutes. We are lesbians for godssake. There's no hurry. Unfortunately, Khubz is now referring to her crib as "the crying place." Finally we gave up & everyone went downstairs. Mama went to unload the truck and Khubz fell asleep while nursing. S. needed help getting something out of the truck and I said, "I'll put her down but she'll scream." I put her down on the floor. She woke up, looked at me, opened her mouth and. . . yawned. She fell asleep. UnFingBelievable. She would wake up each time I put her in the crib. This same child saw that she was being put down and decided the floor was acceptable where the crib was not. The moment had passed and so we unloaded the truck. Khubz did fall asleep hard that night but so did the mommies and in the hierarchy of needs sleep is way, way up there. But even this does not get us to the crispy mommy.

This morning we all get up and in the shuffle for the day. We just got back from Colorado yesterday so all of the clothes are dirty except the one outfit I put on for work. Khubz gets a triamenic strip (against her will) and I am rewarded by being vomited upon. Stunned, I ask, "Did she just puke on me?" The Chicana actually begins to laugh. The child has puked up milky, snotting vomit yet again. All down the back my shoulder. A stream runs down my skirt. A puddle forms on the floor. And yes, there is puke even in my hair. "I can't just change clothes." I hand the child back to the non-pukey mommy and I get back in the shower. I emerge and the child has been cleaned up, the floor has been cleaned up and I really, really don't want to spend the day with my child (bad, bad mommy.)
I don't feel so well myself, am really tired and was also feeling a bit pissy about having just been puked on. Khubz has a low grade fever, is still pulling on her ear and has constant mucus. The dr. opens at 8.

I call them at 7:59:58 "There's an opening at 8:30, can you get here?" "Thereis?Great!Igottago!I'llberightthere!!!!" I start to hang up and hear "Ma'am? MA'AM? I need your name." "Uh, sorry." "And your daughter's date of birth?" "Sept of 07--06 I mean 06. It's been a rough morning." We get there and fast. No ear infection, some fluid behind the left ear (not the one she's been pulling at) but no infection. In the right ear? Ear wax. (some of you are laughing and, yes, Khubz is my child.) But no problems. She's been sick on & off for three weeks but the dr. said we can just expect her to continue being sick & better & sick & better and unless her fever gets up to 102 or something that we just consider this basic training for her immune system. This means that I and S. have been sick & better and as I write this mucus runs down the back of my throat. How sick is too sick for daycare? More sick than this, thank the goddess! Bad, crispy mommy. I have never been so happy to be at work and have her at daycare. (I have deleted and retyped that last sentence a dozen times. I shudder to leave it in the post but it just feels like cowardice to delete it again. I know, I know. Now I feel like deleting that sentence and this little tangent because the tanget seems dumb, dumb, dumb. Alas, looks like it will all stay & I'll leave you to wonder just how stupid something has to be in order to qualify for deletion.)

Quick--Change the topic. I'm writing this as I listen to the Gonzales hearings. I love to hear him squirm. I also love hearing Schumer overheard by the mic at the break. All the impeach Bush/Gonzales War Criminal protesters stand up when they break for lunch and start yelling. Schumer laughs, "There've got too many people to kick out." I am surprisingly impressed by Arlen Specter. I think everyone missed the boat on the highest humor of the Gonzales hearing. It was when Specter said, "I know you've been preparing for this hearing" and Gonzales quipped like a jerk, "Senator, I prepare for every hearing" pissing Specter off. "Were you prepared for your press conference?" "I didn't say I was prepared, I said 'i prepare'" "Did you prepare?" "We try to take some time to prepare before our press conference, yes." . . . "I don't think you're going to win a debate on how you prepare for your press conference" That was your clip, jon. And yes, Specter is pro-choice. Alas, I still cannot heart him. But this at least helps me recognize that he's human. The same is not true for everyone who is calling for Gonzales to step down. Take Senator Coburn from Oklahoma and his "rampant lesbianism" destroying their schools. He can call for Gonzales to step down all he likes and he is still one big dick.

I did look at the slate article as suggested by Rivolta but I don't buy it. I do think he is genuinely squirming.

"Consider how Gonzales rebuffed Republican Sen. John Cornyn when he suggested a future Senate hearing about the convictions of two Texas border patrol officers. (That's executive branch business, son.) Consider the attorney general's inability to explain why Kyle Sampson pushed ahead with a plan to do away with Senate confirmation for U.S. attorneys, if as he claimed, Gonzales didn't approve it. (That's between me and the president and Kyle Sampson, son.) Consider Gonzales' skirmish with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer over who bore the burden of proof at the hearings. (How can there be a burden of proof when you have no authority to sit in judgment over me, son?) And listen to him tell Republican Sen. Charles Grassley: "I'm here to provide what I know, what I recall as to the truth in order to help the Congress help to complete the record."

Ultimately, this hearing & Gonzales' performance affirms the need for senate oversight, making Gonzales and Bush look like bad managers to the tune of "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job." I agree that he "elevated the Bush legal doctrine of "Because I said so" into a public spectacle." But I disagree that that helps the administration in any way. He laid bare their "because I said so" and, remember, though your actions should always embody that principle you should never shed light on it.
You can't pull off this level of bullshit while sweating.


I think the battle over the supreme powers of the president will play out more with Rove. I do think they will sacrifice Gonzales but I think they're only fighting this hard to keep him because having the next AG confirmed will be gruesome. Ditto for Wolfowitz. All in all, pretty galling what these guys are getting grilled for when they regularly facilitated torture, racism and violence.