Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,
We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce in the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation. Send to: womensaynopalin@gmail.com

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called "Women Against Sarah Palin," which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience. The greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York, NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

Poor Hillary

No, it's really (somehow, mindblowingly) even worse than we thought

I would love to take the time to express all of the ways in which the McCain/Palin ticket is a joke, but I don't need to because Frank Rich already laid it out quite well in the New York Times. Here's the LINK

Oh, and by the way, you will get a "change of address" card from us, from another country, if they actually get elected because I have said for many years now "I love my country but fear my government" but would have to change it to "I fear this country and it's government!"

In Repair

I am in repair
I'm not together
But I'm getting there
~John Mayer

I was wondering when I might be able to be someone other/beyond the girl who is fixing herself. I have just recently stepped out of the role of "sick girl" and into "pregnant lady" and soon to become "Mom." But where am I in all that? Who am I beyond these over-simplified titles? It's maddening that I don't know, or at least not very well. Hell, I'm even tired of playing the oh-so-over-tired role of "in search of myself" chick. It'd be so nice to know.

Am I making this too complicated? Does anyone know who they are? Am I hoping for something that is, well, just plain silly? Ah, futility. I think that word should be counted as an onomatopoeia. Anyway, it's just this same rut, different day. It's getting really old and I really wish I knew what it would take to get me out of it so I could have a good, long run on an open stretch or road, have some new views and maybe even get somewhere.

I hope I'm getting there

It's a BABY!

I am pregnant! Actually, I have been for nearly 4 months and next Thursday we're supposed to find out if it's a by or a girl. SO exciting!

It's been a very interesting and somewhat overwhelming experience so far... my body changing (my belly button is flat!) and my moods swinging wildly all over the place (I wanna kiss you/I wanna punch you) and all of the worries that come along with every potential slip (I celebrated finding out by eating lasagna only to find out I am not supposed to eat ricotta cheese. darn!)

I feel like I have a lot more to write about this, but I am suddenly very tired. I hope to get back to post again soon!

A Quick Note

Today I had the pleasure of going over to the house of neighbor and new friend, Julia. She owns an awesome "greeting card" (she hates that term) design company, which she runs out of said house, called Red Bird Ink. We had met when the most recent oak tree fell in our neighborhood (not at my house, you silly, giant trees!) and then I discovered that the fella whose backyard is behind our backyard is her father-in-law, so I got her contact info and hunted her down.

She was extremely nice and allowed me to come over and see her workspace and ask a lot of what were probably dumb questions about how she goes about making her cards. She was so cool and welcoming, we even had tea and little cookies in the dining room! In the meantime, I coaxed her into saying that she would point clients who want their cards addressed in (with?) calligraphy to me (in addition to another woman who has been doing calligraphy for over 10 years, so my strategy will be to offer my services for CHEAP. haha!).

Anyway, it was really nice to get to know her and she's just around my age (okay, closer to Jon's age but whatev), so we might just have new friends!!

Here's my most recent (and rather good, if I do say so myself) calligraphy examples:



(Note: Suzanna Price does not, nor does that address exist)

Okay, so I suck (but not really)

...because I never finished my post about our Germany trip. I really hope and intend to finish it, but I honestly have been fairly busy, and a bit down. It's the year anniversary since last June when I lived at Grady's burn unit from June 3rd to July 6th. At this very time in my life, I was completely knocked out in a medically induced coma and on full life support. The meds that cause the coma also cause amnesia, which means that I also have absolutely no first-hand recollection of what was happening - TO ME. It's very strange. I have to rely on the accounts of other people that were there at the time, such as my husband, who is always somewhat hesitant (understandably) to tell me the whole, nitty-gritty truth.

But I want to hear it. Somehow it at least takes away the strangeness of not remembering on my own, even if it does upset me to hear the truly gory details. It also helps me to be in a place of gratitude for the fact I miraculously survived and how far I've come since then. Here's where it gets really messed up though: I REALLY just want a really good cry to get this out. I have this positive relationship with "good cries" and I usually feel a lot better after ward. Problem is, because my eyes don't produce enough tears, I can't cry. Yes, my nose gets runny and my mouth does that blubbering thing, but no tears come out. At best I produce as many tears as your eyes usually should, in their normal, every day way.

Somehow the lack of tears stops my "crying" pretty quickly. I don't know if it's because my brains gets the wrong message of "Oh, wait, there's no tears running down her cheek. I guess we're not really crying here..." OR if it's because my lack of tears always me have an added "Oh, what the F@*# people!" kick in the face and so I stop crying just because then I'm just pissed off. It's probably a combination of both. As much as it's a pain to deal with my eyes' daily dryness, somehow not getting to feel the release that comes from tears running down my face just seems especially crappy, which probably explains my slight twinge of cynicism with the following Psalm.

I have been self-teaching myself calligraphy and this week my practice text has been Psalm 116, which my Mom introduced to me several months ago when she called me up just to say, "Psalm 116!! That's YOUR Psalm!!" I chose to study it this week as a way of focusing of the grace I've been given and as a small token of thanks and praise to God (this is an incomplete version):

I love the Lord, for her heard my voice:
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave came upon me;
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
"O Lord, save me!"

The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
The Lord protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me.

Be at rest once more, O my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.

For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,*
my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
I believed; therefore I said,
"I am greatly afflicted,"
And in my dismay I said,
"All men are liars."

How can I repay the Lord
for all his goodness to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.

*yeah, so maybe that part was taken a bit too literally. I know, beggars can't be choosers, but still...

Anyway, for more show-and-tell of my practice calligraphy, CLICK HERE