Holden, Bitches, State of the/our Union, 4, Staying Strong, and Cream: A week in small paragraphs

J.D. Salinger died yesterday.  Author of THE bible of dissaffectation, Catcher in the Rye, Salinger will probably get more ink about his being a recluse than of someone who was able to brilliantly capture in Holden the coming culture shift among youth--so much so that it still resonates today.  I know why we are all fascinated with his backing away from celebrity, but I wish we were all just happy with his contribution to culture and let that be the overriding story.

Elizabeth Edwards  is getting a bit of a beating in a new book by Andrew Young, depicting her as an angry, obsessive bitch.  Well, let's see--if I was dying of inoperable/incurable cancer, my husband was cheating on me, siring other children and so called friends were in on it, using it and hiding it...I'd be royally pissed off too. I'd say and do things I wasn't proud of.  As for the Youngs, you can't be that involved in something so miserably wrong and then whine if it bites you in the ass.  Well, I guess you can...then I guess you can write a book about it to make money off said misery of others.  Unless no one buys the book.  I won't.  I would just like us all not to--just to say, "Enough!  We are better than this and we've got real problems to focus on." 

In any relationship there comes a time when one of the people has to hold up their hand during a fight and say, let's just re-focus here on what is really the basis of the disagreement and solve for that...all of this other stuff is silly and it's getting in the way of our moving forward.  In my relationship, the person that does that is my husband--he keeps the state of our union on an even keel.  On Wednesday night, during the State of the Union, President Obama was that person as well.  Although, he could take a few lessons from my hubby in being a bit more direct, a bit more intense in a good way.  President Obama was good about taking responsibility  for his mistakes, but I would have liked him to call others out a bit more directly as well.  And for those of you in the that building the other night:   sneers and rude, whispered asides don't play well on TV...I'm just saying...a bunch of you looked like petulant little boys.

4 lbs.  Thank you NutriSystem.  Except for the meatloaf with mashed potatoes 'gravy'...seriously?  Somethign went horribly, horribly wrong in your tasting kitchen.

Hubby is in LA for the next week with his Mom who is fighting cancer.  As per usual, she is amazing.  The kiddies are missing their Dad who never travels without them, so a learning experience for all of us.  I have to remember that their extreme reaction to this is not about me.  It was especially hard when they wanted to stop watching their :30 minutes of TV to actually talk to him on the phone...something they don't do with me since they 'have to' do it a lot when I'm on the road.   And, I didn't pause the show quick enough so we had to rewind and watch the last few minutes of "Modern Marvel" on the potato.  Who knew!?  Stay strong B & D, we love you!

Finally, to put it all in perspective:  On the way to school my Son loves to listen to classic rock.  We had been listening to Cream and the "Tales of Brave Ulysses" until I just couldn't take it anymore.  I flicked it off to his dismay.  "Mom", he said, ovbiously dissapointed that I was missing the point here, "It's rock AND history!"

Yup.  I had forgotten that.  I'll do better next time.