Just Powers

I think I voted for the wrong guy. No I’m not talking about THAT election, that vote was perfect and my guy remains rock-solid-butt-kickingly-awesome.

I am talking about my vote for American Idol.

Let me start by saying that I loved both finalists. and believe for the most part that as far as their careers are concerned, it doesn’t much matter who won. Adam and Kris are both talented enough that each will walk away from this with a recording contract if they want to.

So, two nights ago I voted for Kris to be the next American Idol. With all of Adam’s obvious talent, it didn’t seem like his was the type of music I would find myself bopping and singing along to as I drove down the road, like I do with Jason Mraz or John Mayer. Kris’s style and voice seemed more accessible, maybe less of a challenge musically, but a better choice for the soundtrack of my life. Plus I was really really annoyed by all of the pronouncements by Paula, Kara and Simon that Adam is a “rock god” and would the winner. All things being equal, which they seemed to mostly be in this case, I will choose the underdog every time.

So I voted for Kris. Then, watching the finale last night, I thought, “huh.” As I watched Adam rock out with KISS started to wonder if I had made a mistake. If a person can convincingly sing any song from KISS to Cabaret, isn’t that pretty iconic?

Then they announced the winner and Kris was all “I don’t know what to say” and “Adam deserves this” and “I wouldn’tbe anything without the other contestants” and the humble underdawg thing went just a little too far for me. “Christ dude, OWN this!! It’s YOURS!” I wanted to scream. And suddenly my safe accessible choice seemed really lame.

This is a year about change, about stepping away from what is safe and comfortable and having the courage to stand for something new. Well, I can’t think of anything more new for American Idol than Adam Lambert. And frankly he earned it. There is an odd similarity between Nick/Norman - the flamboyant multiple personality jokester from early in the season - and Adam Lambert. Where Nick used his alter ego to poke fun at the competition, Adam used his to play it straight and make it to the finals.

In the end, I think Adam is probably the better musician, and will do just fine, but I did wake up this morning feeling guilty that I hadn’t been a little more courageous with my vote. There are plenty of Jason Mrazs and John Mayers out there, but not too many Adam Lamberts.

Emma and EJ discuss what might be lurking in the hole in the tree. Or maybe they are just sharing ways to drive their parents crazy.

As a result of Mike’s obsession mad skillz with the internets, he scored us four tickets to yesterday’s White House Easter Egg Roll. Since Emma “hearts” Sasha and Malia, and Mike and I *heart* their dad and mom, we were all really excited to hang out at their house for a couple of hours.

Emma talked about going to “Sasha and Malia’s house” for a week before we went, and seemed to have a good time once we were there - although I think she felt there had been a bit of false advertising, since we never actually went INTO the house itself. She did get to ride Metro, meet Curious George, and show off her new Ladybug dress.

William’s adventures were a little more low key, but he still got some good stories. First he got to freak out the Secret Service guy who reached into the stroller to check it out and got the shock of his life when the “doll” started moving. Then he got to nurse on the grounds of the White House. Really, there can’t be too many people in the world who can say that, right?

After the first substantial snow of her short life, Emma went out to play. Her favorite things to do were to fall down on purpose, and climb this little hill in our neighbors yard. Next stop, Mt. Everest!!

When you’re 22-months old, the two greatest things in the world are trains (”choo choo”) and merry-go-rounds (”why-oh-why”). If you say “choo choo” and “why-oh-why” over and over again, it sounds a little like the lyrics to a Kajagoogoo song. And then that song becomes another one of the greatest things in the world.

(As an added bonus, Emma is wearing her new horsey Halloween costume she just got from her friend EJ.)

I know that most of the cool kids were in San Francisco last weekend for BlogHer, but Emma and Mike and I are in town this week for the AFSCME Convention. Mike is working behind the scenes to make sure the convention goes off without a hitch, so he is working pretty hard and is not getting to hang out the way Emma and I are. We did have dinner with him last night though, so that was cool.

So here is a quick recap of our trip so far:

Saturday: As we walked up to the gate to board the plane that would bring us to San Francisco the flight attendant looked at us and said “Oh, we don’t do children.”

Huh. Really? REALLY Ms. Flight Attendant, you don’t do children?

I think Mike and I both laughed at her because she very quickly corrected herself and said “We don’t do early boarding for children”.

Huh. Thanks United.

The flight itself was a little hairy since we decided not to buy a seat for Emma. But I will leave that for another post.

Once we settled into the hotel, Mike had a meeting so Emma and I explored the area around the hotel. We quickly discovered that Yerba Buena Gardens is right across the street from the hotel, and there is a very nice merry-go-round there too. And in San Francisco, if you buy one ticket on a merry-go-round, you get two rides. Ok, not really, but you do on the Yerba Buena Gardens merry-go-round. Which seems like it would be wonderful, but really in the end just makes it harder for a merry-go-round obsessed toddler to stop riding when the time comes.

Sunday: Emma and I started early (around 7:30) and went for a walk to Union Square. There were some artists just setting up for the day and we browsed some of the art. We found one that I loved of a little girl on a merry-go-round, so I bought it. This trip is starting to have a theme. After wandering the Union Square area for a while we went to the hot breakfast bar at Whole Foods which is just two blocks from the hotel. Then we wandered around Yerba Buena Gardens again, rode the merry-go-round and watched the very beginning of the theater festival happening that day in the Gardens.

Monday: Emma and I decided to go to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, just to see what it was like. The bad news was that it was $25 for the breakfast buffet. The good news was that Emma ate at least $25 in raspberries and I ate at least $25 in smoked salmon. Jen and Emma: 1 - Hotel: 0.

My big plan for the day was to go to Fisherman’s Wharf via cable car so we walked to Powell Street and stood in the looong line to get our Muni passport (because I had a brain cramp and forgot to do it at the airport). Then we stood in another long line to wait for the aforementioned cable car. Needless to say as each cable car passed by us and we didn’t get on, Emma would let out a little yelp in protest. Luckily there were lots of pigeons to distract her.

We finally made it to Fisherman’s Wharf. We found out way to Pier 39 which kind of reminded me of Provincetown in Cape Cod. We grabbed a crepe and a lemonade and went to find the sea lions and eat. Emma loved/hated the sea lions. Wouldn’t let me put her down, but didn’t want to walk away. Luckily there was - you guessed it - a merry-go-round right in the middle of the whole pier, so she was quickly distracted. We rode the MGR and headed towards home.

Once home I finally got up the nerve to email Doodaddy - a San Francisco local and one of the blogs I read almost daily - to ask him for recommendations on things to see and do in San Francisco. He wrote back almost immediately and invited me to join him and Boobaby and Cry it out Mike and Emmeline in Golden Gate Park the next day.

Tuesday: Emma woke up barking like a sea lion. We decided to try Mel’s Diner for breakfast. While the food was fine, the touristy theme restaurant thing just didn’t do it for me. In the end I think I will probably just return to Whole Foods for breakfast in the days to come. Mel’s cost me $20, and there were no raspberries or smoked salmon. Hmph.

Emma and I hopped on the N train to Golden Gate Park. We had some time to kill before meeting Doodaddy, Boobaby, Mike and Emmeline, so we headed to the Children’s Playground. After another ride on a merry-go-round - the most exotic one of all so far - Emma played on the swings, removed at least half of the sand from the sandbox and slid down a few slides. I think she was relieved to be doing something she was used to, albeit in a strange place.

We walked to the Arboretum, our meeting place, and met Doodaddy and Boobaby, Mike and Emmeline. We spent about an hour at the duck pond, feeding the ducks, eating a picnic, which Doodaddy and Mike were nice enough to share, and practicing diving in the pond. Ok there wasn’t any actual diving, but I am pretty sure I was the only thing preventing Emma from going headfirst into the pond with the ducks. Doodaddy and Mike gave me some more advice about things to do in San Francisco and were just all around welcoming and friendly.

We boarded the train to return to the hotel for nap time and two stops later Emma was asleep.

So far we are having a great, if exhausting, time. Being the sole caretaker of a toddler in a city I am not familiar with is much more daunting a task than I originally thought. Thanks so much to Doodaddy and Mike for being friendly faces and helping us feel at home!

We have rabbits! In our neighborhood mind you, not in our house (god help me). They usually hang out and eat in our neighbors’ yards and we see them from the car when we are on our way home. We always block traffic stop and show them to Emma and now when we drive by that spot she points and looks for them and makes a little noise with her mouth that sounds like eating.

One day recently when we came home, one of the bunnies was sitting at the bottom of our stairs. I got Emma out of the car and we got within about six feet before Emma squealed and the bunny decided that maybe the bottom of our stairs wasn’t really where it wanted to be. Still, it was cool to get so close.

This morning when Emma woke up she pointed out the window, so I opened the curtain to let her see what was (or wasn’t) out there. Sitting right in front of her window were two teeny little baby bunnies. One of them was a little skittish and when it heard me open the curtain it ran under a bush for a second before coming back out. The other one was all “Yeah, I hear you. Whatev. I’m a bunny, you don’t scare me” and just sat there looking at me. Except then Emma started pounding on the window and both bunnies ran for their lives. I told her the bunnies were going to sleep.

Emma spent the rest of the day saying “bohbee”, insisting we let her look out the window and making the sign for sleep. She has also managed to find every stuffed bunny she has (three or four by my last count) and has been carrying them around all day.

I can’t quite decide if I want the bunnies to be there tomorrow morning or not, although at this point I guess it is ridiculous to think she might actually forget about them, even if they aren’t.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family reunion - Dynasty

To those folks who are convinced that Emma looks just like me…I guess you are right, but just barely!

Dear Interwebs -

I have been a huge slacker. I haven’t posted a real post in over two weeks. I have no excuse really, the time has just slipped away from me. Please accept my sincerest apologies and my assurance that it won’t happen again. For a while. Maybe.

In my defense, I haven’t been completely MIA. While I haven’t been writing, I have been reading. I know that Catherine at Her Bad Mother has been having killer false labor, and OH MAH GOD, I feel so bad for her (although maybe not so false as of today? Fingers crossed). I know that Doodaddy hit his 500th post, Jessica and A Parent in Silver Spring were featured in the Washington Post Express and over at My Merry Way June gets cuter every day. I have been hanging on every word written at Boobs, Injuries and Dr. Pepper, and have been holding Dawn at Alex Year One (Two!!) in my heart.

I’m gonna go sleep now and dream of all the posts I am going to write.

Talk to you soon.
Jen