Puzzled...Or Not?

Ethan, Matthew and I ventured to the library today to see if we could find our favorite truck book. It's a relatively tiny library located in a strip mall down the street from our house. A great location for us, though it doesn't have a huge selection or big kid's corner, but big enough (especially with our county's great inter-library transfer system). While we were there today, a five- or six-year-old girl wandered back to the kid's section with her grandma in tow. The girl sat down at one of the tables and started flipping through books while her grandma looked around through the shelves and in the corners. I couldn't tell what she was looking for because she wasn't reading any of the book titles or pulling any off of the shelves, but she appeared to be really dismayed. She finally stopped looking around and we had a conversation:

Grandma: Excuse me, do you know if they have any puzzles here?

Me: No, I don't think so.

Grandma: What about games or puppets?

Me: No, I don't think so. They do have those stuffed animals up there for the kids to cuddle with while they read.

Grandma: So, nothing else?

Me: No, I think it's pretty much just the books mainly.

I wasn't being sarcastic or snarky with that last bit, I was just sort of put off kilter by her questions given our location. In the meantime, her grandaughter was contentedly reading to herself at one of the tables, but upon finding out that this library location didn't have anything for kids except the books, the lady said, "C'mon, Julie lets go. This library isn't as good as the other one, is it?"

...

I weep for the future.

We Marched on Washington!

Yes, you read that right. Now that we live in the DC area I couldn't pass up the chance to express some of my displeasure with our current government. And since the Ultimate Tea Party was being held today, I got out the doublewide, packed up the kiddos and headed out to see about the hubbub.

I was very nervous about going out there -- huge crowds, a politically charged occasion, and two kiddos to tote around. But, I felt it was important for me to go and represent, and I was excited about doing so in the very place where all these decisions are being made. Corny? Perhaps. But off we went, cheesiness and all.

I have to say that hearing hundreds of thousands of people (maybe a million or more? I'm not sure what the final count was) cheering as we were walking up to the capitol building really gave me chills. I know that sounds corny, but if you have never heard that many people clapping and cheering at one time, let me tell you it is sort of surreal. It sounded like thunder. And this was before we could even see anyone.

But once we got there, it was a lot less intimidating. Everyone around us was so nice. Steve had to stay home because he was sleeping for the night shift, but I was there with a friend. All told, there were two mommies, a teenage boy, a single stroller with a toddler, and my double stroller with Ethan and Matthew. And everyone was so accomodating. Helping me manuever the stroller, making room for us to get through, smiling at the babies. It was just nice...in a loud, shouting, protesting sort of way.

I saw a few people having lively discussions with Obama supporters, but nothing ever got out of hand that I could see. And I loved the creativity some people had with their slogans and signs.

It was a good day, and fun to be a part of something so huge.

Clapping along with everyone else.

A common sight

Your typical right-wing extremist, a.k.a the angry mob.