Camper

It's So Good to be Needed

I'm so used to the Kentucky primary being about local elections and this year everything is flip-flopped.  I am woefully uninformed about what local races are up tomorrow because I have been so focused on the Bluegrass's role on the national stage.  I've been speculating for months that my primary vote may actually count.  Here we are less than 24 hours away and my vote will matter tomorrow. 

Yes, Obama all but has it wrapped up and speculation is that after tomorrow he will have the majority of pledged delegates by whatever metric is offered (i.e. the official one or the Clinton one). And yes, Obama will lose Kentucky and win Oregon.  But my vote can be one vote for him that can help make it as close as possible here. And since nothing is official yet my vote is still a vote the nation is watching.

I can tell the nation is watching because there is a buzz in the air.  My day started hanging Obama GOTV fliers on doors reminding folks to vote tomorrow.  In an hour I am headed down the street to see Bill Clinton speak.  Yes, Bill Clinton is in little ol' Danville, Kentucky today and I will go see him because - even though I'm not voting for Hillary, when will I ever get a chance again to see a former President up close and personal (or from hundreds of yards away over the heads of other people)?

Then after the Clinton rally I'm off to meet Michelle Obama - which is what I'm really looking forward to. My loyal phone calling (I hate doing calls by the way!) and my door hanging talents are being rewarded with a limited access event with Michelle Obama tonight and I am so excited. As I have mentioned here before I think very highly of her and am excited to meet the future First Lady - a woman of true class and smarts.

Stay tuned for pics and stories from the rest of the day and night as the excitement mounts until we head to the polls tomorrow!

Sliced Bread: Shelfari

There is a theme to this Friday's posts . . . . books! Adam's sister and cousin introduced us to Shelfari this week and it is FABULOUS! It's an online community of readers where you can build your own bookshelf filled with stuff you've read or want to read. I've already added several titles to my future reading list that I have intended to read but keep forgetting. This will be the perfect way to remember!

The site is free and you can invite friends, start communities or join existing communities. I've joined the 50 Book Challenge community.  Whether or not I can manage to read 50 covers in one year with a wee one at home remains to be seen. But, I have long kept a list of books I read during the course of a year (a habit Adam loves to tease me about). This group does just that so it is perfect for me! Plus reading other people's lists has helped identify future possibilities.

If you like to read you'll love this site! Just be warned - you will lose a lot of time once you log-on as adding books to your shelf is addictive!

Book Club: Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson is a non-fiction account of how the lives of a murder and an inventor entwined during one of the most sensational manhunts in British history. Thunder reads much like a novel and is intriguing and educational. I learned more than I ever thought I would about how telecommunications began. To me the story of Marconi's unlikely road to inventing the telegraph waffled between interesting and tedious at times.  However, the story of Scotland Yard's pursuit of "The North London Cellar Murderer" is compelling from start to finish.

Overall it is a good read. I read most of it on the way to Kiawah for vacation and it was an apt choice for such stop and go enjoyment.  Larson's prose was well-crafted and has left me intrigued to try his other true-life murder mystery account - The Devil in the White City.

      3 of 5 stars

Next Selection: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. This novel about love, mystery and life with the circus comes highly recommended from a dear friend!

Dear Campbell: 11 Months

Tomorrow sweet baby girl, is your 11-month birthday.  And as if you can sense the miraculous milestone looming just one month away, you are turning into a little girl right in front of my eyes.  And I am not sure I am prepared to lose my baby yet.

You are still pudgy and adorable and the final signal of your inevitable independence - mobility - remains limited to scooting.  But you are so inquisitive - so ready to learn about the world around you, ready to conquer all that is out there.  These signs of the next stage in your life make me want to kiss your chubby chipmunk cheeks all the more while I still can - before they thin out into a beautiful little girl face and before it's no longer cool for Mama to kiss on you.

In the span of a one week vacation you learned to drink from a straw and wave better than the Queen of England herself. You figured out that water and sun are two of the most important ingredients to true fun. You love eating real foods whenever we will share bits of fruit or bread or cracker or Cheerios. In the last couple of days you have discovered the joys of petting the dog. 

We took our first family vacation last week. Since Mama and Daddy are still poor, new parents, we had to piggy-back with Grannydots and Grandpa but it was a great deal of fun. I look forward to a lifetime of vacations with you. The vacations my parents worked hard to provide for me growing up are still some of my favorite memories and I hope the same will be true for you one day.

Our first vacation was spent at the beach - your second trip but the first where you were able to swim.  At first you were a little unsure. The fact that a big wave got you in the face almost immediately could have left you averse to surfing forever but Mama, Daddy and Grannydots convinced you salt water up your nose is a load of fun.  From the first day on each time we topped the boardwalk and you spotted the beach you flapped your little hands and made funny little monkey noises to show your excitement.  You loved sitting in the tidal pools and getting wet, gooey sand between your fingers.

After last week you have returned a full-fledged water baby.  This morning's bath brought a great deal more splashing and playing than past ones have. You even cried when it was time to get out.  So, dear girl, we are going to have so much fun swimming at the pool this summer!

It is amazing to watch you grow but sad at the same time.  This has been the fastest year of my life. It has also been the best without question. Every second with you is exciting and so full of love I can't express the warmth I feel looking at you with mere words. Today at lunch your Grannydots asked me if I ever dared dream you would end up so beautiful.  To which I answered that you have exceeded every expectation or dream I ever dared have of you.

All my love -
Mama

The Full Monty

PARENTAL ADVISORY WARNING: Some of the images below may not be suitable for young eyes.

Well, our vacation is coming to an end and I am very sad to say so. It has been a wonderful week. With the exception of some rain this morning it has been picture perfect beach weather. Speaking of the beach . . . we took our last trip to the beach this afternoon and got some great shots of Campbell playing in the sand and took a video of her swimming (that will be posted when we get home as we (insert Adam) forgot the computer cord).  It was a memorable trip to the beach - to put it mildly.

To give a little context we are staying at Kiawah Island off the coast of Charleston, SC.  For those not familiar with Kiawah it is a private community where my family has been coming for vacation for years.  One of our favorite past times while here is riding bikes or walking the beaches to marvel at the ENORMOUS homes all over the island.  Each vacation is a visit to Ritzville and a chance to see how the other half - or to be more accurate the other two percent - lives. All of that to say that the beach at Kiawah is not where you expect to get flashed and yet . . .

There we were taking pictures of our sweet baby girl in her sweet little pink daisy swimsuit when Adam gasps and says "I was not expecting that!"  I turn to get an eye full of boobs and, yes, the full monty (thankfully not on the same body).

 

I am just hoping Campbell is looking at the stick beside her and not the crew in the upper left of the screen.

That is Adam's shot of my reaction to the unexpected vajayjay.

So, now that I have dispensed with the shock value segment of this post we will commense with the aw value . . . A few more shots of Little Miss.

Gotta love those thighs! I keep telling her to enjoy it now because this is the only time in her life when thighs that fat are so darn cute!

The Media's Double Standard

Just a quick note to draw attention to Frank Rich's excellent Op-Ed in today's New York Times.  Rich analyzes the horrific double standard our national media has with regard to politician's surrogates - aka the Reverends Wright and Hagee.  It's a must read examination of how the far more inflammatory and hate-filled statements of Reverend John Hagee have not drawn the attention or criticism leveled at Jeremiah Wright.  Similarly John McCain has not been bombarded with questions about his relationship with Hagee on a level anywhere near what Obama has experienced in the last five weeks.  There is without a doubt a terrible double standard in the media's coverage.

Hang Ten Baby!

We made it!  I can feel myself rejuvenating already. I needed this vacation! It has been a success so far . . . We have ridden bikes - Campbell likes her little buggy behind Daddy's bike. We've been to Cindy's (the best fried shrimp and tuna salad on earth - the key lime pie is pretty awesome, too). And we've been to the beach.  The weather today was perfect!

Campbell saved up all her energy for the vacation itself. And it's a good thing because vacationing is apparently hard work. She slept 10 straight hours last night, had a 2.5 hour nap this morning and an hour on the beach - normally so much sleeping is totally unheard of.  But she loved the beach. Even after getting a little wave in the face, she laughed it off and splashed some more.  Her immediate love of the beach and water made the surfer swim suit a fitting choice (even if it didn't fit so well as it was hard to get over her rather large head and doesn't cover her rather large belly).

The water is warm enough to swim which was a nice surprise. Adam and I have been in swimming and had a blast.  It was while swimming that Adam said the catchphrase of the trip so far:

"Dude! We totally need a bogey board!"

Still Pumped

Campbell is still overcome with excitement about the beach.

And we're off!

The Rinehart/Johnson caravan is on the road to Kiawah! This is the first real vacation we have taken since our honeymoon almost three years ago. I can smell the beach already and can't wait to see Campbell in her swimsuit.

As you can see - she is having a hard time containing her excitment as welll!

Check back during the week as there will be more high quality cell phone pictures and mobile posts to come.

360 Degrees of Michelle Obama

I just finished watching Michelle Obama on CNN.com (from last night's Anderson Cooper). WOW! I tell you what, if Barack Obama weren't running, if Michelle were the one that had wanted to run for public office.  She could have been the first female and the the first black president.  What an impressive lady.

The interview covers all the bases from Rev. Wright to the race question to the delegate math to talk of a dream ticket to dogs for the girls.  She handles every question with amazing poise and grace.  She is solid in her desire and insistence that the Rev. Wright issue needs to but put aside (AMEN!) but she was never defensive.  Her tone was calm and soothing - it was completely devoid of the shrillness that often plagues female politicians.  And just like with her husband you are  struck by how intelligent these two are - which is a refreshing change of pace from the aw-shucks image of George Bush. Yet, she seems very grounded and very - to use the catch phrase of the moment - average American.

The interview is well worth watching.  I'm still looking for it in a format that I can embed but for the meantime here is the link:

Michelle Obama on CNN.

Footnote: I still haven't found the Michelle Obama interview but here is a fabulous interview with John Kerry.  I can't help but think if he'd had this much fight in him when he was running that maybe we would have been spared the last 3 years . . . But, he takes on MSNBC on their continuing obsession with Rev. Wright and makes some excellent points!

Obama the Only Candidate Seeing the Light on Gas Tax Issue

The price of gas sucks.  There is no doubt about that. Nobody is arguing anything else.  I drive a Prius with a tank the size of a Ziploc baggy and it cost me $32 to fill it up this morning. Yeah, it sucks buying gas.

That acknowledged, Senator Obama is absolutely right when he says that McCain and Clinton are playing political games with talk of repealing the gas tax for the summer months, not positing sound economic policy.  Experts agree that a vacation from the gas tax will do little to nothing to lower the price of gas.  The demand will continue to out pace the supply and the price will continue to go up.  So, at the end of the three months gas is still $3.65 a gallon but then has to jump an additional 18 cents immediately as the tax is reinstated.

Only in the world of "Whatever it takes to get elected" does that sound like a good idea. The government loses billions, the oil companies still make gazillions and we're still paying a ton at the pump. This isn't a solution, it's a ploy.  And, this issue is another example of which candidate in the race really is straight-talking and has the real interests of the average American in mind.

A Few Oars May Not Be in the Water

The following is the actual fax cover page Adam used a few minutes ago to send me a flexible spending reimbursement form.

We have a central fax machine at the front desk of our office and he knows it. What am I going to do with him?

Obama Deeply Personal in Press Conference

Barack Obama made heartfelt and clear statements delineating his disagreements with Rev. Jeremiah Wright today.  During his afternoon press conference the pain with which he comes to the podium is evident.  Someone who has played a key role in his personal life - married him, baptized his children - has shown a less than attractive side and has done so with seeming irreverence for a friendship that Obama has tried to protect to this point.  His disappointment and pain is understandable and I feel for him having to share it on camera with us in order to try to return the media's eye to what matters.  Here's the video:

Obama Finds Running Mate

Book Club: Dreams of My Father

While it would appear to anyone tracking how long it has been since I announced this book that it has taken me two months to read Obama's first book, this is not the case. I must admit I tucked The Other Boleyn Girl in before starting Dreams in order to read it before the movie. (As a brief aside, the book is much better than the movie.)

For anyone wanting to know who Barack Obama the man is, you need look no further than the pages of this book.  Dreams of My Father is an unabashed look at what it is to grow up of mixed race in America - an enlightening view for those of us blessed with fair skin and the perks that come along with it.  Obama wrestled with how to be black without that presence in his life everyday.  Reading his life's story one understands that he truly does see the world through many lenses - a perspective that makes him uniquely suited to lead our melting pot nation.

At a time when the media is fixated on the idea that Obama is out of touch with average Americans I wish the press would pay attention to this book - to more than the passages acknowledging drug use. As Reverend Wright's anger and frustration at his government dominate headlines, I wish the media would look to Obama's struggle with such bitterness throughout his life. For those that insist Wright's focus on skin color must translate to a similar obsession on Obama's part I wish they would read this book.  Obama is not out of touch with the average American.  He wants to be defined by his race no more than the average white southerner wants to be defined by a racist heritage.

"I  had stumbled upon one of the well-kept secrets about black people: that most of us weren't interested in revolt; that most of us were tired of thinking about race all the time; that if we preferred to keep to ourselves it was mainly because that was the easiest way to stop thinking about it, easier than spending all your time mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you."

This passage struck me because throughout this campaign I have found myself wondering what black people think of skinny white girls like me who are running around with Obama stickers on their cars. Aware of lingering racism, I grew-up wondering in the back of my mind if anything I did could be wrongly construed as such.  To learn that the same insecurities plagued Obama and his friends was just one example in this book of how truly similar we all are.

In Dreams of My Father, Barack Obama talks about healing from start to finish. He often doesn't use that word but in his search for self and heritage and harmony, he is seeking to heal, to meld the diverse parts of himself. It is this same sense of healing - both racial and non - that he seeks to bring to our country now, at a time when we have so much healing to do. Anyone questioning Obama's character or understanding of what it is to be American and to love a country and want to work to make life better for all of us needs to read this book.

  4 of 5 stars

Next selection: Thunderstruck by Eric Larson. Thunderstruck is the historical tale of Hawley Crippen and Guglielmo Marconi, of murder and invention.  It is the account of one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.