You guys are completely jealous, aren’t you?

Since December 2007, or whenever we first got to see the video of Randy Pausch giving his ‘Last Lecture’, that has been my mantra when life is kicking my buttocks – ‘brick walls’. I just repeat it to myself over and over and over….

And I’ve been meaning to put some kind of reminder of that to myself, and others who visit, on this blog. I’ll think of something this week and get it up. That one phrase has helped me so much.

I’ve been bummin’ somewhat lately…my mother visited last week, and that was totally awesome! We had a super MEGA BLAST!!! But I generally hit a wall (a brick wall, oh yeah! hahaha!) whenever any of my family goes back home. And I think maybe I was starting to inch toward that icky hole of depression prior to her even coming here.

So I hit a BIG WALL this afternoon, when one thing after was going wrong. (Why in the holy universe does everything go wrong and not work when you’re depressed?! What the crap?!) So yeah, I hit that wall, and I’ve got stuff to do tonight – three places to go…..elementary open house, WalMart to return dumb, stupid keyboard that won’t work, and our marching band’s Haunted Forest. So my thoughts of blowing the world off and crawling into bed with a magazine and book were not something I could actually do.

And that is when I remembered ‘the phrase’. Aaaahh….the phrase!

And then I decided today was rough enough that I needed to hear Randy say it himself! So I got my dinner (yep, early, but, we’ve got Haunted Forest and stuff…) and a nice cup of joe and I’m watching the video.

Aaaahh….

Wanna watch with me?

EXACTLY!! OMG! No, OM freaking G!!!!

That is exactly what I’ve been thinking and wanting to say, but, couldn’t quite put into words when my house full of in-laws gets to going off on Obama. I think I just become overwhelmed at their overbearing, “Obama – O-sama!” With looks on their faces like, See? Now do you see?

NO! I don’t fucking see!

Holy crap – one of my in-laws, who shall remain nameless, as I do love her, actually said this: “Obama doesn’t deserve to be president just because of his name alone!”

Whoa! Whoa Nelly! I shook my head and explained to her how unbelievably racist that was. She did give in a little bit, but, oh my!

The ugliness that is coming out of both sides on this whole thing is so disheartening. (I mean, heck! I just said the ‘F’ word on my own blog! I don’t know that I ‘never’ do that, but, if I do, it’s rare.)

This is just definitely an amazing election, no matter which way you slice it. In my own life, when I’m going through the ringer, things get really ugly at the end. Ooooh, sometimes they get really ugly! And then – out come the rainbows!!

I’m hoping and praying for some rainbows for our country. And this may sound “hippie-pie-in-the-sky” but, I feel something big and something good coming.

How could it not? After an amazingly historical election like this?

I’m just glad it’s almost over. I mean, to think that we’ve regressed to a time where it’s all well and good to say, “He’s a Muslim” like it’s the ugliest thing one could be….whoa…..

A big ol’ HAT TIP to my buddy, John P, for this kick butt campaign video:

Obama ‘08 – Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo

Bringing up girls is hard. They get all hormonal and crap, you know? Not to say that boys are easy – good gawd, no! I don’t mean that at all – just that girls have their own brand of difficult. And sometimes it’s hard to remember that sweet, precious connection you used to have with your little girl, when they’re stomping around the house being all mopey!

Kind of like this morning when a certain hormonal girl in this house wasn’t getting her way! Uh, yeah …things got a little negative! Argh!

So when I logged into Punkymoms this afternoon, one of my most favorite hangouts in all the world –

– I was uber happy when I saw the post from my friend, Sam, about her difficulties with her daughter (who’s just about a year older than my daughter) and how her husband had been super sweet in his efforts to soften the world between the two of them!

He took an old video of the two of them (mom & daughter) and uploaded it to YouTube and emailed it to both of them! How sweet! And you will definitely agree when you watch the video!! Check it out:

I just loved it! It reminded me of those sweet times I had with my Sam when she was that age! And it totally made me feel better – even though it was supposed to make them feel better! So I told her to thank her husband from me, too!

And by the way, doesn’t Sam have a beautiful voice?

Dude! You gotta love this guy! I mean, seriously, how can you not? In fact, I thought that he did not have any naysayers – until about a week or so ago. There is one very ‘Negative Nelly’ that thinks Gary is full of beans. But that’s just one dude. And a very negative one, at that.

I happen to love Gary. His message ROCKS. For real. You can dislike him all you want, but, his message ROCKS. And that’s all there is to it!

One very important thing that my mentor taught me is that it is always about the message and not the messenger. What a valuable lesson that was, and remains to be, for me! If we get too caught up in ‘messenger worship’ – we’ll lose sight of the message.

And Gary’s message sets me straight – every. single. time.