Ski girl

 Here's a photo of Melina from our last ski trip. I like her look in this photo - she looks so confident and direct.

Tulips

 I just really like this photo I took a few weeks back. It reminds me of an old Dutch painting.

Recent activity on Mt. St. Helens

I just found this video and thought it was pretty incredible. They say Mt. St. Helens could rebuild itself within 100 years or so, and this makes it believable.

Melina and Obama

I have been pretty much obsessed with the election lately and have dragged Melina along kicking and screaming (sometimes). Jeff has resisted my efforts, though he did commit to being an observer at a polling place with me tonight (more on that later).

On Sunday we went to the Obama rally in waterfront park, despite a wicked, wicked cold. To this day I don't know how I managed to rally myself, because I still feel under the weather. Anyway, Jeff went for a bike ride (it was a beautiful day) so Melina and I got on the bus and headed downtown. Apparently the line to get in was about 22 blocks long, but we rather dishonestly snuck in where it crossed a street (I had no idea where the end was). I figured that since I had waited in line to see Obama before, and had been turned away a foot from the door, I was entitled.

Once we got in, a kind volunteer directed us to a spot in the shade (because Melina was with me). (We were under the tree to the right in the picture above). Since we were there for about two hours, we got to know our neighbors pretty well: a friendly and interesting parenting educator who saved our spot while we waited for an hour to use the porta-potty; a troubled parent with a poorly disciplined preschooler who kept throwing plastic bottles into the crowd; and a tightly-wound young woman, apparently not a mom, who was obsessed with the troubled parent's misguided attempts to disipline her child, and who spent more time staring angrily at the mom than actually watching Obama. It would have been just SO interesting to get the three of them together to talk, although I don't know if I really would have wanted to be there.

Finally, Obama came to the podium (just as Melina was falling asleep in the Ergo on my back). The noise of the crowd cheering woke her up. It was so inspiring to see Obama and his family up there. It really was moving to see an African-American family (oh, can I just say "black"?) and know that they could (probably WILL) be the First Family come January. Let us hope.

The speech itself was the standard stump speech, and I don't remember most of it, but just the fact that we were there was significant. I don't know if Melina actually ever SAW Obama; I tried to point him out to her, but I don't think she quite got it, given that there were several thousand people between him and us.

So today we had another adventure in democracy. I volunteered to go over and be an "observer" at a polling place, specifically the Hollywood Library. Since Oregon votes by mail, polling places really aren't that exciting, but someone has to make sure the box stays there until 8:00 p.m. I went over with Molly and Melina; Jeff was going to meet me there when he got off work. Turns out that observers from campaigns must stay 100 feet (or 50 feet, I heard later) away from the ballot box, which means that I would have been across the street and unable even to SEE the box. I called HQ, who said I might as well go home until later that evening. After telling Jeff there was a chance I might be arrested (in my dreams), I returned to the library at 7:30 ingeniously disguised as a common citizen. In that persona I managed to sneak my way in, past the only library employee who knew my real identity, and pretend to peruse the children's literature (I even checked out three books just for effect), while glancing at the ballot box occasionally. Apparently I was the only observer there, although other polling places had up to four observers. At 8:00 they closed the polling place and I was able to confirm that democracy had been sufficiently safeguarded.

Throughout this whole election cycle, Melina has been more and more into Obama. Actually, I think she just likes the way his name sounds, and I suspect she thinks any black man is Barack Obama. She's always asking for stories about Barack Obama (one day about Barackobama?). They usually have something to with Obama battling a scary monster or going down the slide at the park. I have been trying to educate her about Hilary, too, but Obama is more fun to say.

The seventh circle of hell

I know I've talked about Melina's "one day" habit before (that's how she asks for a story), but I have to say there is nothing worse than laying in bed at 6:45 on a Saturday morning with Melina snuggled up between us, comfortably and cozily drifting back to sleep, and suddenly hearing:

One day?

Once you hear that, you pretty much know that any chance of additional sleep is shot. And then there are the moments when you're navigating rush hour traffic, trying to get around a cyclist while a Hummer approaches from the opposite direction, when you hear...

One day, mama?

And you know that the only truly satisfying "one day" will be about... a scary monster! (See post below).

Melina's first prom

On Saturday Melina went to her first prom. She was supposed to stay home, but her babysitter completely spaced the date, so she came with us (it was a kid-friendly prom). She wore a little black velvet number and fairy wings, while her mama sported a hot pink low cut flowing gown and a long black curly wig (the theme was "hair"). Jeff wore a suit and his greasy grey Zeus wig. We had a fun time. After the other little kids left, Melina spent the time a) darting out the front door so she could jump down the cement stairs over and over; b) angling to get another M&M off the back table; c) avoiding the tall guy in the huge fake afro; d) running around hysterically and rolling on the floor. We took her home at 9:30 and it took her a while to wind down, but all in all it was a success saved from the jaws of disappointment.

Scary monsters

Melina is absolutely obsessed with scary monsters lately. Here's a conversation we've had oh, say, 985 times:

M: One day?
J: *sigh*
M: One day?
J: What do you want a one day about?
M: A scarrrrry monster!
J: And what did the scary monster do?
M: He ate Melina all up!

I mean, how many times can you hear that story and still find it fascinating? For me, the answer is two, but for Melina, infinity is not enough. Also, now that her imagination is really taking off, she is afraid of monsters whenever she enters an empty room, which usually means that she has to be accompanied by an adult. And she's also afraid (in a fascinated sort of way) of her da-da when he enters "monster mode." Basically, Melina's invisible world is peopled with green furry monsters with three eyes who want to *eat her all up.*