My grandson and granddaughter were jumping around and yelling. My grandson was yelling “War! War! War! War!” over and over again.

My daughter asked, “M, why are you yelling ‘War’?”

“Because I’m a Republican!” M replies!

My granddaughter A shouts, “I’m a pelican, too!”

Then she starts flapping her arms like a bird, shouting “War! War! War!”

Because that’s the sound both Republicans AND pelicans make.

I had a depressive episode last weekend that was pretty harsh, but I’ve come out of it OK, I guess.

I have begun the plotting stages of a blog about feminism. I have a couple of cobloggers signed up. We are going to start out with a review and discussion of some seminal feminist writings. Our first is Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. We’re going to read it in the original French. Ha! I glanced at it about 25 years ago and thought, “Gee, this is hard,” and put it back down. Maybe my brain is up to it now. I’ll put a link here once the first post goes up.

I have always (always) compared myself to others and come up lacking. There were always people who were smarter or prettier or thinner or more popular or more sensible or any number of things. This was particularly the case when I was young, and I’ve only started to get over it in the last few years. Going to the reunion helped a light bulb go off - we’re ALL older. I’m not the only one who has gray hair and and gained a lot of weight. Everybody has had ups and down over the last 30 years, and those of us who attended all seemed to have the same perspective: we’re here, we’re older, but we’re alive. Let’s party! All that high school sturm und drang was then. This is now. We’re grownups.

Another neat thing was seeing again some people who I was really close to - who I loved - and who I’ve lost track with over the years. Seeing them happy and successful was such a rush. Gordon is on his second career, teaching business at a Dallas high school. Joel is a minister in Buffalo.

And then there was Bettina. One of the main reasons I’ve put off writing this for so long was because I didn’t want this to be all schmaltzy and stuff, and I didn’t know how to write about connecting with Bettina again without going all squishy. Bettina and I were really, really good friends in 7th and 8th grade. Best friends, really. We passed notes in classes and did theatre stuff and ate lunch together and slept over at each others houses and spent hours on the phone. Hours. But I made a new friend the summer between 8th and 9th grade, and Bettina and I had a kind of falling out (over a boy, if I recall correctly) and we really weren’t friends much at all in high school. I have felt pretty crappy about that occasionally, because I wasn’t a very good friend to her. Kind of shallow and immature.

Leading up to the reunion, we found that we have a lot of things in common. We are both in very, very happy marriages after being divorced from (different) losers named Jeff. We are both feminists. We’ve both recovered from high school and regained our balance and become successful people. Far from envying her success, I celebrate it. I feel like it’s my success too. Not to take away from what she accomplished (which is quite a lot) but that I empathize with her journey and recognize her achievements and what it took to make them.

All these years later, I have my friend back. And I’ve forgiven myself for being shallow and immature when I was fourteen.

1. What is something mom always says to you? Clean your room.
2. What makes mom happy? Seeing her kids get good grades.
3. What makes mom sad? Pain.
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tells funny jokes.
5. What was your mom like as a child? She wanted to be famous.
6. How old is your mom? Forty-eight.
7. How tall is your mom? She says she’s five foot six inches.
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Go on the computer.
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? How would I know?
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Singing. (Ha! In my dreams!)
11. What is your mom really good at? Singing (what a kid. Big raise in allowance is on the way…)
12. What is your mom not very good at? Video games.
13. What does your mom do for her job? She works from home.
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? Chocolate brownies. (OK, I had to prompt him a little on this. Noodles? As if…)
15. What makes you proud of your mom? She’s a good cook.
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Spongebob Squarepants.
17. What do you and your mom do together? Go to the pool.
18. How are you and your mom the same? We both chatter.
19. How are you and your mom different? I’m more into Bionicles than she is.
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Every payday she takes us to Sicily’s (pizza buffet).

Tagging: Angie, Amy, Hope

Edited to add an answer to Deb’s question.

It’s funny and dark and has great music. Neil Patrick Harris is amazing in it (as is Felicia Day). It’s a comic book set to music. It’s by Josh Whedon, the guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Acts I-III are available for free until tomorrow, then they’re supposed to go away. I bought them on iTunes, I liked them so much.

Click to the jump for one not-exactly-a-spoiler.
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I will probably still say hello occasionally on my people blogs, but the MoBlogs? I think I’m done.

So, here it is.

1 lb. spaghetti

2 cups spinach
1 cup warm vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook spaghetti. While it’s cooking, steam the spinach just until wilted (I usually do this in the microwave.) Put in the blender. Add milk, broth and cheese. Blend until smooth.

When the spaghetti is done, toss with 1/2 stick of butter. Add sauce and toss until mixed well. Serve immediately with extra cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

I found Joe when he found me. He either linked to my blog or found it at random and I saw he’d been there by his IP address. We swapped e-mails a couple of times (remember my unemployed days, Joe?) and found that we are/were both actually FoxPro developers - a very, very small niche. He liked my blog and some of my friends’ blogs and after almost five years we’re still together

What I like best about Joe’s blog is that it’s always surprising. He works for a company that has a huge convention center right on site. He posts photos of setup and teardown and sometimes of the shows themselves. His blog gives me a sense of being “on the scene.” His video blogs are also, to hammer the adjective into the ground, surprising. I’m always entertained and amused and often delighted by what he chooses to link. And anybody who can look at the unruly mop of hair on his beautiful, cheeky little granddaughter E and not be entranced has no soul.

Joe’s blog and his generous link policies have made him friends all over the globe. If you go to Vegas, look him up! But warn him you’re coming - I was there last fall, and didn’t give him enough notice, so we’ve never yet met in real life.