Cool Adventures

What a great, hectic fun week I have had. Noah turned 9 and we had a birthday party for him on Saturday, before which I completely ruined his Lego cake. It was one of those situations where I cried and then threw up my hands and laughed. Maybe sometime I will blog about it specifically, complete with pictures of the massacred cake.

Monday was my first official day as a substitute lunch lady! That's right, I got a part time substitute gig as a woman with a hairnet passing out mystery meat and green beans to eager little faces. I think it was destiny. I have always enjoyed Adam Sandler's song "Lunch Lady" that he performed on Saturday Night Live complete with Chris Farley as a lunch lady with large mole. My first novella, still unpublished, is the story of a woman who is a retired, that's right, lunch lady. The last season of "Survivor" I rooted for, you guessed it, the lunch lady! I will blog about my new adventures in elementary cafeterias in future posts.

This morning I took my first trip across Denver in snow packed, icy weather. Although I have driven around my neighborhood in this kind of weather I have never gone too far. I was scheduled to speak at a MOPS meeting, my 4th of 7 this year, in Brighton, Colorado. Normally it is a 45 minute drive. I made it in one hour and forty-five minutes. Quite a milestone for me, but I did it and I didn't freak out or arrive at the church shaking in my boots, thank you Jesus!

And tonight, well, it is pretty cool what happened tonight.

Let me start by saying my mom was a Republican and my dad a Democrat. Very interesting household, because I learned both points of view and I also developed a love for the patriotism behind having ideals, not just the conviction of one party's ideals. So I vote. I have opinions. I express them when I feel appropriate.

These days, I am excited by the sheer process of democracy. It is fun, not to have the presidential campaign all wrapped up yet. I like it. Today is Super Tuesday and for the first time Colorado had a caucus along with many other states. I have voted in primaries, but never participated in a caucus. After visiting the internet,I discovered a caucus is a meeting of voters, not a primary where you go to a local polling place. Hmmm, I thought. Sounds fun.

So, off I went at 6:15 to go to my local caucus. The junior high school I went to was crowded but crackling with the electricity of excitement. No one was a stranger as we discussed the candidates in the cold line outside the building. Happily, we moved as herds to the different classrooms which held the different precincts. As we shuffled, we chatted with each other about policies, the war and again, the candidates.

I am a proud member of precinct 231 and in my group, there were 38 of us. We took a straw poll, in which each person for this candidate went to this side of the room and people for the other candidate went to the other side of the room. There was some good natured ribbing during this process as well as one guy who was way, way, way too serious. Then within our groups, we elected delegates who will go to the county convention. These delegates are not THE delegates for the national convention, but are important in that they continue the democratic process to the next level.

I was elected to be a delegate. Talk about proud. Sure, there is a level of synicism within me that knows my title of delegate doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to the true politics of our nation. But I participated. I shared my voice because I could. I spoke up because I am an American and I want to be part of the solution and not an apathetic part of the problem.

When discussing what I was going to do tonight, John and I explained to Noah that his parents don't always agree on politics and that is okay. In fact, Noah has one parent who is a Democrat and one parent who is a Republican.

He asked us, "Which should I be?"

John and I both put our obvious sarcastic answers aside and told him that he would have the chance to decide for himself as he grew up. We told him the important thing is to participate and take a stand for what he believes. We did our best to try to explain the differences between Democrat and Republican without bias. It was a special moment for me afterward as I watched his little mind thinking. As I put my coat on to go I heard him say to himself, "What should I be?"

The adventure that Christ has given me to live continues. I am blessed. Go America! Go God!