Mommy lets go?

   This is apparently as tough a topic to write about as it is to actually do. Our little girl, who, as of this writing, is almost ten and way not little, is going away without us for the first time. My brain understands this is no big deal and if anything, cause to break out the wine! She has stayed overnight at mom mom's house before and the upcoming event in question is only an overnight trip, too. These trips are rare, though, so rare in fact, that it feels wierd falling asleep in a house without her home.
   I remember when she was an infant and my sister was still alive. My big sis had come by to spend time with her new niece and give us a break. I remember backing out of our driveway and looking back, not seeing a car seat, and wondering what was wrong. 'Is everyone wearing pants?' 'Holy crap, There's no car seat back there!' Fast forward, or blink, in my case, and our fifth grader is spending the night in another state with her older cousin and his girlfriend. It's not them I'm worried about. Once the initial, 'Praise God, we're free!' joy wears off, will I be able to relax? This is me, after all.
    Most things I worry about turn out just fine. I even have evidence written in my own hand, no less, in an old journal. Don't ask me why I have yet to stop worrying over things. I have yet to come up with an antidote for that. I'm not sure I'd recognize myself if I did manage to get a grip. Guilt would be another piece of baggage I'd like to lose. How dare you enjoy yourself as a parent without your offspring??!! It takes the assistance of that rare creature, the good babysitter. We've had rare sightings over the years but we have seen them. It's a short list of people we feel comfortable leaving our daughter with, and not just because our family is small.
   Epilogue: Not only did our girl have a blast with her cousin, but mommy and daddy had a wonderful beach day. I got to eat dinner without thinking about hot dogs or chicken fingers. Nobody got sunburned, and since the kids went to Hershey Park, they even brought back chocolate! This was almost like having another birthday!
It's too bad my nephew and his other half are both in grad school and living in Delaware. We won't be able to do this sort of thing often. The problem is that we need to do this more often. Sending her majesty away like that is too expensive to do regularly, of course, but I'd settle for a few hours to ourselves. We are accepting applications, any takers?
 

Neutral territory?

  I normally try to avoid anything political when I write. I'm currently running a bit low on ideas though. I'm not sure who originally said it so I'll credit my favorite, Robin Williams, who said politicians are like diapers and should be changed for the same reason. (Something to that effect - sorry Robin.) One of my love hate relationships is with Facebook. There's no other place I found that can make me laugh and feel completely inadequate so well. It is also lousy with politics.
    If you want to see venom, there's no shortage of it on line, and Oh, by the way, you're the problem.  The biggest thing I've noticed in that meme eat meme world is people attaching a lot of additional information about a person from the expression of one opinion. Now before you go assuming I think there is such a thing as a "nice white supremacist", let me explain. I am referring to people who have ended friendships simply because of politics. While one could argue that passion is not a bad thing, this country was founded so people could express differing opinions. Life is also much too short to cut out good people from your life for only one thing that you don't agree with.
   Without going into gory detail, I will tell you that I voted for neither Trump nor Hillary.  I will also say that while I have yet to be a fan of any president we've elected since I became mature enough to care, I particularly dislike the Orange One. There are pantloads of reasons but I can't  support any guy who has such a piss poor attitude toward women, especially as the mother of a daughter. I will leave it there.
   Now, I also have dear friends who actually voted for him and still would do so again. Regardless of how baffling I find this, these people are still very welcome in my home. This may be surprising to some but the reason they are still friends is that we simply agree to disagree. They have also have enough life experience and education to formulate reasonable arguments. Most likely, it's because we are older and prefer to focus what passion we can scrape up on other things, like our kids' choices and how in God's name do you leave your house and walk right past the wine you were going to bring?