2004-10-12, 12:04 a.m.

Things about Michigan...

This is the post in which I complain, muse, and show my politics.

1. It's kind of cool to live in a state that has towns with names like Ypsilanti and Cheboygan, and everyone says them with a straight face.

2. I am really, really glad that I get to vote AGAINST the attempt to add an amendment banning gay marriage to the Michigan state constitution. Did you know that there is already a state law banning gay marriage? Isn�t that more than enough?? Stop the madness.

3. The "Boots or Flip-Flops? Bush/Cheney2004" billboards on I-94 irritate me only slightly less than the "One Nation Under God, Bush/Cheney2004" billboards do.

4. I love living in a place where I can really watch the leaves change color. I haven't seen this since college.

5. A sidewalk is not a bike lane, I don't care that the signs say it is, IT'S NOT. 6 years of riding in NY can not be undone, and you had better ride around me when I'm walking with my baby.

6. 'Solid Food' is a total misnomer when you're teaching a baby to eat. It should be 'mooshy food', or 'sloppy food'. I have the stereotypical snapshots to prove it. And yes, they're darn cute.

7. Leon totally rocks my world. He has thankfully cut back on the shrieking of last week, and has moved on to dadadadada, which C loves, of course.

8. Leon has also not yet realized that, unlike a breast or a bottle, a spoon must return to the bowl of mooshy cereal to be refilled. He gets very impatient sometimes as I'm feeding him, and tries to grab the spoon out of my hands so that he can suck on it, which of course gets more food all over him.

9. Luckily, Leon loves baths, too. I bought him a rubber ducky this week, because he kept trying to chew on the old shampoo bottle (which was kind of perma-grubby), and now he loves the rubber ducky as well. He even slept with it one night. So 'rubber ducky' has entered our song book. "Every day when I / make my way to the tub-y / I find a / little fellow who's / short and yellow and chubby / that's my rubber ducky" It's very, very catchy.

10. When you don't have a job, you tend not to notice things like Columbus Day. I used to LOVE Columbus Day. Or rather, I loved getting Columbus Day off from work. Leon did not give me the day off today, but that's okay, because we had a good time walking around town and then coming home and watching Much Ado About Nothing. Leon seems to like Shakespeare.

11. Have I mentioned that gay marriage IN NO WAY threatens my marriage?

12. This one's not about Michigan, but it's still important: My brother Peter, who incidentally happens to live in Shanghai, also totally rocks my world. He is the one responsible for making this page look cooler, as I am currently somewhat hopeless with HTML. However, C is seriously considering starting his own blogg, which means that I really should get better at HTML, in order to help him.

13. I should not have used the self-check out lane this evening at Meijer. Not only did I have 16 instead of the regulated 12 items in my cart, but I messed it up, took too long, and held up the teenagers behind me, which made me feel anxious, old, and ultimately annoyed. And because I got all flustered, I forgot to use my coupon for the Duncan Heinz brownie mix, which was stupid because the only reason I bought it was because I wanted to actually use a coupon. You see, I never use coupons - they're always for the really expensive stuff, or stuff I don't need or want. Tonight was supposed to be my experiment in coupon-clipping suburban house-wifeyness, and I totally failed. But I feel okay about that.