These searches brought people to my blog. I love all the emotion:

• what the hell is assburger

• what is the dreaded hand foot and mouth disease?

I usually use nouns in my searches, but now will consider using adjectives as well. Much more entertaining.

To those who aren’t “crazy,” “can’t sleep,” and “need to find religion” — glad you stopped by.

http://celticwoman.walrusclub.com/

P.S. Your comment must have something to do with the post. Good luck.

UPDATE

Either I have a very polite, well-mannered readership here, or Laura hasn’t yet checked out this post!

I did it. I went to the About page and left a comment. It’s awaiting moderation. I believe they moderate for coherency.

I meant to post this yesterday, so before I forget, I’d just like to say that yesterday was the first day this year that I used both the heater and air conditioner at home.

If you’re from Chicago — Chitown Girl, Smiley, and Jen can attest — this feat is not a novelty around here. It is a way of life during the transition months.

Anybody want to guess how many days this spring I’ll use the heater and A/C again on the same day?

The things I enjoy doing these days include:

• Watching re-runs of In Treatment. One of my favorite shows in the history of my show-watching.
• Watching Big Love.
• Reading Eat Pray Love. I started it in December and am soaking in every page.
• Messing aroud with the Hopeful Parents website.
• Meditating.

I feel like I’m in such a good, positive space right now, save the super crabby comment I left on Jen’s site the other day. (Sorry again!)

Meditating has been such a blessing. I find myself doing it several times a day. For instance, this morning, instead of spending 40 minutes at Target buying stuff we need plus a whole bunch of extras that I eye at home wondering what I was thinking, I shaved 5 minutes off my allotted time and meditated in the car.

I don’t think I can thank Elizabeth enough for that helpful suggestion. Sitting for five minutes in utter quiet has helped me reset the volume of my otherwise loud life. Plus, you can meditate anywhere. You don’t need anything except you.

In the past few months, I’ve reached a new level of acceptance. We’re not the typical American family — though we never were to begin with, considering our racial diversity — but we’re also not the family I envisioned creating either. And I’m okay with that now. I’m okay that my days are tougher than most moms out there. That said, I know that my days could be far worse. And I am thankful for that blessing.

Anyway, not quite sure where I’m going with this, but that I have found joy again. I’m not sure how it got here exactly, but it’s nice to be back.

In my never-ending quest to find other parents raising kids with special needs, I came upon a blog that you should read. It’s called Journey to Being a Normal Kid by an 8 year old girl who has Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD).

RAD is a mental health diagnosis — the symptoms of RAD are similar and often times more severe to what I experience with E-Niner, especially in terms of violence. But the reason for the violence is entirely different — RAD is characterised by a loss of a primary caregiver or a change of primary caregiver before the age of five. Consequently RADishes (kids with RAD) have difficulty bonding with loving, caring people around them.

Many children who are adopted from foreign countries (where they cannot be adopted at birth by U.S. parents) and many children who have been through the foster care system are susceptible to RAD.

Anyway, the little girl who writes the blog — and I know for a fact that the girl writes it because I’ve communicated with her mom — is trying so hard to overcome. It is truly inspirational. Please go check it out.

In comments yesterday, Fearless Females wrote:

I’m not religious but if I were I would be thinking, what’s His deal anyway: war, troubled people, violence…oh geez!!!

Well, here’s your answer…

I dunno, seems like just another day in the Land of Lincoln to me even though they’re talking about impeaching our governor and physically restraining his Senatorial appointment if said appointee tries to walk onto the Senate floor next week.

When I grew up, the motto around here was “vote early, vote often” — a phrase attributed to, among others, the late Al Capone. It’s well-known in these parts that many democratic machines have allowed dead people to vote for their picks. Hell, dead goldfish even get a say. Corruption is the state’s middle name!

Everybody in politics around here throws their weight around when they can. Most notably, a few years back our mayor decided to bulldoze our third busiest airport. He did it in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping, stranding 16 aircrafts. Why? Because he wanted it gone — for safety reasons after 9/11.

The real reason (in my opinion)? He couldn’t stand our former governor and wanted to waste his ability to fly from Chicago to Springfield. The harder it would be for him to come to Chicago, the easier it would be for our mayor to do as he pleased.

Speaking of our former governor — and why I’m not at all taken by what’s happening in our state now — he’s in prison on 18 counts of corruption. He’s so in prison that even the current President of the United States of America is unwilling thus far to grant him a presidential pardon.

But that’s not even the half of it! When Lyin’ Ryan (as they like to call our former Governor) went to jail, one of our city’s papers got to interview another former governor of ours who also served time!

So see how it’s possible that I’m not all that charged about our current governor’s leadership or lack thereof? Happens around here all the time. All the time. What I find hard to believe is how Barack Obama ever got out of this state unscathed, because the corruption is every, everywhere.

Definitely makes the news a little more palatable — less fire and shooting coverage, more “celebrity gossip.”

Speaking of news, I understand that the eyes of the nation are on us. My guess is that outside of the circle of people directly involved with the case, the next demographic of people emotionally charged about Blago may not even live here in Illinois. We’re used to it; comes with the territory. Sadly.

I can’t end the day being a New Year’s Scrooge, especially since my New Year’s resolution was to find positive things to think about E-Niner’s issues. It’s quite possible I’ve broken the record on breaking New Year’s resolutions. At the very least, a personal best.

A few days ago, Holly wrote about happiness, a post inspired by Penelope Trunk, all of which got me to thinking. In the original post, Penelope gave three pieces of advice on what women can do to be happy later on:

1. Don’t have kids.
2. Keep your career.
3. If you’re divorced, have plastic surgery.

Hm. Not sure if I agree with any of them.

First off, if you don’t have kids intentionally, I’ve got to believe that you may sometimes look at your peers who are parents wondering what you are missing. Is that wonder, even if momentarily, a happy feeling? My guess is no.

If you don’t have kids, you don’t have those responsibilities. But you also don’t have the opportunity to feel a whole host of heightened emotions that parents feel for their children.

For me, happiness is a wash where kids are concerned. If you don’t have ‘em, you don’t know what you’re missing — it’s more of a neutrality than happiness. If you do have ‘em, even for all the grief, there’s payback in spades — which balances each other out, so we’re back to neutral.

As far as a career:

What if your career were forced prostitution? Or, on the white collar and legal end of things, what if you dropped your own interests to work at your family business because that’s the way it’s been done for years?

Or what if you landed in a particular field because that’s what was available when you graduated from college and you’ve moved up in the ranks getting more and more specialized that now you’ve pigeon-holed yourself in this career and its path kind of at random?

Plus, a career for the sake of a career is not going to make somebody happy.

Finding something you love that also pays the bills and allows you time to pursue relationships and other important commitments outside of your work? That’s a different story entirely. How many people get that in life?

And last, plastic surgery. After watching every single episode of Dr. 90210, I’ve got to say this is one where she just about hit the nail on the head. My question: Why does one have to be divorced in order to enjoy plastic surgery?! I’ve been doing laser hair removal for my underarms, and let me tell you, this married chick digs it. And when I’m done with underarms, I’m going for more!

So what makes women happy? Damned if I know. I can’t even begin to guess. What I can say, though, is that becoming complacent in anything you do — from parenting to working to your relationships — ain’t gonna do the trick.

And what is happiness, really? Is it instant gratification? I mean, really? Is it Botox? No. Obviously no.

I think happiness is something more along the lines of being able to look back on your hard work, whatever that might have been (work, hobby, love, parenting), and ultimately feeling satisfied in what you were able to accomplish and the grace with which you did it.