Category: My World (Page 6 of 15)

Two years ago, I spent a good part of my summer and fall working on Mike’s campaign for School Board. It was a lot of work, a lot of anxiety (will he win? are we doing enough?), but I have to admit that I liked it. Now I’m in the campaign trail again, volunteering for Morgan Mack-Rose, a mom of two who is also running for the San Leandro School Board.
I don’t always agree with Morgan (I don’t always agree with most people), but she is one of the strongest women I know – and she’s totally dedicated to the schools, and in particular, to getting parents involved. The guy she is running against, who is currently the President of the Board, has shown very little interest in actually improving the schools, or doing anything beyond rubberstamping what the Superintendent decides – and what’s the point of having a School Board if they don’t actually lead and oversee the school district?
Anyway, I’m very excited about Morgan’s campaign – and I’m hoping everyone will vote for her!

I want to talk about Jordan. My cat.
He’s gone. Yesterday morning I awoke to the news that he had passed away. I knew something had been wrong for a while, he’d been withdrawing to the closet for months, and then he had lost a lot of weight. But I’m a horrible mommy and I didn’t take him to the vet. So in addition to sorrow, I’m wallowing in guilt.
I loved Jordan. I didn’t realize how much until he died. I knew I loved him the first few years, I thought of him as my son. But then the kids came, and I didn’t have the time or emotional energy to give him the attention he deserved.
He was a great cat. The best. I know everyone probably thinks that of their cat, but it was true of Jordan. He was so gentle, so loving, always there for me. How many times did I cry over something while petting him to make me feel better?
It’s been two days, it hasn’t been real. I still expect him to come back. I hear his meows, see his little face, such an innocent face, so trusting. And I failed him.
I’ve been crying off and on for two days. He was part of the family, we are so incomplete without him. And I’ve been thinking about all the things that made him special. How Mike could throw him out in the air and catch him again, and he wouldn’t even put his claws out – he trusted Mike would catch him. How he licked our noses when he wanted to be put down. How he loved to play bite – which thinking about it, he hadn’t done for a while. How he’d lie on Mike’s chest the moment Mike lied down anywhere. How he’d listen for us and come to the door when we were coming home.
Oh, Jordan. I am so sorry I wasn’t a better mommy. I’m so sad that you died. I can’t conceive it yet it’s reality. I miss you.

This May there will be no mother’s day for me.
The problem with Mother’s Day is that it falls right after my birthday, this year, the day after my birthday party. And it’s a problem because I go all out on celebrating my birthday. I figure, if I have to plan the celebrations myself (and I do), then I’m going to give myself what I want.
This year this has included dinner with Mike at Cafe Majestic, dinner with my family (including my sister and father) at El Morocco and wine tasting with Kathy and my father in Livermore. I still have a birthday mystery role playing party planned (hosted by my friend Desiree – thanks Desiree!) and a girl’s weekend out with Lola. So a Mother’s Day celebration seems like overkill.
Instead, we’ve decided to celebrate Mother’s Day in October – the 18th of October to be exact. That’s when Mother’s Day is celebrated back home in Argentina, and the date is not close enough to other significant dates (except for Halloween!), to be any other conflicts. So I have to wait 5 more months (and probably plan it myself). But I’m sure restaurants and parks will be much less crowded.

Not only do we have a new (red) car, but I finally put a favicon.ico on my website – so now you can see a little daisy (for the uninformed, Margarita is daisy in Spanish) every time you visit 🙂