Life of Wry

Here are three exciting screen shots…. I’ll wait while you read each of them.

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Here’s what I have to say about that: Sister District, who only works on statehouse races, made all the difference here. Their strategists long ago identified Virginia as a state to focus on because it’s an important swing state, and because it’s flippable. They’re not going to waste their time on states that are not both. Then, their strategists singled out candidates in races that were close, whose victories had the potential to put dems over the top. They know that when SD volunteers 1) knock on doors 2) raise money 3) make voter contact via calls, texts and postcards, it makes a HUGE difference in these small, low profile campaigns (as compared to big national races). The few thousand dollars we raise in Davis every time we send out a friendraising letter, for example, is HUGE for these small campaigns. My personal $100 really REALLY makes a difference. When SD volunteers reach thousands of voters in a candidate’s district through their multiple “touches” (door knocks, calls, texts, postcards) it makes a difference in a race that is won by just a hundred votes (these are, in fact, the margins of victories in so many of these races!). SD’s efforts in these selected campaigns are often the lion’s share of the ground game for a lot of these candidates. These are small races.

But here’s the thing: they add up. When you pick the right candidates to back (strategically speaking), when you unleash hundreds of Kari Petersons (as one small example) on a close campaign, you have a good chance of winning. And if you win enough of those, you tilt the balance in the dems’ favor. You might win one or both of the chambers in that state’s statehouse. And when you do win a statehouse, especially one that WAS half red, especially one that the state’s republican governor spent millions on to protect, especially a governor who had presidential aspirations and wanted to have a republican trifecta in order to roll out his conservative agenda (and now he’s been stopped in his tracks) … you get the attention of the whole nation. Bellweather Virginia is a major prize and tonight dems won big. And it is in NO SMALL PART because Sister District put its considerable strategic chops to work and mobilized its eager little volunteers. Like me. And Kelly and Lyra and Rebecca and Amy and Chris and Chris and Audrey and dozens (and dozens) more here in Davis (and the other several dozen chapters across the country). We’re probably talking just a few thousand volunteers nationwide, but the efficiency with which those volunteers are used to make seismic differences in these campaigns is impressive. It’s time and effort very well spent.

Statehouse races are the sleepers of electoral politics. They are so low profile, and yet are massively critical when it comes to policy enactment. Have you heard that reproductive rights are states issues now? LOL, thanks Supreme Court. And, school curriculum, redistricting, voting rights, gun laws, climate action, LGBTQ policies — all happening on the state level, with key legislative decisions made in state houses. Dem majorities are critical. Tonight, Glenn Youngkin lost the possibility of control on all of those policy fronts. He wanted a trifecta to be able to pass marquee conservative legislation; he wanted to show off for the last two years of his term, in hopes that’d propel him to the White House. Not happening now with both chambers of his statehouse controlled by DEMS! He’s been shut down. THAT is huge. And the reason for the headlines.

Again, SD played an incredibly important role in that. The candidates know that, too.

You are welcome!

…. vintage 2001.

On this rainy day in Davis, on the first day of non-daylight savings.. I wondered what I’d blog about. Certainly not the effort of finding a customized hammock cover, nor the time spent on the phone with the Southwest Airline folks trying to track down my account number, nor the unsuccessful-so-far effort to find the owner of a Chinese passport I found on the streets of Davis this past week.. nor any of the numerous rabbit holes I fell into in between those tedious tasks.

I decided to journey back into the photo archives (my favorite thing to do) and choose a few from the earliest Halloween for which I have digital photos. When I got to 2001, I enjoyed looking at a few more from the immediate weeks surrounding Halloween and selected this bunch… they tell a little story of Peter that Fall, when he was 3 1/2.

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This is a Frame family heirloom.. a costume made by Peter’s great grandma, Vovo, and multigenerationally worn by various members of the family..

This is Jim sewing the costume Peter preferred wearing that year, a lion suit! (If you look closely, you can see Peter watching/interacting with something on my computer). This was back in the day when I only had one file cabinet (I now have four). But most notably: Jim’s sewing P’s costume, and he’s doing it on his mom’s sewing machine. I married a multi-talented guy.

The finished product: a sweet lion and a lion suit seamster:

And a couple more…

With Vicki at a Halloween party we had for Peter and his friends…

(Peter was not the only lion!) Pictured: not sure, Morgan, Sabrina, Jocelyn, Rowan, Chenoa and Peter.

Let’s see… then there was the pumpkin patch (Impossible Acres), which we evidently visited that year with Uncle Chad (who knows his way around horses) and Aunt Teri!

Looks like we’re celebrating a birthday.. but for the life of me, I can’t think of whose it would be, and can’t figure out who the fellow on the right is… (maybe Chad’s dad?). But I love the pic of Peter with his Aunt Teri and that beautiful German chocolate cake! Wondering who made it. Hope it was me.

Then we have a visit to the Wild Animal park that was down the road that may or may not exist anymore. Looks like we went with Duff and Chenoa. That elephant did some remarkable tricks! I like that they allowed children to feel the skin.

Up close to a swimming, diving tiger! Peter’s 3-year old self is dwarfed in size…

This was also the Keith era.. when the Kulicks (Gail and Bob) lived next door and had a kiddo exactly the same age.. what a lucky turn of events that was (Bob was a grad student and they lived next door for two years, which resulted in countless playdates!). Keith and Peter each had mini Tiggers (which I’d forgotten) .. Peter’s beloved “Little T,” an enduring member of our family, still (these days encased in glass and sitting on the piano!).

A view of our backyard, much like today’s, minus the bridge…(in fact, as I type this, I’m sitting in the “west wing” — 12 feet of extended house — where the porch used to be, looking at the deck that replaced that bridge).

This photo also shows up in that month-long 2001 window… and I like it. Obvious what’s going on here. Not sure what inspired the photo.. except that it’s pretty cute, no? Maybe it was the pedicure?

And I’ll wrap with a couple at the park… because park visits were a huge part of our lives during this era.

Hope it was a soft landing! (Peter was not a cryer.. he took his lumps in stride, almost always getting right back up and doing it again.)

It felt summery today, but it’s November 4, last day of daylight savings, and the holidays are around the bend. At 79 degrees, it was nice to be in the garden for a little bit this afternoon. Didn’t do a lot…. but pulled up all the squash, weeded some, snipped a bit, and picked what may be the last of the eggplants, a couple tomatoes and a huge bowl of orange cherries.

Jim, Darlene and I saw Scorsese’s Flower Moon movie tonight. It was excellent… and it was heavy… and it was long… so instead of writing, I’m going to post some funny things from my Pretty Good Stuff file. I’m glad I have a Pretty Good Stuff file.

T’was a lovely day for a walk a bit north of town. This is some private property where Carrie likes to take Shasta the dog, so she can run around leashless, chasing turkeys and whatever else tries to elude her (the dog that is).

To get there, you drive up Rd 102, turn on maybe 26A, maybe catch a bit of 102B, and since there’s no sign posted that warns you to stay out, you just park and wander. You’ll pass a whole lotta pistachios, a just cleaned up tomato field, another where sunflowers bloomed this past summer, a bunch of oak, a dried up slough, lots of poison oak (very red and visible right now!)… and other things. Kinda fun to be out there. I liked it.

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To note: I was a bit nervous walking out in the fields under a bright fall sun, as I’d applied my first dose of efudex this morning — day one of a 21-day course — and knew I had to be 100% protected from UV rays. (Efudex is that topical cream that kills would-be skin cancers and is something fair-skinned people like me who’ve spent too much time in the sun are advised to consider using every couple years.) Since it’s essential that you avoid sun when using efudex, I had a thick layer of sunscreen, a broad-brimmed hat AND carried an umbrella. Well, this evening, after doing the math and realizing that day 21 lands on Thanksgiving (really? I hadn’t figured that out when I decided to start the treatment today?!), I decided to suspend the whole thing and restart the treatment on December 26. I just can’t have my face all red and cracked and flaking and oozing and hurting as I prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for visiting family and friends. I’d be uncomfortable, they’d be grossed out. It took looking at the photos from 2014 — the last time I did an efudex treatment — to convince me I’d made a huge mistake in starting today. So I stopped. Yay. Just wanted to remember that.

I’ve been back from our nearly three-week trip now for a little over a week. Still feel like I’m finding my sea legs.. as there have been so many niggly things messing with my return to routine. To wit… it’s approaching midnight and, instead of going to bed, I’m looking at a stack of todo lists (tasks scribbled on multiple tiny scraps of paper scattered atop two data books representing my master todo list and current (dormant) projects), a bulging email inbox, an overpopulated desktop (computer desktop, that is), a long list of missed blogs, a calendar missing a bunch of entries, stacks of unread must-read books..

And I’m ORGANIZED! I really am.

My organization spilleth over.

[Inhales deeply, remembers life’s priorities, regains perspective, yawns…]

Tonight’s photo, therefore, is this… grandniece (accurately: first cousin twice removed –> Jim’s first cousin Monica’s daughter’s daughter) Diana taking a nap. What a beauty. What an inspiration.

I’m going to bed.

The Dalmatian suit that Michael made for me (and 8 other would-be Dalmatians) six years ago so we could all parade around in West Hollywood on Halloween (a thing) dressed as Cruella Deville and her 9 Dalmatians, came in handy today!

I wore it to gather signatures on a school board member recall petition drive in Woodland this afternoon (yes I did). And I wore it to hand out candy to neighborhood trick or treaters tonight (as one should).

Because every blog entry needs a photo, here’s one, but please make sure this does not get out into the world (said the person posting said picture to her blog).

Improbable as it seems, nobody — not a single person, and I spoke to many this afternoon — commented on my, uh, outfit. That’s the beauty of Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween… Michael, seamster extraordinaire, is still at it. Though the annual tradition of elaborate group costumes (and West Hollywood parades) is behind him, he’s still producing some outrageously creative costumes for himself and Matt. Here they are this year… on their way to Legends for a costume party extravaganza…

Karim Majdi Abou Najm would have turned 21 yesterday, but he was killed six months ago. Karim was stabbed two nights after David (and Kimberlee a couple nights after that, though she survived) in that very scary week in Davis last April.

The community was invited to honor Karim last night at a birthday memorial hosted by his family.

Karim’s mom, Nadine, shared a beautiful (and tearful) remembrance of Karim, her only son. Of course it was very difficult to watch her read her comments, shaking and emotional, and trying to imagine how devastating it must be to lose a child at the dawn of his adulthood. Both Nadine and her husband Majdi spoke of Karim’s many gifts… his academic successes (the parents are both academics), his enthusiasm and drive, his open heartedness, his kindness and compassion toward other kids who, for one reason or another, felt outside the center. She spoke of how, when they arrived from Lebanon just five years ago, Karim was put in remedial classes at Davis High, which, after having been a high achieving student back home, bothered him greatly. That was quickly remedied and he went on to graduate from DHS with the highest of honors and achievements. In fact, on the night of his murder, he was riding his bike home from a ceremony at UCD at which he’d been given an academic award. He was just weeks shy of graduating with a degree in computer science.

The birthday gathering last night was moving. I estimate about 100 or 150 people showed up to honor Karim and support the Najm family. They placed a line of luminaria from the family home in Evergreen, across the 113 bike overcrossing and along the bike path in Sycamore Park to the point where the stabbing occurred. Nadine and Majdi have been maintaining a memorial in that spot for the last six months. There will soon be a permanent memorial built at the site (which so far has generated more than $40k in support from the community). They served cookies and Karim’s favorite drink (coffee) and played songs from a favorite playlist of his. People wrote cards, placed flowers.. and I’m sure every parent there tried to imagine how they would ever manage such a loss.

The whole thing — the flowers and tributes, the luminaria, the music, the comments, the slideshow and especially the turnout — was so very beautiful. I felt honored to be there. I finally got a chance to speak to both Nadine and Majdi. It’s a bit odd that we’d not spoken before, especially considering we spent so much time together in briefings and in the courtroom at the competency trial a couple months back.. but those were emotionally charged times and it seemed best to give them space. It was wonderful to finally speak with them both.

Here are some shots…

It’s not like me to make chili, especially chili with beans. Not a bean person. And I typically don’t like the spices in chili. But that’s what I’m doing tonight because this recipe caught my eye.. I think it was the pumpkin.

Color me dubious, but curious.

The ingredients… including those [shudder] white beans over there:

Will report out.

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Note: I’m way behind. I’m going to slowly blog the fall trip to the Eastern time zone (and, sigh, the spring trip, also to the Eastern time zone, and the Yosemite trip). I hope.

Kelly and I checked out of our Airbnb in Norfolk, and drove north to meet another of the Sister District statehouse candidates, Lashresce Aird. She’s someone our local SD has raised a lot of money for (and postcarded and phonebanked). She’s terrific and should serve as a Virginia State Senator. We thought it’d be fun, as we passed through her district — a bit north of Michael Feggan’s — to meet for breakfast. So we met at a Cracker Barrel in Ashland, VA. Had a lovely time! (And I did some gift shopping for Diana.. our niece who we’d be visiting later in the trip. Score!)

Then Kelly and I continued north toward Dulles, where I’d pick Jim up and drop Kelly off. We planned that very well!

We had a couple hours to spare, so we stopped in Fredericksburg, VA for a quick tour of an area that George Washington hung out in during his formative boyhood years. He was born elsewhere and died elsewhere and is buried elsewhere, but he spent a good portion of his childhood here (mostly across the Rappahannock River at a place that became known as Ferry Farm).

Fredericksburg is cute and has several stops of a living museum along a main street in town. We stopped at this place and took a little tour. The women there assumed the roles of apothecary workers of the day. The first, for example, welcomed us all (about 10 of us on the tour) and asked what ailed each of us. She then proceeded to recommend an herb or fungus or bark to address our problem. It was cute. The other described how surgeries or tooth extractions worked before anesthesia. Also how leeches were used for bloodletting and for treating rheumatic pains, gout, all types of fever and hearing loss. They had a jar of real leeches.

Some nice buildings, including the home where George’s mother Mary lived:

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The drop off of Kelly and pick up of Jim went smoothly. Then Jim and I drove to our VRBO, about a mile north of the White House.. just south of Adam’s Morgan, a bit east of Kalorama.. a nice location right next to the 14th Street corridor. Lots of professionals, families and bike commuters!

Here’s the hood:

Here’s the place:

It was a super comfy, very clean, well-stocked and reasonably priced place to stay! Would do that again. Along 15th, lots of restaurants to choose from.

We had dinner at a place called Compass Rose.. eclectic, global cuisine. Loved it. This was a Georgian bread dish filled with cheese, called: khachapuri. The server cracks a raw egg on the hot cheese then mixes it up. Full of spice and flavor. Wonderful.