SassTown

Dropped Roberto off at the airport at 6:15 a.m. Typically being abruptly pulled out of bed at 5:37 a.m. would leave me in a somewhat cranky mood. Not today though. Right now I marinating in the thought of having my house to myself for 4 days.

Back at home in my kitchen. Alone. With a Starbucks latte, fixin to eat some toast. It doesn't get any better than this.

Toast is the perfect food, especially if made from a loaf from the bakery that you have to slice yourself. Pop it in the Dualit and twist the knob. It's warm buttery goodness lifts me up. Today it's topped with Blackberry jam. Best of all I'm eating right off the bread board, heathen style.

And for God's sake people use real butter. Just like Paula Dean says. Non of the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter crap, nor margarine in a tub of any kind.

You don't have a Dualit toaster, the premium workhorse of an appliance manufactured by hand in the UK? It's one of the few status symbols I have left in my lost all my money in my real estate investments life.

Sold my lakefront properties, the Audi A8, cashed in my 401K but I am not giving up my Dualit toaster. A big old one horned buck just traipsed through my back yard looking to get food out of my bird feeder. Too bad sucker. Papa's away and the mice will play which means I'm not refilling that feeder. It's one of the few things that is not my job around here and I'd like to keep it that way.

Back to my celebratory morning. Enjoying peace and quiet and buttery toast with only one small interruption. I had to wake up my precious 18 year old BOW (bitch on wheels) to send her off to get her hair cut so she can get her senior pictures taken. I weathered her intensity for the few minutes before she rolled out of here and now I'm getting back in the groove.

My husband's trip was just in the nick of time. After 20 years of him being gone at least half the week, most weeks, his new limited travel schedule is KILLING ME. So I'm going to make the most of it. On my schedule after I write this I am going on over to plop on the couch and watch a list of Patrick Swayze movies without interruption. I have not had the means to pay my respects since Swayze's death so I have an appointment with Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything Julie Newmar. 

I know a lot of people don't give it high critical acclaim, but I find it fascinating to watch this hunk of man transform into a woman, right down to the mannerisms of the oh so very femme. Of course I'll have to see Ghost, Road House, Dirty Dancing and The Outsiders too.

At 4 p.m. today I'll leave the house with my little darlings for our girls night out to see New Moon. I know it will be perfect, if they could just find a way to kill Bella off because for one she annoys me. Two, she's just not a very good actress. Unfortunately Bella lives on because we've already read all 4 books so I just live in hopes that Kristen Stewart will be hit by a bus crossing Hollywood Blvd stoned out of her mind and they will replace her with someone more fitting.

Yes our should we see it at the midnight showing dilemma played itself out. Backed up with the advice from my favorite medical advisor, The Mother I shared with my little 14 year old migraine sufferer how that really wasn't the best choice for her to make. Even though she earned it. She agreed, but came home from school Thursday saying, "but so many of my friends are going "(as predicted). I held her to the agreement to wait until Saturday and she moped around so severely she ended up waking up twice that night from....a migraine headache!

I placed my absence call to the middle school recorder Friday since the suffering teen lay balled up in her dark room when the bus rolled by. I gave all the required info and added," and NO we did not go to the midnight movie last night". So, to her list of migraine triggers we will add miring in bitterness, as a causative factor.

No worries. We are off in a bit for our movie and dinner out. I'll have to keep you all updated on what other shenanigans I can manage to pull off while reveling in my alone time the next few days.

If any of you reading this has any connection with Attorney General Eric Holder or the President himself, Barak Obama, could you forward this little parable to them in light of the recent decision to try  five of the 9/11 terrorists in Federal Court in NYC, mere blocks from the sacred sight of the former World Trade Center.

You could practically feel the breeze on your face and smell the salt spray when scenes of the majestic Pacific Northwest filled the screen while the New Moon movie trailer played in full glory on the Emagine Theatre screen. The typically unflappable Mayor nearly squealed (let me assure you, I’ve never squealed) with anticipation when Jacob bounded out of the house and transformed into a giant wolf mid stride. But my heart raced and I rashly promised my 8th grader that IF she got straight A’s I would take her to the opening showing of this movie.

To clarify, I was agreeing to her proposal that I take her to the local theatre  Thursday, November 19th to wait in line with a hoard of other crazy people for the midnight showing of New Moon. On a school night. Meaning that we would get home around 2 a.m. all jacked up from our exciting outing and attempt to get to sleep before the alarm goes off at 6 a.m. to begin the school day routine. When I made that promise to a child who had struggled in 7th grade to get passing marks in several classes, I thought the chances of having to pay the price of this commitment were highly unlikely.

Well, it’s November 16th and my daughter has achieved her goal, straight A’s in her classes. Being a woman of my word, I have left it up to Ms. S to decide if we are seeing New Moon at the midnight showing. Having years of experience in manipulating my charges into making “their” decisions, I have dangled the carrot of making it a girls big night out if she waits until the weekend. We can go to Benihana’s and then to the movie with whatever concessions she desires. If she decides we shall go for the midnight showing it will be business as usual Thursday evening. Homework, dinner at home, evening free time and going to the movie theatre at 11 p.m. We’ll take bottled water to drink because we have to go to bed immediately upon arriving home.

I’ve also reminded my migraine suffering charge that loss of sleep seems to be a common denominator, that trying to function on very little sleep friday could lead to trouble. Being a teenage girl, who I am sure will get revved up by her peers who are going to the ill timed movie opening, I am not counting on this decision to go my way. A teeny tiny part of me is resigned to making the most of the memories if forced to chaperone this middle of the night outing. In full disclosure, unlike when I had to take them to Disney cartoon movies, I’m sure I will thoroughly enjoy myself. I will only be cursing my lack of productivity on Friday when my aged ass is dragging all day.

I gently reminded her in my great wisdom, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. I didn’t coin that phrase but  being a mother of 6 I have been known to utter it a time or two (or thousand) but who’s counting?

Why am I relating this lesson in wisdom to the current conundrum created when Attorney General Holder announced that he had chosen to bring the 9/11 suspects to American soil to try them as civilians in criminal court? I have watched and listened as both sides of this controversy get revved up to passionately make their case either in opposition or support of this decision.

You know I am the queen of practicality and I see a lot of issues that could arise and not go the way our esteemed leaders are predicting. The men in power seem to think that we are going to demonstrate to the world the superiority of our legal system by trying this case in our federal court system.Since they are the ones elected to be in power it seems like they can.  

Security costs money and the I can’t imagine a bigger security nightmare than transporting KSM and his cohorts from jail to court everyday in Manhattan. The disruption to the area that is the financial epicenter of our country can’t be good for business. It has taken a long time for NYC to recover financially after the attack on the WTC. I can’t imagine it’s going to be a big draw for convention planners to have to fight the chaos the city will incur during the period of the trials, not to mention potential harm to tourism.

There are a lot brighter folk than I to analyze the risk to Americans that will be incurred with this trial, not to mention further pain and suffering of victims families. I’ve heard supporters make the case for New Yorkers who want the trial here in federal court, saying that it will finally give them closure. I applaud there fighting spirit, but I also think they are being naive to believe this is not going to a freak show of epic proportions.

That brings me all the way back to that concept: just because we can doesn’t mean we should. We could bring these guys back to NYC. We could let KSM showboat, mock us, further terrorize the victims families,etc. But it doesn’t mean we should.