December 7, 2004.

Our kid, he loves broccoli.

Crafty readers of World of Julie might be interested in one of my current eBay auctions.

November 16, 2004.

Bedhead.

Also, with his new favorite toy, the tape measure.

November 8, 2004. Almost a week has gone by, and I am still having trouble believing half the country voted for Bush. But hey, that's what makes this country -- and humanity -- great, right? The fact that we can all have differing opinions?

I was thinking about this when talking with another one of my artist neighbors (we live on a pretty artsy block). He showed me his watercolors, and my first thought was, "Oh! They're not very good!" I felt awful for thinking this, but then I realized that they are actually good, it's just that I don't particularly like them. I remember being 8 years old and going to the house of one of my dad's friends, who had a large modern sculpture in her backyard. It was metal, and had a large diagonal ramp sort of thing, with two figures that were essentially rectangles with circles on top. I'm sure I was staring at it, because my dad's friend explained to me that the sculpture was called "Yearning" and that it represented our unending desire for what's better. To my 8-year-old self, there was no better representation of what being a grownup was all about: that you could put a large piece of modern art in your backyard. The house I grew up in had no art like this. I had only seen modern art like this in museums. At any rate, at 8, the backyard was not mine to choose art for. Only grownups could see art, like it, have the money to buy it, and have it installed in the backyard.

But at 8, my sense of me was getting formed with every new experience, so that, theoretically, but the time I was 18, I'd know what art I liked and didn't. And I'd be able to vote. And the fact that some people make and like art that is much different from art I make and like, well, that's what makes life interesting. I went and voted on November 2 (or, well, I voted by absentee ballot on October 27), and so did a bunch of other people, and we all stood in line to say who we liked best. And just like when Dave and I were looking for a house and we would go through one that was for sale, and couldn't believe that people would actually display sad clown paintings or photos of brandy snifters filled with potpourri, I can't believe that so many people voted for Bush. But hey, that's just my opinion.

In other news, according to my big dictionary, pie-eyed means "very drunk." So I'm not sure I used it correctly. I was thinking that, rather than "eyes as big as pies," it meant "visions of pie," which would, to me, be an idealistic and optimistic view.

November 3, 2004. The last few days have presented me with many examples of my naivete. Or maybe it's just my optimistic pie-eyed* idealism.

Example 1: On Halloween, I put our 100 pieces of candy in a bowl, left it briefly on our front porch, and took a costumed Henry (monkey!) to our neighbors' to show him off. Not ten minutes later I came back to find all the candy gone. I could see our house from the neighbors' house; we had maybe four trick-or-treaters. I am so completely disappointed that one or all of them greedily took all 100 pieces of candy.

Example 2: I really thought we would all vote for Kerry. I know I don't get too political here on World of Julie, but my goodness, I can't believe Bush won. What on earth is going on? How can any thinking person vote for a man who has done nothing good at all during his time in office? Who has, in fact, done many things that are very, very bad? I am completely disappointed about this too, and also fairly embarrassed. How could my country have elected this guy again? It's shameful. There was talk amongst my friends today of trying to get New England to secede.

I was able to briefly distract myself from it all by the fact that local squirrel hooligans have chewed a softball-sized hole in the top of our pumpkin (which was just a pumpkin, not a carved jack-o-lantern). The squirrels have then gotten inside the fairly large pumpkin and eaten out all the pulp and seeds. I think this is a fantastic use for a Halloween pumpkin.

*Pie-eyed? Is that right? Or is it just that I am always trying to turn to pie in times of woe? I'll look it up and get back to you.