I turned on the television after running around this evening to see that the networks were not interrupting their evening news to cover the Obama rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but the cable news networks were running breaking news.  The cable news networks were saying that John Edwards, the very same John Edwards that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been courting for an endorsement since he suspended his campaing in January of this year, the very same John Edwards who told CNN’s Larry King that now was not the time to endorse either candidate earlier this week, that John Edwards was endorsing Barack Obama.

I have been a John Edwards fan since he first appeared on the national stage when he was the senator from North Carolina.  I have enjoyed listening to his speeches as I believe he addresses issues that reach to the heart of America today.  I was heartbroken when he decided to suspend his campaign prior to Super Tuesday.  I was happy he was not immediately throwing his weight behind another candidate.  I did not think that either candidate supported enough of his views for him to compromise first thing.  I did not believe that he should compromise his views.

Tonight, I listened to his speech.  I listened to a man who was about to tip the scale tremendously in the favor of the crowd’s chosen one receive boos as he spoke of the other candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.  I listened to a man who sounded like he was still running for office.  I listened to a man who discussed an initiative he announced in Philadelphia be endorsed by Obama.  That was when the lightning bolt went on.  He is making a pitch for the vice presidential nominee again.

I listened as John Edwards talked of the two Americas that have not been spoken of since he left the campaign.  I listened as John Edwards spoke with passion about education for all in this country.  I listened as John Edwards said Barack Obama would be president in January of 2009.  That is when I stopped listening.

I believe John Edwards, as any citizen of this country does, has the right to choose who he wants to vote for in the presidential election process.  I do not believe John Edwards has made his case to those who supported him or those who believed in him, in the speech he made this evening, that those individual voters or organizations should endorse Barack Obama.

I know I saw this on a message board recently but cannot remember, for the life of me, where it was.  Anyway, the concept just crossed my mind again as I was introducing myself to a new working for the company I do contract work for. 

When you meet someone new, how do you introduce, describe yourself?

Very few of the people I work with know I love art.  Even fewer know I create art.  I do occasionally call myself an artist but for some reason, not at work.

I am a single mom but even this is not cut and dry.  My ex - and I do call him that, even when he is around - is not legally my ex-husband.  We have been separated over ten years but neither of us has filed for a legal divorce.  Technically, we are still married but we both date other people and haven’t lived together since January of 1997.

I have two college degrees.  I have a forestry degree from Paul Smith’s College in Paul Smiths, NY and I have a  business degree with an emphasis in marketing from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV.  I don’t know that I officially identify with either alumni group.  I do know a few alums from both places and I answer positively when asked questions by prospective students to either university.

So how do you describe yourself?  Are you a gardener?  Are you a mother?  Are you a lover of a specific type of music?  Are you a sports fanatic?  Are you an artist?  Do you work at home?  Do you freelance?  Do you work in a corporate environment?

I love the flowers as they bloom and the vibrant colors they bring to the road side and yards around my area but it was coming down the hill yesterday that I was taken by the vibrant and many shades of green there are in spring.  There were the ever dark greens of the pines and spruces, aptly called evergreens.  There were the red tips of maples that did not yet have leaves on them, which also left some brown exposed in the hillside.  There were the yellowish-greens of all species of deciduous trees.  The color of the season is green.

Above are two dominos done freehand with Sharpie markers with green in mind.  They were definitely inspired by my view as I was driving down Twist Run Road looking at the hill in the horizon.

I am taking part - although I seem to be behind as usually - in an online workshop on photo manipulation.  While most will think of this as a digital form of art, we are doing a bit of digital and actual manipulation in the workshop.

My first attempt was with an image I took of the skyline in Albany, New York while waiting for the Times Union Center to open for an NCAA Regional Hockey Tournament.  Below, you will see the image as originally taken, the image after made into a black and white image, and the altered image when colored with permanent marker.

I live in New York state.  Here we are allowed to vote in school elections.  The only districts exempt from these laws are those known as The Big 5 - those districts in the five largest cities in the state.  I believe the Big 5 still vote for board of education members but not on budget.  These elections are for members of the board of education in the school district one lives in and a yes or no vote on the school budget.  The state regulates these elections heavily and all of them are held on the third Tuesday of May.

Last night, I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the local newspaper’s education reporter.  The topic of discussion was voting in school elections.  In a year when elections are all the buzz, there is anticipation that turnout in these elections will increase.  Generally speaking, in the school district I live in, the election turnout does not even equal the total number of students enrolled in the school.  This number is not near the total number of eligible voters.  I believe, in my district, the average turnout is about 1,500 and the total number of eligible voters is 15,000.  This is well below the turnout for municipal, state or federal elections.

The lack of turnout may be a good thing.  The beginning of May brought about a budget hearing for my district.  Someone spends a lot of time putting together information to present to the public regarding the budget that is about to be voted on later in the month.  The state requires that each district hold a hearing.  At this particular hearing, in attendance were four school district employees - all administrative or district office employees, two Board of Education members - including one who is running for re-election and approximately six people.  Questions were asked but not many.

My point is that we have very few elections where our vote is a true impact.  Please educate yourself and get out on May 20th and vote!!

Many years ago I went through a stage where I stopped all magazine subscriptions.  I would occasionally buy an art magazine - stamping, beading, creating - but decided that the magazines themselves would not be coming to my house.  The environmentalist in me won out until I started qualifying for free magazines of different types.  I would get those that would inspire me. 

Early in my adult life, I was also a holiday magazine junky.  Every holiday magazine I would see out on a stand was in my hands, in my shopping cart.  As you may know, this will make for a lot of clutter at a time when clutter is not what is needed.  At the urging of a dear friend and her Christmas Countdown, I began a tear file.  I kept the holiday ideas that were truly doable for me.  I kept the recipes I might actually make.  I kept the crafts and ideas for gifts that may actually be something I would do or give.  And there began my tear file addiction.

I now subscribe to several magazines.  I also get alumni magazines from the colleges my children attend and have attended plus the university I attended.  I always find a few things that I like so I spend my evenings reading articles and looking at menus.  I, then, start tearing.  I have about seven files - eight to ten around the holidays - and some articles go in these files.  I tear out clothing I like.  I tear out articles about people that I find interesting.  I tear out ads that have URLs in them and I want to investigate further.  I tear out color that I want to use to create.  I love to tear!!!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there!  I know that sounds like a crock but today is your, our day.

My mother is 3200 miles away and preparing for a cruise.  She will, undoubtedly, go to brunch today with my stepdad and my younger sister who happens to be in California on business for about ten days or so.   She will iron and pack if I know her.

My stepmother is about 40 miles away.  She will have grandchildren around if my guess is correct.

Both my grandmothers have passed away so there are no grandmothers except my children’s grandmothers.

We will not be having a big Mother’s Day celebration.  Instead, we will be having a bit going away dinner.  My oldest has been home for about five and a half weeks.  Tomorrow is his last day on the local job here and he is heading back to his own apartment and his own cooking and his own cleaning.  So today we will have a barbeque for him.

I am a bit of a freak about sunscreen.  I haven’t always been.  I can remember sitting in the sun with baby oil on as a teenager.  I can remember sitting in the sun with Hawaiian Tropic SPF 4 oil on as a college student. 

As I got older, I started using sunscreen more and more.  As I became a mother, I went through bottles of sunscreen, the higher the SPF, the better.  As I became the mother of a blue-eyed, red head, I started buying sunscreen at Sam’s Club, in bulk.

Last year, after my mother actually called my legs pasty looking, I started buying moisturizer with self-tanner in it.  I will say that I do tan rather easily.  I have noticed, though and especially as I have gotten older, that my arms take to the sun less and less.  We had a few days of summer early this spring and I had sun poisoning.  This did not surprise me as my paternal grandmother always got sun poisoning.

A month or so ago, I was in a Sephora store - a real luxury as there is not one near my home - and signed up as a beauty insider.  This is Sephora’s way to reward those of us who spend big bucks in their brick and mortar stores or their online store.  Part of the deal is you also receive preferential emails.

Last week, I received an insider email from Sephora that was a sample package of sun protection products.  A quick check of my upcoming expenses and the current balance on my debit card and off I went to order it.  Yesterday, I heard the back screen door open - this took a lot as I had to train the UPS guy to open the door and put my parcels inside - and there was the Sephora box. 

First off, I have to tell you that I have only ever ordered twice from Sephora online.  The items ship quickly and come in an appropriate sized box.  I love the fact that the boxes are filled with actual tissue paper as I hate dealing with packing peanuts.  Inside was my Sephora sun safety kit which 100% of the net profits benefit The Skin Cancer Foundation.

Inside the sun safety kit was mdskincare sun protection towelettes (SPF 30), Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Cream for face (SPF 55), DDF Daily Protective Moisturizer with SPF 15, Sunscreen Face Cream in Watermelon (SPF 30 and made in Greece), Clarins Ultra Protection (SPF 30), Medi Matte Oil Control Lotion (SPF 20), smashbox photo finish foundation primer (SPF 15), juice beauty Green Apple Moisturizer SPF 15,  Murad firming bronzer (SPF 15) and tarte 24-7 in thursday for lips.  Probably even cooler than all the product - and these are all sample sizes but it is cool as I may find the perfect face sunscreen as I have problems with that - is a UV exposure indicator which tells you how strong the UV rays are.  This is a never-ending issue in an area that sees a lot of cloudy sun.

I have to admit that I am a huge “Sex and the City” fan.  I never watched it when it was on HBO as I didn’t have HBO but my daughter would watch it at friends’ homes.  We would rent the season’s DVDs and watch an entire season at a time.  I still watch the reruns on TBS at night.

Of course, I was thrilled when I found out that the original cast had signed on to create a feature film.  I wasn’t sure, if there were major upheavals in the cast, I could watch it.  Instead, I have been keeping a countdown on when the release date is and making plans to go see the movie.

The other day I was at Sam’s Club.  I routinely spend about $20 in May or June at Sam’s buying summer paperbacks to read.  I usually bookcross these when I am done reading them or pass them on to my kids.  I was looking over the selections that were in stock - nothing great for the summer reads yet - and, lo and behold, I saw Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City.  I am normally a big read the book first fan.  I had never read the book so in the cart, with the four cases of water, it went.

It was really difficult reading the book.  I could picture the episodes of the television series that the book is talking about as I read.  The problem is that the characters are different.  I managed to get through it but it took a lot more concentration than I wanted to put into reading it.

I am still anxiously awaiting the end of the month and the full-length feature film.  I have seen trailers and teasers and will be in line the first night.

Okay - I know I don’t want to be the person I was in high school, but I miss my high school friends.  We had so much fun when we were in high school.  With few exceptions, since college, I have not seen very many of them.  I went to my ten year reunion but the people I knew didn’t necessarily come.  I had four kids by then and was thinking about number five.  Most of my classmates didn’t understand.

The one person I have tried to keep up with is my friend Beth.  She moved in high school so was not there our senior year but in New Jersey with her mom.  We kept up as best we could through college, and then her to law school.  We both got married.  We have kids that are similar in age but I have a couple extras.

Last year, her father died and we saw each other for the first time in literally years.  Why is it death brings us together so frequently? 

Today, she called.  She and her oldest, Ashley, are on their way up to New York from the Richmond, Virginia area for the weekend.  They are leaving early evening Friday so won’t be here until Saturday morning early.  She is coming to get items from her father’s estate which is finally almost settled after a year.  We are going to get together.  I can’t wait to see her and Ashley.