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After a week of democratic fervor, froth and frenzy; a week of endless pundit chatter, extraordinary speeches and historic nominations; and a week of way WAY too many cogs in my head spinning, churning and smoking away, I am left slightly short of breath. And as excited and energized as I feel after the DNC - honestly - I am left stressed out. For real. I am sitting here muttering and wringing my hands like a crazy woman.

What’s my problem?

Oh, Lordy. Well, I have just so much invested in this election. I have never wanted a candidate elected more in my entire life. There is so very much at stake and it’s freaking me out to care this much. And I know I am not the only one.

So what is my list of worries? Read along and see if yours are anything like mine. Here we go.

I am worried about the future of our supreme court justices.

I am worried about the future of this war and the lives of our military serving.

I am worried about my rights to choose.

I am worried about assuring equal rights for everyone.

I am worried discrimination of any kind has been acceptable for far too long.

I am worried about equal pay for equal work.

I am worried about our addiction to excess and stuff.

I am worried about how much less my house is worth.

I am worried about my outrageously expensive grocery bill.

I am worried about chocolate and tequila production prices going up yet again. (Didn’t you hear? Hershey’s chocolate costs were going up 11%! Damn this economy!)

I am worried that the average American family can’t afford to have one parent home with their children any longer.

I am worried Hillary supporters are going to dig in further and refuse to vote.

I am worried voters will choose their candidate based on race or gender ALONE.

I am worried Americans don’t look at themselves carefully enough.

I am worried we think more about ourselves and our own needs, than the needs of our society as a whole.

I am worried we are lazy and we won’t change old habits, focus on our environment, and break our addiction to oil.

I am worried Bush has permanently damaged our country.

I am worried this country has been dumbed down and can’t think outside the box.

I am worried we succumb too easily to fear mongering.

I am worried we have been at war for over 5 years and we are no safer from terrorism.

I am worried that Republicans and Democrats alike underestimate and make unfair assumptions about one another.

I am worried we really aren’t ready for change.

I am worried that no news is unbiased news and so I never know what  the real news is.

I am worried my sons might be drafted into war someday.

I am worried the rest of the world hates our country more than it did before September 11th.

I am worried about my horrid health care plan: if one of us were to become seriously ill, we would be in extraordinary debt.

I am worried about affording college in 15 years.

I am worried about trying to get some paid work within the next year.

I am worried about tax cuts and how they have already affected our local school system, public universities, our local infrastructure, my local library and other public systems set up to assist us.

I am worried that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.

I am worried about hate.

But I can’t forget Obama’s speech last night. I do believe their is some hope ahead *if* he is elected. And I’ve said this before, I know that even if he IS elected, he has one hell of a mess to untangle. But, there is hope. I will leave you with this last potion of his speech. (Please read his entire speech here.) I hope you find some hope in it as well.

America, we cannot turn back.  Not with so much work to be done.  Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for.  Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save.  Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend.  America, we cannot turn back.  We cannot walk alone.  At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future.  Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

Have a wonderful weekend, I am going to do my damnedest not too think so flipping hard and maybe even have a good stiff drink. (Probably not tequila, though… damn…)

(Oh and please note. Comments that might disagree with my politics or points of view are absolutely welcome. It’s cool. I love open, respectful discussion. It makes the world go round. However, if your comment is rude, it’s getting deleted. Enough said.)

Ok, I’ve got some karma up-keeping to do around these parts (and you know how I feel about karma). So, let me take a moment to thank two wonderful bloggers.

First of all, thank you to Domestic Spaz for giving me your “Little Fish” award. I am immensely grateful. My wonderful blogging peers did a little nominating, a little voting and then little ol me wound up swimming to the surface as a little fish. Big blushes and big thank yous. Now to those reading, as a favor to me, please go to her site and nominate your favorite little fish. Let’s take care of the little swimmers in this big blogging ocean.

Secondly, thank you to Everyday Baby Steps for choosing me to receive the “I Heart Your Blog” award. I love blogging, it is truly a passion of mine. And to win an award for it? Acknowledgement that someone is not only reading my posts, but actually liking all this jibber jabber? Well, shoot. It’s enough to keep on keeping on for a long while.

And so, the rules of this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

Leaving the list at 7 was very difficult. But I picked out a few of my “always go to” blogs and then some new ones that I have just happened upon recently and really enjoy. Congratulations to my fellow bloggers. I pass the blogger appreciation torch on to you.

Stop, Drop and Blog

She Just Walks Around with It

MommyPie

Slouching Past 40

Viva La Feminista

Pundit Mom

Finally, I would like to encourage further good karma for all us. Please go to the Stand Up 2 Cancer website and learn more about this exciting campaign. Join, email congress and just straight up educate yourself. And guess what else? You can virtually stand up. They have bling for your blog and they are on both Facebook and MySpace. On September 5th, SU2C will be on TV, they have an online magazine (here’s the part about boobies) and there are some cool people behind this initiative. Go. Now. Thanks!

In the spirit of Blogger Karma (my new found religion, I swear to you), it’s important I “blog it forward” a bit right now. So bear with me, I’ve got two bits of bloggng karma work to do.

First of all, the wonderful Florinda decided to give me my first bloggy award. Deep blushes and deepest of thanks. Now I will admit that I (still a wee novice blogger waiting for her copy of Blogging For Dummies to arrive) am still not sure how to get that award pasted onto my home page (and if anyone knows, give me a shout-out). BUT! At least it’s posted above and I can at least do the rest.

(*UPDATE* Copy code and paste. Yup. I got my brain cells fired back up and figured out how to paste the award to my page. So “brilliant” of me, huh?)

It’s now my turn to nominate seven blogs who I feel should also enjoy such an award. As Florinda explained, here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog (see above).
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you (it’s in this post – see above).
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs (see below).
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog (done in the nominations).
5. Leave a message for your nominee on his or her blog (to be done as soon as this post goes up, so I can leave the link too!).

I decided to nominate women who are talented bloggers but also just “good people”. These bloggers may not live a blogger’s “Dooce“-like high life, but they are 100% worthy of some good blogger karma. Here are my choices, in no particular order.

1) Art, Like Bread: Cami has created a wonderful blog about crafting in her daily life. She lives in Mexico and has endless amounts of inspiration around her. Her easy, approachable, “even us regular folk can be crafty” style is very much appreciated and inspirational. I read her blog and want to toss my computer aside and go make some art, dammit!

2) Deep Muck, Big Rake: I have been a fan of Becky’s since I started waaay back (in March 2008). She reviews books, she’s a journalist, she lives in Florida (like me), she’s a mom (also like me), and she get’s it.

3) Dirt & Noise: I check in with Ilina almost everyday. A hysterical, neat freak, democrat mother of two boys… yup, she’s got a lot to say (and she had a hellish day today so I hope this might help some). Go check her out, you’ll become a regular.

4) The Lil’ Mommy That Could: A stay at home mom with a great sense of humor and way of saying things. Susan does crafts with her kids and blogs about the trials and tribulations of it all. She also started out when I did – power to the newbies!

5) Down to Earth Mama: Another new blogger but DTEMama likes to (as she puts it) practice the “Let’s get Real” approach to life. She is new, she is a mom, she is smart and she has a great deal to say.

6) Tropic of Mom, Life at Lattitude 26: This is another newly blogging Florida mom whom I relate to and laugh with.

7) Wineonthekeyboard: Kacey has been blogging since 2006, and has been a mom for much longer than that. She would describe herself as a “boomer blogger” and discusses life AFTER living in the trenches of motherhood, when maybe women can finally find time to be reacquainted with themselves.

Enjoy this little award, from me to you all!

Secondly, if you haven’t already, PLEASE, gather together all the goodwill you can muster in your heart and read Motherhood Uncensored’s post about Blog the Recession. If this doesn’t go along with my concept of achieving good blogger karma, then I don’t know what else does.

READ IT, DAMN YOU.

And then go get yourself clicking merrily through the blogosphere.

In fact, here is what I am gonna do. I am going to take a little blogging break. Yup. And the time I would be spending towards posting and tending to my own blog, I will spend clicking through, commenting, stumbling and twittering other blogs over the next few days.

Do it. Help your fellow bloggers bring home the bacon… BLOG THE RECESSION!

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back next week.

I am off to do an EXCESSIVE amount of clicking.

I have returned safely from BlogHer08 and slipped back into vacation life with my family. But here I sit. Vaguely slack jawed, short of breath, over-stimmed and kinda tweaked out. BlogHer08. It got to me. It’s as if my inner blogging hard drive uploaded some monstrous load of software and now it just needs to reboot before it can function at all. There is far too much to process, too many business cards to look through, pictures to upload and blogs to visit. I’m not ready to post about it (but I will be, oh, I will be). 

And oh no. A techie analogy. And I am SO not techie. What has HAPPENED to me?

See, clearly BlogHer got under my skin. Like pouring water on a Gremlin or discovering new super hero Spidie-Senses after being bitten by the BlogHer bug… there is no turning back now. Blogging is running in my veins, has me dreaming in widgets and seeing in technorati.

And do you know what else BlogHer08 did to me? Those sneaky sneaky women. Like crafty drug pushers, all whispering in the hallways between sessions “you gotta do it, you gotta try it, EVERYBODY (there) is doing it”… I DID do it. During an insane moment at a table surrounded by women silently tweeting away to one another in a frenzy, I signed up for Twitter. For the networking possibilities, I told myself. For the good of my blog, I rationalized. Uh-huh. As the 3 R’s says, I’ve drunk the Kool-aid now. There’s no turning back. A blogging Gremlin cracked out on Twitter. Get me to rehab. FAST.

So that’s really what I am doing here. I have put myself into a little bit of Blogger’s Rehab. As I type this, I am outside at our tiny family beach cottage, enjoying the peaceful world around me. I am soaking in the silence and watching the sun in the trees while the rest of the household naps. What a beautiful world this is here. Far from the conference site, the sessions, the swag. Just me and my family, together, relaxing our brains and rebooting our inner hard drives. 

However. I can’t help but notice. The birds. Do you know what they are doing? THEY’RE TWEETING.

(….if ya wanna find me on twitter you can find me at “Morningsidemom”, i’m checking it, i’m watching it, everyone thinks I am out here with my book, with my new bff – my HP – tucked safely away in my back pack. No. I am out here, hunched over, I don’t hear the birds… but I hear a whole lot of tweeting… so so much tweeting….)