Fired Up

I'm fired up tonight, in more ways than one. Living in Los Angeles during the great fires of late summer and early fall is just so weird I'm not sure how to describe it. You drive around this city right now, doing all your regular errands, listening to the radio and talking to your friends, all under the most amazing cloud you've ever seen hanging over the mountains to the east, north and west of the city. It's truly incredible -- the juxtaposition of going outside to pick up your slightly damp from the sprinklers morning newspaper while sniffing the air and smelling the acrid carbon, looking to see the horizon and wondering whether any progress has been made over there and then running your finger, lightly, over the plant by the door and wiping up ash, tiny flecks of grey and white, like dandruff on the tip of your finger. When I tell you that the sky looks apocalyptic, I'm not exaggerating. I can't see flames from where I live but I can see the giant mushroom cloud, gray at the bottom like a blanket and then some beige and then the cap of white, fluffy and absolutely still.

So there's that, and the heat. The heat. The dryness of the air and the scratchy throat and lank hair, the persistence of it.

And then I got fired up by one of those chain emails from a friend. This one was about some amendment proposed by Senator Coburn of Oklahoma, the same Senator who held a recent town hall meeting and answered a sobbing caregiver's question with the most inane, out of touch answer one could imagine. The same Senator Coburn who declared a few years ago that "the gays" were the biggest problem facing this country. Oy vey! Not sure why this certain friend would send this thing to me, crazy, liberal, socialist me who believes our country should have universal health coverage, but she did. And I got the email and fired off a reply, sort of regretted it and then said to myself NO! I know what I'm talking about, and it needs to be said.

And now I want you to read my friend and blogger's brilliant piece about said Senator Coburn. I sent the link to the people who were listed on the email, and I hope they read it. I really do. Please, please read it and pass it on. It's most important and it fires me up. Click HERE.

I'll tell you a funny thing that happened today, though, which will calm us all down and make me laugh, again. I was out, walking with Sophie down the street. I was wearing a white linen dress and Birkenstocks. A couple of elderly ladies stopped to talk to me, one of whom is a neighbor that I don't know too well. The other lady wondered who I was. I'm her mother, I said with a laugh. She then said that she thought I was a lovely nurse, taking my charge for a walk. She was struck by how nicely I was talking to the young girl. I don't know why I thought that was funny, being mistaken for a nurse. Despite the fact that I was wearing a white dress, I so do not feel like a nice nurse. I'm a tired mama, wishing I had a nice nurse to help me out.