Sleepless in Smithfield...

Early last night I asked my daughter, "So what time do you think you'll be home?" she replied, "not too late, I have to work at 5am." Fast forward to 1:30 am. I am lying awake, and wondering what exactly "not too late" meant. Daughter still not home. I crawl out of my warm snuggly bed and send her a text: "hello, worried mother here..." she sends back "just dropping off my friend, be home soon" another hour later I'm still awake, thinking maybe I'll get up and work on my blog, but since the house is a balmy 65 degrees below comfort level, and my flannel sheets are warm and cozy, the blog gets worked on in my head. She finally waltzes in, "sorry!" Ugh, no wonder moms have bags under their eyes! Wrinkles and bags really have nothing to do with aging, they are just one of the many perils of motherhood. I guess teen years are my punishment for them being such good little sleepers when they were babies...remember how I miss my babies? (see post: Too big to hold)

So as I'm lying sleepless, I am wondering just what exactly our country will become. I am wondering what happened to accountability, and self respect. I can't figure out why we as a people haven't spoken up against anyone being dishonest, cheating, lying or stealing, If we had the guts to blow the whistle, would we be struggling now with bank failures, dirty food processing plants, mismanaged funds, bailout plans that are only going to hurt us in the long run? I'm just a tiny minnow in the worlds ocean, but it is my opinion that greed and selfishness are the downfall of America. I think our ancestors are protesting loudly, that we've warped the American dream, but unfortunately we can't or won't hear them.
I'm thinking that the people that are immigrating to this country, need to be as the early immigrants were, embrace being an American, learn the language and customs, adopt the country as your own, keep those traditions that make you a good person and discard those traditions that work against you. We are too accommodating, we need to help our brothers and sisters who are trying to come here for a better life, but they also need to adopt the country to their heart, and quit trying to turn it into the country they came from. We shouldn't be required to publish everything in another language, and have separate classes, meetings, tv programs, etc. to enable them to not have learn the language, and customs. It just makes no sense to me. If I decided to immigrate to Switzerland, I wouldn't expect the country to accommodate me by making everything I need translated to English. I wouldn't expect the government to give me funds to support me because I am at a disadvantage. Why do we do that? And why do we allow it?

Then I ponder dust. Why is there so much dust in my house? I can clean and seriously, 10 minutes later, I could dust again. I think, maybe I could just become a collector of dust, display it proudly, invite my friends over to see my dust collection! It would ease my guilt over having a dusty home. I wouldn't stress that everyone would notice the dust, because that would be the point!! Joy! no more dusting for me! Come on by and see my fabulous dust collection! See my picture in the World Book for the largest dust collection! Maybe I could win an award for most unique dust display. It's a worthy goal.

Ahh, the joys of lack of sleep. My nighttime brilliance amazes me.