It’s been a good year since I’ve experienced this so forgive me if I’m a little clumsy talking about it.

The basics: Dash slept in his own bed last night. By himself. In another room. And only woke for about five minutes before falling back to sleep. And another tooth broke through.

Holy. Crap.

Please please please let this be a sign of things to come. Sweet Jesus, I am ready.

Do you ever wonder what the Bloodhound Gang would investigate if they were still on TV? I do, and I think my subject line is right up their alley. I could totally write for that show.

Some things that have happened since I last wrote:

Dash climbed a stair. And then he climbed about 36,000 more stairs. He will climb your stairs if you will let him.

Went to a Pilates studio open-house and felt both out of shape and totally energized by the possibility of being in shape. I think that’s a good thing.

Took pictures of the lunar eclipse and realized I have totally inadequate photographic equipment for such things. Can you say “tiny white dot on a black screen”?
I think you can. I know I can.

Worked on some freelance proofreading. A thriller this time. It was actually pretty good. A little scary.

Celebrated Valentine’s Day with my sweety by leaving Dash at home with Meme and Bum and heading out to The Wine Bar, a favorite old haunt of ours. Yummy pizzette and salad (and wine, natch) and the entertainment of eavesdropping on the dates happening all around us. Married couples, dating couples, and what looked to be a couple of first or second dates (valentine’s day really turns on the pressure when you’re just dating, doesn’t it?). Home to catch Lost.

Dash learned how to climb out of his Stokke Tripp Trapp (look for an updated product review soon!) and onto the table. It’s both dangerous and funny.

I think lots of other things have happened too, but they’re escaping my memory. My brother, his wife, and their son, Jordan are flying in tonight to stay for the week so we’re pretty busy with preparations. Cleaning, cooking, planning some three-year-old-friendly activities (speaking of which, if you know of a can’t-lose-super-fun activity in the greater Portland area, please comment below. i’ll take any and all suggestions!).

I best get back to the clean up effort. I see the Sunday paper has begun cascading off the table and onto the floor. And that would be fine if only we kept the recycling bucket beneath the table, but in fact, we do not. I have to manually pick up the paper and walk it over to the recycling bucket on the front porch. What an effort!

[Please Note: by “effort,” I mean, practically no effort at all. I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks (perhaps a monthly column) on easy ways to stay green, one of the most obvious and easiest being recycling.]

Later taters.

Did I mention that I will be accepting gifts for Valentine’s Day? That’s right! For a limited time only (it’s just one day) I will be receiving gifts through the mail, online, or in person. To take advantage of this fabulous offer, just keep reading.

I’ve made a simple list of some of the many ways you can participate:

Visit Three Potato Four. Purchase anything. Anything at all. Man I love that shop!

Take me out for a drink at the Top of the East.

Visit the Old Port Candy Co. mmmm… gummy things, chocolate things, things….

(And while we’re talking candy, if anyone can figure out how to get the swedish fish people to start making the grape flavor again, please let me know. Do you miss them too? Let’s band together! We’ll hold a caucus if we have to. I just know we can make a difference.)

So there you have it. Just a few simple ways to say “I Heart Tonya.” And while we’re at it, I heart all of you, too. And I hope you have a divine Valentine’s Day.

“Some people have started feeling a little uncomfortable with the amount of people here so we want to let you know that you can fill out your caucus sheet and hand it in early if you’d like to go home.”

That should give you some clue as to the size of the crowd that turned out for the Portland, Maine democratic caucus yesterday. Political enthusiasm went hand in hand with claustrophobia for the nearly six-hour caucus, all while a snow storm covered the streets and all of the people lined up outside just to get in the building. For six hours! Amazing!

I’m not especially politically minded (aside from knowing right from wrong and wanting geo to get the hell out of office already) and I wasn’t even all that excited to go to this, my first ever caucus. But when we got to Portland High School (baby and all) and saw the lines of people (not annoyed people, excited, high-energy people) all lining up to do a good thing, I was all too glad I came.

We got really lucky and came in the back door which allowed us to merge in near the front of the already-registered-just-need-to-get-my-form line. My apologies to all who didn’t know about that entrance and ended up waiting in extremely long lines. We totally cut in front of you.

No matter how long the wait, line confusion reigned supreme (“what if you’re already registered?” “is this the line for switching parties?”) and unfortunately the city was somewhat ill-prepared, which wasn’t surprising. We got through our line pretty quickly only to be told that we weren’t on the list (even though we’d called city hall in advance to make sure we were all set…) so we needed to wait in a second line for people-who-are-registered-but-can’t-be-found. Our records came right up on their computers which lead us to wonder why on earth the other line was clearly using old lists.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the third line which was full of people switching parties and people registering for the first time ever. Practically every face in that line was young and smiling. This was the first time that 17-year-olds who would be turning 18 by election day were allowed to register to vote in the caucus. The youthful enthusiasm was infectious! I was so proud.

Once we cleared the lines, we headed into the gym to grab seats for the speeches. Dash was already nearing naptime and not really interested in sitting down and waiting. (Kids. Go figure.) He ended up getting a lot of exercise walking all around and managed plenty of media attention as well. Photos and news footage! What a star.

It was at about 4pm (roughly two hours in) that they made the announcement about crowd size and allowed folks to vote and skedaddle. It was getting pretty crowded and we had friends who were waiting to get in and called us to say that the line still was wrapped around the building and down a block or two. In the snow. In the dark.

Still waiting for speeches to start, met the governor of Massachusetts (made dorky joke about being underage but got in with a fake I.D. that got huge laughs. yes, that’s how i impress politicians), met lots of people as you’re wont to do with a cute young wandering baby. Ate very sticky orange and very crumbly muffin. Wished I had brought gallons of water. Was very grateful to find Granny and Nana who watched Dash for a few. Two great speeches (Gov. Patrick and Tom Allen) and two so-so speeches (rep. Meeks and Tom Ledue) and then those of us who stuck around (I’d estimate 97.9%) were sent off to separate caucus rooms to do our job.

The lines of people who still had not registered were still wrapped around the building. So proud of Portland!

We’re four hours (6pm) in and still there was more waiting. Official word was that if we wanted to stay and be counted for the delegate vote, we had to stick around until all the people got through the lines, which would probably be another hour. If Neil and I were going to leave early, we would have left already. We were in for the long haul. Really wishing the city had ordered some pizza though. mmm… hungry.

Things kind of fell apart at this stage. There were several people (in charge of our group) who kind of knew what they were supposed to do but had to keep checking with others. There was some revolt within the group that bordered on rude but did eventually lead to us voting early and getting out of there. Thank you!

Results:: 2:1 Obama and the state was his.

Time when we got in the car to go home with a baby who hadn’t slept or even eaten properly since 1pm?

Time enough for take-out pizza, some tv (what was up with the dance interpretation set to beatles songs on the Grammys?), and then off to early and eagerly anticipated bed.

The BEST EVER adrenaline pumping, errands running theme song came on the radio as I was heading out in the car. To be listened to at top volume. I don’t care if you’re at work. You’re worth it.