Mercimek

The Real Political Wives of New Jersey

2010-05-20T08:26:00.002-04:00

I don't have cable at home. It's been a little over a year since we got rid of it, and once the shaking and the constant scratching stopped, I started to feel pretty good about that decision. So unfortunately, I cannot share in this common national experience known as the "Real Housewives of wherever." I understand the Jersey edition is back on now. Even though I've never seen it, I'm going to go on record as guessing that our version can kick other versions' patooties. Hells yeah, we're talkin' Jersey baby!

But I digress.... I was talking to someone at lunch yesterday who started her sentence with the phrase "I don't trust those politicians" just as I was saying "My husband is a politician." She was nice enough to acknowledge the foot-in-mouth moment, even as her eyes had the I-feel-your-pain expression. And yes, it is true that some politicians get a bad rep. Emphasis on some.

Now, there has been some discussion about said politicians' wives. How much did they know? Why did they stick by their men? Are they really the evil behind all of this? Why, oh why, would they stand behind that podium with a smile plastered on their faces as their husbands admit to lying/cheating/stealing while in office?

I don't know. Honestly, I don't. There is something to be said about how much of your own life you have to put on hold for a husband's political career - that it becomes the defining core of your family's existence, especially during campaign season. And for some people, denial is an easier route than acknowledging that crumbling core. Easier route, not the right one.

I think I prefer Jenny Sanford's style. Of course, not everyone can Bill-n-Hillary such a situation, but I think Mrs. Sanford handled it relatively well.

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin

2010-05-12T19:54:00.003-04:00

How many restarts can a blog possibly have?

Yeah well, here's another one.

So anyway, where was I? Right, doing your civic duty. I voted in the fire district elections and the school board elections since my last post. Then, there was the Trenton elections yesterday. There will be a primary at the beginning of June, and then the Trenton run-off mid-June. Those folks up at the Board of Elections are seriously being kept busy. And of course, elections cost money. My solution? American Idol style voting. Just give us some 800 numbers, and we'll start dialing. I kid, I kid.....

Speaking of elections.... It's always fun to go to vote. I remember the first election I ever voted in - I was 8 years old. Yes, you read that right. We were having elections in Turkey, and my parents got their ballots and then got tired of waiting in line to put their ballots in the little wooden box. So they left the little school house that was our polling place and went to sit at the seaside cafe and enjoy a nice cup of tea and a game of backgammon. They were enjoying themselves, and I was running around too much, so they told me to go cast their ballots to keep me busy. So that's how I got to vote as a young little punk. True story.

Regrettably, the next time I voted was not until 2005. Not that I didn't want to. That just happened to be when I became a citizen of the U.S. of A.

And of course, my husband was on the ballot. He was the first vote I cast.

And that's a story to tell the kids and the grandkids.

Doing Your Civic Duty

2010-02-20T14:34:00.002-05:00

So you vote every four years in the Presidential Election on the first Tuesday of the first full week of November. Did you know that there may be other elections going on in your area other times of the year?

Of course, not every state likes to spend money on four or more election cycles a year, but here in New Jersey, we have school board elections in April, nonpartisan elections in May, general elections in November, and today in February, fire district elections! I'm off to my local firehouse to be one of 20 or so people voting today on our fire chief, fire budget, and various other positions and ballot items.

It's not always the glitz and glamour of CNN-covered elections, but these folks work hard to make our lives easier and safer. Make sure you look up any and all elections in your district, get educated about the issues, and vote at all levels!

Don't Call It a Comeback

2010-02-19T16:49:00.000-05:00

Who would have thought that getting tenure would mean more work? Apparently, with job security comes more responsibility. Huh.

All kidding aside, of course I knew what would happen, and it took me a while to adjust. The nonstop international travel, albeit fun, did not help, either. Now that I have many more stamps in my passport and am settled in this associate professor gig, I'm back on the campaign trail that I have missed so much and will be reporting more regularly.

They would bike 500 miles and some would bike 500 more

2009-07-21T08:42:00.007-04:00

Every year, I am even more in awe of the Anchor House riders - a whole week on their bikes, going 500 miles to raise money for youth and family service. And raise money they did, over $405,000! We have a friend whose husband completed his 20th year as a rider. Incredible!!!

For a few years now, we've been going to Quaker Bridge Mall to welcome them at the end of their ride. Dan officially greeted the families this year:

We had a lot of fun looking at all the homemade signs welcoming family members. Here are a few samples:

Ssssswing Batter, he can't hit-he can't hit-he can't hit

2009-07-21T08:14:00.004-04:00

You know that bit in Ferris Bueller's day off where everyone (including the closed-captioning) thinks Cameron's saying Kennedy-Kennedy-Kennedy? Apparently, Alan Ruck was saying "he can't hit" three times in a row. I know I'm not a native speaker, but there seem to be plenty of people who were confused with that one.

Last Thursday was a trip to the Trenton Thunder game organized by the Hamilton Democrats. After a torrential downpour including monstrous lightning and hail, the game got going, and we had loads of fun! Here's a picture of Miss EPT having a laugh :) No pictures of us of that day, though, we were still wet from the downpour and not very presentable....

Blast of a Blast!

2009-07-12T20:42:00.007-04:00

Our backyard blast was a success! We got 75+ guests and had a great time. Funny enough, none of my 96 cupcakes ever made it outside :)

We set up three tents in the back, and used the shade from our neighbor's tree as well. My brother, our friends Tim, Ana, and Carolyn came early and helped out A LOT. So so thankful to them!

This year, somehow all the food got eaten. When we noticed that the few grilled hot dogs were going faster than the boiled ones, and that barbecue sauce chicken was much more popular than the Italian chicken early on in the day, we started grilling the hot dogs and slathering all the chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's super yummy BBQ sauce. The pesto pasta salad with our homegrown basil pesto was a hit as was the corn salad. I now have to write down all the recipes and amounts for the 6th Annual Backyard Blast next year!

Dan got a bit sunburnt, being outside from 8:30am until 5pm, but he had a blast. My brother and I handled all the cooking and replenishing of food and drinks so that he could be free to be with the guests. He went around and talked with everyone. We had a lot of first-timers, lot of good friends who have been to all 5 backyard blasts, and neighbors popping in here and there.

All in all a great day!

Let them eat cupcake!

2009-07-09T07:22:00.006-04:00

This weekend, we are hosting the 5th Annual Backyard Blast and preparations are well underway. If the weather holds up, we are expecting between 75 and 90 people. (Twice a year, at Christmas and in July, we throw a party for that many people. At our house. Catered completely by me. Yes, I'm crazy.)

Every year, there are a few tweaks to the menu. For example, we buy locally grown corn in a ginormous bag and clean it and cook it that morning. Unfortunately, shucking 50 ears of corn takes a long time and then the cooked corn does not hold up well in the chafing dishes. Plus, there's bound to be a bug or two in a ginormous bag of corn that we pick up from an unmanned stand in the middle of a corn field, and I hate getting all screamy about a little bug when we have guests. So this year, we are going to turn the corn into a corn salad. Still just as delicious, but we can make it in the morning, and keep it in a cold container. And I can get all screamy without freaking out any little children.

So here's the menu:
Grilled Chicken
BBQ Chicken
Hot Dogs
Baked Beans
Pesto Pasta Salad
Corn Salad
Brownies
Cupcakes

I'm making the pesto tonight from our own basil plant. I tried to find a way to use our overabundance of lettuce, but we have lots of red leaf and green leaf lettuce - very delicate and easily wilting.

I'm very excited about the addition of cupcakes to the menu this year! At an after-July 4th sale, I bought patriotic cupcake holders and little flag picks to put on them. If I had the energy (or liked licorice), I'd make these from Martha Stewart.
Or if I knew how to ice like the super genius Sprinkles bakery icers, I'd make these:But these from Martha seem more doable for me:
A few with fruit, a few with flag picks, and icing that's a little sturdies, and we have our cupcakes!

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

2009-07-08T07:38:00.006-04:00

OK, so July 4th was 5 days ago. But our July 4th concert and fireworks celebration was actually on July 2nd, anyway. Confused? Let me explain.

We headed to Veterans Park on Thursday night with our chairs, picnic blankets, and coolers full of Italian hoagies. (One day, I will have a sophisticated, well-planned picnic in the park, but that wasn't the day.) There was a rocking concert by The Nerds, who are a super awesome cover band, from about 6 to 8pm. During that time, the park was very sparsely populated, probably due to the gray clouds above and the fact that our town paper had printed the event as being on July 5th.

After having his hoagie and waiting for the place to fill up a bit, Dan walked around to shake hands and chat with the attendees. It's always fun to watch him go from group to group, because growing up in this town and having been in its politics for 10 years now, he knows most of them. So every year, this part of the evening seems to take longer, which is perfectly fine by me. This year, my brother came along for the festivities and later we were joined by our friends Ana and Tim.
While Dan was walking around, we hung out, chatted, and ate ice cream and Italian ice. Somehow, I did not get to eat funnel cake this year! The fireworks came on around 9, and it was a good show. We walked back to our car and got home around 10pm.

On July 4th itself, there was a big parade in Ewing Township. The Prospect Heights Fire Company was celebrating its 100th anniversary, so there was a big celebration up front for them. Here's one of their floats:
I love floats! They had another one with a barbershop quartet and one with a bunch of little girls dancing to "Single Ladies" wearing little wedding gowns (so cute!!!). Even though Dan walked with the elected officials, he went through the parade for a second time on the Ewing Democratic Club trolley:
All in all a great pair of July 4th celebrations! This week is all about preparing for our upcoming backyard fundraiser. I'll be blogging with details.

What'd I do? You killed the car.

2009-06-24T23:12:00.002-04:00

Over the course of several campaigns, we've run two cars into the ground. Literally. Campaigning in suburbia takes a major toll on your ride.

Yet, I love the time we spend in the car. On many days, when we come home to just crash, those few minutes while shuttling around can be the only meaningful conversation of the day. There are other times, when I don't go in for an event, and it's a chance for me to clear my thoughts and get some downtime.

Tonight, I had such an opportunity, which I used to eat dinner and stroll around a store. While eating, I got to listen to NPR and heard the final minutes of The World. I learn a lot while sitting in the car, waiting for Dan. I'm thinking about stashing a book in there, too.

Driving Mr. Candidate

2009-06-24T22:45:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the crazy rains and Fathers Day, the campaign trail has been pretty quiet up until today. Tonight made up for it - we had three stops!

Up first was a fundraiser for Wendy Sturgeon, who is running for Council in Hamilton Township. A great idea - $25 bucks a pop at JoJo's Tavern, and you get a coupon for a bar pie and a drink. Them bar pies are huge! And very delicious, I might add. She ended up getting about 75 people there, which made the place even more crowded than it was (there were Mets, Yankees, AND Phillies games on). Of course, it's easy to get excited when you have Patrice at the door:

I totally heart Patrice - she is the sweetest and most energized person ever, and she's a very good artist, too!

Our other two stops were at the Hamilton Manor and the Democratic Club meeting in East Windsor. I still haven't been inside the Manor, but Dan tells me that it is very nice inside. I just realized that they have a massive outdoor pergola, which would be very cool for a summer wedding. The Dem Club in East Windsor was packed to the gills. While Dan was there, I had a lovely dinner at Taco Bell, a yummy gelati at Rita's, and a stroll through Target.

We ended up heading back to JoJo's after East Windsor and stayed for a little while longer and said hi to some more folks. Got out before karaoke started....

What the what?

2009-06-19T07:08:00.002-04:00

So like I was saying.... The blog has a slightly different focus now. Still the same old me, except that my name and picture are out there for the world to see.

Here's what happened: I got tired of blogging. Facebook and Twitter became a lot more convenient. I'm not an entertainment critic, and I'm not Martha Stewart. But I do enjoy writing to think and to document my life.

Outside of my work, most of my life takes place on the campaign trail. I am a political spouse. It's tiring in the summer and fall, and it's nerve-racking during those first few days of November. It's also incredibly exciting to meet so many new people and experience life all around the county. Seriously, how else would we go to schlachtfest, rocket day, and the garba?

So I'll be posting photos and writing about our days now. Maybe with a little snark thrown in here and there.

I'll be back....

2009-06-18T12:40:00.002-04:00

A quick change for the blog, but nothing crazy. I'll be back in a few.