Another miscellany

A quiet couple of days. Yesterday I didn't even wash my hair (which makes me look awful) or put on makeup. Jacob amused me until about 10:30--at one point he rolled out my yoga mat, and when I told him that was what I exercised on, he began to do these funny exercises, hands and feet on the floor and raising one foot at a time or doing what looked like a clearly abortive cartwheel. I missed Meet the Press because we were watching The Mermaid, but I later heard McCain called Texas a battleground state. I wish! 'Fraid it's not true. My neighborhood is peppered with McCain/Palin signs but all the Obama signs have disappeared--someone with too little respect and too much time on their hands. I heard it was teenage or young college girls.
Tonight I am particularly upset about the murder of Jennifer Hudson's family. I know if she were not a celebrity, we wouldn't have heard a word. But I saw statistics tonight that there are more murders per capita in Chicago than New York or I think it was Detroit. I grew up on the South Side of Chicago--and I mean inner city, 51st Street in the Kenwood neighborhod. I never spent a night alone in our house until I was well past grown--if my parents left town, I went two doors down to the neighbors who had become adopted aunt and uncle. I tell people I'm a scaredy-cat because of that upbringing. My mom and I used to sleep on the screened-in porch in the summer, but she had hung waist-high curtains to conceal my cot, and I was never allowed to talk if there was someone on the street.
I don't know where the Hudson home is, but I'm curious. I know domestic violence like that occurs all the time, in Fort Worth as well as Chicago and every other city, but the abduction and murder of the young nephew is particulrly upsetting. I simply can't imagine what the surviving family members are going through. And the worst is, it happens all the time. It just doesn't often make the national headlines. It makes me though a little uncertain about writing books about murders--seems just a bit callous.
I'm getting in the holiday mood. I always go through this "Will I or won't I?" phase about my annual no-tree tree trimming party but last night I decided I would--I've been in a bit of the doldrums and the energy of planning and cooking would be good for me. So I picked a date, emailed it to some family and close friends, and of course Jordan immediately wrote back to say "Wrong!" They'll be in Dallas celebrating their anniversary. Back to the drawing board. I like the idea of an open house on Saturday at 5 p.m. because folks that have more festive plans can go on and those that don't can linger here. I have a good start on Christmas shopping and I hope when everyone's here at Thanksgiving they'll help decorate.