The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

Ok, I'm like any other mom, I enjoy my kids, it is great to have them around for two weeks. I've had a kick out of listening to their banter, watch them play games, engage them in stories while we baked cookies, and of course, watching their delight with their presents. Yet, to a point, enough is enough. Take my teenage son, for example. He managed to sleep most of the first week of Christmas break, thus escape cleaning up, despite my threats and occasionally hits with a wooden spoon to rouse his sleeping form from the sofa. All this while my husband managed to be with his best friend and best man at our wedding until well after midnight on Christmas Eve. I wanted to be gracious since his friend's cousin is very ill. Yet, when he sauntered in and it was close to 2am, I had already been up cooking, baking, and prepping for the equivalent of two days. I was not in a happy mood. Then there are my two beautiful daughters. Between their screaming and excitement, they hav...

My youngest son and middle child just walked out the door with his red & black backpack, that cost me $40 in the middle-of-the-semester, secured firmly on his back. The padded shoulder straps and back padded panel assure me that he will not have muscle fatigue carrying his books to school on THE LAST DAY OF FINALS. I can sip my morning French Press with a sigh of relief and hope for better days to come. My son is a freshman in high school. He is fourteen years old. Enough said right there. It has been one arduous journey through first semester and today is THE LAST DAY OF FINALS!!!!! I feel like doing the Snoopy happy dance. This is the brilliant but scatterbrained son whose first backpack came to a tragic end under the weight of disorganization. It just wouldn't zip up anymore so I made a trek to Target to the luggage section to find him as close to the top-of-the-line, make-it-through-high-school back pack I could find. I wanted to make sure he entered finals week full...

So I was thinking about the plummeting demise of our economy and the mean-spiritedness of the Republicans. See, they want the UAW destroyed, they want the American middle class destroyed and they want a return to the feudal "lords and ladies of the manor" of the 15th Century when the first settlers were kicked out of England and landed here. I have always believed the problem with white American greed ties directly to the history of England. They want to be little kings and queens, hence the obsession with British royalty. I believe this obsession is why big is never big enough, why we have the Madoff scandal, why Blago just can't seem to get enough, why we are in this economic crisis in the first place. So the Republicans want to make the average worker pay for the mismanagement and excess of the CEOS. They want the worker, the ones that actually do the building, to give up salary, benefits, cost of living, etc. to be in line with the subsidized southern non-unioniz...

As if I couldn't get any angrier at the Bush Administration and the Republicans, they just made me fuming mad. And I'm not even in the auto industry, other than Michigan being the home state of my dad's family. I don't know anyone, that I can think of in the auto industry, although there is a plant in nearby Fenton. Yesterday the Senate failed to pass a bailout for the Big Three. Now, don't get me wrong, I was just as mad as anyone by the CEOs of Ford, Chrysler, and GM flying separate corporate jets to Washington DC to ask for this help. That was just a very dumb PR move. They needed me on their staff then to tell them to get their behinds in a fuel-efficient mini van with all three of them taking turns driving, stack all their luggage in the back, and get a double room in the Hilton. They could flip coins to see who would get the let out sofa, the other two would each get a bed. That is how you show your business is in trouble and you need help. And they pr...

The other day I told my husband there was really nothing I needed for Christmas. Oh, I have wants, we all tend to have those things we want, but even then, there is nothing I am really salivating over this year. I thought about skipping Christmas. Much like Luther and Nora Krank in John Grisham's book of the same name. Except there isn't a proposed Caribbean cruise in my future. The idea of skipping the entire commercial aspects of what is really a spiritual, family time, still intrigues me. My mind gets overwhelmed with the Sunday paper filled to overflowing with more and more discounts. I can't turn on the television without an ad promising peace and joy if I just bought one item or another. My marketing background has made me jaded when it comes to these messages and I pride myself on not falling for them. Yet, I thought about what would happen if we just skipped the whole thing and maybe made gifts. The children have never been materialistic. They have received...

I found a lovely new bookstore in Webster Groves, Mo. It is called Pudd'N'Head Books and is owned by an attorney-turned-entrepreneur named Nikki. She came home from Brooklyn and has set up shop in the Old Orchard area of this quaint little town. The bookstore and I met each other through a tiny little ad placed in our local paper, The Webster-Kirkwood Times . I was intrigued because like my coffee, I love independent bookstores. My youngest daughter and I made a trek out there one cold afternoon just before Thanksgiving. I was pleasantly surprised to see just what I wanted. There were books, books, and more books. Not a magazine or journal or newspaper in sight! She has a great kids section and even a cozy seating area. She captured my heart when, tucked behind the generous counter, is a mini coffee bar! She makes a mean mocha and even named a drink after my daughter Keziah who requested caramel in her hot apple cider. The non-caffeine drinkers can be happy with ...

My teenage son is sick. He became ill last night with the nasty part of the flu/cold virus circulating around faster than the dollar bills in the deep discounts current retail market. This is the face-in-the-bucket sick that has left this normally hyper, chipper, talkative, bubbly teenager looking more like a limp biscuit. He could only take a couple sips of water and moan something of a response. He is missing school most of this week. I woke him up from his illness-induced-sleep to move from this sofa to take a shower. He moaned as I helped him up the stairs. I thought he'd be okay when he rallied around 3pm to move from the loneliness of his bed to the comfortable noise of the family room. His sisters could've put lipstick or wigs on him and he wouldn't have noticed. Once I tip-toe walked with him and gingerly climbed the stairs, teenage modesty took over and he assured me he could shower himself. After a few minutes and me putting fresh sheets on his bed, he stuck...

My reaction to the sit-in factory workers in Chicago is "right on." My reaction to President-elect Obama's statement of support of those same factory workers is "I'm so proud I campaigned for you! I'm so proud you put the walk in the talk!" I believe we are headed for a serious economic situation and an equally unprecedented rising up of previously complacent Americans. I've watched in horror and dismay at all the financial powerhouses crumbling followed by the auto industry flying in on a corporate jet with their hat-in-hand for a bailout. This is at the same time as I recently learned a mom of a freshman at my son's high school was laid off back in October. Even as I co-organize a group of St. Louis County Obama Supporters to give to local food pantries, the Merrill Lynch CEO, Mr. Thain, is demanding a $10 MILLION bonus for destroying the company. His rationale, "it would've been worse." Give me a break. Tell that to the peo...

What is it about winter illness that makes one want to just cuddle up under a warm blanket, sip a vanilla soy latte (me) or herbal tea or hot chocolate and then shut out the rest of the world? And what makes the winter cold more gross than the summer cold? Do the flu viruses and cold viruses just watch for that first frost to descend like gang-busters on unsuspecting victims? Are they quiet partners and shareholders of all the orange juice, Kleenex, and Vicks Vapor Rub companies? Do they have a lock on the Mrs. Meyers Lavender Cleaners, Viva papertowels, and O'Cello sponges? My family is sick. From the top to the bottom. The only one spared the sniffles, sneezes, and spasmodic coughs have been Joshua and Keziah. Maybe there is a special fortitude in the youngest son and the youngest daughter. He is at school today and she is dancing while I am surrounded by my linebacker-sized husband who became ill late last night, and my first-grade daughter home for a second day from sc...