Heather McMeekan, MS

I sometimes wonder just why I'm so tired; then I think about the fact I wear many hats, as do all the great Mommies I know and love.

• Wife
• Mommy
• Friend
• Webmaster
• Girl Scout Leader
• Board Member, Macomb Feminists Network
• Board Member, Kyle David Miller Foundation
• Activist
• Advocate
• Community Organizer
• Graphic Artist
• PTO Member

I believe that it's wrong to demonize the poor; that social structures need to be in place to take care of widows, orphans, and others in need; to allow children in our country to have good food, shelter, and a right to quality healthcare; to have a livable 'minimum wage'. I believe that market structures alone are not enough to address inequities; we need legislation and oversight.

• Its wrong to refuse to pay unsupported parents so they can afford to keep their children AND raise them, instead of paying foster parents once they lose them. I believe we neet to take care of babies in the womb (hello, toxic mercury!) AND after they are born (hello, universal preschool, childcare, and afterschool!).

I'm also an advocate for children's issues; an activist; wife; a happy mother; an artist; a webmaster; a scrapbooker; a movie/theatre enthusiast; an avid reader; computer gamer (although that's been on hiatus, along with pretty much every other hobby, while my kids are young); a kite-flying afficionado (that's on hiatus as well), a fantasy role-player (also on hiatus).

Fall, 2007

Things are getting tight for us right now. Milk is over 3.50 a gallon; gas close to it. All fresh foods are a LOT higher; and it's hard to chose which food to buy with a suspicious eye that hopes it won't be recalled the day after I fix it for my family.

Yeah, I want small government, too....but government that WORKS. What we got now is a corporate controlled pale shadow of what our founding 'fathers' wanted for us.

Poison toys. OTC medicines for our children that have FINALLY been tested (after decades of being on the shelves LYING to us) only to discover that not only do they not work; they are dangerous too!

Spring, 2007: Life is Good...

for us. We have good jobs protected by strong unions. We live in a nice home. We have good insurance.

...and nationally, there is finally some accountability happening to our misleaders in Washington. The new congress is FINALLY holding hearings about all the freakin money being given to special interests instead of our soldiers and their families, the poor, the infirm.

...and Bush and Cheney and their minions are getting their just desserts. There's no joy in that statement for me. Imagine what the world COULD have been right now had they not stolen the elections.

• If they had listened to their generals
• If they had given the troops the equipment, training, and support they needed
• If they had finished the job in Afganistan

...and the mainstream media has finally decided to join the rest of the world in talking about the impending global climate disaster as its already in progress. Way to go. Only took...what? Oh...7 years.

Fall, 2006: I have hope that my children have a chance at a future now. Why? Because now that the science-hating ultra-right wingnuts are ousted from our senate and houses, scientists will be able to be funded, supported, and listened to with regards to tackling the environmental crisis that threatens EVERYTHING.

I have felt, for the first time since becoming a mother, that my children actually have a chance for a long life now. For the first time...and Iris is 5 years old.

Now comes the hard part...getting to work on all the problems hidden/ignored the past 5 years.

What a big f'in mess. Hope all the idiots who voted for Bush/Cheney feel the shame they deserve.

Summer, 2006: I'm finally settling into my new life as a professional, full-time webmaster. I really love my job...it's a great gig. I loved my other job, too, but the new scale has completely changed our lives and our future. We'll be able to look for a house next year sometime, especially once we only have one child in daycare.

We're FINALLY going to be getting high-speed internet. Look out world!

August, 2006

I found out that I'm also allergic to the earth and trying to come to terms with having to eat without eggs, dairy, sesame seeds, oranges, cucumbers, and several other things I used to enjoy until my system got so screwed up my hair fell out, I had a permanent fever, and stopped being able to sleep EVER.

Funny...I used to think I was just lactose intolerant and had irritable bowel sydrome all my life, and turns out I have a true allergy. Got the bloodwork back and expected to only be allergic to cantaloupe, and ta-daa...shock. So, for all of you who think it's just irritable bowel, see an allergist if you're not getting relief. Turns out if you keep flooding your GI tract with something you're allergic to, eventually your adreanal glands get worn out trying to flood your system with the immune responders. Who'd a thunk it? ;> ...and for the first time in my life, I don't have stomachaches all day anymore.

UPDATE 8/06: I'm adjusting to life without dairy/egg products. I still have bread, but limit it. Still have the fever, often running close to 101 by the end of the day until I rest for 20 minutes or so, but the GI symptoms are so much better than they ever have been in my adult life.

Of course, it's a pain in the you-know-what to have to ask any restaurant or drive through to not put that dairy in. Or to give me a bun without seeds. So, this week, I'm going back to making all our food. Our waistlines and budget will be better. We had slipped this past year for convenience. It was one year ago that we let the kids have 'fast food' for the first time (other than occasional sharing from friends/family), and thankfully they still don't like it. So we'll be quitting that to make healthier fare.

Found a funny, but true account about being married to a geek....http://www.electric-escape.net/

Whats On My Mind in Aug, 2006

• Missing my Grandma, who just passed away. Not that I'd been able to see her over the years, but still, the idea that she truly is gone. Can't believe it.
• Looking towards this semester with measured optimism about what the neighborhood will be like. It seems that most of the cruddy rentals around us are still sitting empty, or have been purchased by parents who have been fixing them up! So we hope there won't be as much noise, trash, etc. this year
• Looking forward to the heat of summer being gone so we can take the kids to the park more

About this site

This is my new space. New look. New rants. Same neurotic need to produce useless drivel for nobody at all, just therapeutic typing when insomnia takes hold.

I'm pretty happy these days. Life is really good for us.

My hubby, kids are healthy & happy. We're adjusting to living in the new right wing economy, which means as part of the rapidly going down middle class:

• we don't travel even for day trips
• a much greater percentage of our income goes for medicine, gas, food, and local/state taxes, and to supporting agencies forgotten by the fools in Washington which help our community, such as our schools & food pantries
• many of our friends and family members are similarly less-well off so we don't hear from or see them much
• the chances of our children being able to attend, much less graduate from college has gone down dramatically despite my new job

Ah, I remember with nostalgia the 90's, when America was well-thought by our allies, education was better funded, health-care was affordable, gas was reasonable. What could have happened?