The Obamas welcome Cameron to the world

We had a wonderful trip to Hilton Head this past weekend to visit with my parents. I am in the process of downloading and editing the 800+ photos. We went a little crazy with the continuous shooting mode on my camera. But we got some great shots that I will be sharing over the next few days.

In the meantime, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a note from the Obamas welcoming Cameron into the world. A few months ago I sent in a letter to the White House with her birth date and our address. I had read online that you can do this within a year of your baby's birth and receive a signed note from the President and his wife.

The card reads, "Welcome to the world! Your arrival is a cause for great celebration for your proud family. We wish you a long an happy life filled with chances to learn, ideas to explore, people to love, and dreams to fulfill. Sincerely, Barack Obama / Michelle Obama"

I think I'm going to put it in a picture frame and hang it on her wall. If anyone else is interested in receiving your own congratulations, you can find directions here.

Why don't you pick the lint from my pocket while you are at it?

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about my grandfather's death. I won't be able to make it back for the funereal so it really helps. Mommy, Esq. also has some great photos of him on her blog so check it out if you haven't already.

While on vacation for two weeks I have been out of the loop. Not just with work related matters but also with the news, both local and national. As I've written before I am a bit of a news junky. I love my NPR! I was listening to the news on Sunday and found out that our sales tax is increasing from 7.25% to 8.25% today. Um, hello?!? A 13% increase on our sales tax?!? I already think it is ridiculous how much we pay in sales tax because I'm more used to the 5.5% from Massachusetts. Not to mention that our school system is still pretty terrible so where the heck is the money going? Plus, aren't we in a recession? Is raising taxes really the right thing to do...why am I being punished because the state can't balance the budget? Grrrr.

So let's take the increase in sales tax, add to it state income tax, federal income tax and county tax. Yes, I'm looking at almost 50% of my paycheck running off to taxes. At least state and federal income tax comes out of my paycheck before I see it so it's not as painful. But the sales tax hits the bottom line, post income tax. Remind me again why I voted for the Democratic ticket? How about the rest of you? Have you seen any similar increases?

Settling in and hodgepodge of other topics

It's only Wednesday and I'm already exhausted. It's mostly because I should have foreseen picking up the cold that Cameron has. It really should have occurred to me by the sixth time she sneezed all over me. Because I'm back at work I have to save every brain cell for my job rather than coming up with entertaining blog posts. And I need to remember a million and one new passwords. Single sign on is a joke. If it really worked my phone, Blackberry, VPN and computer passwords should all be the same. And security wonders why we have to write passwords down.

It hasn't been as hard to "turn my brain on" as I thought it would be. It helps that I am still on my old team so the technical knowledge I acquired on my last project translates pretty well. The biggest challenge? Learning all the new players. And I'm terrible with names. I have a problem even remembering the names of the kids in Cameron's class. By the way, there is another kid in her class with the name Mr. That's it. Mister. M-r followed by a period. I actually asked the assistant director about it because I thought it was a privacy thing. Nope. Just crazy parents. Aside from learning all the new players I actually have to learn their voices too. Most teams at BigFinance are virtual. I worked with people for over a year and never met them in person. Sometimes it's nice when there is another woman on the phone (I work with 90% men) because at least I can pick her out! Of course that means everyone recognizes my voice and can address me by name while I flounder around trying to pin down who is who.

Is it sad that this morning I forgot my lunch and I was actually relieved it wasn't something more important like my pump? I now have to remember so many more things when I go to and from work. I can't just pick up my purse and computer and head out the door. BigFinance has a great room that I've been using to "do my business." That's my new code phrase for pumping. A. thinks it sounds like I'm going to poop. So if anyone has a better term, let me know. The room has a couch, a fridge and a lock on the door. Of course now I think of it as "my" room and get annoyed when the security guard is in there eating her lunch. But really she should be using the lunch room, not the wellness room. Other than her I haven't seen anyone else using the room.

It looks like we are heading toward another drought in Charlotte. It's been almost 3 weeks of 90+ degree weather and not a drop of rain. We have an irrigation system but it doesn't get everything and hand watering is just a pain.

How dumb can the soon-to-be former Governor of South Carolina be? I feel for his wife. The dumb ass actually said that his Argentinian mistress is his soul mate but he is trying to fall back in love with his wife. That poor woman should kick him to the curb.

The Democrats officially have 60 seats in the Senate now that Al Frankin has been declared the winner in Minnesota. That majority means the Democrats are officially filibuster-proof. I wonder if that will actually be much of a political weapon for them. There are conservative Democrats just like there are moderate Republicans. Not to mention Senators who have to take their specific state interests into consideration when voting on legislation.

Feel free to weigh in on any or all of the topics I've nattered on about here. I promise a more thorough debriefing of my first week back and Cameron pictures in a few days.

Friday Round Up

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store on my way home to pick up a few things. I was feeling really run down so I took at advantage of the expectant mothers/parents with children spots. It wasn't my usual grocery store so it took me longer to find the items I needed (why isn't every grocery store set up exactly the same way?) increasing my annoyance level. I waddled (yes by the end of the day now I'm waddling, or at least lurching about a bit more) back to the car. While putting the groceries in the backseat I saw a 17 year old kid getting out of his car in one of the same spots! I gave him a dirty look and he looked directly back at me while fiddling with something in his car. I finally said, "You have a kid hiding somewhere in there?" He said, with a shit eating grin, "Nope," and headed off to do his errand. Grrrr. It made me so mad! Especially because there were open spots just one or two cars away! It's not like he had to walk from blocks away. The only good thing is that he left his headlights on so I can only hope karma sent him a dead battery.

Work has been pretty stressful this week and I've officially hit the third trimester fatigue on top of it. DH has been wonderful doing most of the cooking. All I want to do is collapse on the couch when I get home. I am working from home today and might increase the number of days over the next 7 weeks. My chair at work is becoming my enemy. By the end of the day I feel very uncomfortable and I think the baby is totally smooshed. At least at home I can go from a nice padded chair to a couch if I need to. Now if only I can stop dreaming about work at night. I feel like I'm working 24x7 with that!

DH submitted our taxes last weekend and we should be getting a nice chunk of change back from the federal and state governments. Good thing since BigFinance isn't giving bupkis for bonuses this year (and why exactly does Wall Street get to give out ridiculous amounts of money?). We'll probably save most of it but we are going to have a landscape architect come out this weekend to draw up some plans for our backyard so we might help stimulate the economy too. Last year we used a tax guy and DH ran his own numbers. The guy didn't get us any more money than we could have if we did it ourselves. Not having sold any stock or made any complicated financial moves, DH did our taxes for us this year. The only crappy part is that we couldn't deduct interest from my student loans because of our income bracket. I question the government on that regulation. Isn't student loan interest the same as owning a house? Interest is interest! No wonder some students are fleeing the country rather than paying back their loans. Regardless, taxes are not hard. So why the hell are so many politicians getting nailed for not filing taxes?

My recommendation for those tax filer procrastinators is to file early and file online. It is less than 10 business days to get a refund if you file online well in advance of the 4/15 deadline. DH and I use Turbo Tax and they do everything for you. A piece of cake. I do think it's a bit of a rip off that you can't file online without using one of those software packages but I don't run the world like I should :-)

Happy Friday, everyone! It feels as though it was a long time coming this week. The weather is finally warming back up in Charlotte and I'm looking forward to a productive yet lazy weekend. I plan on dragging DH to lots of stores for baby related purchases. It's time to help get the economy moving again.

Random Tuesday thoughts

Did you all hear about the octuplets born in California yesterday? Now, as a multiple myself, I can't really judge the family but let me try anyway. It is extremely unlikely that fertility treatments were not involved in this situation. By continuing with a pregnancy that has 8 fetuses (yes, one was a surprise but even 7 is very dangerous), the family has guaranteed that one or more of the children will have serious health issues over most of their lives. Weights ranged from 1 pound 8 ounces up to 3 pounds 4 ounces. I have to wonder at the quality of life for those children. However, with that said, I do love to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 (twins and sextuplets) and think that their family is functional, loving and healthy. So who knows?

President Obama is in the process of redefining democracy in America. He built a huge database of voters when campaigning for president and plans to leverage that as he rolls out his initiatives. Needless to say, the Senate and House have come out against this as they don't want phone calls, emails and letters from their constituents over the next 4+ years. But I believe as the Internet has proliferated America, it has changed the way we consume information. I am a much better informed voter today than even 5 years ago thanks to real time news dissemination. So why not weigh in on more of the legislation that is being proposed? Does this mean our future could result in direct voting on issues rather than a representative government? Depends on whether we can employ real time voting or if people have the desire to be that involved in government at all levels.

Layoffs, layoffs and more layoffs. Like many of you, the last "recession" I lived through was during the Internet bubble collapse in 2000 and 2001. But at the time I was living in Boston with two roommates, had a decent job at SmallResearch and was close to family. So basically I didn't have any of the pressures I have now being pregnant, a home owner and major income contributor. I feel as though I add significant value to BigFinance with the work I perform but I am nowhere close to the level needed to understand what hiring/firing decisions are being made. This is definitely a scary time. I just have to keep reminding myself that our parents lived through quite a few of these cycles and everything worked out.

I am still inspired by the heroic actions of Captain "Sully" Sullenberger to put Flight 1549 down in the Hudson safely. I have devoured every piece of news on him and the situation. Usually when I first hear "heroic" news, I am immediately suspicious. How altruistic really were the actions? I think I watch too much TV with its twists and turns. It has warped my brain. But I never felt that way about Flight 1549. I understand why Sully couldn't talk to the press immediately after the accident (regulations and all) but I never felt like he would be anything other than a hero. What would really turn my stomach is if the passengers come out as money grubbing a**holes. It was an accident, and fortunately not a tragic one. It's not like they ended up on a remote island for 180 days and escaped death and destruction. Wait, wrong show...

She's tough, but don't we have to be these days?

On Sunday night DH and I watched the 60 Minutes interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. It was great to see the two of them interacting because I haven't seen that often during the campaign.

One question that came up was the chores that Barack has to do when he's at home. He claimed that he found washing dishes to be relaxing. Michelle laughed and said, "No you don't. You do not like to wash dishes."

DH: She's tough.
Me: Well, yeah, she has to be. She's been the bread winner and primary care giver for the past decade.
DH: True.

What is interesting to me is that Michelle Obama was insistent that she will be focused on settling their daughters. She has made no mention of taking a more active role in the administration like Hilary did. Her only mention of additional work was getting involved in charities.

What do you think? As a Harvard Law School grad, senior executive, wife and mother, should Michelle stick with the "standard" First Lady role? Or can she succeed where Hilary failed?

Congratulations, now get to work

I managed to stay up until 9:30 PM last night (pathetic, I know) and went to bed with a solid Obama lead in the electorate count. I dreamt about his win for most of the night so when nature called at 2:30 AM I decided to jump on DH's computer. All I looked at was the lead story on CNN, "Obama's Victory Speech" smiled, closed the computer and went back to bed.

I've been voting in Presidential elections since I was first able to in 1996. But that makes me somewhat unusual. This election saw first time voters in numbers that boggle the mind. I am proud of the country for stepping up and doing its civic duty (although why it took two terms of Bush for this to happen is another story). I think that Obama's use of the Internet to get out the vote was inspired and helped secure a big popular vote win on top of the landslide for the electorate win. The American political system can be confusing, no?

While NC has yet to have an official electorate call (12,000 votes separate Obama and McCain and I am predicting Obama will get it) the rest of the state went Democrat. For the first time in the history of the state we have a Democrat senator and governor. Yes, the other senator is still a Republican. I think that the North Carolina results speak to the results of the rest of the country. Like 1992 when Clinton was elected to office, Obama has a majority in the Senate and House.

So, what does that mean for Obama? It means he needs to hit the ground running. I heard on the radio this morning that a Chief of Staff should be announced today which is a step in the right direction. I read an interesting book a few years ago, Eyewitness To Power. Its author, David Gergen, argued that Clinton wasted his first 100 days in office. It is those first 100 days that set a tone for the presidency. Clinton, in my opinion was able to recover and win the next election. I don't think that Obama has that luxury. The economy is in such poor shape that the country is looking for a decisive leader. By giving the Democrats the Legislature and the Executive branches we are saying, "Now get to work."

He needs to make sure that the Democratic party doesn't get distracted by infighting. He needs to leverage his good will and start working for new legislation immediately following his inaugural speech. That means he needs to be spending the next few "lame duck" months building his team and prepping the House and Senate. I think he can do it. I've been very impressed with Senator Obama over the past 9 months. Sure, I would have preferred Hilary but it is unlikely she would have received the same mandate as Obama.

What about the rest of you? What do you think Obama should be doing until January and for his first 100 days as president? Also, does anyone know the word on Proposition 8 from California? I can't find the result on the LA Times.

Living in a battleground state

During the Democratic primary Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton called my house several times asking for my vote. Considering that the North Carolina primary wasn't until May, it was nice to feel wanted. A long, drawn out battle for the nomination worked in our favor. I doubt that will happen again as most primary elections are wrapped up in the first few months of a campaign. McCain didn't bother to call as he was the assured front-runner for the Republican party.

I was tickled to receive the recorded messages as that has never happened to me before. What could explain this wealth of exposure to candidates? It could be argued that this is the first time I've had a home phone during a presidential election year. Or that the first thing I did when I got to this lovely red state was register. Or maybe that for the first time in my voting life I don't live in a state where the outcome is entirely predictable (yes, I'm looking at you Massachusetts). But really, I think it all comes down to one thing. I live in a battleground state.

For the past several weeks we have been bombarded by calls from Senator Obama's campaign. Michelle Obama left us a voice mail the other day. Little old ladies called asking us to be sure and vote early. Young college students wanted to know if Obama could count on our vote. It was inspiring to think of the logistics that went into organizing the campaign in North Carolina. Joe Biden will begin a tour of the state in Charlotte today. Sarah Palin visited the rural areas (ahem, the "real" America) and told us that Obama was friends with a terrorist so we should vote for McCain.

Obama has stopped by Charlotte at least 5 times over the past 6 months. McCain? Zilch so far. The state has gone Republican for the presidential race consistently. Interestingly a Democrat usually wins the Governor's mansion even though the state leans Republican. In Charlotte, probably one of the most liberal areas of the state, we have a Republican mayor running for Governor.

This year is particularly exciting because the state could go Democrat. I love that my vote counts. Yes, intellectually I am aware that every vote counts (well, not really because of the elecorate but that's a whole other issue) but when you have lived in Massachusetts during a John Kerry race, it is pretty obvious that the home senator is going to take the state. I think Obama's campaign is being smart by getting peope out to vote early. The more votes being cast early, the sooner everyone will know where the state is going. But that raises the question, does early voting influence voting on election day? I haven't heard any statistics yet and I'm an NPR junky. But early voting is a fairly new concept. It will be interesting to see how that pans out over the next set of elections.

So far Obama is up by at least 3 points in every poll I've seen for North Carolina. With the margin of error typically at 5% that means the state could go either way. It would be so cool if North Carolina's 15 electoral votes decide the entire race. Take that, Florida! I am mailing my absentee ballot next week. And will be reassured that for this election, at least, my vote will count.

Into everyone's life a little bad economy must fall

I was either extremely fortunate or psychic to pick my BigFinance firm coming out of B-school. I'm going to go with my predictive powers just because I can pat myself on the back that way :-) I am also fortunate that I work in transitions (aka acquisitions) so there will be plenty of work for me over the next 18-24 months. So while the other BigFinance here is not doing so well I should remain gainfully employed. A definite factor when considering I will be taking maternity leave at the end of March!

But, like the rest of you, I'm sure, I have not been so lucky with my financial portfolio. It's not like I don't expect to work for another 30 (eek!) years but losing 1/4 of my retirement savings is making me nervous. I know, I know, the market is awful for everyone...but it makes me feel like the past 7 years of savings was for naught. I should have just taking the cash and put it into CDs! Yes, Mommy's Esq Husband, I know that it's better to put it into the market, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

The last big market blip for our generation was the Internet bubble bursting. I survived 4 layoffs at SmallResearch and I was even in sales at the time. Husband is still there and it doesn't sound like there are going to be any immediate layoffs. But the last blip didn't affect the overall soundness of the market. I never felt like things were spiraling out of control. And that's what is particularly scary about this credit crisis. I am far from a financial expert (even with B-school) but I do know if banks can't lend to each other we are going down a path we may not be able to recover from. The delta between the Fed rate and LIBOR (what banks use to lend money to each other) is 3.5% when usually it is lest than 1%. That is a huge swing and indicates that banks are leery of the financial stability of other banks. Not good. Interestingly, financial firms pressured the government to allow deregulation and now we are in serious trouble. Hopefully the recent consolidations and failures will slow down and the market can start to correct itself. But until there are buyers for the iffy mortgage backed securities, there will be no market correction. The politicking with the package proposed by the Treasury Secretary is driving me nuts. The economy needs the bailout. It's that simple. Do I want to be paying for others' mistakes with my taxes? Heck no. But better that than even more bank failures and job losses.

One thing we have to keep in mind is that money is still really cheap. Yes, really! Think about it. When our parents first bought their houses in the late 70s or early 80s, they were paying interest rates in the double digits! Can you imagine paying a mortgage with 17% interest? No way DH and I would be living where we are now if that was the case. Of course, home prices were a lot lower then too, commiserate with the higher interest rates. So now people expect low interest rates which is why everyone freaks out when the Fed raises rates. But if it wasn't for cheap credit, people wouldn't have interest only loans and the rate of default wouldn't be as high!

Ok, enough of my financial rant. Like I said, I am far from an expert on this. I can only hope that the market corrects itself in the next 2-3 years (yes, I think it will take that long) and I stop losing so much in my portfolio!

DH and I have not noticeably cut back on expenses yet. We haven't been worrying about losing our jobs or not being able to pay for the baby supplies. What about the rest of you? How nervous are you? What about your parents who have to be close to retirement (if not already there)?