Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day canning tomatoes. It is something my family has always done. It helps to keep our Italian heritage alive. Of course,it was turned into a comedy of error of sorts... (what in my life doesn't turn into this???) My mom gave herself 2nd degree burns on her fingers, I sliced my hand open, and we had a seriously constipated baby that wouldn't nap toddling around. But, never-the-less, we canned those tomatoes with great gusto so we will be able to enjoy truly homemade spaghetti sauce throughout the year! The day always brings me back to when my grandparents on my mom's side were alive and we would can in their basement. It was your typical Italian-American basement with giant photos of their three kids making their 1st communions on the wall. A map of where the family is from in Italy, a bar with a faux-wood formica top, a display case with various chotchki's in it, and of course a second kitchen/laundry room/wine cellar. It had a distinct smell that I will always remember. It was AWESOME!!! What I wouldn't give to be back in that basement, with my grandpa who still had his Italian accent, my 4 foot tall grandma with orange hair, my aunts and uncles, and all of us kids, all talking loudly. My dad (the only tall blond Polish guy in the room) would be carrying the bushels in from the truck outside, then the tomatoes would be set out on the folding tables, my grandma's sister, Auntie Anna, would be teaching us kids how to cut the tomato the right way, my grandma would be running around doing various things, my grandpa would be yelling at my grandma about how all she was doing was just running around (hahaha!!) and when the canning was done, we would have dinner. I ALWAYS wanted spaghetti, but not on this day, usually it was pizza. These are the things that keep families together. These are the things that make us remember where we came from. These are the things that matter.

I am not very happy with the way things are going in our country these days. With election time just around the corner, I wish I could sit each and every candidate down to say this one and very important thing: STOP WITH THE NEGATIVE ADS!!! I mean seriously, if you cannot win an election without advertising how Johnny democrat is a baby killing illegal alien lover, or how Joey republican is a fear mongering lower class hater, than you should not be running for office. Is it too much to ask of our public servants for them to give us some real ideas on how they plan to fix the mess they have all gotten us into in the first place?? There's a ginormous deficit, how about all elected officials take a substantial pay cut, or how about they don't spend money they don't have! I am sickened by how many of our politicians are outright millionaire's when all they have ever done is politics! I mean really, what is up with that?? And how can they expect the general public to act financially responsible if they don't set a good example? The way they throw billion dollar bills around like it's no big deal is nauseating. I mean really, WE DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO SPEND!! Thank God China isn't like Citibank or else the country would have been foreclosed upon long ago... And another thing, I am just so sick and tired of the blame game. Get over it already. So the economy was a mess when you came into office, so what! What matters is what you are going to do about it, or what you have done about it. And from what I can tell, I haven't seen much done. I cannot stomach another person saying something about Bush. He has been out of office for 2 years now, let's move on. As you can tell I am not very excited about our government. There is so many things wrong with it, it's not even funny, and everyone who gets elected talks a big talk about how they are going to change things and then nothing happens. I do not care if you are republican, democrat, independent, blue, green, black, white, or yellow, the only thing that matters to me is what your plan is. When is everyone going to realize this same thing?? The train is moving people, you better get on board!