wake-up call

Maya has been waking up earlier and earlier every day. This morning it was 4 a.m. with a small rest in the bed until 4:25.

All I can say is that I think I might lose my mind if this moves to the 3 o'clock hour.

The one saving grace is TiVo. I catch up on my daytime TV while I try to unplug my eyelids, gather up the necessary sippy cup and Cheerios to sustain some long range plans for snuggling in the recliner. And then Oprah, Ellen, Maya and I all sit down to visit. And two pots of tea.

I knew I hadn't had much sleep when the tears started. I was watching an Oprah episode about a mom of three who had been in jail for stealing and getting high on heroin. She was about to be reunited with her kids after a 900 day incarceration. I cried like she was returning home from war or from a close-call operation. I cried like I related to her, as though I could find myself in this situation with my kids not really knowing who I am.

Then I remembered that I don't shoot heroin and that, unless it becomes a felony to eat too many chocolate chips on a spoon with peanut butter, I will probably not lose my kids.

On to bigger and better things...President Obama's announcement of the Supreme Court Judicial Nominee, Sonya Sotomayor. I am feeling happy and proud of this woman, a 54-year-old Puerto Rican who has worked her life for this honor. Then the President starts talking about how her parents came here with nothing, her father had a 3rd grade education and they lived in the housing projects in the Bronx. Oh, boy... Her dad died when she was a kid and her mom worked two jobs to support she and her brother, buying them the only set of Encyclopedias on the block.

Then Judge Sotomayor speaks and I come unglued. She says, "I sit on the shoulders of countless people, yet there is one extraordinary person who is my life aspiration. That person is my mother. I am all that I am because of her."

The lady from jail thanked her mom for caring for her kids during her imprisonment. The judge is thanking her mom for a her supreme court nomination. Apples and oranges but moms are moms.

And this one has been up since 4 a.m.

I better get a shout out when my girls are giving their Oscar acceptance speeches or winning Wimbleton.