proud American in Canada
Since Jul 12, 2001

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I am 57, will be 58 in October, a white conservative woman who lives in Canada but was raised in Chicago. I just really love my country, where my two children were born, in Denver Colorado.

When I first moved there, I think often of the John Denver song, Rocky Mountain High, I think these are the quotes: He was born in summer of his 27th year, coming home to a place he’d never been before. He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again.

That is exactly how I felt, moving there. When my Canadian husband told me that he had a job offer at the crtc, the Canadian equivalent of the FCC, I really felt like he had just punched me in the stomach. It was physical and I am not kidding, like a sucker punch to the belly. I could barely breathe. He moved up early to go to his job, while I stayed back to prepare the house for sale and take care of an 18 month old girl and 4 year old boy.

Years before, I had to convince my husband to buy this house for $33,000. The first year we had a drive-by shooting next door, and there was a little girl, probably around two, who was wandering around the backyard amongst weeds that were taller than she was. Needless to say I called social services. I helped create a neighbourhood association; every Saturday, we would go out and paint over and clean up the graffiti on the playground. Eventually the gangsters got fed up and moved elsewhere. We put in a fence, a rose garden and a stone patio in the back. Little by little, the neighbourhood got better and by the time I eventually sold it while my husband was in Canada, I got $114,000 for it. Last I heard, the property was worth a million. It is in walking distance from downtown Denver. It is really lovely. I am going to have to see with Google Earth what it looks like now. If I can find a link I will post it here.

I have voted in every election since I turned eighteen, in 1980. I asked my father for whom I should vote, and he said Ronald Reagan. So I did. I have never regretted that decision for sure. I also voted very happily for GW, but became a little disillusioned over time. When 9/11 happened, I really think we should have invested all that money in technology here and in Canada, not continue to pour money into Saudi Arabia. If we can dry up the funds of Saudi Arabia, we dry up terrorism. I was at the bank when we got news that the second plane hit the towers. I said to the teller, you do realize this means war do you not? She looked completely stunned. I said to her, if America is attacked on her own soil, whoever did it, will pay many times over. No one will ever get away with attacking America on her own soil. And truly that is why Emperor Hirohito refused to invade the U.S. by land. He said, if we do that, there will be an armed American behind every blade of grass. And of course he was right, which is why I am a huge Second Amendment fan.

Stupid English Canadians just do not get it. They want peace at all costs kind of like Chamberlain. Well,I would say, as Thomas Jefferson did, I believe, that The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.

I have always had dogs, from our lovely Samoyed husky Sam, short for Samantha, to Patches, a mix that sadly died from an epileptic problem. My sister and I were watching TV and he was between us. All of a sudden he stood up, straight as a board, and fell over. Cannot remember exactly what happened after that but, he later choked and died on his own vomit. Then we had Buffy, short for Lady Buffington of some such place LOL. She was a golden retriever and I taught her how to retrieve the newspaper at the end of the driveway and she did it faithfully every single day, well after we moved out, until the day she died. Then, upon moving to Aylmer Quebec, we got Claudius, who we named for the emperor. We were watching a historical series on TV at the time. Claudy would sit patiently next to me while I made dinner. I would always fry up the meat fat for him. LOL

Finally as he got older, I saw he was walking on the tops of his back paws. The vet said he was knuckling-under. I probably waited way too long. He must have been in incredible pain. And as I did with every dog I have had to put to sleep, including our mix, Merlin, who was dominant aggressive, I stroked his nose and held him as he died.

We did everything we could with Merlin, from doggy training to doggy antidepressants and on and on. Three different vets told us that we should put him down. But finally, when he snapped at our 18 month old son, grabbed Merlins tail, and Merle and snapped at him,, I had had enough. Even my husband said, when we brought Chris home from the hospital, I was holding him and my husband said, Merlin is looking at Chris as if he were a roast chickem

Anyway now we have another black lab, called Ellie. She is a good girl too and I miss her. My husband put me in a home for people with Alzheimers. Which I do not have. because he wanted me to be in a place where I could not drink. That is a long story but suffice it to say I have destroyed my liver over years and years of drinking and drinking way too hard, especially after I moved here. So if there is one thing I would do in my life it would be to never pick up a glass of alcohol.

I am a lawyer, I went to Northwestern law school for one year, my dad’s alma mater. Then I quit, after listening to my good friend at the time, Jonathan Turley, tell me how incredible the University of Chicago was. So to my dads chagrin, I quit law school and attended the U of C and got a masters in humanities. I wrote my thesis on the poems of Charles Baudelaire. Which is how I met my husband. My teacher said you probably should learn better French. So I signed up for a class in Quebec, and there was my future husband drinking a beer and playing pool. LOL!

I am working on a book which I probably will never finish LOL. In the meantime I work as a reporter for the local community paper. and I really do love that work. I think there is an interesting connection between lawyers and journalists a lot of them go from one to the other or the other way around. I love to read, not surprisingly, John Grisham is one of my favourite authors. So is Stephen King and Scott Turow. I love watching television, especially dramedies like Buffy the vampire Slayer. I went to a script writing class which was probably the best long weekend I have ever had.

Once I get my computer back from the shop, I am going to finish that. And I guess that is about it! I hope to see you around the boards! Drop me a line anytime. Sorry for the formatting...I will take html sandbox tomorrow. :)