Madam Vice President!

 

 

My husband, Dan, was uncharacteristically anxious in the days leading up to and following the presidential election. I was anxious too, but that is my regular state-of-being. 

 

Both of us felt as though there was a lot at stake this time around. In some ways, especially in the wake of our nation's horrendous pandemic statistics, we felt as though it was a matter of life and death. 

The Saturday after the election, the presidential race had not been called, and Dan and I went for a run on the city Greenbelt. I put my phone on Do Not Disturb, so I could enjoy my time in nature. (I have been using my Do Not Disturb setting often . . . for mental health reasons.)

 

At the end of the jog, as I was stretching and not checking my phone, I heard Dan gasp. 

 

“Biden won! It's been called!” 

 

I turned my notifications on, and my screen blew up (figuratively) with texts from family members, friends, and headlines from reputable news outlets.

 

"We're back in Paris Climate Accord! We're back in the WHO!" I exclaimed. "We're going to get the Coronavirus under control!" 

“Maybe I should have waited until we were in the car . . " Dan said.

 

“I don’t care that we’re standing in a red neighborhood! Dreamers won’t be deported! DACA might be expanded! Other countries will like us again!"

 

Then the big realizations hit:

 

"No more Betsy Devos! Jill Biden is pro-public education! WE HAVE A FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT!” 

 

A fisherman appeared on the hill next to the river. I shut my mouth.

 

"What did you see?" he asked. 

 

"Biden won," Dan replied.

 

"That's it then," he sighed and walked back to his fishing spot.

"That was relatively uneventful. Maybe everyone else will take it that well," I hissed at Dan.

"Don't count it."

Of course, we all know how that turned out.

 

Aside from that initial outburst, I did not find myself celebrating as much as others. I actually cried quite a bit that Saturday. I cried tears of relief after witnessing four years of fear mongering and vitriol and hero worship of a seemingly amoral human being. 

 

I also cried tears of joy after a lifetime of watching women inch closer to U.S. presidency, only to be denied, while women across the globe have been elected as national and world leaders for decades.

 

 

As a little girl, I woke up every morning to a plaque on my bedroom wall that read, "Girls Can Do Anything."

 

I grew up listening to—and wearing out—Free to Be, You and Me on vinyl, hot pink album cover. I could probably still sing most of the songs by heart.

All of these things were courtesy of my mother. 

 

My mother introduced me to the writings of Gloria Steinem and Betty Freidan. She had me read The Cinderella Complex as a teen.

 

When Geraldine Ferraro ran with Walter Mondale on the Democrat ticket in 1984, my Republican mother admitted it would be cool to see a woman that close to the presidency.

 

(Personally, I didn’t feel that way about Sarah Palin in 2008. John McCain was a stand-up guy, and I truly respected him. But Palin was the first sign the crazy had arrived and could actually amass a substantial gun-toting base.)

I wish my mother was alive to see this.

I'm not sure she would have voted for a Democrat, but I'm 99.9% sure Trump would not have gotten her vote either. My mother did not appreciate misogyny or grammatically incorrect sentences.

 

 

On Sunday, I announced, “I’m wearing my NASA shirt in honor of science being a thing again!”

 

Everything is still in chaos. Although there might be some lingering denial by the time this post is published, this much is true:

 

We have our first female vice president-elect, as well as our first Black and South Asian vice president-elect.

And she is speaking!

 

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

A Very COVID Halloween

So . . . this Halloween was different. Halloween seems like such a weird holiday anyway, one in which we encourage kids to go to strangers' houses and beg for candy. 

 

Normally, we DON'T want children to take candy from the man in the white van, but I guess Halloween doesn't count?

 

Still, my husband, Dan, and I have always handed out candy to the kiddos, and we're nice strangers. Our neighborhood is a pretty popular place for trick-or-treaters, and we enjoy checking out the costumes every year. 

.

The Halloweens of our past

 

"Kids have way better costumes nowadays than we did," Dan says every year.

Children of the '80s will recall that our store-bought costumes consisted of what amounted to a trash bag worn over the body and a flimsy plastic mask. You may also recall the big razor-blades-in-your-candy scare. I seem to remember our hospital would even X-ray children's candy. As a child of this era and a child of a somewhat overprotective mother, I was never allowed to trick-or-treat traditionally.

 

This year, since we're in the middle of a pandemic and everything, Dan and I decided not to hand out candy. We decided not to do anything.

 

A lot of people got creative and built candy chutes and ziplines or set up a station with pre-wrapped baggies, but that seemed like way too much work. 

 

 

 

Photo from The Today Show

Fun fact: I will only do Halloween if it doesn't inconvenience me.

During the early afternoon of Halloween, I thought we might be on the receiving end of more pranks this year. 

 

"Kids don't have anything to do this year except prank people," I said to Dan. 

 

A kid in a big grass camouflage costume, apparently called a "Ghillie Suit," ran up to our front door, rang our bell, and waved at the camera. Then he lay in our lawn for a bit.

 

Dan stared at him from the front window, and the kid ran off eventually. It was kind of hilarious.

 

We did have a few trick-or-treaters show up around 7:00. They rang the doorbell even though we had the blinds closed, and we didn’t have the porch light on. At that point, we turned off our interior lights as well.

 

"Their lights are off too," we heard a little girl say.

 

The boy stared into our camera for a few seconds.

“There's people inside. I don't think they're opening it up though," he said, and then they left.

 

"I seriously don’t want to spend all night, sitting in the dark in my own house," I grumbled.

 

But that's what we ended up doing.

After the trick-or-treater incident, I made a sign. It was so dark by the time I posted it, I'm not sure anyone could read it.

 

All in all, the neighborhood seemed quiet this year. Every once in a while, we heard a few kids go by. 

 

We did miss seeing the kids in costume this year.

 

I did see some cute costumes though. 

 

My school created a video of our students dressed up for Halloween. And we got into the Halloween spirit in the music room, of course.

A few trick-or-treaters walked by our house that night, and Dan and I were able to check out their costumes from the dark in our office. Now that I put that in print, we sound a little creepy.

And if you missed seeing cute kids dressed up for Halloween in this blog post, here are my adorable nephews in their Dan-approved super hero costumes. 

 

 Now Dan and I are off to buy ourselves a bag of discounted Halloween candy.

 

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.