Dear Daughter #2 is 30 today, as of 12:02 a.m. She wondered at 12:01 a.m. if her family was gathered in one place because all of a sudden her cell phone tone for text messages (actually a doorbell) went off not just once but five times...and no, we weren't gathered in one place plotting. LOL.

She had to have a physical for the in-home daycare business she's starting. The doctor said, "You didn't tell me today is your birthday."

"Shh!" she said. "Don't say it out loud."

"Why?" he asked.

"I'll never see my 20s again."

"Oh, you women," the oriental commented with a smile.

I can't go back to an earlier time and redo everything I've done. I'm not sure I really would want to because I'd still want all of my children, which means I'd have to have the same husband to have the same children all over again. And I'd have to have the same parents to produce me in the exact same genetic state.

This now 30-year-old daughter listened to me grumble last week about all the things I should have done right when I was raising her and her sisters. She said, "Mom, you did the best you knew how at the time. I hate it when you blame yourself for things that aren't your fault!"

Well, OK. Maybe she's right.

On the drive home from somewhere the horizon was still just a bit light, I noticed as my husband drove us. Wow. Just the two of us. Even now when the two of us are alone, it seems so odd because we aren't alone together much. But I think it would be a lot of fun if we were. But he's still working full time...maybe he'll get to retire in eight or 10 years from now. And I'm writing much more these days since the kids don't really need me all that much. And I'll write til they steal my pen from my cold, dead hand.

But it would be nice if we could take that vacation to North Carolina next month. Uncle Sam...Mr. Bush and his oil baron friends...they're working pretty hard to get the price of gasoline to $4 a gallon. And with Venezuela's action today, taking over the oil concerns in Venezuela from American owners, well, I wonder if Mr. Bush and his oil baron friends are going to feel a pinch themselves, just like they're putting on the average Joe and Sue American. Or will the pinch just get tighter for all of us regular people.

I have to wonder what it would take for all Americans to join together on the common ground of what's right and just for all instead of just the monied. Why do I suspect that we're all about to become hostages of the Venezuelan oil situation. Why shouldn't Venezuela make the kind of money from Americans that the Saudis do?

Oh, my. I've become politically incorrect, I suspect. Or maybe I'm just thinking that the founding mothers of the United States had the right idea. If you don't know what I'm referring to, read Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts, (c)2004. I found myself thinking, "We need to host another Boston Tea Party!"

(c)2007 Cathy Brownfield