A whole day to pay tribute to those angels of mercy who lend their time, talents and as well as sympathetic shoulder and usually a big helping hand to anyone of us who ever has need of emergency hospital medical care? Hooray! Today is ‘Emergency Nurses Day,’ a time to show honor, gratitude and respect to people who pepper a field that has to be one of the hardest professions around!

There is an obvious answer, of course, to that question. But really: Who are the heroes of today’s teenagers and who would be on those wall posters if they could choose any person? Here’s a hint: Oprah didn’t make the top spot. Take a good guess before you open the article.

Cali’s official birthday party is next Saturday and I have nothing planned. Birthday parties stress me out. Oh man do they stress me out! The theme is Hello Kitty, and as of today I have no activities planned, no loot bags prepared and nothing but dread over the cake making. My sister, Martha Stewart 2.0, typically handles these aspects of Cali’s parties, but with the new baby she won’t be able to hold my hand through this.

My sister’s step daughter had a Hello Kitty party earlier this year and I will definitely be poaching some of her ideas. One of the best activities was decorating Hello Kitty cake pops. Basically, she baked small, round pieces of cake with a stick in them, like cake popsicles.

If you have a tough day, if you feel left alone and overwhelmed, then I have a treat for you. Chris Rodell’s praise of single parents is the feel-good article you should read today. It reminds us of the admirable job single parents do every day, without faltering, in dedication to their children.

Rodell is married, but he apparently experienced for the first time taking care of his children by himself when his wife went on a trip with friends and left their house for four days. Chris’ conclusion: “I have no idea how single parents do it. I just did it for four slim days and it nearly killed me.”

I remember the bad old days of kid-exchanges in friendly locations like the Waffle House parking lot. We’d start off with cordial greetings, but before long, we’d find our way into the downward spiraling discussion of what clothes I had packed. I often felt attacked, because what I had packed either didn’t meet his metro-Dad standards, or I’d forgotten some important item…like drawers.

The feelings I experienced in these situations were no different than the feelings I was having about the entire relationship. I felt like I was carrying more of the responsibility for caring for our child materially than I should have to. I felt unappreciated given that I was the one providing the clothes, caring for our child most of the time and then being expected to remember every little thing. I felt burdened by his apparent dependence on me. I felt pissed, because I rarely got all the gear back. And, I felt powerless to make him do anything differently including stopping by WalMart to buy a $10 shorts set or pack of socks. So, yes, we would argue about bitty briefs right there in the Waffle House parking lot.

So I have been a journalist for 13 years (yes, that would be the time before blogs came along) and sometimes we have to admit that we get a bit arrogant about our style and experience we have collected over the course of our career. But journalists also tend to admire other journalists for certain talents that are just unique.

I personally love to watch Matt Lauer’s straight-forward no-nonsense interviews as well as David Letterman’s astonishing talent to squeeze out certain information from celebrities in a funny way – and hear answers no other interviewer would be able to get. That was the case yesterday when he had Madonna on his show and talked about previous appearances on the show as well as briefly about her marriage.

An interesting question, if you think about. In a common scenario, we may believe that your IQ does not matter, but in extreme cases there is the clear perception in our society that it absolutely matters – whether that means that high IQs will be the reason for intelligent children and low IQs are reason for concern that a parent may be unfit to raise a child.

This morning I have come across a story today that is likely to make you rethink what role IQs play in raising your child.