i love jack cafferty

i had no idea who this man was until today, and i have no idea what his politics are like, if he leaves his dirty old man underwear around the house, or if he's a pederast, but if i were single, i'd marry him today for this comment alone: "if john mccain wins, this woman will be one 72 year old's heartbeat away from being president of the united states...i'm 65 and have been covering politics...for a long time--that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape i have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. that's all i have to say."

it gets me every time

it's been a while--i've been travelling (and recovering from travelling), and i'm just not one of those people who can post on location. i admire those who can: "i'm in [fabulous location x] looking at [awesome crap y] and i HAD to post about it!" but i'm lazy and self-indulgent when i travel-i'd rather take the time to peruse unknown bookstores and pretend that i'm independently wealthy. i'll try to share travel stories later. for now, i have a rekindled obsession and i want to share.

funny that travelling and gardens and old friends, three of my all-time favorite things, didn't motivate me to post, but the election did. we went to orlando this past weekend-i went for the trade show, KGB came along because he'd rather lose a limb than miss an opportunity to visit orlando-and we watched the debate on friday night. i'll leave my reaction to it aside for now.
more importantly, it lit a long-dormant fire. don't get me wrong, the upcoming election has been on my mind since W was re-elected in 04. i still don't know how that happened, and it's one of a very few times in my life that something so indirectly connected to my life has elicited such a visceral emotional reaction from me. i cried when kerry lost, i felt sick, was relatively inconsolable for a solid week. i looked up apartment rental prices in london, costa rica, toronto. W's victory upset me more than my divorce did a year later.


i didn't even like kerry that much-i was just so very disappointed in the country. that's what i get for having idealistic tendencies, i guess. non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. consequently, i was over politics. done with worrying about who'd get elected where, over trying to explain to people why it's important, through with checking out c-span to see what was up in the legislature. i let the cynicism get to me. chalk it up to post-traumatic stress syndrome.


W's reign has taught me several valuable lessons; not the least of which is that if you value your way of life, you can't leave things like elections up to chance and the midwest. but until friday, i was done-i made my donation to the obama campaign, got my t-shirt, and planned to vote quietly come november. but the debate friday night, coupled with a few key conversations with some friends, has rekindled the fire. it's election time, and i have named the puppy. regardless of political affiliation, regardless of how deeply you've been hurt by other elections or impeachment hearings (or lack thereof), regardless of your opinions of the 'system', vote. vote. please. fuck the electoral college-your vote counts.


and if you need motivation, or just entertainment:
SNL's parody of Palin with Couric--it's a parody at first, but then they show the real clip, so watch it even if you saw it on snl. it's frightening to see that what you thought was a joke is just a mimicry. she's actually that dumb.
Palin on foreign policy. this pissed me off so much i can't even talk about it. it's beyond insulting.

you have until october 6th to get your license and registration updated. for florida types, you can even do it online and mail it in. make sure your driver license and voter registration match-if they don't, you can update your license online too. it all takes about ten minutes, unless you're illiterate or mentally challenged. in either case, find a friend.

K.I.T.

i know i'm not alone here; stay with me for a second.
so i'm the first one to admit that i'm not good at keeping in touch with people. i don't know why exactly, it's just one of those things. i think about people all the time--friends, family, acquaintances i haven't seen in forever--i mean i really think about them. how they are, what's going on with them, when their birthday is, if they ever bought those shoes, etc. but somehow there's this disconnect between me thinking "i really should call 'x'" and the act of picking up the phone to do so. why? i don't know. and i don't discriminate-it's aunts, grandmas, siblings, friends from high school, friends from college, friends with whom i'm reunited after no contact for a decade, everybody. there are one or two exceptions, but that's about it. and then there's this bizarre guilt- and then it goes from a week to a month to six months. it's awful.

and here's my point: facebook and myspace make it so much worse. because now not only do i think about people and not call them, i can lurk about on their profile pages, leave a comment or two and feel like i've kept in touch, but i haven't. it's creepy actually, when you think about it. am i a social network junkie? eeesh.

classic example: i have a friend from high school (several, come to think of it. this applies to several friends from high school...or college. see?) to whom i was always close. we lost touch in college, then found each other again early this year. one or two emails back and forth, he sends me a link to his blog to catch me up on his life, and we say we should make plans to have dinner with our respective partners and/or friends. fast forward eight months, we still haven't met up or really talked, but i check his blog periodically to a) see what's up, and b) because i find him endlessly entertaining. KGB and i run into his wife at a local music festival this past weekend, but he's nowhere to be seen. of course, i recognize her from his blog and his photos, and that's when i become that person. i introduce myself to his poor unsuspecting (i assume) wife, who was very polite, explain why i recognize her and apologize for what's probably an awkward encounter, but as i did it, i realized that i was in completely new and uber creepy territory. interchange that festival and that friend with any of a dozen other friends and situations, and i'm in the same place again and again. we all have this knowledge of what's going on with each other, but with no firsthand experience to back it up. it's empty. it's isolating. it's just frigging bizarre. it's the classic complaint of the last century--we keep coming up with ways to make our lives easier, to save time, to lose weight, to be happier, to save money, to keep in closer contact, and we end up with exactly the opposite.

so what do we do? what do we do when we have every conceivable means of keeping in touch, but all we do is get further apart?

i'm gonna go get some ice cream. call me.

projects and plans

apparently i'm a blogging fool today. i took the day off from work to--well, to work at home, but also take care of a ton of things that have been left undone and which constantly nag me from the back burner in my head. some of them sound like ghosts, others are more like drill sergeants. but they're there. so i'm trying to knock a few down to quell the onslaught.


first things first. i've been meaning to put pix up of our new place fa-EVAH, so here's the house:
note: american flag courtesy of the landlord. go patriotism. i'm debating whether to slap an obama head on it to advertise, but i don't think that Mr. Lee would ever come over again.
if the financial situation was better, i'd be trying to talk the landlord into selling. but it still rocks, even as a rental. more pics here



other projects include, but are not limited to:
-start blog. check.
-uploading a ton of pix to send to jenny p and for posting to the web. this one has been completed too. woo hoo!
-picking up the lawnmower from the repair place. if you're around gville, Sapp's rocks. don't waste your time someplace corporate. they're so O.G. that they don't have a website, but if you're local you know who i mean.
-mowing the lawn. hopefully i'll get some help from KGB on this one.


for the long term:
-installing the free plants that Mr. Lee brought over a month ago right after we moved in. this involves not only round up (yay!) but also weeding (boo). we'll see if this happens.
-making this (with my own modifications, of course). i have the stuff from ikea for it, just need to decide on a stain color, hardware, and drawer liner. i also have to coordinate with sassy crafter so that she doesn't send me bad crafting mojo for making it without her. i don't expect to finish this today, it's more of a long term thing.
and of course, two landscape designs that have been haunting my existence for a couple of months now--well, one for a couple of months. the other is currently on schedule.

what is that thing that causes people to have unnaturally high expectations of what they can accomplish in one day? ...if i'd stayed in counseling longer, maybe i could've worked that one out.

la prima

like many new bloggers, i've been reluctant to post for the first time.
why? it's been a combination of the pressure of topic selection for what will surely be the first of many epic and meaningful semi-public statements (i almost gagged myself with that one), the decision of what sort of theme to follow, who to post for, whether i'm being overly narcissistic or self-conscious, blah blah blah.
finally, after i grew so sick of my own neuroses that i stopped thinking about it altogether, a familiar voice came through with some advice. i've heard this voice many times; the first time was at the top of a slide on a preschool daycare playground, and it's there almost every time i dive into a pool, when i make most major life decisions, and when i'm trying to decide between ice cream flavors.
"just go!"
so i'm going.