Current Events

Okay, so I'm still voting for Obama. I was just a little shocked about his decision regarding the war. Where is he planning on getting these troops to put in Afghanistan? Is he taking them from Iraq? Does that mean we're done in Iraq? What's going on?

So that's that.

In other news, did anybody hear about Shia LaBeouf's car accident? Yeesh. I would not have wanted to be the girl in the death seat of that car. You're a cutie, Shia, but nothing about that looked fun. I don't think the guy should be raked over the coals in the media for it, though. Everybody makes mistakes. Actors are no different. Okay, the drinking part of the drinking and driving, not the smartest idea, but hopefully he won't be doing that again.

By the way, Eagle Eye looks awesome.

Speaking of movies, I just watched The Lost Boys: The Tribe. Man, what the hell happened? It seems to me like they had a good idea going and about halfway through the movie it just all fell apart. And the ending was way too easy. Where's the twist the first one had? It looked like they were trying to make Alan Frogg or Sam the actual head vampire, but then they just didn't. I don't know what the hell happened here. Oh, and wayyy too many boobs for my liking. Feldman's character was great. Corey Haim wasn't even in it, really, neither was Alan Frogg. They did have a really sweet cover of Cry Little Sister, though.

Okay, lastly: Kiera Knightley. For anyone reading this who doesn't know, Kiera refused to allow her cleavage to be made more appealing with digital editing in her upcoming movie. Let me just say: woot.

Obama for President Bad for Troops?

This is one of the rare times where I'm posting a pretty serious post. (Sorry if you're expecting something amusing, but please keep reading.)

In my opinion, and I think lots of people out there agree with me, the priority for our next president is to clean up the messes we've made in Iraq and Afghanastan. Let's face it, the War on Terror is something that seemed like a good idea at the time (to Bush and half the country - not to me) , but ultimately it hasn't panned out the way it was supposed to. Consequently our men and women are dying overseas for a cause most of America doesn't even believe in anymore. Not to mention all the Iraqi and Afghani people dying (I'm talking about civilians killed in bombings and such, not terrorists). Our soldiers are being kept in service long after they should've gone home to their families; our economy is in a severe decline; and most importantly the American faith in our government has been shaken. We need to end this war as quickly and painlessly as possible. Our troops have been risking their lives for way too long and we've wasted far too much time and money. And everyone is tired of it.

Getting to Obama (who had my vote up until this morning), apparently his visit to Iraq has changed his way of thinking since he stated that if elected president, he will not only not bring the troops home, but will send more into Afghanistan to "finish what we started".

What the fuck? This is total bullshit. I don't understand this need to "finish what we started". 9/11 was awful and it sucks that it happened, but what the fuck did that have to do with Iraq? There is no proof, nor has there ever been, that Iraq and Saddam had any connection whatsoever with 9/11. Nor is there any proof that there was any ever hint of a god damn nuclear weapon in Iraq. I understand what we're doing in Afghanistan, although I don't necessarily agree that running in half cocked and trying to change their way of living was the best way to go about things. But I've never understood wtf we are doing in Iraq. And now we have to finish something that probably should never have been started in the first place?

Right now I feel like this entire election is a fucking joke. No matter who we vote for nothing's going to get better. No matter who we vote for, no one is going to step up and end this war. It's just going to keep going and going until we have no more soldiers to send over, or no more money to pour into it. And for what? To prove we won't back down? That if you don't think the way we do we'll kick your ass? So we don't look like idiots because we pull our troops out? What is going on over there? Does anyone know?

Oh, government. What are we going to do with you?

My Latest Dental Adventure

So, this morning, after a night of sitting in traffic on the highway for no apparent reason, I had a dental cleaning. I know, fun!

Apparently I'm not flossing.

This is funny to anyone who's ever seen me doing my 15-minute dental regiment before going to bed. I live in a dorm, so that's pretty much any girl who's in the bathroom while I'm doing teeth. Brushing, copious flossing, and 1 minute of rinsing. I'm religious about my teeth routine, okay? RELIGIOUS!!

But, no. I get, "You're not flossing... Well, then you're not flossing the way I told you" and I get scary words like "bone loss" and "gum scaling" thrown out there at me. "Deep" gum scaling. Okay, that does not sound fun.

But I'm beginning to think it's a scam. I know plenty of people who brush once a day and don't floss and have never even heard of flouride rinse. Their teeth are fucking peachy, okay? So I find it a bit odd that I do everything I'm told and may still have to get scary proceedures done with pointy intstruments without numbing agents.

W... T... F???!!!!

Is Mass. the New Vegas?

I heard on the news this morning that they (meaning the government) are trying to make it legal for gay couples from out of state to get married in Massachusetts. Caterers, jewelers, florists, etc. are hoping this happens because it would mean more money for them. Of course there are lots of people who are against it. If this law gets repealed Massachusetts would, theoretically, become a Las Vegas for gay people. (I forget who said that... some big important mucky muck guy.)

I think this is a good thing. Gay people have been living like married couples live just as long as straight people have - so why is it legal for straight people to get married while gay people can't? All I'm hearing in rebuttal to gay marriage is: "Marriage is between a man in a woman in the eyes of God." Says who? Did God tell us gay people couldn't get married? No. The Bible did. Keep in mind the Bible was not written by God. It was written by men. It also says in the Bible that women are to blame for the pain and suffering of all mankind because Eve ate an apple. Seriously, let's pull our heads out of our asses, shall we America? Being gay is not a sin, and the world will not end because gay people are getting married.

What do I say to the possibility of Mass. becoming the Vegas for gay people (as if Vegas belongs to straghties anyway at this point, let's be honest)? I say bring it on! Come get married! All of you!

That's my two cents on the matter. Cheers.

Busy Winding Down of Summer

Yesterday was a really good day. I went to a reunion dinner with some old friends from high school (some of which I still talk to on a regular basis). And it was just so cool to see everyone again and catch up.

Jamie, dear, can't wait to see you and your mom on Wednesday! We're gonna have so much fun, even though we'll be missing a vital piece of our little group. Damn you, Stop 'n' Shop!

I got some clothes today. 2 pairs of shorts. Not much, but more than I had before. And one really cute top.

I have a feeling these next 3 weeks are gonna go by way too fast and make me not want to go back to school. I'll have to make time to hang out with people on weekends.

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Over the past few months of summer vacation, I haven't been leading a very exciting life. Mostly I sit around the house, read, write. Which I guess could be considered exciting. All I've been doing really is working 3 days a week and getting nagged by my parents to clean the house. "Why do you sleep so late?" says Dad. "Get up and DO something!" I pointed out to him that I really have nothing to do other than work, and when I do work I don't have to get up until at least 11.

He told me to do yard work.

Keep in mind A: We don't have a yard, and B: We have nothing to do yard work with, and C: We have a neighbor behind us with 2 very big and very unfriendly rotties (dogs) who, although they don't on a regular basis, are fully capable of breaking through the bottom of the fence and getting into our yard.

Yeah. I don't think I'll be trying that suicide mission any time soon.

Lately my parents have been getting on me about cleaning the house. "You're home ALL DAY," they say, "And you could easily clean the house." This is true. But, the thing is I DO clean. I clean my stuff. I clean my dirty dishes, clean up my messes, and do the laundry when it piles up. But, it doesn't help that when Mom or Dad would like a hand with something they have an interesting way of letting me know.

It's this thing called telepathy. Where they think I should do something, and therefore I should do it. And if I don't do it, I'm lazy and ungrateful.

0_0

My thoughts exactly.

I've told my mom more than once to leave a list of stuff she'd like me to do before she goes to work in the morning so when I wake up I can maybe vaccuum or do an extra load of laundry or something to take the work off her shoulders. But I will not do everything. That's simply not fair. It's not like every dirty thing in this house suddenly belongs to me just because I'm home for the summer. That's just not the way it works.

That aside, I've set a few goals for myself. It's occurred to me that in about 3 weeks I'm going on vacation with my family to Maine... which means the beach... which means a bathing suit for the first time in months. Quite possibly in a full year. Call me Miss Vanity, but I'd like to look less like cottage cheese in my bathing suit than I do now. So, I've started eating smart and today I worked out a little. Some lunges, push-ups, weights, crunches. Nothing too ballsy. Mom and I are supposedly going to go walking next week, hopefully. I figure doing the lunges and such will be good for when I'm not walking.

I also did some cleaning. I'll be sooo pissed if no one notices.

Open the Floodgates

So I finally got my Antje Duvekot CD's in the mail ( "Big Dream Boulevard" and "Snapshots") and I'm listening to them. Between Antje and Alanis I'm just in angry girl music heaven.

I have the house to myself this weekend, which is actually doing me a lot of good. I'm very inspired and writing lots of different stuff. I don't know if any of it's going to amount to anything special, but we'll see I suppose.

Other than that, there's really not much to report. I'm reading The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice, and when I get tired of that I break into Scott Smith's The Ruins, I Am Legend, or one of the many short stories I've been meaning to read. Junot Diaz has a great narrative voice, Mary Gaitskill's got great friction between characters, and Alice Munro's just awesome. I won't ramble, because I'm starting to, so I'll stop myself now.

I am officially on a reading rampage, which is super sweet because it's causing a writing rampage.

8 Easy Steps

After the longest 3-hour work day of the summer so far, I'm sitting here watching an episode of Daria and sipping a coconut iced coffee while pondering my next storyline. Today I worked with someone who has the charismatic, magnetic personality and all the ambition of a towel rack. So I spent the day running out of coffee and looking around for my invisible towel rack co-worker while simultaniously running out of change and wittling down a never-ending line out the door of customers. My hands shook. I spilled copious amounts of sticky beverages on myself, and burnt my fingertips.

Seriously. Wtf?

In between and during all of that, I came up with this. Enjoy.

How to Piss Off Your Co-Worker in 8 Easy Steps:
1. Talk on your cellphone. Always. If you're not talking, be texting.
2. Take your time. With everything.
3. Don't wear the required uniform in the required way so your co-workers look like shitheads.
4. Wait until there's an overwhelming amount of customers to tend to. Then disappear.
5. Invite your friends to talk to you during work. And then forget you have a job to do at all.
6. Find something important to clean every time a difficult regular shows up.
7. Ask what kind of music your co-worker hates. Then tune the radio to precisely that type of music.
8. Punch out before all the work for the day is done, leaving your co-worker with the rest.

This is all the shit I've had done to me, and have in turn started to do to the ones who deserve it.

I'll teach you all this in eight easy steps
A course of a lifetime you'll never forget
I'll show you how to in eight easy steps
I'll show you how leadership looks when taught by the best

A Home In the Dunes

So I'm in kind of a crappy rut. I'm anxious a lot, I'm worried about a lot of stuff I shouldn't be worried about, and I'm restless. A lot. My dad seems to be going through something similar, although he has a lot on his plate rather than the worrying randomly thing.

I really need to get some positive energy going. I'm not sure how. I've tried meditating and exercizing and writing and reading and video games. Any form of escape and healthy me time. And it works sort of, but not really because it only takes one tiny thing to bring all the negative back. Which isn't good because it means my inner energy is off balance in a bad way.

I have had a few awesome days with Mom and with Kim. And my new music is really making me happy. I try to listen to it as much as possible. And for some reason Alanis Morissette has sort of set off a creative spark and I'm writing like crazy. I keep getting frustrated because I have to interrupt my creative flow to go to work, which should be a goldmine for characters but it's really not. Maybe it will be someday when I'm reflecting. Right now it's just annoying.

I think I need to do more nature-oriented things. I want so badly to go kayaking on the lake like every day it's not raining. But we have to move the kayaks to nana's house so we can launch them from her side of the lake... which we need the truck for, which is still out of comission... and I need someone to carry them down with. Maybe I can rope Kim into it once we transport them... I also will probably rope Dad into taking walks with me or hiking or something. I think that would be good for both of us.

Look at us break our bonds in this kitchen.
Look at us rallying our defenses.