Just Plain Scary

When you don't have anything to do, you sometimes find very weird things on the Internet. Today, that weird thing is this: "Please Don't Vote For A Democrat." Apparently this guy has a billboard up somewhere. It says, surprisingly enough, "Please Don't Vote For A Democrat" and features pictures of the Twin Towers burning.

My favorite line is
"Republicans, we're not perfect but we know the truth
We uphold the Constitution and the Golden Rule."

Right. We do unto others, as we would want done unto us. We would love to be invaded for fictitious reasons. Why hasn't anyone overthrown our leader yet? And the Constitution has definitely been upheld the past decade. I'm not even going to go there.

And that is today's number 1 reason to start investigating Canadian citizenship.

If You Are At All Interested In Education

(and have 30 minutes to kill) click here and watch the video.

This is the woman I read about in the Economist article a few days ago. Incidentally, she is also a TFA alum (you can tell because she uses the words "relentless" and "highly effective") and maybe my new personal hero. This segment is much better than the Wendy Kopp interview.

I have had my issues with TFA, but still agree with many of the basic principles that they champion. Plus, this woman kicks ass and makes me feel motivated again. I am ready for August to come.

I Belong A Long Way From Here

I know that's not quite the line, but it's what I heard when Sheryl Crow sang it on the radio today, and I thought, "me too."

(Just listen to the first stanza, the rest of it is overplayed enough. Although she does rock pretty hard.)

Sugar In My Bowl

You are not for me.
I know this because I cannot remember where you want to go to college, where you have lived, worked, or traveled, nor the names of your close relatives. I don't fret over these details, my subconscious must not count them important enough to take note of. I ask questions, then let my mind wander. I could probably relay more information about the decor of the restaurants where we have dined than I could about our topics of discussion while inside. I am making an effort at the art of conversation, but it's just not clicking, and it's hard to say who lost interest first. You are not for me and I am not for you. I know this because you don't even ask the questions. At least then you don't have to feel bad for not remembering the answers. You know a lot of facts, and make an effort to show me all I don't know. When I first met you I could look into your eyes forever, but when I told you that you just looked away.

You are not for me, either.
But at the end of the day we can have a conversation and we both walk away feeling good about ourselves. I can remember the position you played on your high school basketball team, that you don't like avocado, but you do like Charles Barkley, and I know the year you'll be eligible to run for president. You laugh at my jokes, are grateful for the dinners I make, and come talk to me about things that you think are too serious for your girlfriend. It's not a big deal, but I still remember the night that you told me the way you like to be kissed, and recently your slightly flirtatious comments can keep me awake at night. You are not for me and I am not for you, but you look me in the eye and smile.

A good idea to close the achievement gap:

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11707298

I Need To Be Near Hills

Next time I am choosing a place to live, it needs to have the nearby opportunity to walk up and down. Flat land bores me.

A Good One

on Sliding Doors, Crashing Cars, Making Love, and other interactions

In the past few months there have been many random occurrences in my life. I guess, if you think the way I do, most things in life are without reason, but I have found myself thinking "what the fuck?" even more often than usual these days. There have been fender benders, weird relationships, personal injuries, and fortuitous finds in the street. Some of these things have left me feeling naive, powerless and paralyzed, unable to make a decision or choose a path in life, some have given me strength, confidence, and the feeling that I possess wisdom beyond my age, and some have left me feeling just stupidly lucky (or the opposite).

And, at the end (or, more likely, the middle or beginning) of all of these things, I want to say, "Life, could you give me something to work with?"

So I am sitting here on the couch, drinking some God-awful beer that my roommates left in the fridge. I have a stray dog sleeping by my left foot, and my cell phone by my side in case Josh returns my call so I can break up with him because he is either entirely uninterested IN me or completely uninteresting TO me. And as I am sitting here, I am trying to find a purpose in everything. Not a God-given purpose, but a Me-given purpose. I don't think any event has any more or less of a purpose than I assign to it, but I am sitting here wondering, "What purpose will I give the event of hurting my knee? What will I learn from it? How will it affect me?" or "What purpose will dating Josh have served? What will I see differently about myself and about the world now?" or "How does finding this dog change the way I look at the prospect of living in South Texas for another year?" or

(The phone rings, hold these thoughts.

He's at the bar. I told him to call me back when he wasn't at the bar. Sascha is whimpering, I think she can tell I am upset.)

or "Why the fuck don't people take better care of their dogs?" It's no wonder we don't take better care of each other.

To boil it down, I guess I am just looking for lessons. Morals from these stories. That's what nice about fairy tales, they are so didactic. The reasonable side of my head tells me that's also why they're fantasies.

Serendipity