Thankful, part 2

I am very thankful for the "WALL-E" DVD that someone was kind enough to get me on the day it was released! Seriously, "WALL-E" gets my vote for "Best Movie of the Year."

Thankful

This morning on KRTY, the DJs asked listeners to text in the foods they were thankful for, and someone must have read my mind, because they texted, "pudding." This may be a little-known fact about me, but I could eat chocolate pudding by the bucket-fulls. Pudding is delicious! But that is besides the real point, which is that the pudding text made me think of foods I am thankful for, and from there, different things over the past year for which I'm thankful.

I'm thankful I have friends who remind me it isn't proper writing etiquette to end sentences with a preposition (nearly did right above!). In retrospect, I did not spend nearly enough time during grad school getting to know the great people I went to school with, but somehow after school was over, I got to keep some of them as friends, and I'm thankful that I have peers who inspire me and push me to be my best.

I am thankful I have truly lovely parents, and that I live at a time of exciting technology that makes the world so small that I can talk to them and see them everyday without much effort. Just a few years ago, this would have been nearly impossible, and at the very least, expensive and frustrating. Back in 2003, internet connections were so crappy by comparison, that even a 5 minute conversation was a hassle, with the image freezing, and echoes, and so on. And speaking of technology, I'm thankful for our office copy machine! It scans documents directly to email, making my life infinitely easier when dealing with hundred-pages long applications.

On the topic of work, I'm thankful for my job, and that it's on a beautiful university campus with hundreds of trees changing their colors right about now. The people I work with or come across during my work day remind me how much one person can achieve if they set their mind to it. Sometimes there is so much ugliness in the world, and so many stupid people seem to populate it, that it's easy to forget there are many people who truly care to make this world better. Some of the things I do at work remind me that even when I feel smug about myself for the small accomplishments I have reached, I come nowhere near what others accomplish.

I'm also thankful that my job comes with a paycheck that allows me to enjoy other things I am thankful for, like my kick-ass boots. There are some articles of clothing that I become very attached to (in the past, these have included certain jeans and pajama pants that I literally wore until they fell apart, my Happy Bunny t-shirt, my silver purse), and my Born boots are my new obsession. I could wear these things all day (actually, I do!). They are the first high-heel shoes I can walk in for hours, and I can't wait to wear them with skirts. The only bad thing is they don't come in black, which I honestly can't understand. Who doesn't make boots in black?

I'm thankful that in a few weeks, I get to go away with my wonderful boyfriend for a little vacation. Even though we live together, and thus have lots of alone time, there is still something really exciting about the idea of being alone (amidst hundreds of strangers) away from home. Even more than being thankful for our vacation, I'm thankful for him, and for the little life we have together, and for the fact that he shares his family with me, and for the songs he sings to me when he practices on his guitar.

I'm thankful for many little things, like left-over candy corn that doesn't seem to run out and always waits for me in the cupboard. And my desk heater at work that keeps me cozy even when it's freezing. And the donuts shop across the street from our apartment that is open 24 hours a day, every day. I'm thankful for lemon pie, which I am seriously craving now that my coworkers went on and on about I'm thankful for my car, which I've had now for almost five years! And our swiveling TV that lets us watch "Dancing With the Stars" even when sitting on different couches. I'm thankful for country music, which keeps me positive and amused, and provides hours of guitar-playing and singing at our apartment. I'm thankful that one of the perks of my job is that I can use any library on campus and check books out for a year. Along that line, I'm thankful for literature, which constantly teaches me empathy. I'm thankful for books on CD, which make long drives feel shorter. I'm thankful that the Bush administration is nearly done, and we have a new chapter to look forward to in the development of our country, and I'm thankful that there are high expectations of our new president, so that he may reach high. I'm thankful for Facebook, which makes work endlessly more entertaining. I'm thankful for many, many things, and people, and hopefully I can keep that in mind throughout the coming year. It's a funny thing about holidays - for a few days, we think about the blessings we have, and appreciate them, and give thanks for them, but it seems like for the rest of the year, we take them for granted.

In just a few weeks, it will be "New Year's Resolutions" time. Last year, I didn't make any, so maybe this year I can make double the resolution to be more appreciative of the blessings I have. But that's not for another month. For now, Happy Thanksgiving!

Keith Olbermann on Prop 8

Always eloquent and erudite, Keith Olbermann speaks about Prop 8. Please watch.

The Week That Was (Oh, what a week!)

Last week around this time I was feeling a strange combination of elation and crapdom (yes, that is an emotion, the one you feel when your body decides to betray you temporarily by being sick on the happiest day of the year). I was in the middle of an Oracle Financials Training Session, and my body was quickly letting me know that I in fact was about to be sicker than I've been in as long as I can remember. As the lady droned on and on and on about iProcurement, I could not get "Proud to be an American" out of my head despite my abhorrence of overly-indulgent patriotic songs, and kept thinking that instead of wasting my time in class, I wanted to jump around Stanford hugging every person I met.

Last year, I watched "American Idol" with my parents, and every time Kristy Lee Cook came on and butchered the hell out of every "Proud to be an American/America the Beautiful/Yankee Doodle Dandy" rendition possible, I nearly puked. And now, this was me; cynic and critic, belting out this propaganda anthem full blast in my own head, even letting it escape out loud every now and then, and giggling to myself like a crazy person. I would have felt embarrassed if everyone coming into and out of the office was not also having similar issues, keeping Joker-sized grins plastered on their faces, and spontaneously breaking out in conversation that had clearly started in their head and was being voiced mid-thought.

The country had a new President-Elect, and the excitement was palpable. When our Director called us in for an emergency meeting and broke down in front of his staff when he confessed that he in fact had never felt more proud to be an American, I couldn't believe that someone who's had such a long career at the forefront of political thought was compelled to spontaneously share these feelings. I was also reassured, as young people need be by their wiser elders, that California and the United States will one day, and one day soon, do right by all - so that all of the boys, girls, men, and women living under this great American umbrella can share the same rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution. James Baldwin once wrote, "Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality." Prop 8 passing definitely says more about the people who voted for it than about the people whom it immediately effects. At this moment in time, I feel both disheartened that Prop 8 passed, but also hopeful because I know it won't last long until my friends won't have to feel like their own state sees them as second class citizens.

Last Tuesday night, having the experience of the last two presidential elections behind me, I thought the counting would go on all night. So, M and I went grocery shopping. Shocker! We came back and within minutes, Barack Obama had officially and by a huge margin gained enough electoral votes to cast no doubt that he would indeed be the next President of the United States of America. John McCain's speech that followed was the first time in months that I heard McCain's own voice. It did not surprise me when the crowd boo'ed at Obama's name (it also did not surprise me that the folks in Chicago cheered and clapped when Obama mentioned McCain), and it kind of freaked me out that most of the people in the Phoenix crowd were middle-aged white folk. I mean, seriously-- almost everyone was over 45 and white. Meanwhile, in Chicago, the hundreds of thousands of people huddled together, laughing, crying, chanting, were children, teenagers, college kids, twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, middle aged, elderly, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, mixed, all colors and ages and creeds, which encapsulates what America is and has prided itself in being - the cultural, racial, ethnic, religious melting pot of this world.

The images of Jesse Jackson crying I have to say were pretty priceless, and I remember thinking, I wish James Baldwin was alive to see this! I wish DuBois could see this! I do think that John McCain made too much of the "African-American" issue when talking about Barack Obama in his concession speech, but at the same time, he reminded us that people whom we know remember a time when they could not go to the same school, or eat at the same restaurants, or walk on the same piece of street, as white kids. The fact that these memories are not historic memories but actual memories makes this election monumental, but I think that the nation and the world agrees that Obama being black is not the sole or even the main reason why he is perceived with such enthusiasm and anticipation.

My entire adult life has been spent with George W. Bush being the President of the U.S. The 2004 election was the first one in which I could legally vote after becoming a citizen. I remember when my roommates and I volunteered to cater a John Kerry fundraiser in L.A. (note to self- where IS that shirt?!) we all whole-heartedly believed Kerry would win over Bush, no doubt about it. I cast my vote and thought, "Now I am truly an American citizen." Four years later, I am feeling an interesting and hard to explain emotion. I was not born here, and thus will always harbor patriotic love for my home country. And for as long as I've lived here, I've always been happy to live here, and proud. Every time I drove through a particular part of the 5S Fwy in Anaheim, I got an irrational feeling of love and pride for California, and as the plane was about to touch down at LAX, each time I nearly teared up with excitement to be "home." But over the last 8 eight years, it really has become "uncool" to be an American in many parts of the world, because we are seen as bullies instead of liberators, as arrogant instead of accomplished, as ignorant instead of leaders in science. Last week, I actually felt like I was an American, part of the millions of people who went out and voted however they felt was best. But there is always that "adopted" American feeling to it. It's almost like I can see it from both sides - judging the U.S. from a foreigner's point of view, and defending the country from the insider perspective. Again I turn to James Baldwin, who once wrote, "I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." I think he was completely right in this, and this is the sentiment that I think so many Americans ignore in their blind patriotism. To truly be proud of your country, I think you should judge it with high standards, because you expect great things from it. If you take everything a country does blindly, you face a great risk of allowing that country to become an oppressor without boundaries. That is why I think all those Republican allegations that "they" are the "real" America and that Obama and the Democratic party aren't proud of America were so ludicrous. Don't parents chide their children so that the kids might learn to be better people? Anyways, now I am going off topic, which was initially this strange feeling of being an American, and an outsider, and feeling optimistic that in the next few years the U.S. can make its citizens even more proud to call themselves American than they have been in recent years.

***

Moving on from the elections, last week also brought more ups and downs in the Stockmarket, which has people all on edge. I can't believe that literally in a few days, people's entire retirement 401k money is gone!! I guess I am really lucky to have a looo-ooo-oong time to go until I retire!!! But on a positive side, gas is down to under $2.40, which is unbelievable considering it was nearly double just a few weeks ago!!

On a more personal note, M's parents came up for a weekend visit, and M and I had a movie date ("Changeling," which I give 4 stars, but don't recommend to anyone with small children because it will make you SO SO SAD and paranoid). I also bought a really fun hat! Having headed to the mall in search of black, flat shoes with an ankle strap, I returned home sans shoes, but with a super cute brown bowl hat. And yes, I did finish Taltos, a remarkable letdown by Anne Rice. I am now onto George Eliot's Middlemarch because I need to clean my mental palate, so to speak, after Taltos, but I think I might put that aside for some McEwan.

As for the moment at hand, tonight I am very excited about the Country Music Awards!! I think Kenny Chesney and Sugarland will perform, so I am very happy. A few weeks ago, when the VMA's aired on MTV, I had a quarter-life crisis when I realized that besides Britney Spears and Mariah Carey, I had no idea who the majority of the performers were. I didn't know the songs, I didn't know the singers' names, I felt like an old biddy!! That was when I started listening to more hip hop in the car to make up for my exclusive country habits, and now I feel more confident about my contemporary culture knowledge, but I'm still 100% sure that I will know most of the people at the CMA's, because that's just the country bumpkin I've become.

Post Halloween Boos

NO kiddies came trick-or-treating last night! None! I was very sad and disheartened for some reason. I am ready to feel some festivity, and it saddened me that they stayed away. Granted, it was raining on and off and the wind was strong enough to carry some of the smaller kiddies away, but still. Yesterday I had spent 5 minutes deliberating whether I should get a pumpkin, and decided against it. GOOD! I would have been even sadder if I had a pumpkin and no one came trick-or-treating.

The worst part is that I had stocked up on candy, and now there are bags of M&Ms and Three Musketeers and Candy Corn laying around, and I can't stop eating! Ungrateful children! They probably knew they were going to get M&Ms and Three Musketeers, and so they made their parents take them to Menlo Park or Atherton where who knows what those people give away as treats. Maybe gold-covered raisins or Mini Coopers.

To make myself cheer up, I look at this picture. I think it may be the one SW was trying to show me on Facebook yesterday. If it isn't, I'm sure she'll appreciate it ;-)