My petition to ban two words from the English language

There are two words that raise the hackles on my neck every time I hear them, and I would be exceedingly happy if they were just stricken from our language.  Every time I hear them I either throw up in my mouth a little, or want to punch someone in the face.  Often both.  Simultaneously. 

The dawning of a new (yester)day

Sorry this post is a day late and a dollar short cashing in on the Inaugural hoopla, but like I said, I was only firing on two cylinders maybe.

We arrived at Civic Center Plaza before 7a to watch the simulcast.  I thought it was important to be part of “something” for the occasion since Haley was involved in the campaign.  Even if she didn’t have fun there when her children were reading about January 20th, 2009, she could say she was there, she was part of it all.

There weren’t many people when we got there but Haley immediately noticed the news crew to our left.  Within no time the news lady from KRON Channel 4 approached us and asked if she could ask us some questions.  Of course, once she found out Haley had made Get Out The Vote calls she asked if she could ask us the same questions on a live segment.  Ten minutes later we were on the news!  I thought Haley was going to explode she was so excited!  As soon as it was over my cell started ringing – Rae Rae saw us!  There she was – all innocent, getting ready for work – when BLAM!  there we are on TV!  Apparently they replayed the clip on the 5 o’clock news because Haley’s friend, Mary, called all screaming and freaking out

 

Someone made this really cool origami image of Obama and handed out Sharpie markers for people to leave their thoughts.  Of course Haley had to jump right in and leave her mark!

The crowd soon swelled to the thousands and we all cheered together.  Haley was swamped by all the tall people surrounding her but the spirit of Hope and Change prevailed:  some kindly strangers pushed her up to the front so she could see.  We were separated for the swearings-in of Biden and Obama but my super-sweet baby girl immediately squirmed her way back to me to listen to Obama’s speech.  We stood there in a crowd of people who were truly “all the colors of the rainbow”, embracing, cheering together, and many sharing a tear together – full of pride, hope and enthusiasm for the hard work this country has yet to do.

So after listening to Obama’s speech tell me what is it that you plan to do for your country?

(I promise to get some snippet of the newscast!! Please hold!)

Audacity of Hope?

…  Hope is seeming much less audacious these days.  It feels like a promise, a birthright is being renewed.  Last night I saw it, I didn’t just feel it. 

(Warning:  an attempt at a post of substance:  written by me, from my narrow perspective, an admission of my own imperfect view of the world, but intended in a wholly positive light.)

A death anniversary worth toasting!

Today is the 75th Anniversary of the death of our country’s attempt to legislate morality:  the 21st Amendment.  So lift a glass today!

Cheers!

Put your money where your mouth is

Were you against Proposition 8?  Do you feel it’s unfair to legally discriminate?  Well then, put your money where your mouth is and hit businesses that supported Prop 8 in their wallets. 

Californians Against Hate hosts a Dishonor Roll of boycott-worthy businesses.

Please come here so I can slap the crap out of you

Oh my god.  I am not sure how to spew my poisonous vitriol on this subject without it taking racial overtones BUT…  If I see one more guy carrying the stupid purse of his wife/girlfriend I am going to have to deal some death.

Nothing says “I’M A GIGANTIC WANKER THAT WILL STOOP TO ANY REPUGNANT LEVEL JUST SO I CAN HAVE AN ASIAN GIRLFRIEND!!!!!”like carrying her purse for her.  Honest, more often than not it’s a wee clutch or even a wristlet; almost never is it a big tote bag.  (Oops – race still slipped right in there, didn’t it?  Rae, are you offended?)

This is not coming from one iota of jealousy, either.  I was raised that NO ONE touches a lady’s bag other than the owner.  Their husbands or children risk losing their hands if they dare touch.  I am SO over this pansy-ass metrosexuality.  I’d dare wager that these wieners also refer to their women as Goddesses. 

GAH – the hackles on my neck are standing up and I feel like I need to either vomit or punch something.  I need to get the hell out of Dodge.

(Sorry – despite this gorgeous weather I’m having an I Hate San Francisco kind of day. I need to see me some mens driving trucks with gun-racks!)

A filmstrip is worth a thousand words

(A little old, but poignant nonetheless)

Yep. Just as I thought.

He looks mighty Presidential! 

from Huffington Post

A little something to help with the P.E.S.S.*

*Post Election Stress Syndrome

Daaaaamn.  Talk about a crash-and-burn the last few days.  Until just last night I don’t think I have slept more than 3 hours a night for 2+ weeks.  (Ok, fine!  I admit it!  That second tall Sapphire & tonic helped put me out for about 5 hours on election night.)  Last night I managed close to seven.

Just to make me a little less capable of multi-tasking successfully, this week I have been learning InDesign.  Yes – I plan on singlehandedly reviving the hospitality investment environment with my super sexy pitches and deal books!  And it looks like it’s going to be a Four Seasons, Baby!  They want to build one at Walt Disney World and mark my words:  if this deal gets done and we get a “professional courtesy” I’m going to Disney World!  HA!

So, just in case your brain is as mush as mine, I’ll state the obvious here.  I’m sorry I’ve been quiet in the blogosphere but my mental bandwidth, well, it’s toast.

BUT!!!  This morning I happened upon this juicy little place:  State of California Unclaimed Property. I found money for me and a number of family members!  If you have ever lived in California check it out.  I neverwin anything (unlike my mother, Queen of All Raffles and Slot Machines) but sitting out there was my childhood savings account from the Bank of Willits.  I had called them a year or two ago when Mom remembered she set me up with an account there when I was a wee lass, but they had no record of it because that was long before they computerized and seemed none too motivated to go look in their files.  BINGO!

(And ACK!  Check out that last sentence! Can you say run-on and on and on and on?!?  I’m leaving it because it’s ridiculous and ridiculous amuses me today because my mind is like a bowl of wet oatmeal that’s been overcooked and left on the stove and has burnt to the bottom of the pan and you’re like all “damn, that smells bad and it’s gonna suck to scrape that off”, and you would rather pour yourself another SUPERTALL gin and tonic and pretend the stinky burned oatmeal you’re putting off doesn’t really exist but then you remember that crappy feeling you get in the brain after supertall gin and tonics and then you think to yourself, “wait – this is all my stinky burned oatmeal brain talking” and then you forget who you are, what you were doing and for why!?!) 

We’ll be back Monday with our regularly scheduled programming.  Have a lovely weekend!

Robocaller, you’re barking up the wrong tree with me

Last night at 9:30 p.m. – a full 30 minutes past the legally allowed time -I received a Robocall (now I really feel like I’m part of this election!)  How amusing to think that their lazy attempt to change my opinion on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage would work!  HA!  I laugh in their faces!

Dear activist-campaign-y type people – If you can’t drum up enough REAL LIVE HUMANS to make your calls for you then you need to re-examine the necessity of your efforts. 

Yes, Proposition 8 is likely to be a close call and really could go either way (bastards!) but if your supporters won’t get on the horn and put themselves out there to make calls then they should think long and hard about why that is.

I have half a mind (yes, we all know where the other half went – and it was fun!) to give them a piece of my mind!  Wait, if I give them part of the half that I have left… that’s probably not a good plan.  If you want to for me, you can find these limp dicks at Protect Marriage.  I’ll be your BFF!  (I know – so tempting!)

Vote!

Or I will wish a pox upon you!

One more, sent from an Obama staffer

Here’s one last pic – we’re actually working!

Crazy for campaigning

Today we spent more than 3 hours working on the Obama campaign.  Haley completed two call lists ALL ON HER OWN(!!) – calling voters in Florida and Colorado reminding them to vote on Tuesday, telling them where their polling places were, and giving them info on getting a ride to the polls if they needed one.  I sat next to her and did data entry, entering the results of all these calls. 

The goal was for Californians to place 1.5 million calls a day over the weekend and on up to Election Day.  Based on what we saw in SF, they had to have neared that mark!  It was another slammin’ day, packed to the rafters with volunteers.

 

(Video can also be seen here.)

Haley was really popular with the campaign staffers… everyone thought she did a great job!

The child, participating in our democracy

Okay, if it was “wow” on Wednesday, it was “WOW!!!” today!  Haley was a total rockstar!

Not only did she bring water to thirsty phonebankers…

She was the MESSAGE MASTER!  Everyone agreed that she did a GREAT job!

(Or you can see it here.)

We’ll be returning for another shift tomorrow – at Haley’s request!  She was a star!

“…Regulated Capitalism is Not Socialism”

Boy, I’d like to think my college papers were so eloquent – but who am I kidding?  I went to State school!

Read a real work of intellegence here…

I love the smell of grass (roots campaigning)

Wow.  That was fun.  It’s really an experience to sit in a big room, filled with people, all reaching out to other people to support a presidential candidate.  We went en masse to a restaurant to watch his TV spot and returned for another flurry of activity before wrapping it up for the night.

You know, Obama talks a lot about Unity vs. Division and I can tell you that his SF HQ is walking the walk.  When pressed for a time I would commit to return, I told them it was difficult because of childcare.  Their response?  “BRING HER!  We’ll put her to work!  She can make signs, she can greet people, she can deliver water to phone bankers – she can work, too!”

So, little Miss Haley is going to work on her first political campaign on Saturday morning.  I think that may just make me more proud than riding a horse on her own.  Scores of men and women have given their lives so that she can be free and so that she can participate in this great democracy. 

It’s never too early to honor their sacrifices and become and enthusiastic citizen.

Election fatigue, I has it

So tonight I am going to park my keyster in Obama San Francisco HQ.  I’ll be calling them fence-sitters in the swing states, we’ll watch his Infomercial thing, then have a quiz night or something silly.   (Thank you, Steve and Haley, for helping get there tonight!)

I am going to do what I can tonight and (hopefully) try  to unplug from all this drama until I am glued to the TV on Tuesday.

Maybe my buddy Jon will be able to make it – he was my first friend to vocally support Obama.  It’s also his birthday today and I’d like to have a quick drink and give him his totally boss present

Even if you’re not a Vegetarian

Please vote YES on Prop 2.  Two cents an egg – that’s what it will cost us. 

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated… I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man”
– Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)

I have no problem with people eating meat.  I have a problem with how it is produced. 

I think I almost have my ranting out of my system.  Thanks for bearing with me

Proposition 8: what’s really going on

Have you seen this ad?

Let me tell you something – spin-free – about what really happens.  As you probably know, I have a child that attends public elementary school.  Marriage – of any sort – is not part of the curriculum.  If they don’t teach gay marriage in San Francisco, is it really taught elsewhere? 

Our kids aren’t learning enough about Math, Science and basic literacy.  Our kids are almost exclusively taught to take the state standard tests (IE: STAR) and they can barely get that information covered.  Many schools have no art or P.E.  Where does this marriage education fit in?  Really!?!

Believe or disbelieve whatever you want about the commercials on TV, but as a parent with a child in public school you should NOT base your vote on Prop 8 on whether our poor, innocent children will be corrupted by images of all sorts of people making life-long, loving commitments to each other.   

Oh – and we mustn’t legislate your religious objections to the definition of a term, either.  “Marriage” is a legal agreement, like a Joint Venture in business, that just so happens to also be recognized religiously. 

Separation of church and state, people!

     – Love, a confirmed Lutheran who is active in her church

Obama rally in Arizona!

Thank you Field Reporter Mommy!