I Feel Like This Kid When I Watch the News

Fear definitely played a huge part in this election. Be afraid of Obama because of his name, because he is different, because he hates white people, because he won't know how to make big decisions, because he wants to give your money to poor people, because he is a Muslim, because he is pro-abortion, because he will take your guns, because his friends are terrorists. The list of things you should be afraid of was endless.

Be afraid of gays getting married. If society gives homosexuals equal rights, your marriage will be less sacred, your kids might decide to be gay, churches will lose their rights and next we'll be seeing people marrying their pets or house plants!

Most of the things that we should be afraid of don't even make sense. Can you tell me why churches would not be able to marry people anymore if homosexual marriage was legal? What law says that churches cannot refuse to marry people? I'm pretty sure that the whole separation-of-church-and-state thing protects churches from things like that.

Many people are terrified of this "change" that Obama is going to bring to us. I can't tell you how many emails I have received with a picture of Obama photoshopped over Bin Laden's face, that said, "You wanted change, you got it," or something similar. REALLY?!?

I am 115% confident that Obama is not a terrorist or a communist or the anti-Christ or any of those terrifying things that I have heard. I look around and see that we obviously need to do something different, and that is his plan. Sure, different can be scary, but at this point, going down the same path is far scarier.

To the people who buy into this fear business, I guess the point I am trying to make is, give the guy a chance. God knows Bush and the Republican-majority congress got several years of chances. We even gave them a couple before we started bitching. It is someone else's turn now! Let him try out a few things before you start yelling that he hasn't found Bin Laden yet, or that people are still losing their houses and jobs, or that the stock market is still down, or that the Sunnis are still fighting the Shias. Stuff like this does not change overnight, but at least we voted to start heading in the right direction.

Fifteen Minutes of Absurdity

Today while I was radio surfing I heard a voice that makes me flinch. I decided to stop and listen for a minute, because he manages to get me so worked up sometimes that it is like a mini cardio workout.

On Rush's program he talked about how there is no explaining the idea of liberalism the same way there is no way to explain crazy. We are deranged. A boy called in and suggested that we sign on to the idea of global warming because we are putting our own fear of death onto the Earth. We are so self important that we believe that our life is tied into the Earth, therefore killing the Earth is like killing us.

Why is it so easy for Rush to say these things and stay at the top of the charts? Why do people listen to his gasps for breath between words and his grating voice and raspy chortles? I understand that there are loud members of the fringe on both sides, but it is disappointing that some of them manage to gather a large audience.

So, for all of you who, like me, believe in... no... understand the science behind global warming, rest assured that someone out there understands that your true purpose is to save yourself. I mean, after all, we are just deranged. There is no way to explain the insanity that is liberalism, right?

On the other hand, Limbaugh is as simple to explain as anything. He makes more money for being cruel and outlandish and making ridiculous statements than he does for saying something that resembles reality. The idea that any American voter should care that Barack Obama is not a true black person because he does not have slave blood is something that I do not understand. I sat there wondering why he would even bring that up. I am sure this helps his agenda in one way or another, but I guess it will take some time for me to figure out the steps between.

Thank God I only listened for fifteen minutes.

Rio Grande Cancer Foundation Wins Communications Award

One of the magazines that I write for, In the Know, won an award! Here's the info:


The Rio Grande Cancer Foundation has been named a Gold award winner for excellence in communications by the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards Program. Sponsored by the Council on Foundations, a national organization based out of Washington, D.C., the awards program recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations and their giving programs.

The Rio Grande Cancer Foundation has received the award for its magazine publication In The Know: Understanding the Cancer Experience. The Foundation has been awarded in previous years for outstanding communication in its website www.rgcf.org as well. Evaluators of the magazine commented on the “top flight magazine design”, “crisp, contemporary and engaging writing”, and “compelling stories”.

The award will be presented at Philanthropy’s Vision: A Leadership Summit, in National Harbor, Maryland, on Monday, May 5, 2008. The Summit, a groundbreaking event that combines the Council on Foundation’s three annual conferences, will gather leaders from around the world in one place, at one time, to discuss how philanthropy can work together to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

“We are delighted to have been so recognized by an organization whose commitment to public accountability and effective communications serves as a model for others”, said Patty Tiscareño, Executive Director of the Rio Grande Cancer Foundation. “In The Know: Understanding the Cancer Experience is beginning its second year of publication and this announcement furthers our resolve to make this important resource the premier publication for cancer patients and their families.”

Entries to the awards program included annual or biennial reports, magazines/periodicals, special reports, public information campaigns and websites. This year, 213 entries were submitted to the awards program.

Some of My Favorite Websites

I love shopping online. There is so much to choose from! Plus you get a package in the mail a few days later, and not much can top that. I especially like shopping online for cute new indie-ish stuff. There are a few websites in particular that I browse on an almost-daily basis.


Etsy.com is God's gift to the internet. It is a website where anyone can sell anything handmade. Even cookies, which is awesome. You will find whatever you want on this site. Of course, since people are posting handmade items, some of the stuff is a little crappy. But you can find some real gems. Look at this cute Owl Messenger Bag I just bought! And it is so fun to see the range of ideas that people have about what a scarf looks like. And if you would rather make your stuff than buy it, go to Etsy to get ideas!


Another one of my favorites is ModCloth. And lucky for me, the company I just started working for does their website, so I get a discount! Yeah! I particularly love the birdie wall decals on the left and the coasters on the right. Susan and Eric do a perfect job of traveling around and picking out new items to sell. Great clothes too. Definitely check this one out.


Last for today is ShanaLogic. This website comprised a good percentage of my Christmas list this year. They have less clothes, but lots and lots of great art (below) and accessories. Some of their stuff can be a little pricey, like this $70 pillow. But a lot of it is pretty reasonable and totally worth the cost.

Next time you are bored at work or looking for something cute and different, check out these sites. I'm always looking for new stuff, so tell me your favorites too!

Afternoon to Remember

Nothing is a whole lot cooler than living in DC. Being able to spend a Saturday afternoon walking around the National Mall or browsing the Smithsonian makes life significantly more interesting. There are a lot of things that are completely different to me. For one thing, I can get anywhere I want by walking or taking the Metro. It is not as depressing to be without a car as I thought it would be. I think it actually makes my life a little more interesting.


On Saturday Levi and I took the Metro to Dupont Circle to meet someone who is interviewing Iraq war veterans for a research project. Before we met her, we stopped for flatbread sandwiches at Cosi. Mine was chicken, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil. Levi's was roast beef and wasabi. They were delicious.



Then we wandered into a little bakery / coffee shop and picked up some Valentine's Day sprinkle cookies that I ended up trying to feed to a sad-looking statue later on.




After the interview we walked around Dupont Circle and admired the buildings. Then it was off to Embassy Row. Not on purpose... we just stumbled upon it.



There were statues everywhere... some of them were people and some were elephants. This is in front of the Indian Embassy. We also saw Ghandi and Buffalos and lots of political leaders from around the world.




This is one of the most tolerant churches I have ever seen. On the other end of the church was a SaveDarfur.org banner. Nice to know someone is aware of how Jesus would have really wanted things. (Psst... he would have been a liberal.)



Across the street from the church was a gas station where I had a very random experience. After walking around for a couple of hours, we both realized the need to find a restroom. We spent the next fifteen minutes spell-checking an essay for the clerk's English class. Odd, but kind of fun.

There are so many restaurants in DC, we could eat out every day for the next ten years and never hit all of them. This realization inspired us to make a promise not to eat at chain restaurants anymore. We are pretty good about that anyway, but this experience made it necessary to pinkie-swear. (We might cheat with the occasional Chipotle burrito.)

The next stop was a little independently owned bookstore. It made us promise not to shop at Barnes & Noble anymore either.



While we were strolling, we came upon a street that was all blocked off to traffic. There were a few people walking and biking around, so we thought we would check it out. Turns out it was Pennsylvania Avenue, so we got some nice White House photos.



Right in front of the White House there was a guy with an arsenal of picket signs. Everything from anti-war to pro-life posters. He was sorting through them when we walked by, and I got this picture as he was picking out two of them to hold up. It seems to me that protesting kind of loses its impact if you have a sign for everything.


After several hours of exploring, we jumped on the Metro to head home. We had to change lines in Chinatown, and we decided to get dinner at a place that we had walked by a couple of weeks ago called Wok and Roll. Awesome name for a restaurant. They had great sushi and sesame chicken. Yum.




We have been checking on Joe and Charlotte's dog this weekend, so we stopped for some Corona and went to their house. We played with Georgia-dog and watched Charlie Wilson's War, then one of us had the brilliant idea to take advantage of the Rock Band. Needless to say, we didn't get home until very late. Overall, it was a perfect day.

Tonight we are checking out the Grammy's. There have been a few highlights, but generally not too impressive. Right now I am watching Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and their dueling pianos. That is definitely entertaining.

Before the Grammy's was Katie Couric and Hillary Clinton on 60 minutes. After the interview she spoke about John McCain not being able to show up for an interview. Here is something that Katie did that needs to stop:

"We look forward to having him on...
...in the near future."

There was a very pregnant pause between "on" and "in." Right in the middle of the sentence. Go ahead, say it out loud. You hear news anchors do it all of the time. It sounds so unnatural, Ms. Couric should probably knock it off. Of course, she is the professional, not me.


I will end this post with a picture of the darling coffee shop birds eating our sprinkle cookies. I don't think I will ever stop getting excited over all of the birds and squirrels that are running around this city. We even saw a mouse trying to get into a Slim Jim wrapper under the Metro tracks. Aw, cute.

Something to Write Home About...

I've had a blog for a while, but it was mostly full of little diddies that I wrote and not much about me. Considering that I don't want anyone to read my little diddies, I figured that was not the best use for a public blog on the internet machine. So, I replaced it with something that I don't mind sharing.

For me, blogging is kind of like the grown-up version of leaving my diary around the house so my mom would read it. I love writing about myself and knowing that someone else is reading it. So, read away. Of course, since i have never been very good at writing in a diary, I probably won't be very good at keeping up a blog. But I'll do my best.

I, like millions of others, am hooked on Lost. And I am ecstatic that it is not one of those shows that is taking a break. Au contraire, while my other favorite shows are on hiatus, Lost came back from the not-quite-dead. Thank you J.J. Abrams, for getting me all excited and giving me something fictional to hypothesize about from Thursday to Thursday.

I am also enamored with finding new music and downloading as much of it as possible. Legally, of course. Since Levi is hunting down bad guys in the evenings these days, I have been spending a good deal of time finding new stuff to please my ears. The Darjeeling Limited soundtrack is fun and different and makes me want to see the movie again. The Elected is a good time... it is Blake Sennett from Rilo Kiley doing something on the side. I knew I liked a few Grandaddy songs, but I love their "Just Like the Fambly Cat." I didn't know if I was going to like "In Rainbows," the new Radiohead. But, I do. Thank you Joe for that little masterpiece.

Here's something to write home about... I quit smoking when we made our big move from Texas to DC. I figured it would either be a big mistake or the perfect time to quit. Turns out, it was perfect. I quit the weekend before Christmas and I have been 95% successful. That 5% comes from two nights when I was out drinking heavily with smokers. Oh well, what are ya gonna do? Anyway, the only time that I really, really want to smoke is when I drink. I also want to smoke when I talk on the phone, when I'm alone, when I am in a car and when I am walking. And right after I eat dinner. But those times are not as bad as when I drink. If anyone can tell me how to get over that alcohol+cigarette craving, I would be eternally grateful. As would all of the other smokers/ex-smokers in the world. Kids, don't start smoking. You know, I think the idea of quitting was worse than the actual quitting. Because the one thing that makes me not start again is the thought of having to quit. Again. Man, it is a good thing I never did heroin.

Enough about bad habits. I would like to welcome all of you to my not-quite-first blog post. My first post on this blog. That turned out to be kind of a downer. Keep coming back and get to know me a little better. Or a lot better, depending on how excited I get about this whole blogging thing.

Until next time...