Beautiful concert, terrible end.

My great friend, Tina, and I were attending this concert last night. There were plenty of accounts of the events.

From my perspective, I thought that a speaker or a section of lights had fallen onto the stage. There was a loud THUD, and I looked to Glen Hansard, who seemed stunned, but he hadn't been hit or hurt. Then I realized the thing that had fallen was actually a person, and thought that maybe it was a lighting technician who had fallen from above. However, Tina had seen the guy fall/jump the roof, which seemed to confirm that he wasn't part of the crew, and it all just became very surreal.

Today, I keep seeing flashes of last night, mostly in still images. The impact, the look on Glen's face, the woman leaving the venue with her hand over her mouth, the girl in sobs waiting for the deputy to take statements, the security guards, the confusion, the band waiting off-stage, Glen's folded hands in the seat next to me, the helpless looks on everyone's faces. Honestly, I don't even feel like they're my own memories. Very unreal.

Considering an adventure...

Jesse and I have been throwing around the idea of taking a cross-country road trip. This is mostly because Jesse has done it, and I haven't, and because he has such great memories of it, he wants me to do it, too. I'm not opposed to the idea, because I grew up "going for a ride" with my grandparents on weekends - driving is pretty much in my blood. I love it. Impromptu road trips are totally awesome.

However, the idea of an extended, planned, multi-state excursion has been really daunting to me. That's really the reason why we haven't gone on the trip yet. I can't wrap my brain around it. Who's car should we take? How many miles is it? Will we be comfortable for that length of time in that car? What should we stop and see? Isn't that an awful lot of vacation time? Do we go to natural wonders or roadside quirks? Both? Again, doesn't that take a long time? Where do we stay? How can we be sure we'll make it to the next hotel on that specific day? Oh, forget it.

Now that my wonderful friend and former neighbor, Chelsea, has moved out of state, I no longer have a built-in, trustworthy, animal-loving cat sitter nearby. We recently found out that our cat, Mimsy, may be more nervous/anxious than we once thought, and we're also treating her for crystals in her urine, and all this means that she needs daily attention and daily box cleaning, which is tough to accommodate while on vacation.

We tossed around some ideas for how to travel (in a car) with cats, but those visuals were pretty rough. I couldn't imagine keeping them in carriers the whole time, and even more than that, I couldn't figure out how to have a litter box AND luggage in the same space, with cats out and about, safely. Ugh.

At some point, Jesse came up with the idea of renting an RV for the cross-country trip, so we could take the cats with us. While I thought it was a great idea, we were digesting it very slowly (because renting an RV is not cheap, and the questions of how long the trip would be kept coming up). Last week, though, while I was looking for a hotel for a quick weekend trip for Jesse's upcoming birthday, a very odd idea hit me.

What if we just buy an RV?

That way, we can use it for the weekend trip AND the cross-country trip, and we'll probably get some good use out of it, given our cat situation.

So to skip to the good part: we're looking for a class C motorhome; it should be as short as possible while still having an always-out bed in the back (~25ft), low miles, not terribly old. Ugly is not a huge issue, but road readiness is. If you know of someone who's selling, please let us know. =)

I don't have any concrete experience with RVs, other than the fact that my grandparents were "full-timers" on their class A motorhome during their retirement, and drove it all over the country. Unfortunately, they've since passed away, and I didn't really ask any questions about RVing when they were alive, so this is all new to me (us). Luckily, library cards are still easy to get, so I've picked up several good books that assure me that RVing takes no special skills or training.

Anyway, as this idea (quickly!) developed, and in order to see if this is just a daydreamer's fancy or a true solution to our problem(s), we've decided to rent an RV for the birthday weekend trip. The plan is to pack up the cats and head out for an adventure, to see how we all like the travel style.

If it all works out and we love it, then in the future, you can look for us at the shuffleboard area of the KOA/Thousand Trails campgrounds (har, har). ;)

She's crafty

My husband will be the first to tell you that a major pet peeve of mine is craft stores. When I was little, I absolutely loved all of the possibilities of arts and crafts. However, when I reached a certain age, there was a strange threshold I crossed whereby all the "cool" crafts were either (a) too complicated for me, since I had no patience, (b) too dangerous for someone of my age or (c) too expensive for a kid without income. Lastly, my mom really loved to meander slowly through the aisles of craft stores, and I would get bored and want to leave, but I couldn't, and so I'd just get mad and grumpy.

Fast forward to 2009:

I organized a Bake Sale at my office in May to benefit Bake for Hope. We had eight bakers, and we raised more money than any other bake sale in Northern California.







In June, my mom passed down to me the art of canning. We preserved half a tree's worth of apricots (it was days of work!). We even used the same ladle that my maternal grandmother used to use for canning. Seriously domestic, and even a little empowering, knowing that I can preserve some of my own food.



Around the same time, I took a "Sewing Machine Basics" class and then pulled my paternal grandmother's sewing machine out of storage under the stairs. I braved a fabric store and a sewing machine repair shop (the machine needed new needles). I read the machine's manual. I sewed a drawstring bag for Jesse (not pictured). My first "big" project was a set of baby booties and mittens for a new arrival of one of Jesse's co-workers. (The dad loves soccer, and it was a girl.)

Frankly, the rest of the year was a blur. During that time, my mom and I (with lots of help from my husband, my dad, a couple of good contractors and one bad one) disassembled a house, then re-assembled it, using lots of scraping, texturing, painting, shining, sweeping, whining, scrubbing, salvaging, shopping, straining and thinking.

We started with images like this (there used to be a cooktop there). Honestly, this is the cutest one. Most of the others are ugh-ly.




We ended up with images like this (the cooktop can't really be seen, but it was put back right next to the oven, after we re-finished the cabinets and had granite countertops installed). And the house sold quickly.




The only breath of fresh air was in December, and that air was filled with the scent of iced cut-out sugar cookies, marshmallow fudge, lime sugar cookies, etc. Christmas baking at Tina's house was totally awesome, complete with a bottle of wine and a fancy hors d'oeuvres dinner. I would show you a picture, but I can't seem to find one! (Tina - do you still have pics?)

Also in December, Jesse, Tina and I crafted other, inedible Christmas things. We made ornaments out of clay and painted them with liquid gold leaf and liquid silver leaf (not pictured).

Tina and I made little snowmen with red scarves, for tying little bags closed, or attaching to candy canes.










I also tried to follow Martha Stewart's project instructions to decorate clothes pins with wrapping paper, for hanging up Christmas cards. I still need to finish those up this year...







I know that this only catches us up to the end of last year. I'll try to post about this year's activities before the calendar flips to 2011. ;)

Stinkface

So, my face stinks. In my never ending, yet fairly lazy, quest for less expensive/mainstream/chemical-laden skincare/household products, I recently purchased a bottle of Witch Hazel. I thought it would be yet another oft overlooked and yet completely genius perfect replacement for the chemical cosmetic toners I usually use. Unfortunately, even though Witch Hazel's extraordinary list of achievements and benefits is impressive, it loses MAJOR points in the scent category.

I'm big on smells, and I like things to smell good, even if that means using perfumes. Of course, I've had to compromise along the way, given the nature of my aforementioned quest, and many of the newer products in my house are virtually scentless. I'm more and more OK with that as time goes on. I used to think Jesse was nuts for buying unscented laundry detergent -- isn't clean laundry supposed to smell good, not just like hot cotton? Sheesh. Now I buy as many unscented things as I can (keep in mind this is a process).

Enter Witch Hazel. I'm thinking it'll be like hydrogen peroxide -- mostly unscented, but genius and endlessly useful. The marketing team did it's job -- the Witch Hazel sits on the bottom shelf in the health section of your local pharmacy or big box store, among the generic brown and white bottles of isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. However, WH comes in a lovely clear bottle with a transparent, full-color label and a breezy font...this looks like good stuff! For $3? Sold. Usually, toner is $8 or more for a bottle half this size.

I get it home, I wash my face to prep for bed, and right about this time is when I start thinking that this stuff sounds too good to be true -- it's a natural astringent that doesn't strip natural oils from your skin. Why isn't this stuff more popular? Let me give it a sniff to rule out the smell as a cause for its downfall...

Nope, that's it. It's the smell. It has a damp smell, which I can only think to describe as "burning mildew." It's awful. I'm thinking that this is a BIG bottle of Witch Hazel... So what do I do? Why, rub it all over my face, of course!

I then immediately start running back and forth in the bathroom fanning my face, trying to get it to dry so maybe the smell will go away.

It does eventually dry, and I have to say...my skin feels really nice! Like high quality cosmetics nice, and all I did was cleanse and use Witch Hazel. I'm going to try to see if there's something I can add that will improve the smell (rosewater? Essential oil?), because it's so bad that I'm not even sure that the results are worth it.. Any ideas?

ETA: I couldn't keep up with the W.H. I had the most irritated skin after just three days or so, with tons of red spots on my forehead and cheeks. Terrible. My skin is far too sensitive.

Someone's advertising on my banana

I feel very violated! Chiquita has started selling ad space on their bananas.



I'm paying for the banana, Chiquita. You shouldn't need to sell ads for something I'm already paying for. That's why HBO doesn't have commercials. My word, what is the world coming to.

If I had kids (and I don't, Chiquita, so don't worry, I'm sure your evil plot will still work), I would immediately pull all of the stickers off of the bananas I purchased, so that I didn't provide corporate ad space directly in my kids' lunchboxes. Either that, or I'd pay more for bananas that offer me the option of non-corporate-subsidized fruit. Sheesh!

Silence

I'm having a hard time right now. I've been meaning to blog for quite a while. I've had a lot of developments in my life, mostly related to acquiring domestic skills. It has been, for the most part, a really great year for my personal life.

However, the thing that has finally made me break radio silence is our poor little kitty's illness. Honestly, my actual reaction to our current situation is that I want to be more silent than ever. I want to make it go away, pretend it isn't happening. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to be experiencing this. But I can't stand the thought of letting this pass by unrecorded, unacknowledged. I need to honor her and let people know that she didn't just disappear, that we have all struggled as a family through this time, and that it's a really big moment in our lives.

Pipper is really sick. She has cancer. It's terminal. We found out on July 6th, the day after we got home from the 4th of July weekend. When we got home on Sunday, her breathing sounded congested, which was weird and new. I went to work the next day, called the vet, and they encouraged me to bring her in so they could take a look. They suspected a respiratory infection. I rushed home, made it to the office by 11:45am, and they told me they wanted to take X-rays instead of just sending us home with antibiotics, as they would do with a younger cat.

I had to leave her at the office until 2pm, because they had to "let the machine warm up" and then they were on lunch break, then they would take the images and I could pick her up. When I got there at 2pm, I was sort of in a fog. I remember feeling like I knew something was wrong, and I even picked up a pamphlet in the lobby about a Pet Loss Support Group at the local Humane Society. Then again, I can sometimes be a little bit pessimistic, so I tried to shrug that off. Unfortunately, the feeling was right this time. The vet showed me the chest X-ray, and I could see the masses. Lung cancer, she said. And since we had previously told her that Pipper's head had been twitching sometimes, the vet said she suspected it was probably being caused by brain cancer.

Silence.

Sobbing.

Deep breath. "What do we do?"

She explained that she expected Pipper to have "maybe a month."

Silence.

How do you respond to that? I just cried and stared at the X-ray. I nodded. I tried not to lose it. I tried to be an adult, for whatever that's worth. I mentioned my husband, and how much he loves our little cat. She said that he was welcome to call her any time if he had any questions. We should watch her appetite, her mood, her breathing. She explained something about a blood test and that she would get a second opinion on the X-ray, but it didn't really register, since I could see those masses with my own eyes. She said there would be no pain, but that certain symptoms would cause stress, which we shouldn't put Pipper through, if we could avoid it.

Ok, thank you. Can I call if I think of anything else?

Yes, of course.

I cried in the exam room for a little while, and the staff tried to give me some space to be with our kitty for a few minutes. I decided I needed to deliver this news to Jesse in person, so I took Pipper home, made sure she seemed comfortable, then drove up to San Francisco at about 3:00pm. I called Jesse when I was around the block from his work. He met me outside. We cried. I tried to describe what the vet told me, but I had a hard time delivering the same message myself. We decided to go straight home. I gave Jesse the vet's phone number, and he called her on the way home. She apparently told him that Pipper had "two weeks to a month."

We had a bad week. She was sullen, exhausted, sleeping in a different room. She sounded extra "congested" if she got up and moved around (though she didn't do much of that). She didn't lift her head up if we walked into the room. We found ourselves frequently laying a hand gently on her to make sure she was still breathing.

We continued to work. Our friends were so supportive. I had prepared myself for a couple of 'off' remarks, but was so grateful that everyone seemed to understand. I recalled all of my friends who had lost pets. I kicked myself for anything I thought I said to them that might not have been appropriate. I wished I could've done more for all of them. I realized that you can't fully understand this situation without some prior experience, and that made me sad, too. I know that this will haunt me whenever a friend says they're going through something similar. It breaks my heart to think of that.

The following weekend was hard. Pipper had some kind of tremor on Saturday while Jesse was with her. The whole situation had become overwhelming -- we didn't know when we would "know," and we didn't know if she was experiencing stress. We had sort of lost perspective, since we hadn't seen her normal behavior in over a week. It was very lonely.

On Sunday afternoon, she sort of perked up. I don't exactly know what tipped us off at first, but she seemed a little more interested in the world around her. We could walk into the room, and she would look up at us. It was different somehow.

By Monday morning, she was hanging out with us on the bed like old times. She started to greet us when we walked into the room. She was proactively acknowledging us. I can't explain how happy and relieved I was. It was as if she was saying, "Here I am! Remember me?" And we did. We could finally see that she was still the same, loving, upbeat cat. She just got a little winded if she walked around too much. But once she was able to rest up, she was engaged and interested and cuddly. She started climbing up onto our chests. She started biting my hair and licking Jesse's head (some of her favorite things). She was on our bed all day (not in the other room). She was back, and we were so grateful. It was such a great week.

By this past Monday, I had come full circle, and I started to really internalize that, even though she was upbeat and perky again, it didn't mean she was getting better. It was just a really awesome period of time that would help us remember our little buddy as her happy, lovable self. I was filled with gratitude every time I saw her, and I tried to hold on to all of those happy moments and not take them for granted.

On Tuesday, Jesse noticed that her breathing had changed again. This time, it was really shallow and fast. It only happened when she exerted herself, but it was still really concerning. She also starting to do something that resembled coughing, except it was very weak, and it made her really uncomfortable. She would cough a little bit, then rapidly try to change positions and find another place to be. She was crouching down and looked a little bit panicked. As soon as the coughing stopped, she would try to lay down and relax. I could only think that the weakness and fear was caused by her reduced lung capacity. The masses must be growing, and she's suffering. We were so worried.

On Wednesday, it was clear that she was getting really tired again. I would see her asleep in the middle of the floor, which she never does. It was as if she got tired somewhere between point A and point B, so she would just lay down and rest. In the morning, she was not on the bed with us. Instead, she was on the rug next to the bed, curled up and looking fairly uncomfortable. We found her sleeping in the other room again on Wednesday night.

Yesterday morning, she seemed extremely uncomfortable. Not only was her breathing quick and shallow (while lying still), but she would curl up next to us and *immediately* lay her head down (on the side) and try to go to sleep. She just doesn't ever do that. If we're up with her on the bed, she's usually trying to get us to pet her, or biting us, or just sitting quietly with her head up and eyes open. We knew she wasn't feeling good at all. It hurt to look at her, because we felt like she was in pain, or at least really uncomfortable.

We talked and talked and talked about what we were seeing. We cried. We pet Pipper, hugged her, cried. She seemed to be unhappy when we touched her -- she would jolt her head to look at us, and she almost looked scared. A couple of times, when we touched her, she would quickly get up and scoot a few inches away, and lay back down. She was clearly telling us to leave her alone, she wasn't feeling good.

On Wednesday night, I thought it might be coming. On Thursday morning, I felt the tension in the room, as we talked about our observations. I finally said it: "Do you think it might be time?" He said yes, he did. We cried.

We decided that "tomorrow" (today) would be the right time. We talked to her.

We went to work, I called the vet. They were as reassuring as they could be, and I made an appointment. I hated being at work. I cried frequently, I locked myself in a conference room with my laptop and a box of kleenex. I've been wearing my glasses, because crying dries out my contacts, and I can't stop crying.

I got home Thursday evening, and rushed into the bedroom to find Pipper curled up on a rug next to the bed. She looked so sweetly up at me, and purred when I pet her. It broke my heart. I started to really question our decision. Jesse got home, we visited Pip again. I told him I wasn't sure. We petted her more, and out of nowhere, she started squirming and her breathing became really shallow again. She let her head fall to the floor, and we noticed that she had a new way of positioning herself. Her paws were always up under her chest, like she was trying to hold herself up and reduce the pressure on her body. It was just another sign. It was like she was telling us, "I want to be happy to see you, but I'm not happy about anything right now."

We talked for a long time. We talked about compassion, pain, indecision, fear, love, comfort. We talked about selflessness, and I said that I think I finally know what that means in this situation. We need to swallow our fear of making the wrong decision at the wrong time, and help our little buddy out of the discomfort her illness is causing her. It's not about us or our sadness. It's about what's right for her in this situation. She can't make the decision for herself, but she's trying to tell us what we need to do.

It's Friday morning, and our little buddy is hanging out in the other room, away from us. She's uncomfortable. If we approach her, she sometimes looks at us, sometimes doesn't. She sometimes purrs, sometimes tries to get away. She still pulls her little paws up under her chest. I watched her try to place her paw a different way, maybe to hold her head when she puts it down, I'm not sure. But every time she tried to move her paw, she would immediately pull it back under, like she couldn't find the right position. Jesse is torn, because she clearly wants to be left alone, but he wants to hug her for every second she has left with us.

So, this is our last day. Our appointment is at 3:00pm. There will be plenty more tears today, and an outpouring of love for our little Pip, as she spends her last few hours in our house. It has been such an awesome experience to have her living with us. I've had lots of pets, all through my life. Having only one pet has been a very intimate experience, and I'm so glad that Jesse has been able to experience Pip's unconditional love. Our little family of three has been so happy together for the past four years. We love you so much, Pipper.

What have *you* been up to?

For those of you who read my blog, but who I don't talk to on a regular basis, I'm sorry that I'm a bum. =) I have been up to stuff, but I haven't said much about it.

Since my last post on January 7th, I...

...have traveled to Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
...magically acquired a ticket to the Swearing-in Ceremony for President Barack Obama. (w00t, Ry!)
...attended said Swearing-in Ceremony.
...told my realtor and mortgage broker to go away and leave us alone.
...became an iPhone user.
...celebrated my 2-year wedding anniversary.
...took a weekend road trip to Oregon.

Clearly, I've have a great 6 weeks or so, overall. The day after the Inauguration, I sat down and wrote an extremely long blog post (and saved it)... but for as long as it was, it seemed like there was a lot more detail that I was missing (probably because I was still exhausted). So I'll finish that and post it at some point, hopefully soon.

As a New Years Resolution, I think our mortgage broker and realtor decided to flip through their Rolodex and call everyone they once knew, to see if they were ready to be convinced to buy. We told them, in no uncertain terms, "No, please leave us alone."

(flash - next story!) Jesse and I celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary at the end of January. Two years is the 'cotton' anniversary, so we did really think about how to incorporate cotton somehow. I tried to convince him that the majority of jewelry is made of cotton, as well as stainless steel ("cotton") pots and pans, and iPhones... So, when it came down to gift-opening, I reached into the small gift bag and what did my fingers touch? Shoot, it was *real* cotton. Only a tiny bit disappointed, I pulled it out of the bag, and unfolded what seemed like a black t-shirt. OK, it *was* a black t-shirt... that had iPhone buttons screen-printed on it! w00t! I dragged him off to the AT&T store right then and there, and now I'm a proud iPhone user! =) And, folks, if I'm an iPhone user, then these things have really taken off. I'm not an Apple fangirl, and I don't approve of spending the additional $30/month for a data plan... and *I* think it's totally worth it. I love it! Happy Anniversary, Bug! Thank you for my cotton iPhone! =)

Also for our anniversary, we had talked about going away somewhere for a weekend. We didn't need to go far... just a quick trip to mark the occasion. Jess suggested Oregon while we were doing dishes one night. It was a little further than I was thinking of driving, but he liked the idea of driving north on I-5 and spending a weekend in Ashland. Neither of us had ever been, but we both like theater, and Ashland is famous for its Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Ashland. Is. Adorable.

We absolutely loved it there, and we will definitely go back sometime. We saw a production of "Death and the King's Horseman," which is a contemporary play by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, who has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was an absolutely fascinating play, and I'm really glad that we had the chance to see it. The cast, and in particular the lead and the actress who played his wife, were so completely committed to their roles. Apparently, the play is based on actual events, when the Yoruba of Nigeria were under British Colonial rule. It was a very eye-opening depiction of the juxtaposition of Western values and tribal rituals and beliefs. Admittedly, Jess and I were mostly lost at the beginning of the play, because the language Soyinka used was so rich with metaphor. And the metaphors that were used compared life experiences to things Westerners aren't all that familiar with, like plants and animals that are indigenous to Africa, so it was hard to keep up. The language barrier created awkward silences when the actors would laugh at a joke Soyinka had written in that audience hadn't quite picked up on. All's well, though, because by the end of the first act, I understood the direction things were going in, and it only got better and better from there.

Jess and I both had the same impression when the play was over -- "wow, that was so Shakespearian." Of course, this playwright has a very different tone, different subject matter, and different overall style, but still... the language was rich, intense, and full of inuendo. We highly recommend it! But consider yourself warned about those metaphors. =) We thought we would've been able to pick it all up more quickly if we'd known what to expect.

And last, but not least by any means, downtown Ashland was SO charming! We went to dinner at the Brewery, we shopped in their great Comic Book store (they had awesome journals and non-comic books, too), and we went to a local candy store that had to-die-for caramel apples! We picked the "Toffee Almond Caramel Apple," which was a regular caramel apple, rolled in crushed toffee almonds. What more could a person ask for? They sliced it, we shared it... and then went back on our way out of town and got two for the road. Man, I wish we could get those here! But it looks like you can't even order them!!

That's all for now. =) I will try to post the Inauguration summary soon...!

Lessons from IRS Tax Code

It's that time of year again, when we need to report our income to the Federal Government, so they can take "their portion," and leave us with whatever's left. Anyway, I was reading up on Tax Code...like you do...and I stumbled on, quite possibly, some of the most ridiculous government text I've ever seen. This can be found in Publication 525 from the Internal Revenue Service, current for 2008:

Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.

I wish I was kidding. Alas, this can be found in the Other Income section, right between the "Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits" and "Transporting School Children" sections. Page 35.

So, I thought to myself, "Wow! This text was actually legislated." Because, really, of all the people in the country who pay taxes, how many of them are taking stock of the things they stole during the calendar year, so that they can accurately report that income to the Federal Government? Something tells me that honesty is not a priority for people who are already stealing. Moreover, those folks are probably not pouring over Tax Code (unlike Yours Truly) in their spare time.

OK, let's say you stole something. You then decide, in some alternate universe, that you're going to file an income tax return. Are you really, I mean...really, going to admit to Federal officials that you stole something? But then, really, why are Federal officials deeming stolen goods as legitimate "other income"? This was not good decision making. I'd like to see the revenue numbers for the years before and after this piece of Tax Code was published.

Sigh.

Do the Right Thing

Jerry Brown is doing the right thing.

It is so sad to see that some people are still insisting, to this day, that it's somehow justifiable to actively strip a group of people of their rights under the law. We're not talking about a group of criminals.. we're talking about people who just want an equal and lawful way of expressing their commitment to one another.

Go, Jerry, go!

Brown asks state high court to overturn Prop. 8

(12-19) 19:43 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- State Attorney General Jerry Brown, in a surprise turnabout, asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to overturn Proposition 8, saying the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates basic rights guaranteed in the state Constitution.

[...]

"Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification," Brown said.

The authors of the state Constitution, he said, did not intend "to put a group's right to enjoy liberty to a popular vote."

[...]

"We have a conflict between the amendment power (through voter initiatives) and the duty of the Supreme Court to protect minorities and safeguard liberty," Brown said.

[...]

As the "chief law officer of the state," Brown said in his brief, he is "duty bound to uphold the whole of the Constitution" and not merely the power of the people to change the laws by initiative.

The Family Giving Tree

My company has always had an organized charitable holiday gift-giving program. In years past, we would exclusively deal with Toys For Tots. So, you just bring in toys or money to the office, and then hundreds of toys are donated to children in need.

This year, we're working with Toys for Tots again, but instead of toys, we're helping out with their Literacy Program. We're donating books and money to support literacy and academic success. (Love it!)

On top of "Books for Tots," we're also working with The Family Giving Tree. I am SO excited about this! You know how there are gift-giving trees, where you take a piece of paper that says a child's age and gender on it, then you have to go out shopping for an appropriate gift? Right. Well, that's hard, because when you have the money to make a charitable gift, the chances are that you're too old to know what those little kids *actually* want at their ages. Sheesh! Don't get me wrong, I've done it anyway, but it's still not as easy as it could be.

Enter The Family Giving Tree. They actually provide cards (to decorate your office's tree) that include not only the kid's age and gender, but also *what they want for Christmas*. Genius. Here are the 3 cards I picked:

1. newborn baby girl needs baby supplies
2. adult male wants a rainstick instrument
3. 11 year-old girl wants a backpack & school supplies

Oh my goodness, I can't handle it! I *love* school supplies! My favorite time of the school year was when I got to pick out a new backpack, and fill it with a bunch of new pencils and paper and folders and markers and erasers, etc. I was thrilled to go buy school supplies for a sixth grade girl!

I decided to ask my co-worker what his daughter needed for 6th grade (her current grade), and he actually got me the list their school sent to him in August. I bought almost everything on the list. I had a blast! =) I bought a pink backpack, and filled it with:

- pens
- mechanical pencils & lead
- eraser
- glue stick
- white out tape
- scissors
- binder
- folders
- ruler
- post-it notes
- colored index cards
- calculator
- accordian file
- planner notebook
- markers
- "twistable" colored pencils (they don't need to be sharpened!)
- cute things (Hello Kitty bag clip & mini gel pens)
- an "American Girl" book on Starting Middle School (next year!)
- USB thumb drive

...that's right, a USB thumb drive. According to parents of elementary school kids around here, that's totally essential for school. More and more is done on the computer, and it's the easiest method for moving information around, I guess. Amazing. School continues to morph to meet the needs of each generation! I think that's exciting, and I wouldn't want this little girl to be left behind academically.

Anyway, as it turns out, The Family Giving Tree also does an event for kids who are starting school, to outfit them with these very same things. I think I might end up liking that time of year as much as I like Christmas! (maybe.)

More good news before bed.

With all of the hard work ahead, at least President-elect Obama will have the help of a left-leaning Congress. I think he'll pick a more moderate cabinet, so I think the Executive and Legislative branches will be a good mix of minds.


CNN has called Alaska and Montana for McCain, but they're still deciding on Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina. I have a hunch they'll all go to Obama, but they're having a hard time accepting and calling it that way. ;)

A New President of the United States of America

CNN told us the news, right at 8:00pm. Words can't express how happy and proud we are!

I voted!

I've done all I can do.

And hopefully, this message is too late (because you've already voted), but I want to draw attention to Prop 8...

Prop 8 videos

Here are a couple of the best videos, in my opinion:


I'll keep my fingers crossed that the video surge in the past week or so has done enough.

Let the back-tracking begin!

Sarah Palin has been teaching Americans that they should be afraid of Barack Obama for being acquainted with William Ayers. Yes, he was acquainted with the guy. Does anyone ever bother to mention that the entire staff of the University of Illinois-Chicago is also acquainted with William Ayers? Somehow, that school has avoided turning into a terrorist hot house.

Let's hear what Sarah Palin is "fearful" and "afraid" of:


Hold the phone.. John McCain says we don't have to be afraid!


I guess Palin-McCain didn't mean any of that terrorist stuff. Obama's really a great guy, after all. And, seriously, that was the only exaggeration they've made.. you can still believe everything else they've said. Trust them. They won't mistakenly label anyone else a terrorist and put your children, spouses and loved ones in harm's way by starting more wars. After all, if they were going to do that, wouldn't that be the really scary thing?

People know that voting is free, right?

A work friend of mine has recently begun displaying at his desk a blue paper cup emblazoned with the name "Obama." I took a closer look at it today, and I saw that it also had a sticker on it that said, "I voted in the 7-election!"

As it turns out, 7-Eleven is holding a coffee drink-off to stir up voters, Capitalist Style. They call it the 7-election, and they're publishing the "results" (read: sales figures) weekly in USA Today.

I know that election turn-out has been pretty sickly for the past few presidential elections (and worse for the smaller 'tween elections), and maybe that has contributed to the belief that you actually have to buy something in order to cast a vote. I just want to remind folks (and I know only about 5 people read this blog, but please tell your friends) that voting is indeed free of charge the United States, and you don't even need to drink coffee to participate.

On the flip side, the nice thing about this promotion is that it demonstrates the excitement surrounding this election. Pop culture is really embracing the Obama-v-McCain election. Case in point: this is apparently the third election that 7-Eleven has promoted in this way, and yet this is the first I've heard of it.

For those of you who are interested, 7-Eleven does have a color-coded map on their website that illustrates the latest results. Currently, 7-Eleven's coffee drinkers prefer Obama, with 59.13% of sales (McCain = 40.87%).

Before bed: Teddy bear, warm milk and an Obama quote?

By now, you know I'm frustrated about the presidential race. I'm deeply bothered by the negativity, fear and hate that McCain and Palin are creating and encouraging.

Tonight, in order to calm myself down enough to get some sleep, I decided to look up some Barack Obama quotes. I wasn't prepared for just how effective the exercise would be.

The wisdom, peace and courage that this man is able to verbalize is both inspirational and comforting. He elevates the discussion of our core national and interpersonal issues unlike anyone I've encountered. I'm happy to re-publish a few of them here, in hopes that they can offer you a quick "pick me up" when you reach this blog. They've done wonders for my state of mind tonight.

People are very hungry for something new. I think they are interested in being called to be a part of something larger than the sort of small, petty, slash-and-burn politics that we have been seeing over the last several years.

BARACK OBAMA, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 2006

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We have a stake in one another ... what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and ... if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Dec. 1, 2006

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Life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children – a better world. Even if it's difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don't get very far in our lifetime.

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jun. 15, 2008

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Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Feb. 5, 2008

"My friends," I'm voting for "that one."

During last night's Presidential Town Hall debate, John McCain said "my friends" on the order of 20-30 times. It got annoying, because it didn't sound genuine. He then referred to Barack Obama as "that one" exactly once, but it was easily just as memorable as his other phrase of choice. On top of that, it has really struck a chord with the voting public, and if you Google "that one," many of the highest ranked results are about the debate. In fact, some folks have already begun creating t-shirts and websites commemorating the remark.

So, thank you, McCain, for initiating millions of Americans into the "Vote for "that one" Club." I'm in.

That's it, I'm disgusted.

I'm not going to be ugly here, because I believe everyone is entitled to his or her own political opinions. However, I'm totally disgusted by Sarah Palin at this point. She's so clearly not ready to be President, but moreover, she's not the type of person one wants to elect as Vice President either, because that means she'll be in the public eye, sayin' whatever she can to get a rise out of her audience, no matter who it hurts.

Take this Washington Post article. The majority of the article is spent discussing what we already know - she's got way more charisma than McCain. However, her quirkiness has absolutely crossed the line, here:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

It absolutely disgusts me that her idea of campaigning for the vice presidency is to take a dump on our country's free media, and to encourage other citizens to do the same. As a people, we may have been historically divided right down the middle as far as our views and beliefs, but the free media is uniquely able to hold up a mirror and help us see ourselves, and also serves as a window into how other people think and express their beliefs. If you don't like what you see, change the channel. That's one of our freedoms, and we need to protect it.

Here's another truly disgusting snippet:

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.)

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

How painful is it to imagine a potential Vice President of the United States taking part in riling a crowd to the point where someone feels comfortable shouting death threats? It's absolutely disgusting. I may not agree with you or your politics, but I don't think anyone needs to check their humanity at the door to win an election.

As for me, I'm anxiously awaiting all of my Obama gear that I ordered from his campaign website. I'm not usually one to openly discuss my political views, but I feel that a line has been drawn, and I'm sick and tired of the ugliness the Republican campaign is perpetuating.

Mahalo for reading this post

Aloha! We have returned from our trip to 2 islands of the great state of Hawaii. Two weeks, I've decided, is absolutely my preferred vacation length. It gives you enough time to relax, do a bunch of stuff, and really allows a person (though not [ahem] all people) to forget the daily grind. By the end, you either feel ready to return home, or at least ready to stop spending money (the latter in our case, for this vacation).

During the aforementioned two weeks, we did the following, which is not a complete list:
1. went for a sunset sail on a huge catamaran & watched fireworks
2. visited a royal palace
3. got lost in a hedge maze
4. got Lost on a deserted beach
5. performed an exhaustive search for the best shaved ice around
6. slept for 19 hours straight
7. island-hopped
8. ate breakfast on our balcony overlooking the ocean
9. went to a stand-up comedian/wizard show
10. traveled to the ocean floor in a submarine & marveled at a sunken ship
11. traveled to the highest peak of a volcano & gazed at stars and planets
12. drove through 600 turns & numerous one-lane bridges to a remote town and beautiful black sand beaches
13. went ATVing over abandoned sugar cane fields up to the edge of a rainforest
14. relaxed, read books and listened to live music on fine white sand beaches
15. took a helicopter flight over 2 islands and multiple beaches, valleys and waterfalls

In Jesse's words, "that's a hell of a vacation." I thoroughly recommend it to you, and would be happy to give you exact details of our favorite spots if you're planning your own visit to the Aloha state.

New game

It's time for a new game I like to call...

Small World or Big Company

That's right, folks! It's the fun family game that everyone can play, Small World or Big Company. I hope you all join in the fun from home! It's really very simple...given a coincidental scenario, you simply need to choose whether the coincidence was caused by the fact that we live in a Small World or that I just work for a Big Company. Sounds easy, right? Let's get started!

Scenario: I was flying to Phoenix for a quick business trip. I was happily listening to my Zune, and noticed that the guy next to me also had a Zune (nothing too out of the ordinary - when you have a fun new toy, you tend to notice others who have one also!). Toward the end of the flight, he asked me how I like my Zune. I chatted a bit about how happy I was with it, and then he seemed overly enthusiastic about the Zune's capabilities. So I took a chance and asked, "Do you work for My Big Company?" He replied, "Yes I do." To which I said, "So do I." We swapped titles, and as soon as he heard mine, he said, "Oh! We've met! A couple of weeks ago at that Big Company conference, at a specific class, because a specific person introduced us." I realized he was right, and we then chatted freely as co-workers would.

Okay, so after I realized that this apparent total stranger and I had actually met (in a totally different city, neither our departure or arrival city for this flight) and indeed we effectively work together, my first thought was, "Small World!"

But is it really that small...? Or is this how my life will be, now that I work for a company that employs ~80,000 people?

Small World or Big Company?