29 August 2008

can't resist

i'll admit that i was only mildy interested to hear that mccain was about to publicly choose his veep today, since i assumed it would be pawlenty or romney or something predictable like that. then i got home tonight to find out.....palin ?!! who??!? what?! so i'm junking out on this currently.

Palin's addition to the ticket takes Republican faux-feminism to a whole new level. [...] this is in fact a condescending move by the GOP. It plays to the assumption that disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters did not care about her politics -- only her gender. In picking Palin, Republicans are lending credence to the sexist assumption that women voters are too stupid to investigate or care about the issues, and merely want to vote for someone who looks like them. (link)

wow. this is crazy. i guess he successfully diverted the media's attention from obama's amazing speech last night, but not in a positive way. this appears a last ditch effort akin to shooting himself in the foot. AND he can no longer attack obama for lacking experience.

vice presidents aren't necessarily a huge factor in elections but in this case mccain is OLD! his camp's response:

“She’s going to learn national security at the foot of the master for the next four years, and most doctors think that he’ll be around at least that long,” said Charlie Black, one of Mr. McCain’s top advisers,making light of concerns about Mr. McCain’s health, which Mr. McCain’s doctors reported as excellent in May."
(link)

isn't that a weird thing to say? "the master??" So, Black's joking, right? right? or not. what the heck?

as some have noted, this smells like bush's botched nomination of harriet miers.

i can't wait for the rnc to start. will it approach even half the energy of the dnc? not bloody likely. this is fun stuff.

27 August 2008

chi

back to blogworld and it feels so good.

so much is new, and so much completely left out since feb. i can't believe i let this go for so long. rather than backtracking the past 6 months I’m going to stick to the here & now.

and here & now is Chicago! yeeees i’m loving it here more and more each day.

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I’ll admit that I was pretty stressed here at first, trying to find a job, trying to cram all my possessions into my little apartment, trying not to spend too much money, trying not to miss my friends and family.

but luckily, the apartment is very nice if a little small, the neighborhood (bucktown) is leafy, happening & safe, I found a sweet job, joe found 2 jobs, the cat has adjusted rather well, so jesse, you can rest easy, i know you've been worried about her! ha.

we have been here not even a month but have already had three visitors (ari, brian and terry) with more in the works. it’s certainly more accessible than the LC.

joe works a lot between the two jobs. he usually leaves in the morning and gets home around midnite or 1am. so I am usually alone for dinner which is a bummer. I took our evenings together for granted before this, but it does make me really appreciate the time we do have together (usually only sundays).

for example, this past sunday we had a fun adventure. first off we checked out the bucktown art fair, about a block from our apt. picture a smaller uptown art fair, that’s about what it was like. pretty cool things, all way out of our price range. so then we headed to the neighborhood earwax café, for some awesome vegetarian brunch and circus freak décor. we hopped on the bikes and biked over to Lincoln park, which rivals central park and rode around ending up on the lakeshore for a while.

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joe at lincoln park

I was a little nervous about biking around the city but it was a lot easier and less scary than I thought it would be. I’m going to get a helmet and a light and then I’ll be set. but I don’t want one of those alien-esque pointy helmets. I need a little more style than that so I am holding out.

so anyhoo.

about the new job. I am thrilled about it. my title is ‘auxiliary programs coordinator and after school liaison’ at a really cool Montessori school here. it is, I’ve been told, the largest Montessori in the country (550 students). so I help administer/organize a very comprehensive & dynamic after school program, assisting the program director. it’s very similar to what I did in NM however the program’s much larger. and I will have plenty of time working directly with the students. it also appears to be a very positive, welcoming work environment. on top of that, my hours are 10-6 (no early mornings!!) and the commute is easy since it’s only a neighborhood away, right on the el. pretty sweet.

so that’s about it for tonite, but I am going to try to post my new adventures here frequently. there are already a few things up on flickr and more to come I’m sure.