The East Texas Democrat

Living the Surreal Life

2009-01-22T14:06:00.001-06:00

There are some moments in life when you have to take as step back to realize not just what you're a part of, but how extremely lucky you are to be a part of it. This entire weekend was one long, extended moment such as that. For four days, I was lucky enough to step out of my real and normal life into a world where we truly were a part of history.

The weekend began on Saturday, where I had one important mission: find a dress for the inaugural balls I was attending on Monday and Tuesday. Boy, there's nothing like waiting until the last minute! I left the house relatively early (for a Saturday) and drove out to Tysons Corner. In store #3 (unfortunately Nordstrom), I found a perfect gown. Although it wasn't in the budget I'd written for myself the week before, I thought it was still a worthwhile purchase to make. I'll hopefully have pictures eventually. For some reason I could justify the dress, but not a new digital camera - my previous one was lost to my debauchery on New Years Eve - even though this was an overly historic weekend, and it would have been nice to have a camera. Sometimes, I just can't explain my own logic.

On the way back home, I stopped at the grocery to buy alcohol for the house for the weekend and then got ready for the three parties I had that night: a former Iowa campaign staff from the last 20 years party at Vegas Lounge, a Hillary staff party at Stoneys, and Beth and Kristine's Awesome 80s party. I think the highlight of the night was Carmela's stirrup pants. And just to clarify here, she did not find them at Goodwill or something, she still owns them. Andrea was voted prom queen of the 80s prom, but that was because she stacked the room with the 5 people staying at our house. Kind of like a caucus... Anyway, we rolled home around 3am and were back up early the next morning to attend a breakfast honoring the new Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. It was a fun time with lots of talk about corn and beans and cotton. I spent the rest of Sunday half watching football and half passed out on the couch attempting to watch football.

Monday, the roomies and I left early again for a Friends of Hillary event. It was ridiculously overcrowded, so a good portion of our time at the event was spent mingling in the downstairs lobby of 1825 K St. I finally snuck into an elevator, at the protest of all the lame people around me who were too scared to ignore authority, and made it upstairs where Bill and Hillary were greeting more throngs of people. Since I'd already met and had pictures with both of them, I decided to forego that madness and eat a cookie. Half an hour later the other people who'd come with me arrived upstairs. We took some pictures and abandoned ship back to the downstairs lobby.

I was then shoved into a black SUV and driven to a hotel to pick up my tickets to the inauguration and Biden ball. During this experience, I decided that it would be nice to have my own driver. That just waits for me outside. So I don't have to walk in the cold ever. While I'm not sure it's practical to add this to my goals for 2009, I figure maybe by 2012.

Alpha and I made our way up to Silver Spring for 3 purposes: 1. It was time to eat, the cookie wasn't going to be enough, 2. I needed a purse for the inaugural ball I was attending Monday night, and 3. I was getting my hair done at Condi's salon again. We stopped into New York and Company where there were no cute purses. Same situation at DSW Shoe Warehouse. I complained about the price of everything, telling Alpha I really only wanted to pay $10 for a purse. On our way to Marshall's, we stopped into Nine West, where all handbags were 50% off their already marked down price. So I found one for $10. Ask and ye shall receive.

For lunch, I begged Alpha to let me go to Chickfila. I don't know how happy she was about this decision, but perhaps she at least enjoyed my childish delight at eating the Original Chicken Sandwich and waffle fries.

Next was the salon. Condi obviously didn't get my memo that we were supposed to hang out again, but I did get a nice updo. I then ran back to the metro, because my driver also didn't get the memo that he was supposed to pick me up, and got back home to finish getting ready for the Texas State Society Black Tie and Boots Ball.

Read and Stephanie, two friends from Texas, were both coming. Stephanie unfortunately had "hair problems" and then "metro problems" so it took here a while longer to arrive, but she made it there eventually. In the meantime, Read and I saw Neal McCoy and attempted to get close enough to the stage to tell him we were from Longview too. I was also going to mention the one time I saw him at Subway. Sadly, we failed in this endeavor. Then, some random guy came on stage and said he had a big surprise behind the curtain. Well, let me tell you, I can never resist a big surprise behind the curtain, so falling for his evil trick, we moved toward the other stage to see. It was Denzel Washington!!! Ok, so that really is a good surprise behind the curtain. I'm glad I'm so easily overtaken by silly gimmicks.

We then randomly ran into another person from high school. After that, we explored the other rooms - there were 6 stages at Black Tie and Boots. Everything is bigger and better in Texas, folks. I was looking for the two Texas Senators. I wanted to encourage Kay Bailey Hutchison to vacate her Senate seat and run for Governor - I have this really great plan to get a Dem elected to the Senate in Texas, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I also wanted to find John Cornyn so I could poke him in the eye for being a jerk on the pay equity for women issue. Had I known on Monday night that he was also going to hold up Hillary's confirmation hearing on Tuesday, I would have poked him in both eyes. Fortunately for him, I never found him.

Tracy Byrd was the next performer we watched. Back in the day when I was young and only listened to country music, he was one of my favorites. Watermelon Crawl - excellent song. As was Keeper of the Stars. He played both of those and a bunch of others. The biggest surprise was when he played 10 Rounds with Jose Cuervo. I'd totally forgotten that was his song - and it has a special place in my heart from college. I used to always say that Jose was a good man, because he stayed with you through the night and would even go to class with you the next morning. Particularly the day after I turned in my honors thesis. I don't remember how many rounds I did the night before (see the song lyrics - maybe Jane, Sam or Loveleen can remind me), but we were at Chilis in Framingham where they gave the most generous pours.

Stephanie joined Read and me after picking up some energy company owner named Abe. And then at midnight they turned to a cash bar - a little annoying considering the cost of the ball tickets. The last bus back to the metro was at 1:15am and since we were in some random city in Maryland, we decided to go with the metro instead of risking a $100 cab. Perhaps a bad decision in retrospect because we got stuck waiting for the train on an outside platform for 18 minutes. And it was windy and cold. But all in all, an excellent night. When we finally got home around 2:45am, I grudgingly set my alarm for 6:30am to get up to attend the swearing-in.

As usual, I have trouble waking up in the morning. So I actually got out of bed around 7:00, dressed in 6 layers, and headed off to the mall. The 14th street buses were all full, so I finally gave in and resigned myself to walk the entire 3 miles. It was warmer to walk though, and an exciting morning so it ended up being quite nice.

I got to the purple gate line an hour after leaving home, and was stuck in a 2 block mass of people. I don't like "people" all that much, so this was an unhappy occasion. I made my way to the wall of some random building where people were moving and crawled through a shoulder height tree, 5 bushes (some prickly, but thankfully I had on 6 layers so I couldn't feel anything) and another regular height tree. Then the cops were yelling about the purple people going to line up in some tunnel. Well, I like tunnels less than "people" and the idea of being stuck in a tunnel with "people" did not sound like my idea of fun.

So ignoring the cops I went back into the mass of people that seemed to be closer to the front of the line. After not moving for another 30 minutes, I called Alpha and told her I was going to abort the First St. entrance for the Louisiana Ave way. Rumors had been circulating through the crowd that the New Jersey to Louisiana line was moving, and I felt it couldn't be any worse than being crushed by the 2000 people standing around me. Getting out of the middle of the crowd was harder than I anticipated, but me being the natural leader that I am, had convinced 5 random strangers that my Louisiana Ave plan was the way to go. So I put the two large people in front to the clear the way for the rest of us. We all finally escaped and lo and behold, I walked right into the gate at Louisiana Ave (only after Mariah Carey walked by me and I got really excited - more on her later).

The next couple of hours involved standing and staring at trees. Our position on the Capitol lawn was ok, but two trees blocked our view of the stage and another tree blocked the big screen. Whoever positioned that screen is an idiot. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

The swearing-in was amazing. There was this feeling emanating from the crowd around us that I'm not sure I'll ever feel again. Maybe if a woman ever gets elected. But then I'll probably just be sobbing and won't notice anything else. I particularly enjoyed singing "na na na na, hey hey, goodbye" to President Bush. When President Obama came on, the swells of cheering were everywhere. From where we were standing, we could hear the rumblings coming from the millions on the mall, usually a few seconds after we finished cheering. It was such a happy day. Everyone around us was pumped. We were hugging and laughing and celebrating. The sun even decided to shower us for the swearing-in. So a little after noon when he took the oath, the sky was blue and the sun was bright. Maybe there is something to this hope thing. We took lots of pictures of the screen blocked by the tree and of us standing in front of the Capitol. What a day!! And it wasn't even over yet!

After PRESIDENT Obama finished his speech, I crawled back to Columbia Heights and refreshed myself with Mexican food, as any true Texan would do. I then went to bed to rest my legs for another night of inaugural balls.

I met Fadia and her friends and walked to the Convention Center for the Neighborhood Ball. It was the only ball open to the public and was also the most awesome. We made our way to just three people back from the stage and got to see: Shakira, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Maroon 5, Faith Hill, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys. Barack and Michelle did their first dance as the first couple three rows away from us while Beyonce sang "At Last." It was so touching, I cried. But it might have been an emotional hangover from the previous performer, Mariah Carey. I LOVE her. I liked her way more in her Fantasy and Always Be My Baby days, but it's lasted all this time. I almost broke off our relationship when she stole my bf Derek Jeter, but they're not together anymore, so Mariah and I have weathered that storm. I figured she would sing some awful new song like Touch my Body, but she instead treated us to "Hero." It was more than my over-excited self could handle. She really has a tremendous voice. And I love that song. And the whole day and moment then. Just too much.

Other resolutions I made: Learn to dance like Shakira (damn, that woman is hot), carry Kleenex in my purse, and suck it up and buy a camera the next time I'm attending the most historically significant events of my lifetime.

After the best ball ever, I headed over the Biden home state ball. I got to see Barack and Michelle dance again. They danced to "At Last" again, I thought that was a little suspect. Clearly, they weren't anticipating ball hoppers like me. The Marine Corp Band played it this time though - they were less impressive than Beyonce, no offense to the Marine Corp Band. Then I got another huge surprise, Maroon 5 came to play a whole set at the Biden ball!!!! They played 5 or 6 songs, but finished with my favorite, Sunday Morning. When they finished I tried to sneak Jason in, but in the chaos of the Washington Convention Center, we settled on a picture and another visit to DC soon.

So I resolved that inauguration parties are the most fun ever and that I'm going to do it all again in 4 years and every other time we put a D into the White House.

This whole weekend also confirmed that winning is fun and losing sucks. Keep that in mind, kids. Your parents may tell you that winning isn't the only thing, or that the most important thing is that you tried. But they're liars. Winning is the best. THE BEST. Hell yeah baby. I love winning.

Now, time to go make us a new America!!

2008: And That's a Wrap

2009-01-05T16:11:00.001-06:00

It seems appropriate that before getting too consumed in 2009, I reflect back on the year that was 2008. It was quite a year. I did things I didn't expect to be doing, lived places I never could have imagined living, and was joined on this road we call life by a bunch of new friends.

I'll start with a recap of the basics:
States I lived in: 9 (Iowa, South Carolina, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio, PA, Virginia, DC).
Miles traveled on my personal car: over 5,000
Miles traveled by air: 36,278 (approximately)
Sonics I found on the road: 6 (2 in Denver, 1 in Iowa, 1 in Las Vegas, 1 on way to Cleveland for GOTV, 1 on way home from Cleveland for GOTV)
Primary days I lived through: Don't even want to count
New countries visited: 2
New baseball stadiums seen: 1 (that is a true disappointment)
Best hotel: Omni Parker House in Boston still wins my vote
Best book: Devil in the White City
Favorite new song: Take a Bow - that Rhianna, so sassy!
New things done this year: got a pedicure and massage, took an overnight train, minced garlic

The year started in Iowa - with just three days until the Iowa Caucus. New Years was nothing to speak of as we spent it at the office preparing for the Caucus. The Caucus was nothing to speak of as not only did we lose, we came in third. It was a truly disappointing loss. And then I had to drive to South Carolina. The people that were in South Carolina with me know the hell that awaited us there. I will never go back to South Carolina, not even to golf.

After South Carolina, I traveled with AFSCME for quite a few states and made a lot of great memories on the road.

Most of what I remember about LA was how warm and sunny it was there. Shannon and I tried to go canvassing everyday because it was such a change from where we'd been before. We found the weirdest bar I've ever seen across the street from our hotel called Zip. It was an outdoor/indoor bar with fire pits and buttons on the table. When you wanted service, you pressed the button and a doorbell rang throughout the entire place and somehow the waiters always knew which table needed something.

It was also in LA that I realized my life had reached a new low point. After dinner one night, we walked out of the restaurant and there was a billboard with Joe Torre on it in a Dodgers cap and a caption that said, "Welcome, Joe!" I asked Brian why on earth Joe Torre was in a Dodgers cap, and as it turns out, he was the new coach for the Dodgers. Somewhere in the previous 7 months of campaigning I had missed that memo, and knew I was 100% out of touch with the things that normally matter to me in life. Other great memories from LA: being asked what I thought about Hustler as we walked by, and asked the exact same question as we walked by again. I suppose you all can guess what my answer was. Oh, and winning California wasn't so bad either.

After LA, we flew to Seattle...a lovely city in the upper northwest. We got to stay at the Crowne Plaza downtown. I love the Crowne Plaza because they give you a relaxation CD and linen spray in the room. So when I was ready for bed I sprayed by linen spray and listened to my relaxation CD and generally felt at peace with life. In the mornings we went down to the market to buy breakfast and cheese and other snacks for the hours of phonebanking. Unlike California, we did not win Washington. And weren't even close. The caucus I attended there was the biggest sh*t show I've ever seen. I don't really want to talk about it.

Dejected after Washington I flew to Wisconsin, the coldest place on the planet. It was -5 when I arrived in Madison and was assigned to Wausau, WI. So I drove 2 hours further north where it was even colder. Wausau was an odd place. Shannon and I worked out of the Labor Temple, and spent a lovely Valentines Day there for the Labor Temple dance. Tiny, our friend at the labor temple who was not tiny, had a band and he'd invited us to watch. The great thing, in addition to seeing Tiny play, was that beer was free for the ladies. And then it became $1 after 9pm. It will be hard to top that Valentines day. There was also a 24 hour gym in Wausau. Why? I'm still not sure. I couldn't find a gym in South Carolina, but sure, Wausau, 24 hours. I was actually kind of sad to leave Wausau, the people there were all so friendly and loved us. When we got to our hotel at night, the staff would always say, "Welcome home" and they had free cookies at the front desk! I wasn't sad to leave the -5 though.

Next was Ohio. There I got to live in an exciting place called Dayton. The only actual thing exciting there was a Potbellys. Ohio was great, we won. I don't have a ton to say about it otherwise. The neatest moment in Ohio was when my mom called me on primary day (it was also primary day in Texas for all you non-politically obsessed folks out there) to tell me how amazing it felt to get to vote for a woman for president for the first time in her life. Those are the days you remember what you're fighting for.

After Dayton I took a short break to visit the family and then went back to Iowa for the County Conventions. This again, is not a time I really care to relive. Iowa burned us twice, and it's close to being with South Carolina on the "states I will never go to again" list. On the bright side, I did some shopping and found a nice Easter outfit at the mall there. They also have Sonic in Iowa.

Philadelphia was next. I went out to Harrisburg since I'd worked there in 2 previous cycles. I wasn't there for too long before I was moved back down to Virginia to work on a superdelegate project out of Hillary's headquarters. I think the best part about that was the someecard that was circulated: "Pretending to understand superdelegates may be the key to getting laid this summer."

I went to my one new baseball stadium of 2008 when I attended Opening Night at Nationals Park. I scored some sweet tickets for Jeff and me at the last minute and we sat next to Jason Campbell (the Washington Redskins QB for all you non-sports fans out there). We came up with a plot where, a foul ball would be hit into our section and Jeff would shove me to get to it, and I would "accidentally" fall into Campbell's knee and take him out for the season. I would have been a hero of the Dallas Cowboys nation. I bet Troy Aikman would have even divorced his wife and married me. However, nothing that exciting happened. The Nationals won on a walk off homer and Jason did borrow our program. Neat.

After 2.5 months of trench warfare in superdelegate land, the campaign finally ended. It was around this time I decided I earned enough money to buy a bottle of Cristal. Sadly, the bar I went to for the final night of primaries didn't have Cristal...so that is still a dream to be realized. It will have to go on the goals list for 2009. We did go with a $150 of champagne - thank you for expense accounts that belong to other people and not me (Lauren). A little later on we were thrown out of the bar that shall not be named. The owner claims that I cursed out the bartender, but I assured him, that me, being a southern lady, would never do such a thing. So I don't really know what happened there. I do remember asking him to turn on the sound for Hillary's speech that night. He said no. I said, "Look. I've spent the last 10 months of my life working for her. I could have had a child during that time."

He turned the sound on.

A few days later there was the speech at the Building Museum where I begrudgingly cried in public. We also had a really nice staff party at Hillary's house - though it was bloody hot outside. Then we had several more staff parties at bars.

I then did the very democratic thing, and filed for unemployment. And decided I would learn to cook and do some other things. Oh, I also shopped a lot. One thing I learned about myself during my brief unemployment is that I can't afford to be unemployed because it gives me too much time to spend money. Everyday Carmela came home and was like, wtf, what did you spend money on today???

Next was Europe!! Woot! It was my second trip to Prague and my first trip to Salzburg and Munich. As I told some Germans that I met on New Years Eve, my favorite thing about Germany was the meat and beer. So delicious. Prague is quite possibly one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. It was nice to be there for a second visit. We toured some parts of town we didn't see the last time. In Salzburg we did the Sound of Music tour - delightfully corny but I recommend it highly for anyone traveling to that region. I don't think I made a fool of myself anywhere there (Sam?), like I'd done the previous summer in Copenhagen where I sang a Living on a Prayer solo in the bar because apparently the Danes don't all sing along when the Bon Jovi classic comes on. Instead, they just stared at me and wondered what in the hell was wrong with the crazy American. Anyway, back to the meat and beer in Germany. They do it right there. They have meat and beer everywhere. Including public parks. They had a lovely beer garden in the middle of the public park. And when I ordered chicken, I received an entire chicken (I had tired of sausages the night before at the Hofbrauhaus). For dinner that night, I ate apple sauce. I think, for the only time in this Texan's life, I had eaten too much meat. So apple sauce was all I could manage for my final German meal. Lame.

After Europe, I came back to a new job in DC. Life got pretty boring at that point. So plenty of time for me to think about how much it sucked that Hillary lost. But it also gave Chris, Paul and I time to plot our move to Savannah. Thankfully for us, the housing market is crashing so we should be able to buy our southern plantation house. We're also going to gift a park to the city to win favor with the locals. More to come on that in future years.

Thankfully, I attended the Democratic National Convention and made the last minute decision to attend Barack Obama's speech in the Broncos stadium. He talked about the different values that Democrats and Republicans have and I was like, "Oh, that's right. Damn." So I was on board then, and even said "Yes We Can" a few times. The DNC was a delightfully fun time. All my friends were there. It was like we all decided to take a super fun vacation to Denver. Having recovered from Germany, I ate steak 3 times while I was there.

Back in DC, life continued at its boring pace. All I did was complain about how annoyed I was to live in Ballston and have to commute back and forth everyday on the Metro. The only good thing about Ballston was $2 pint night on Tuesdays at Bailey's Pub. Yes, I know you're jealous that people don't name pubs after you, but I'm sorry. Not everyone can be named Bailey.

Football season was a savior to boring life. Beth, Kristine, and I were able to find several great bars to watch games. We finally settled on one and have become regulars. I have quite the interesting set of football friends there: A Giants fan, a Redskins fan, a Seahawks fan. Go figure. Lucky for Kristine, her team is still in the playoffs. Mine isn't. Tony Romo lead us to another great year.

The other non-boring times included the time Beth and I randomly got tickets to the NKOTB concert. In a suite no less. We only stayed to hear Natasha Beddingfield. We abandoned NKOTB to watch the vice presidential debate. It was also fun when friends like Fadia came to visit. We went salsa dancing, met some interesting people, stayed out too late, and so on. So basically, I was able to replace the zillion hours a week working with spending time with friends. That's not such a bad thing.

The campaign itch finally came scratching in October, so Lauren, Julie and I planned a road trip to Cleveland to work for the last week. They worked for Obama and I did c3 work for Election Protection. The best part about this trip (other than winning obviously) was being able to stop at Sonic on the way there and on the way back. It had been a while since I'd had Sonic. We decided then to start a SonicForDC campaign, but we've kind of let it go. Again, that will have to be a 2009 goal. Oh, the other super fun thing in Cleveland was the bowling alley Heather and I stumbled upon on the same night I said I wish I could find a bowling alley. Not only did we get to see the best football game EVER (when Texas Tech beat UT), but they also played this throw back to the 90s I think - the song that went, "What's up, Dallas, what's up? What's up Dallas, what's up? Hey Dallas, jump on it, jump on it, jump on it," and so on and so forth through every major and not so major city in the United States. I hadn't heard that song in years, so I was really excited.

Around the end of November, Carmela and I finally escaped from evil Ballston and moved. Andrea decided to join us in the venture. I'm not going to lie, we have a pretty sweet apartment. And now that I have a big TV and Rock Band I don't plan on leaving anymore. The months of November and December 2008 were also particularly rough on my checkbook, so best to stay home and save money in 2009.

The thing I learned about myself the day after Thanksgiving (when Carmela and I moved and did crazy shopping) was that given the opportunity to buy a 9 foot tall Christmas tree, I will do it. And I did. The other thing I learned about myself was that I don't realize that my inability to pull a tree off the stack of other trees to set it up straight is the first sign that the tree is too big. I mean really, is there such a thing as a tree that's too big?? Other things I didn't think about included: how difficult it is to wrangle a big ass tree into a tree stand, how difficult it is to put lights on a 9 foot tall tree when you're only 5 foot 7, how difficult it is to put a tree star on a 9 foot tall tree when you're only 5 foot 7, and so on.

The last month of the year was pretty freakin' fabulous, as Clinton Kelly would say. I LOVE Christmas. And since my Christmas was stolen from me last year, I made up for it 100x over this year. Andrea, Carmela, and I threw a big holiday party at the new apartment, I bought a big tree, I went slightly overboard decorating, saw the Trans Siberian Orchestra winter concert, saw Handel's Messiah, and went to Boston to see the Pops Holiday show. And to shop and eat clam chowder and do other fun things. I had to take an overnight train to get there because of the ridiculous snow in the northeast, but hey, I had never taken an overnight train before so it was all good.

Texas was next on the list to spend time with family and friends at home. Nothing uber ridiculous happened here. I did go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra winter concert again. Kathleen abandoned me and did not come home for Christmas so I had no one to sit on the sidewalk with. That's what we do in Texas. Sit on sidewalks and talk, and drink things from Sonic. It's 70 degrees there during the holidays, so it's good sidewalk-sitting weather.

I finished out the year with a bang in New York City. I would love to show you the pictures, but I had so much fun I forgot to take my camera with me when I left the club. So on the list for 2009 purchases (that already includes a charcoal grill and the bass guitar for Rock Band) a new digital camera will be added.

And that was my year. I was out with a bunch of Hillary staffers a few nights ago and I asked my friend Denise if she thought 2008 was overall good or bad. I still haven't figured out if it was overall good or bad. There were clearly some very rough parts of life this year, but I walked away with a bunch of new experiences and friends, so it wasn't all bad. I guess it was just a year, and I'm excited about the blank slate that is 2009. Oh, and also about inaugurating a Democratic president in less than 20 days.

Happy new year!

Time to Plan for 2009: My Summer Baseball Trip

2008-10-06T21:36:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I was in Detroit and Cleveland for business. I don't know many people (read: none) in Detroit or Cleveland so in the few minutes of spare time I had, I decided to go by the two baseball stadiums there - rather than go sit alone in a bar.

Detroit's stadium was ridiculously cool - see the giant angry tiger pictures on Facebook. The Jake, which has been renamed after some god-awful investment bank or something lame, also looked like a great place to catch a game. So I was observing a focus group in Cleveland that night and all of a sudden it came to me: "I should plan a midwestern baseball trip for next season and actually watch a game in these stadiums. And while I'm at it, I could add on a few others I haven't been to."

Thankfully, major league baseball is considerate of people like me (crazy) who get random ideas at rather inopportune times - I mean, the baseball playoffs hadn't even started yet. But alas, the ENTIRE season for 2009 is already out. I pulled up the schedule online and started in late May going day by day to see when I could find a week that all the teams would be at home. Truly, that's the biggest challenge of planning a baseball road trip.

Well, around June 21, I struck gold. After consulting with my roomie, we decided to tack on a Nats game to the beginning of the trip - so we'll start in Washington with a game and end in Baltimore. Here is the plan:

Friday, June 19
Blue Jays @ Nationals (Stadium 1 - already been there)

Saturday, June 20
AIRPORT

Sunday, June 21
Houston Astros @ Minnesota Twins (Stadium 2 - never been there)

Monday, June 22
Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA (Stadium 3 - never been there)
Yes, even though I lived in Iowa for 5 months, I never went to the Field of Dreams. It's shameful. Just shameful.

Tuesday, June 23
Minnesota Twins @ Milwaukee Brewers (Stadium 4 - never been there)

Wednesday, June 24
LA Dodgers @ White Sox (Stadium 5 - already been there)

Thursday, June 25
Chicago Cubs @ Detroit Tigers (Stadium 6 - only saw the scary cats outside)

Friday, June 26
Cincinnatti Reds @ Cleveland Indians (Stadium 7 - once again, only stood outside)

Satruday, June 27
Kansas City Royals @ Pittsburgh Pirates (Stadium 8 - already been there)

Sunday, June 28
Washington Nationals @ Baltimore Orioles (Stadium 9 - already been there)

Monday, June 29
Call in "sick" to work

Tuesday, June 30
Also call in "sick" to work - it's really really bad, I swear

So there you have it. If you're trying to see me in DC between June 20 and June 28 I won't be here. I will be out loving the best sport in the world. And knocking a few more stadiums off my list.

Summer of 2010: West Coast Tour. Get excited.

Oh, and I am still accepting road trip buddies for aforementioned trip. I think it's best if we go in multiples of 4 so it makes it easy for cars/hotel rooms. We'll fly from DC to Minneapolis on Sat. the 20th and then rent a car and drive back to DC. So if you don't live in DC and want to come, plan accordingly.

Now, back to this year. Go Red Sox!

Great Salon Article on Feminism, Hillary, Palin

2008-09-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

Zombie feminists of the RNC
How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?
By Rebecca Traister

Sep. 11, 2008 | I have been dreaming about Sarah Palin. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) I wish I could say that I'd been conjuring witty, politically sophisticated nightmares in which she leads troops into Vancouver or kindergartners in the recitation of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But, alas, mine have been nonsensical, kiddie-style doozies in which she kidnaps my cats, or enjoys a meal with my girlfriends while I bang on the restaurant window. There's also a chilling one, in which a scary witch stands on a wind-swept hill and leers at me.

What troubles me most -- aside from the fact that there is suddenly a Republican candidate potent enough to so ensnare my psyche -- is my sense that these are dreams in which it matters very much that Palin is a woman.

I have been writing about feminism for more than five years; I have been covering the gender politics of the 2008 presidential election for more than two. And I am absolutely gobsmacked by the intensity of my feelings about Sarah Palin. I am stunned not only by the way in which her candidacy has changed the rules in the gender debate, or how it is twisting and garbling the fight for women's progress. But I'm also startled by how Palin herself is testing my own beliefs about how I react to women in power.

My feelings about Palin have everything to do with her gender -- a factor that I have always believed, as a matter of course, should neither amplify nor diminish impressions of a person's goodness or badness, smartness or dumbness, gravitas or inconsequence. Why are my rules changing?

I am still perfectly capable of picking out the sexism being leveled against the Alaska governor by the press, her detractors and her own party. Every time someone doubts Palin's ability to lead and mother simultaneously, or considers her physical appeal as a professional attribute, or calls her a "maverette," I bristle.

But that's the easy stuff. The clear-cut stuff. I'm far more torn about the more subtle, complicated ways in which Palin's gender has me tied in knots.

Perhaps it's because the ground has shifted so quickly under my feet, leaving me with only a slippery grasp of what the basic vocabulary of my beat -- feminism, women's rights -- even means anymore. Some days, it feels like I'm watching the civics filmstrip about how much progress women made on the presidential stage in 2008 burst into flames, acutely aware that in the back of the room, a substitute teacher is threading a new reel into the projector. It has the same message and some of the same signifiers -- Glass ceilings broken! Girl Power! -- but its meaning has been distorted. Suddenly it's Rudy Giuliani and Rick Santorum schooling us about pervasive sexism; Hillary Clinton's 18 million cracks have weakened not only the White House's glass ceiling, but the wall protecting Roe v. Wade; the potential first female vice president in America's 200-year history describes her early career as "your average hockey mom" who "never really set out to be involved in public affairs"; and teen pregnancy is no longer an illustrative example for sex educators and contraception distributors but for those who seek to eliminate sex education and contraception.

In this strange new pro-woman tableau, feminism -- a word that is being used all over the country with regard to Palin's potential power -- means voting for someone who would limit reproductive control, access to healthcare and funding for places like Covenant House Alaska, an organization that helps unwed teen mothers. It means cheering someone who allowed women to be charged for their rape kits while she was mayor of Wasilla, who supports the teaching of creationism alongside evolution, who has inquired locally about the possibility of using her position to ban children's books from the public library, who does not support the teaching of sex education.

In this "Handmaid's Tale"-inflected universe, in which femininity is worshipped but females will be denied rights, CNBC pundit Donny Deutsch tells us that we're witnessing "a new creation ... of the feminist ideal," the feminism being so ideal because instead of being voiced by hairy old bats with unattractive ideas about intellect and economy and politics and power, it's now embodied by a woman who, according to Deutsch, does what Hillary Clinton did not: "put a skirt on." "I want her watching my kids," says Deutsch. "I want her laying next to me in bed."

Welcome to 2008, the year a tough, wonky woman won a primary (lots of them, actually), an inspiring black man secured his party's nomination for the presidency, and a television talking head felt free to opine that a woman is qualified for executive office because he wants to bed her and have her watch his kids! Stop the election; I want to get off.

What Palin so seductively represents, not only to Donny Deutsch but to the general populace, is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It's like some dystopian future ... feminism without any feminists.

Palin's femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She's the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who, as Jessica Grose at Jezebel has eloquently noted, achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. It works because these stances do not upset antiquated gender norms. So when the moment comes, when tolerance for and interest in female power have been forcibly expanded by Clinton, a woman more willing to throw elbows and defy gender expectations but who falls short of the goal, Palin is there, tapped as a supposedly perfect substitute by powerful men who appreciate her charms.

But while the Republicans would have us believe that Palin can simply stand in for Hillary Clinton, there is nothing interchangeable about these politicians. We began this history-making election with one kind of woman and have ended up being asked to accept her polar opposite. Clinton's brand of femininity is the kind that remains slightly unpalatable in America. It is based on competence, political confidence and an assumption of authority that upends comfortable roles for men and women. It's a kind of power that has nothing to do with the flirtatious or the girly, nothing to do with the traditionally feminine. It is authority that is threatening because it so closely and calmly resembles the kind of power that the rest of the guys on a presidential stage never question their right to wield.

The pro-woman rhetoric surrounding Sarah Palin's nomination is a grotesque bastardization of everything feminism has stood for, and in my mind, more than any of the intergenerational pro- or anti-Hillary crap that people wrung their hands over during the primaries, Palin's candidacy and the faux-feminism in which it has been wrapped are the first development that I fear will actually imperil feminism. Because if adopted as a narrative by this nation and its women, it could not only subvert but erase the meaning of what real progress for women means, what real gender bias consists of, what real discrimination looks like.

Perhaps that's why my reaction to Palin is so bone-deep, and why she is shaking some of my convictions about how to approach gender. When, last Sunday, I picked up the New York Post, with its front-page headline "Ladykiller: Hillary to Check Hockey Mom" next to photos of Palin in porno librarian mode and Clinton with her teeth bared, I didn't roll my eyes in disgust at the imagined cage match. Instead, I envisioned it. And I enjoyed it. I was overcome by the desire to see Clinton take on Palin, not only checking her but fouling her, smushing her, absolutely crushing her. Get her, Hillary! Don't let her channel all the energy generated by you and your Democratic supporters into anti-woman, pro-God government! You are the only one who can stop her.

It's true that the last time I had this kind of visceral yearning for a politician to save the day was on the evening of Sept. 11, when the only person whose face I wanted to see on my television was Bill Clinton's. Perhaps when the Clintons took office in my 18th year, they became imprinted on my brain as my presidential parent-figures, my ur-protectors. But it's hard not to notice that if that's the case, it's Bill I want to nurture and soothe me, and Hillary I want to show up, guns blazing Ripley-style, to surprise the mother alien just as she is about to feast on independent voters, protectively shouting, "Get away from them, you bitch!"

There I go again with the hyper-feminized anxieties. I think it's mostly that I want Hillary Clinton -- the imperfect history maker whose major selling points for "First Woman..." status, in retrospect, included the fact that she was not a Republican, not pro-life, did not believe in teaching creationism alongside evolution, had never inquired about the feasibility of banning books, understood the American economy, supported universal healthcare and did not kill wolves from planes -- to make Sarah Palin go away and stop threatening to make history I don't want to see made.

It is infuriating that Clinton, her supporters and, yes, also those Obama supporters who voiced their displeasure at the sexist treatment Clinton sometimes received, and also female voters, and also females full stop, are being implicated in feminism's bastardization.

But if we inadvertently paved the way for this, then the Democratic Party mixed the concrete, painted lanes on the road, put up streetlights and called it an interstate. The role of the left in this travesty is almost too painful to contemplate just yet.

For while it may chafe to hear Rudy Giuliani and John McCain hold forth on the injustice of gender bias, what really burns is that we never heard a peep or squawk or gurgle of this nature from anyone in the Democratic Party during the entire 100 years Hillary Clinton was running for president, while she was being talked about as a pantsuited, wrinkly old crone and a harpy ex-wife and a sexless fat-thighed monster and an emasculating nag out for Tucker Carlson's balls. Only after she was good and gone did Howard Dean come out of his cave to squeak about the amount of sexist media bias Clinton faced. That may not be pretty to recall, especially in light of the Grand Old Party's Grand Old Celebration of Estrogen. But it's true. And it's also true that if there hadn't been so much stone-cold silence, so much shoulder-shrugging "What, me sexist?" inertia from the left, if there had been a little more respect (there was plenty of attention, of the derisive and annoyed sort) paid to the unsubtle clues being transmitted by 18 million voters that maybe they were interested in this whole woman-in-the-White-House thing, then the right would not have had the fuel to power this particular weapon.

Which leads us to my greatest nightmare: that because my own party has not cared enough, or was too scared, to lay its rightful claim to the language of women's rights, that Sarah Palin will reach historic heights of power, under the most egregious of auspices, by plying feminine wiles, and conforming to every outdated notion of what it means to be a woman. That she will hit her marks by clambering over the backs, the bodies, the rights of the women on whose behalf she claims to be working, and that she will do it all under the banner of feminism. How can anybody sleep?

-- By Rebecca Traister

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/11/zombie_feminism/print.html

Denver Part I: Better Late than Never

2008-09-16T10:20:00.003-05:00

Life since the DNC has been crazy on a lot of fronts, so I haven't had time to sit and recap the trip. But now seems like a good time, so here we go.

I arrived in Denver on Saturday night so I could have all day Sunday to get myself oriented, start tracking down credentials, and other good things like that. I met friends from the PA Democratic party for dinner at Sullivans Steakhouse (one thing about me, I love steak. A lot.)

Sullivan's had a delightful atmosphere. In the bar area they had a live jazz band and the restaurant was really beautiful - nice wood paneling and wine racks. Oh, and the food was rather delicious. I had a filet and for dessert, the creme brule. The souffle was also to die for and comes with quite a presentation (makes everyone around the table jealous).

http://www.sullivansteakhouse.com/denver/

I visited two other steak houses while in Denver: Ruth Chris and the Buckhorn Exchange. I'd seen the Bukchorn Exchange on the travel channel. It's Denver's oldest steakhouse, and is located outside the city - so you'll have to take a cab or the light rail. They have a wide variety of meats on their menu - steak, elk, quail, buffalo, fish, etc. When I saw all the different types of meat they offered, I said to a friend, "You know what would be nice? If they had sampler platters of meat. Just like they do for appetizers."

Well, as it turns out, Buckhorn does have sampler platters. You can choose two or three different types of meat and get medallion sized filets of each. One of my colleagues chose an elk and buffalo sampler. I just got a buffalo bone-in ribeye. My other colleague got salmon and steak. Needless to say, we did not have room for dessert at the Buckhorn. If you have time while in Denver, I'd highly recommend this steakhouse. Not only is the food delicious, but it is also a break from downtown and the atmosphere of the restaurant is truly unique - with hundreds of animal heads all over the walls.

http://www.buckhornexchange.com/

When I wasn't eating steak, I did try to take in all there is to love about the Democratic National Convention. I was able to get in to see speeches on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday (Wednesday was my night at the Buckhorn).

Monday's highlight was Ted Kennedy, and Tuesday was Hillary Clinton.

More to come...

Where did you watch Gov. Palin's speech?

2008-09-03T22:03:00.002-05:00

I watched it in the Ballston mall food court. Even though security and the night staff kept yelling at me to leave.

I'm not a fan of her. At all.

Anyway, I'm sure that's not shocking since the name of this blog is the East Texas Democrat, not the East Texas Republican.

Coming soon...tales from the Democratic National Convention.

My Life is a Bad Comedy: Part I

2008-08-07T15:43:00.002-05:00

I've posted before about how a friend once said that my life is like a bad comedy. I agree. And since I've already named a post that before, I've decided to start a series of posts for the times when my life is particularly like a bad comedy. The last few days have been packed with bad comedy moments (probably because I was traveling, and these things always seem to happen when I'm traveling).

Monday afternoon I left DC for Las Vegas via Denver. In order to get out of DC though, I had to find a way to BWI Airport. It's quite simple really: take the Amtrak to BWI airport station and catch a shuttle bus to the terminal. Perfect. Except when you get to the Amtrak station only to find your train is going to be an hour late.

But have no fear! There's also the MARC commuter train. And Amtrak will just refund you your ticket like it's no big deal (wish airlines were nice like that) and give you a MARC ticket. So that was fine - I just didn't realize it was a sign about how the remainder of my day was going to go.

My United flight to Denver was great. We got in around 6:30, I had a connecting flight at 8:00. I walked over to the "Departures" screen to see which gate my next flight would go out of...and it said: "Delayed 11:30pm." As a side note here, it's just mean to delay people when they're going somewhere fun like Las Vegas. Delay me when I'm on my way back to work if you want, but not to Vegas.

I went over to another gate to see if it was actually true that my flight wouldn't leave until 11:30 ane the agent said, "My that's quite a delay." I just stared. He put me on a standby at 9:45 so around 9:00, after eating a crappy, overly expensive meal at the airport, I went to see if I could get on standby.

"You're number 23 in line and we have 15 open seats."

For all you people going to Vegas to bet, those aren't great odds.

I didn't get on the standby, so I went to double check the gate for my other flight. "Delayed: 12:00am."

My day just keeps getting better.

I sat the floor of the airport and booked a hotel in Vegas. I'd been planning to stay with a friend but I didn't want to be rude and get in at 2:30am since he had to work the next day. I chose the Sahara hotel and casino. A "lovely" $30 a night hotel. That's right. I said $30.

We finally got to Vegas, which is quite possibly the best city to fly into at night because of all the lights, and I got a rental car and made it to the hotel around 3am. I had a conference call at 8:30am so I had a long debate about whether to just stay up and play all night or get a few hours of sleep. For better or worse I chose to sleep.

Next day was great. Business meetings, blah blah blah and CASINOS! I ate dinner w/ a good Iowa friend at the Bellagio and then watched their dancing fountain for at least half an hour. I would have stayed all night but my friends wanted to move on.

In our one-night only tour of Vegas, we saw the Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Bill's Gambling Hall, Paris, and New York New York.

The next day, after literally no sleep, I flew back to Denver for more meetings. My flight was on time, amazing. And then I got to the advantage rental car counter. The line was out the door. Over an hour later, I finally had a car, but I'd missed my lunch meeting.

I checked into my hotel, another quality establishment that was only $60 per night. The crowning jewel here was the Sonic that was located next door. I went there 4 times during my less than 24 hours in Denver.

This morning when I woke up, there was this big wet spot on my bed to my right side. It was dark and I thought, "holy crap am I bleeding or did I wet the bed?" I wasn't bleeding or in any pain, so I figured I hadn't had a gash open up over night. And my clothes weren't wet so that thankfully ruled out option #2. Then I thought maybe I fell asleep with my Diet Coke from Sonic in my hands and spilled it, but it was sitting on the desk. When I found the lights I also found there was a leak in the ceiling. Lovely. I showered quickly and left...didn't want to be there if the ceiling caved in.

I made it back to the Denver airport once again. This poor guy sitting next to me had his flight cancelled. I feel his pain. Hopefully his flight will depart before 12am.

So, here are my life lessons from this trip:
1. Stay at the Bellagio when in Las Vegas
2. Don't go to Vegas in the middle of a business trip. It's hard to think when the only sleep you get is the 2 hours on a flight from Vegas to your next city.
3. If you want to take the roller coaster in the Sahara, it's closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
4. You don't have to buy drinks at casinos if you gamble or pretend to be gambling...they bring them to you for free.

Good things you should do in Vegas:
1. Eat at Circo in the Bellagio
2. Buy an unlimited monorail ticket - it's this nifty above ground train that takes you between all the casinos on the strip. It starts at the Sahara (my super high class $30 hotel) and ends at the MGM grand with a bunch of stops in between.
3. Eat Mexican food - it's much better than in the northeast.

The Most Important Thing You Can Do Today

2008-07-22T16:21:00.003-05:00

Sign this petition and block President Bush.

http://www.hillpac.com/action/hhspetition/?sc=2494

An Outrageous Attempt by the Bush Administration to Undermine Women's Rights

The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can't let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women's health and that's why I am sounding the alarm.

These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They'll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.

The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California's laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of "the problem." These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

We've seen this kind of ideologically driven move from the Bush administration before. Senator Patty Murray and I went toe to toe with the Bush administration to demand a decision on Plan B by the FDA. We won that fight and we need to win this one too.

When I learned about these proposed rules, I immediately joined with Senator Murray to call on the Bush administration to stop these dangerous plans. I am joining with New York family planning and healthcare advocates to spread the word. Now is the time to raise our voices. I will continue to press HHS and I hope you will join me. I have posted information on how to get involved here.

Crossposted at RH Reality Check.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hillary-clinton/an-outrageous-attempt-by_b_114064.html

The Unmarried Women's Vote: Featured on MSNBC

2008-07-21T15:57:00.001-05:00

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/21/1212838.aspx

From NBC's Mark Murray
Much has been made about how an increase in turnout among African Americans or young voters could end up benefiting Obama in the fall. But a new poll conducted by the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, and commissioned for Women's Voices, Women Vote Action Fund, shows that it's also important not to overlook the role that unmarried women might play in the general election.

In the poll -- which was conducted among 1,004 registered unmarried women from June 19-24 in key battleground states -- Obama holds a 32-point lead over McCain (61%-29%) among this demographic. By comparison, another recent Greenberg/Democracy Corps survey has him leading McCain among married by just one point (49%-48%).

This marital gap isn't new. In 2004, according to exit polls, unmarried women voted for John Kerry by a 62%-37% margin, and they backed Democratic candidates in the 2006 midterms, 65%-32%. On the other hand, Kerry lost married women by 11 points to Bush in 2004, and the married vote was essentially split between Democrats and Republicans in the midterms.

Perhaps most interesting are the number of unmarried women in this country. Per Census data, there are 53 million unmarried women in this country -- which is almost equal to the number of married women, both representing 26% of the voting-age population. In fact, Page Gardner, president of Women's Voices, Women Vote Action Fund, says that unmarried women represent the nation's fastest-growing demographic. "It is huge and it's growing," she told First Read. "This is an extremely important demographic."

One of the poll's conclusions is that increasing the size of the unmarried women's vote -- from 22% of all voters in 2004 to 24% in 2008 -- could result in at least a two-point increase in Obama's total, "a huge gain in presidential politics."

But turning out unmarried women to vote hasn't always been easy. In 2004, according to the polling analysis, 41% of unmarried women DIDN'T vote in 2004, versus 29% of married women who didn't.

Only in My Life

2008-07-18T17:11:00.003-05:00

I'm going to start writing a series called "Only in My Life" about things that only happen to me. It's kind of like the "Only in New York" ads, but about me and not New York. I think eventually enough random weird stuff will happen to me that I'll be able to write a book about how random and weird my life is.

Let's take today for example. I was invited to speak at a career fair for college students at Georgetown. As a side note, why anyone EVER schedules anything in or at Georgetown is beyond me. It's a horribly inconvenient place to get to.

Moving on.

So I plan to walk up a block to K Sreet and catch this nifty little bus called the DC Circulator that starts at Union Station, drives all the way down K Street, and ends in Georgetown. Never mind that it's 100 degrees out and I'm in a blue suit jacket, all is well.

Until I actually get to K Street. There was some kind of free this church in this country or something PARADE coming down K Street into Farragut Square. For those of you who are map or memory challenged - it's hard for a bus to make from Union Station to Georgetown via K Street when there is a PARADE blocking off the road (I'm all supportive of freeing churches and countries and parades in general, but as my cab driver later pointed out, why not do it on Saturday?).

So I do the only thing I know how to do, curse my life and start walking to 19th street to see if the bus eventually makes it up to K St. It never did so I had to get a cab.

Thankfully I arrived on time and things worked out and the career fair was great, but someday I hope to go about life without random weird things always interfering.

An Ad Every Woman Must Watch

2008-07-17T12:40:00.002-05:00

If you're planning to vote in 2008, watch this before you do:

http://www.ppaction.org/ppvotes/pr-07162008_mccaintvad.html

Commuting

2008-07-17T08:11:00.002-05:00

When I lived in DC this time last year, I lived close enough to work that I could just walk everyday, so I never got to experience the joys of commuting (though I did get a jaywalking ticket once). This time around, I'm living in Northern Virginia and have the lovely pleasure of taking the metro into DC every morning and out of DC every evening.

My only problem with DC's Metro (this is me being polite, I have many problems with DC's metro) is that they don't quite seem to have rush hour figured out. So I come down into my orange line stop today and they have trains running to New Carollton in 2, 3 and 4 minutes. One train had just left when I got there. The problem, however, when you stack trains like that, is that the ride itself is very slow. The driver stops what feels like every 10 feet because there's a train in front of him. So I was late to work this morning because the ride that normally takes 15 minutes took 25 minutes. What I don't get, is why they can't time the trains where they can run smoothly from station to station. It's not like I really gained anything by being able to get on a train 1 minute after I walked into the station this morning.

The other thing I don't understand: why the train drivers don't understand how to use the brakes. Three out of four days this week I've gotten stuck on the train with the driver that has a lead foot. I figure if they have drivers ed for cars, they most likely have the same thing for trains. The worst was the morning this week I decided to ride the metro in three inch heels. As it turns out, it's much harder to balance in heels when the driver keeps stopping abruptly, so I'm never doing that again.

Anyway, apartment hunting begins next month. Walking to work will have to be a requirement of my new place.

It's Been Awhile

2008-07-16T16:26:00.002-05:00

As you can see from the very angry comment I got on my previous post yesterday, it's been a long time since I've regularly updated my blog. Campaign did that to me somehow, much like it wrecked many other areas of my life.

But I'm back now, have a somewhat stable place to live and work, so that's all well and good. I don't have a ton to report, other than life on the road is brutal. I think Wausau, Wisconsin was the most memorable location I lived while out. It was a town of about 30,000 people and 10 feet of snow at all time. I spent Valentines Day with my friend Shannon at the Labor Temple. We were the youngest people there by 20 years. A country band played - it was Tiny's band. Tiny was not tiny, but do you know a person named Tiny? I doubt it.

Other highlights of the road included living in Iowa for five months, shopping at Pike's Place in Seattle, and the lawn goose in Dayton, Ohio.

So stay tuned. More to come, I promise this time.

Unemployment is Divine

2008-06-09T14:31:00.003-05:00

My last day with the Clinton campaign was Friday. So after more than 10 months out on the campaign trail, I'm left with nothing to do but sleep and go to the gym. And honestly, I'm not complaining. It was an amazing journey that I'm so happy I was a part of, but I'm tired. Very very tired.

You try to explain campaign life to people who don't do it, and I'm just not sure they ever really understand. Can anyone actually comprehend what it's like to work every single day for 10 months. Every single day. Not just Monday through Friday, but Monday through Sunday. I always used to say that Friday was, in theory, the end of the week for me. Because the week never ends, so Friday just becomes more symbolic than anything else.

I started in Iowa on July 31. I had 2 days off in the month of August, 2 days off in the month of September, Thanksgiving Day off, Christmas Day off. That's about it. After that my "days off" were days I spent driving or flying hundreds or thousands of miles to get to the next state we had to play in.

The worst thing about the one day off you get every month or so was cramming all the life maintenance into that time. I'd usually sleep late, then go to the grocery store, get my car serviced, get my car washed, get a haircut, go buy shampoo and other essentials, and maybe pick up a new piece of clothing. By the end of the day I just wanted to sleep some more. But you had to be right back at work the next day.

Truly, a chapter of my life is closing. I guess technically it closed on Saturday when Hillary asked us all to do whatever we could to get Barack Obama into the White House. I'm going to pause for a little bit before I open the next chapter though. I need a break and some time to decide where I want that chapter to take me.

In the meantime, if you need me, I'll either be sleeping or at the gym.

Why Hillary Clinton should be winning

2008-04-09T10:49:00.000-05:00

Under a winner-take-all primary system, Hillary Clinton would have a wide lead over Barack Obama -- and enough delegates to clinch the nomination by June.
By Sean Wilentz

Apr. 07, 2008 | The continuing contest for the Democratic presidential nomination has become a frenzy of debates and proclamations about democracy. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been particularly vociferous in claiming that its candidate stands for a transformative, participatory new politics. It has vaunted Obama's narrow lead in the overall popular vote in the primaries to date, as well as in the count of elected delegates, as the definitive will of the party's rank and file. If, while heeding the party's rules, the Democratic superdelegates overturn those majorities, Obama's supporters claim, they will have displayed a cynical contempt for democracy that would tear the party apart.

These arguments might be compelling if Obama's leads were not so reliant on certain eccentricities in the current Democratic nominating process, as well as on some blatantly anti-democratic maneuvers by the Obama campaign. Obama's advantage hinges on a system that, whatever the actual intentions behind it, seems custom-made to hobble Democratic chances in the fall. It depends on ignoring one of the central principles of American electoral politics, one that will be operative on a state-by-state basis this November, which is that the winner takes all. If the Democrats ran their nominating process the way we run our general elections, Sen. Hillary Clinton would have a commanding lead in the delegate count, one that will only grow more commanding after the next round of primaries, and all questions about which of the two Democratic contenders is more electable would be moot.

Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats in primary states choose their nominee on the basis of a convoluted system of proportional distribution of delegates that varies from state to state and that obtains in neither congressional nor presidential elections. It is this eccentric system that has given Obama his lead in the delegate count. If the Democrats heeded the "winner takes all" democracy that prevails in American politics, and that determines the president, Clinton would be comfortably in front. In a popular-vote winner-take-all system, Clinton would now have 1,743 pledged delegates to Obama's 1,257. If she splits the 10 remaining contests with Obama, as seems plausible, with Clinton taking Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Puerto Rico, and Obama winning North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Guam, she'd pick up another 364 pledged delegates. She'd have 2,107 before a single superdelegate was wooed. You'd need 2,208 to be the Democratic nominee. That would leave her barely a hundred votes shy, and well ahead of Obama. It is almost inconceivable that she would fail to gain the required number of superdelegates easily. No more blogospheric ranting about Clinton "stealing" the nomination by kidnapping superdelegates or cutting deals at a brokered convention.

But Clinton does not now have 1,743 delegates. According to CNN estimates, Clinton has about 1,242 pledged delegates to Obama's 1,413. Most of that total is based on the peculiar way that delegates are apportioned in 2008. Some of it is because Obama's backers are using the same kind of tactics as George Bush's camp used in Florida in 2000.

Crucially, Team Obama doesn't want to count the votes of Michigan and Florida. (And let's note that in a winner-take-all system, Clinton would still be leading in delegates, 1,430 to 1,257, even without Michigan and Florida.) Under the existing system, Obama's current lead in the popular vote would nearly vanish if the results from Michigan and Florida were included in the total, and his lead in pledged delegates would melt almost to nothing. The difference in the popular vote would fall to 94,005 out of nearly 27 million cast thus far -- a difference of a mere four-tenths of 1 percentage point -- and the difference in delegates would plummet to about 30, out of the 2,208 needed to win. Add those states' votes to the totals, and take a sober look at Clinton's popular-vote victories in virtually all other large states, and the electoral dynamic changes. She begins to look like the almost certain nominee.

The exclusion thus far of these two vital states has come about because of an arbitrary and catastrophic decision made last year by Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee. Two democratic options are available to clean up the mess: Either relent by including the existing Michigan and Florida results or hold new primaries there.

Yet in this, as has happened more than once this primary season, the Obama camp's reaction has not been to clean up the mess the party has created, but to benefit from it. Given the original primary outcomes in Michigan and Florida, Obama has rejected the idea of certifying the results. Although Obama's supporters conducted a stealth "uncommitted" campaign in Michigan after he voluntarily removed his name from the state ballot, and even though, contrary to DNC directives, his campaign advertised in Florida, Clinton still won both states decisively. This leaves open the option of holding new primaries in both states. National and state party officials have announced that such revotes could be conducted.

Yet the Obama campaign has stoutly resisted any such revote in either state. In Michigan, Obama's supporters thwarted efforts to pass the legislation necessary to conduct a new primary. In Florida, campaign lawyers threw monkey wrenches to stop the process cold, claiming that a revote would somehow violate the Voting Rights Act, and charging that a proposed mail-in revote would not be "fraud proof." (Obama himself, it's important to note, proposed a bill in 2007 to allow for mail-in voting in federal elections.)

Instead, Obama's campaign has tendered the startling proposal that he arbitrarily be allotted half of the votes already cast in Michigan and Florida. Of course, a large number of these votes -- more than a quarter of a million in Florida alone -- were not cast for Obama. He simply proposes that the party add these votes to his total, as though they were rightfully his. Saying that votes already cast for other candidates should go to him is a bold power grab, worthy of the Chicago machine organizations that claimed the votes of the recently deceased, their names gleaned from the voting rolls. By any definition of democracy, those votes do not belong to Obama; nor do they belong to Hillary Clinton, nor to Howard Dean. They belong to the voters. Obama can no more lay claim to them legitimately than his supporters can declare he has won the nomination before the remaining primaries take place.

Now consider the delegate count and its connection to the popular vote. In Nevada, Clinton also won a popular majority, despite pressure from union officials on the rank and file attending the caucuses to vote for Obama. Yet Obama claims, on the primary electoral map posted on his official Web site, that he actually won Nevada -- presumably because rules that gave greater weight to rural than urban votes mean he won a marginal edge in the Byzantine allotment of the state's delegates. Why, in deference to the clear-cut Nevada popular majority, doesn't Obama cede the majority of the state's delegates to Clinton? Because, according to the rules, he's entitled to those delegates. But why are the rules suddenly sacrosanct and the popular vote irrelevant? Might it be because the rules, and not the popular vote, now benefit Obama? And what about Texas, another state where Clinton won the popular vote but has not been awarded the majority of pledged delegates? Once again, for Obama, the rules are suddenly all-important -- because the rules, and not the popular majority, now favor him.

Obama's totals thus far have come in great part from state caucuses nearly as much as from actual primaries. (Eleven out of the 30 states and other entities he has won held caucuses, not primaries. Washington held both, as did Texas, where Obama won the caucuses and lost the popular vote.) Of the two systems, caucuses are by far the less democratic -- which may be why there will be exactly zero caucuses in this fall's general election. By excluding voters who cannot attend during the limited times available, the caucuses skew participation toward affluent activists and students, and against working people, mothers and caregivers, and the military. Clinton's victories, by contrast, have come overwhelmingly in states with primaries, not caucuses. Obama is certainly entitled to the delegates he won in the caucuses. But he can hardly, on that account, claim that he is clearly the popular favorite.

In 2004, Democrats lost most of the states where Obama's delegates come from now. The Democrats are likely to lose most of those states again in 2008, no matter how much his supporters speak of winning crossover votes. (Idaho and Wyoming, for example, where Obama won caucuses, are not going to vote for either Clinton or Obama come fall.) Of the remaining states that Obama has won, only one is a large state with a considerable number of electoral votes -- his home state of Illinois. Clinton has won the popular vote in all of the other large states -- and has done so in primaries, not caucus decisions. The arithmetic here is simple: Because of the flawed system, the delegates from the states that Obama has won, many of which vote strongly Republican, represent far fewer Democratic voters than those from the states Clinton won.

Finally, there is the disquieting question of acknowledging what kind of democracy will determine who wins the presidency in 2008. Strong arguments could be made that, in a thoroughgoing democracy, voters choose presidents with a direct, plebiscitary system. The candidate who commands a majority (or, perhaps, a plurality) of the popular vote nationally wins the election. But, interesting as they might be as an academic exercise, such musings are irrelevant to the politics of 2008. We have a winner-take-all system, but it operates on a state-by-state basis (except in Maine and Nebraska, where it's winner-take-all by congressional district). Like it or not, we will choose the president under the indirect and fractured democracy of the Electoral College.

Obama has tried to reinforce his democratic bona fides by asserting his superior electability, and by claiming that Clinton's supporters are more likely to back him in November than vice versa. The polls, however, show otherwise. And even more important, the polling data on the electoral vote totals show an outcome very different from the one suggested by Obama. The latest state-by-state figures (as of late March) updated from SurveyUSA, indicate that if the election were held today, Clinton would defeat McCain in the Electoral College because of her lead in big, electoral-vote-rich states such as Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- and McCain would beat Obama.

In the final analysis, though, the fights inside the Democratic Party aren't really about either an ideal American democracy or the American democracy that actually exists. According to the Obama campaign, democracy is defined as whatever helps Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a candidate arguing this way. But everybody should see it for what it is -- not something new or transformative, but one of the oldest ploys in the playbook of American politics.

-- By Sean Wilentz

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/04/07/hillary/

The Media and Its Treatment of Women

2008-04-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

I hope you all read the article I posted about sexism continuing to exist in our country. I'd also like to introduce you to this video that quite clearly demonstrates the existence of sexism in our media.

I stopped watching the news months ago, because it's healthier for me on a campaign not to get caught up in the spin, so I didn't even realize half of these things had been said about Hillary. But it makes me sad. Really sad.

Quote of the Day

2008-04-08T09:32:00.001-05:00

Senator Barack Obama said that Philadelphia's new Mayor - Michael Nutter - was supporting Hillary Clinton because Obama endorsed another in last year's election for Mayor...an upset Nutter is quoted by the Philly Inquirer as saying: "I don't understand how Senator Obama can say that when it's not true just like I don't understand how he can say that he doesn't take money from big oil, when that's not true."...

Companies that Suck: United and US Airways

2008-03-07T17:17:00.003-06:00

Today I was researching travel destinations, seeing if there might be some last minute deal in a warm and sunny place where I could relax before rembarking on the campaign trail. As I'm reading, I see a new checked baggage policy for United and US Airways.

It reads, "Beginning May 5, 2008, US Airways will begin assessing a $25 fee for a passenger’s second checked bag each way." United is planning to do the same thing.

Now, what I'd like to know, is why in the hell is that necessary? They've already restricted the weight of the luggage you can bring to 50lbs per bag and charge a ridiculous amount if you go over that limit. But to only give you one free bag? There is absolutely no reason for them to do that.

So I'd encourage you to write US Air and United and tell them the new baggage policy is just a way to screw their customers and is not necessary at all. They already make enough money off travelers, why make it harder for people who are traveling for extended periods of time.

I, for one, will not be flying on either of those airlines as long as they have this dumb baggage policy.

Passenger Bill of Rights anyone?

Airport Musings

2008-03-05T19:21:00.002-06:00

I got an early flight out of Dayton to Chicago. The only problem is that they didn't have an early flight out of Chicago to Oklahoma City, so I got stuck hanging out in the Chicago airport for four hours. Luckily, they have my favorite restaurant here, Chilis.

I got there to get some food and make a bunch of calls - any break from politics is life maintenance time - and as I'm about to sit down, this older woman turns around and asks me if I'm by myself. I said yes, so she asked if I wanted to join her and offered to share her chips and queso.

Odd. But what does it hurt? She was very nice, was on her way to Pittsburgh and DC to visit family. She told me she was glad I came in because she didn't really like eating by herself. I have gotten over that years ago, because if I didn't eat by myself I wouldn't get about 40% of my meals when I'm on the road. It was interesting to me that the prospect of her eating alone was more bothersome than the prospect of asking some random stranger to join her for dinner. Oh well, this friend of mine told me I have a very approachable face - yet more evidence to support his theory.

So here's the question for you: would you rather eat alone or ask a random stranger to eat with you at the airport? Which is more awkward.

I definitely go w/ eating alone. But I do really like myself. haha.

Next question: where did the lawn goose originate?

There were so many of them in Dayton. You can see my profile picture on Facebook for an example. And people dress them for all the seasons. It's crazy. People were like, "Oh I have a whole basket of clothing for it."

So if anyone knows the origination of the lawn goose phenomenon, I'd love to hear the story. According to some random website it's "the thing" for your Midwestern suburban lawn.

Oh, and you can name it and give it a gender.

Um, yeah.

2008-03-02T22:45:00.001-06:00

Tonight I went swimsuit shopping. There's a nice pool at my hotel in Dayton, but I forgot to bring mine w/ me (idiot). Sadly, Dayton isn't ready for swimsuit season yet. Perhaps because it's still snowing here?

Anyway, I went into this one store and the mag went off like I was shoplifting, except I was walking in. So I was like, whatever, and kept walking. Didn't find a swimsuit, so I left. I was on a conference call, so I had the call on mute but was listening to the GOTV information I needed.

As I'm leaving, the mag goes off again and the store employee comes over to see what's up. I said that I didn't buy anything and he says, "Do you have a cellphone?"

I just looked at him.

And then held out the phone I had up against my ear to him.

Um, yeah. I have a cell phone.

In fact I have two, but I'm only using one right now. But clearly you didn't notice that. Even though I was holding it.

Special.

GOTV. 2 days!

Vantage Point: A Big Disappointment

2008-02-23T23:17:00.002-06:00

I've been waiting since June to see the movie Vantage Point. I saw the previews on apple.com/trailers back when I was living in DC and was so excited for the movie to finally come out. Well, it arrived in theaters last night and I got out of work on time tonight to see the 9:30 showing.

Oh, by the way, if you're planning to see the movie, I wouldn't continue to read any further.

The movie is set in Spain where the President is going to make a speech at a global anti-terrorist summit. All these nations are signing on to fight terrorism (yay!) but the US gets a terrorist threat on the President's life (boo) so they send a double of the President to the speaking engagement.

Now, we knew from the movie preview that there was some kind of president-double craziness going on in Spain. The "you can't order a strike, you've been shot" line clued us all in. However, I was thinking that maybe it was the government trying to pull the wool over our eyes (damn them) but no, it was just because the president's life had been threatened, and apparently, "we've been using doubles since Reagan." I guess they have been pulling the wool over our eyes after all. Bad US government!

Ok, so Mr. President Double goes to speak at the event in Spain and gets shot. We first see this through the "vantage point" of a TV news crew in producing the event. Awful acting. The woman in charge definitely did not have the attitude of someone who should be stressed out over a major media event. Then, her main anchor gets hurt/killed (we never really find out, though we assume killed) in a bomb blast. And they just sit there. Of course they just sit there, they're back in the USA producing it so they can't help. You find out in another vantage point that they're actually just in a trailer outside the event, so why they didn't go running in to help is beyond me.

After we see their vantage point, the movie rewinds to another person's view, and yet another, and yet another. After three rewinds the audience (me included) was getting annoyed will all the rewinding. Because in each vantage point the story would get going, but then you'd be left on a cliff as it rewound to go to a different point of view. An intriguing idea, I suppose, but it just didn't work very well.

Back at the hotel, we discover the real President is a.ok. That is, until a bomb blows up at his hotel. OMG NO! Then, a guy busts down the door and kills all the secret service agents and kidnaps the real Mr. President.

Have any of you ever met secret service agents?

I have.

The chances of them ALL being taken out by one guy who has "special ops training" is about 1,000,000,000,000,000 to 0. First he takes out the control room (yeah right), then he kills the secret service agent disguised as a maid (yeah right), then he busts onto the floor w/ the President and kills three of them at the same time (yeah right) and then busts into the President's room to kill all the ones in there (yeah right).

Maybe I just have too much faith in the Secret Service.

Anyway, the President ends up in the back of an ambulance while one of his living secret service agents is chasing down the rogue secret service agent that helped all the bad guys.

As it miraculously turns out, the good secret service agent ends up at the EXACT SAME spot as the ambulance when the terrorist driving the ambulance swerves to miss hitting a little girl (do terrorists have a heart? I think no). Even though the president is literally laying on the floor of the back of the ambulance and the ambulance ROLLS OVER three times in the accident, the President lives. And the good secret service agent opens the back and is like, "OMG the President is ok and alive!" And then he radios everyone to tell them the President is ok and the Marine 1 chopper picks them up and the news just reports that the President is a.ok. and recovering and that's the end.

I waited a long time for this movie...very disappointing. I think it had a somewhat unique concept, but a lot more interesting things could have been done with it.

Just Words?

2008-02-18T12:50:00.001-06:00

My Award for the Most Creative Political Ads

2008-02-15T16:43:00.000-06:00

These are the best I've seen in awhile - I don't even know this guy, but I love him. He's running for Senate in Oregon - check out the ads below. So creative! Would you want to have a beer with him?

My Untimely Death By Kerosene-Heater Fumes

2008-01-22T08:16:00.000-06:00

Campaign offices are a unique beast. The worst part about them, during winter, is that there always seems to be heating issues. When I worked for my man JK in 2004 in New Hampshire, we ran out of our heating oil in our Dover office a week before E-day. Now keep in mind, January in New Hampshire is not a warm place to be. So we froze to death in our coats, scarves, gloves, anything we could find until we got more heating oil a day or so later. To make things even worse, we ran out of heating oil on Election Day too. So I spent the entire day of the 2004 New Hampshire primary huddling in the Dover office. Thankfully, we won, so I didn't care that much. Until later that day when our colleague came back from the Rochester office and told us that it would have been warmer if we'd turned the heater on. That's right. We weren't out of oil. Just forgot to turn it on.

Fast forward four years to South Carolina in 2008. I thought it would be warmer here, and it is, but not that much. Today it was around 35 and our stupid electric heater just refuses to work. So we bought 6 space heaters from a store (won't say which one, but Kevin bought them, not me) and then one of our supporters brought us a kerosene heater.

Interesting.

I don't go anywhere near things involving flames. I've had recurring nightmares since high school chemistry about catching myself on fire. So I just stay away.

So they heat it everyday and all, but I dunno. I'm skeptical of this kerosene heater business. First off, it smells funny in here now. Then, my head started feeling a little light the other day when they put it in my office. I took it out to the main room to get it away from me, but I still feel a little iffy today. So I thought maybe I was getting carbon monoxide poisoning, but then I remembered that carbon monoxide doesn't have a smell. It just kills you quietly. Super. Die quietly. That's how I feel about my entire South Carolina experience.

But I digress.

So I did a google search for kerosene heaters to see if they're safe to use indoors. It appears that they are, but I did find this info, "Because kerosene heaters are usually unvented, all combustion products are released into the indoor air. Among these are soot, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and some carbon monoxide."

Overnight, I'm going to go on a clandestine mission and destroy it. As fun as it sounds to die from a random assortment of pollutants, I'd rather not. Feb. 5th is coming up here pretty soon...

Day 2: Trip comes to a u-hault in Davenport.

2007-12-28T14:42:00.001-06:00

Unfortunately, the snow in Iowa did Big Bertha in. We had renamed our truck Big Bertha due to it's ginormous size. I estimated it at a 21 foot truck (that size probably doesn't even exits) but it turns out Big Bertha was actually a 26 footer. The steering wheel was one of those crazy ones you had to turn all the way around multiple times to get it to actually change directions.

The first casuality of Big Bertha was a trash can at a Kum and Go on the interstate. Big Bertha became a casuality at the Davenport office. I drove her into the grass beside the driveway because I couldn't tell where the drive ended and the grass began because of all the snow. Fun times! After we realized the Clinton campaigners wouldn't be able to push her out by ourselves, Zach yelled, "Go get AFSCME." Story of our lives.

With AFSCME's help, Big Bertha was freed. It was an interesting day.

The Directors' Momentum Tour

2007-12-27T14:39:00.000-06:00

Today Denise (the Field Director) and I (the GOTC Director) are embarking on the Directors' Momentum Tour. We will be traversing the great state of Iowa in, what else, a U-HAUL truck!! It's delivery time for the field, so we're off to spread good cheer and chum!

Essentials for the road:

TomTom (or as I like to call him, geeps)
Blackjack - so we can "work" from the road
Laptop - so we can "work" at our office stops
Camera or camera phone (also blackjack) - to document the Directors' Tour of Iowa
Chex mix my parents sent me for Christmas
Blackjack charger - for when the POS inevitably dies
Google directions - for when geeps get confused in rural Iowa
Lots of Diet Coke...hopefully there's a Sonic on the way

Look out Iowa! The Directors' Tour may be hitting a city near you soon! I would tell you where we're going, but it's a surprise to the field staff so you'll just have to watch for the photos!

I'm going to have to learn how to do mobile blogging so I can blog the trip from the road!

Not Your Average Birthday

2007-12-17T11:45:00.000-06:00

Today is my birthday! Yay! And Hillary Clinton just told me happy birthday. =)

She came by our office today to thank the staff for all their hard work. Then we all got to take pictures - it was nice.

Things here feel good.

So while I won't be able to go out and celebrate my birthday tonight because I'll be working, at least I got my picture taken with Hillary.

The Des Moines Register

2007-12-15T20:46:00.001-06:00

Endorsed Hillary Clinton tonight. It is the best I have felt on this campaign. There is only one night I could possibly feel better. I'm sure you can all figure out which night that would be.

We all thought it was going to Obama. I was preparing a motivational speech for the staff to tell them how we just had to keep working and we'd still pull it out.

Well, that's out the window.

We still have a lot of work to do, but I am sure am going to be happier doing it now.

AFSCME.

Now the Des Moines Register.

That's what I'm talking about!

2007-11-27T20:58:00.000-06:00

Mistakes.

2007-11-27T20:53:00.000-06:00

I don't make a lot of them, but I did this week.

My best friend Kathleen was coming to visit me for Thanksgiving. Me, being the nice person I am, decided I should buy some food for the house. Since I am at my house literally to sleep and shower, I never have food there. I went to the grocery store, bought some chips & salsa, Oreos, and yogurt.

It all went wrong with the Oreos.

We of course didn't finish the bag, so I brought them with me to work.

Mistake #2.

Once at work, I put them on my desk.

Mistake #3.

I think I've eaten 10 Oreos today. And I'm probably about to eat number 11.

Bad Bailey.

Just so you know, my life is very stressful right now. Thus, I'm talking about Oreos.

The City of Blinding Lights

2007-10-19T18:24:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I wasn't really in the city, and there weren't any "blinding lights" so to say, though I suppose you can consider the sun to be a blinding light. But that U2 song is the music that Hillary's Middle Class Express Bus tour rolled up to in Dakota City, IA last Tuesday.

It was one of those moments in life I will never forget. It was one of those moments in life that will make it very difficult for me to ever leave the campaign trail for good.

I was working our sign-in table. A woman in her late twenties or early thirties was signing a Hillary supporter card in while her 2 year old walked all over the table. I was chatting with her while I was cleaning up the table and starting to get prepared for the pre-program of our event. I told her she'd arrived just on time because Hillary would be here soon, and she told me how excited she was to get to see Hillary and how excited she was to get to vote for a woman this time around.

As this woman was finishing the supporter card, the intro bars of City of Blinding Lights queued up. I looked up from the table and off in the distance, over the crowd of 550, past the red farm house, and across the soft rolling Iowa farmland, down a winding road came the Middle Class Express and Hillary's motorcade. Almost to the pace of U2's song came the bus and the motorcade, strolling across the Iowa landscape. The bus parked beside a sprawling tree and out came Hillary, to address the cheering crowd that had started to arrive hours before our event was scheduled to begin.

It truly was a perfect moment in time.

It took me straight back to 2004 and another U2 song, Beautiful Day. After John Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination in Boston, he came to Harrisburg for a 25,000 person rally. At the close of his speech, they shot off the fountain on the back side of the capitol to Beautiful Day.

Trips

2007-10-07T10:49:00.000-05:00

Candidate trips during a presidential cycle are always crazy. Hillary arrived in Iowa yesterday and will be here until Tuesday. I get to leave Des Moines (yay) and staff two of our events - one in Boone and one in Dakota City. Apparently one of them has a really great site with a red barn and a silo, so expect some good pictures later on this week when I get back from in and unbury myself from all the work I left behind.

This morning the Des Moines Register released a new poll that has us in the lead. I don't know how I feel about that - there are challenges to being in the lead that I don't necessarily care for, but I think it's a good thing overall.

In other news: GO RED SOX!!!!!!

Bailey Discovers Octoberfest

2007-09-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

October, 2004

Patch Adams, our field director on the Kerry campaign, told us all to take a day off before the end of the campaign so we didn't burn out. "Burn out," I thought? I'm 21. There is no such thing as burn out. "But!" I said to myself, "The Red Sox are in the playoffs. So I could buy a ticket for the first game against the Yankees at Fenway, drive to Boston, spend a night at Wellesley, and drive back."

Crazy, you might say, but it's me we're talking about. I paid A LOT of money for a ticket in the bleachers, and convinced my friend Sam to do the same and drove to Boston.

It rained the whole way to Boston that day (it was a Friday). In Connecticut and New Jersey the traffic was terrible. I was running late, but I would be there close to the first pitch. I arrived at the Wellesley commuter rail station, met Sam, and hopped on the train for Fenway.

Of course we picked the train that didn't stop at Fenway, but went to South Station instead. It was raining while we rode the train in, and when we got off at South Station, a man who was with his son and was listening to his pocket radio said the game had been cancelled. I pondered how I would tell Brad that I needed an extra day off to stay for the game on Saturday, and then the news came:

The Friday game has been rescheduled for Monday.

My devotion to John Kerry was too strong to stay in Boston for those days - I was needed in PA. Distraught and on the verge of tears, I did the only thing a Texan knows how to do: went to a steak house for dinner.

Longhorn Steakhouse. One of my favorite places to eat in Boston. I ordered a Sam Adams, figuring I could at least enjoy that piece of Boston and the waiter said to me, "Do you want the Lager or Octoberfest?"

"Octoberfest? What's that?"

"The seasonal brew."

"Can I have a sample?"

"Sure."

He brought me back a sample, and it was love. I ordered a 25oz and then I ordered another 25oz. After that I made it back to Wellesley somehow to wallow in my misery over not getting to see the ALCS. All my life, I'd wanted to go to the ALCS, but it wasn't going to happen this year. The next morning I packed up early, stopped by the liquor store to pick up 3 cases of Octoberfest to take back to the office, and drove back to Pennsylvania.

Later that day, the Red Sox lost game 3 of the series, bringing the series to 3-0. And I was still sitting on a VERY expensive ticket that no one was going to buy. Who ever comes back from 3-0 in sports?

The Red Sox.

I gave my ticket to a friend and they ended up seeing the 11 (or 13, however many) inning game where Papi hit the game winning homerun. I will hold a grudge against them for the rest of my life.

"On the bright side," I told myself, "surely John Kerry will win now."

Well, that didn't quite work out either.

But I do look fondly at the times spent with Octoberfest, watching the 11 inning game in my office on a conference call with my friend Mike. Octoberfest always reminds me of the wonderful things of fall: elections and October baseball - still a thrill even when you lose (but so much better when you don't).

So here's to another year of Octoberfest:

The Harkin Steak Fry

2007-09-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day at the Harkin Steak Fry. We met in Indianola, IA at 6:00am to start putting up Clinton yards signs and set up our ticket distribution/staging area. I hate being up that early, and once again the breakfast crew only brought coffee and not Diet Coke. And that was after I had specifically requested Diet Coke the previous night at our All Staff meeting. Thankfully I had brought my own Diet Coke from home so I managed to survive.

I spent most of the day passing out tickets and t-shirts to our supporters. Towards the end of the day I went up to the Steak Fry - the crowd was insane. I got there to hear the end of John Edwards' speech and Joe Biden's as well.

The Clinton camp had megaphones to pass out popcorn and then use for chanting. We also had cow bells, drums, and all kinds of other good noise making activity.

As with Octoberfest the other night, I took some great pictures, but who knows when I'll have them uploaded.

Octoberfest!

2007-09-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

I love fall for several reasons - the cool, crisp air, the colorful leaves, pumpkins. But most of all, I love it because fall = Sam Adams Octoberfest.

We had a rough day at work on Thursday, so I decided there was only one way to help everyone deal with the stress: create my own Octoberfest solution. Being the terrific party organizer that I am, I sent out an email at 9:00pm and told everyone we were leaving at 9:35pm for Octoberfest. I had already done my prep work, phone banking the local bars to find one that had Octoberfest on tap. I found it at the 5th bar I called. Good thing I have a lot of phonebanking experience so the calls only took me about 1 minute.

Lots of folks in the office joined us (most of them thought it was an actual Octoberfest celebration). I explained it was just a celebration of the best beer ever.

By the end of the night, EVERYONE at the table had an Octoberfest. They had given in one by one, and we cheered and toasted every time a new person sat down with an Octoberfest. I have a really terrific picture of us toasting, but it will probably be March before I upload pics off my camera. Just know it's a cute picture.

Anyway, Octoberfest symbolizes the arrival of fall (and normally the end of an election cycle, but now in Iowa).

HAPPY OCTOBERFEST!

Next blog: The story of how I discovered Octoberfest at the end of one of the worst days of my life in 2004.

Labor Day Fun!

2007-09-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

I think this year will definitely go down as my best Labor Day ever. Colin, Fredrik and I left Des Moines on Sunday afternoon to drive to Sioux City for the Hillary/Bill Labor Day rally. We spent Sunday night at Chilis with the staff and were up at 5:30am for a long day of work.

Bill gave a great introduction speech and Hillary followed with an equally good campaign speech. They make me happy. Even though it was really hot outside, I was happy.

I got to be secret service for Bill for a little bit. That was pretty cool. He was working the ropeline and one of the secret services guys said, "Please help me keep these people back."

Generally speaking, when the secret service asks you to do something, you do it. Those guys carry guns! Yikes!

After they were done working the ropeline I got to have my picture taken with Hillary.

Then I got two free hot dogs from the Labor guys.

Bill. Hillary. Free hot dogs.

Really. Can my life get any better? Doubt it.

For the DC readers, you'll be glad to know I got a parking ticket today. The streak of random tickets continues!

The First Month

2007-09-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

My first month in Iowa ended yesterday. So far it's been an interesting journey. In August, the Clinton campaign hosted 99 county kickoff meetings in all 99 counties in Iowa. I attended two this week and had a great time out in the field meeting caucus goers and listening to their impressions of the election.

Of course, no trip I take is without incident, so here goes. On Wednesday night I drove to Keokuk County in rural America (rural America matters, RAM baby!). I keyed the in the address I was looking for to my TomTom and it froze and died. I tried again, froze and died. I was looking for 280th Street but it froze every time I tried to choose that. I settled for 270th and hoped that there was some logical numbering of these roads in Ollie, IA.

Off we went, Kate, Fredrik (our intern from Sweden) and me. Fredrik got Google Maps directions off his I-Phone just in case the GPS system failed us. Kate and I also had our blackjacks ready to go in case that failed as well. I attempted to call the field organizer we were supposed to be meeting, but either he hadn't set up his voicemail box (as ATT claimed) or I had the wrong number.

Which begs the question: What do you get when you have 3 Hillary Clinton campaign staffers, 2 blackjacks, 1 TomTom and 1 I-Phone?

Lost in rural Iowa.

We pulled out the good ole fashioned road atlas about 30 minutes away from our "supposed" destination. It took us to road 270th eventually. And then to 280th. Which was gravel. That's right, gravel road. Not to mention, along the gravel road were plenty of cornfields, but no houses. Maybe one every few miles. We finally found some house numbers, determined we were going in the right direction, and arrived at our location. But it was an adventure none the less.

The day ended perfectly because we got back to Des Moines just in time to have drinks with Terry McAuliffe!

There are lots of other updates but this is all that I'll write for now. I'll try to do another post tomorrow since our weekends aren't quite as crazy as the weekdays.

Hillary and Bill will be here Monday, so I'll be out celebrating Labor Day in a major kind of way!

Bailey's Quad Cities Tour!

2007-08-26T00:03:00.001-05:00

This weekend was my first weekend off of work, so Kathleen and I met halfway between Des Moines and Chicago in the Quad Cities - four cities along the Mississippi River in Illinois and Iowa. It reminded us both a lot of Longview...though there is a large river hanging around.

On Friday night we were watching TV and saw the BEST commercial ever:
"Need to spice up your romantic life? Spend a weekend in a phanta suite at the Econo Lodge."

That's right. The Econo Lodge. And not just any Econo Lodge, the Econo Lodge in Moline, IL.

The Quad Cities have turned out to be a fascinating place. There was a tattoo parlor at the mall. I briefly contemplated getting an "I heart Moline" tattoo. Kathleen was going to get an "I heart Davenport" tattoo. We went shoe shopping instead.

After shopping, we went to see Harry Potter in 3D IMAX. It is terrific!! Even though you only get the last 20 minutes in 3D, it is totally worth it. The fight scene at the end between Dumbledore and Voldemort is 1000000x cooler in 3D. So go see it.

I don't know what we're going to do tomorrow. I feel like we've already done everything there is to do here.

Iowa Debate: Tomorrow Morning

2007-08-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

Just a reminder for all those early risers out there that the next Democratic Presidential debate will be tomorrow morning at 8am in Des Moines, Iowa. The HRC debate watch party is at the Varsity Theatre, doors opening at 7:30am. I'll be up bright and early, and have my comments later in the day - I'm sure with many sprinklings of sarcasm about how happy I am to be waking up at 4am tomorrow...

Great Articles with Pictures from Council Bluffs Event

2007-08-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

Senator Clinton also stumped in Council Bluffs Iowa where we drew an "overflow" crowd.

See the article here

Don't forget to click on the photo gallery. There are some really nice pictures there!!

Looks Like We Have Confirmation Edwards' Staff is on the Move

2007-08-15T10:08:00.001-05:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/08/15/politics/p071940D30.DTL&type=politics

Dubuque, Iowa

2007-08-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I made my first road trip of the campaign to Dubuque, Iowa to staff a Hillary Clinton event. The four hour drive was not too exciting, but much of it was taken up by conference calls and calls with other people I needed to catch up with.

The event was held at the Grand River Center, a beautiful venue situated right on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. The crowd was tremendous for a Tuesday afternoon and it was great to see Senator Clinton in action. I always have to step back and appreciate how unique and awesome it is that I get to work for a woman running for President.

I noticed that the White House took a bite on the ad we began airing yesterday. Senator Clinton responded in her speech, "The White House just attacked me a few minutes ago saying how dare I say that Americans weren’t visible to the president. Not only have I said it, I’m saying it now and I will keep saying it because I happen to believe it."

On the way home, I was a bit tired and delusional and decided to have a throw back to the 90s and listen to N'Sync CDs. Had to wonder a little what I was thinking back in the high school days. But still, good times.

Yes yes yes here we go. N'Sync has got the flow.

Clinton Campaign Goes on TV in Iowa

2007-08-13T14:40:00.001-05:00

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/hq/iowa/

Another Article About Primary Dates

2007-08-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

This time from the Wall Street Journal

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for me!

Boston Globe Article About Potential Changes to Primary Timetable

2007-08-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

Globe Article

Huge Rumor About Primary Date Changes

2007-08-08T12:52:00.000-05:00

I just walked back into the office to a host of field organizers telling me that South Carolina is moving up its primary, thus meaning New Hampshire will move their primary and it's likely that Iowa will move their caucus before Christmas.

More to come if I can find articles confirming this news.

My First Near-Tears Moment in Iowa

2007-08-07T19:54:00.000-05:00

Today we had the Polk County Kickoff at our HQ office in Des Moines. The featured speaker was former Governor Tom Vilsack (who I have loved since he came and spoke at the Spot in Harrisburg, PA for JK in 2004).

Today he gave such a great speech about supporting Hillary Clinton. He said first I want to talk to the women in the room, then I want to talk to the men. To the men he said, "I want you to picture a young girl who is important in your life; maybe your daughter or granddaughter, maybe your neighbor's daughter. On the day after the election in November, how amazing would it be to say to that young woman that you helped make EVERY opportunity in this country available to her. That she can be the CEO, the president of a university, a doctor, and lawyer, and now President of the United States."

Really. Thought I was going to cry. So that's the thought of the day for all you men out there.

Oregon Representative Darlene Hooley Endorses Senator Clinton

2007-08-06T12:11:00.000-05:00

We've received several new endorsements today, one Rep. Darlene Hooley. She's also signed on to be a Co-Chair of Rural Americans for Hillary.

Yay!

Really, It's All the Same

2007-08-04T12:32:00.000-05:00

I travel A LOT around the U.S. and mostly people talk about how different this place is from that place and so on and so forth. I, however, have decided that the different regions of this country are not really as different as they think they are. If you travel enough, you'll see that a lot is the same, just planted in different locations.

For example. Last night I ventured out into West Des Moines to find a Super Target or Wal-Mart (I think we all know which one I was actually looking for). After successfully buying mousse, I decided I wanted a new book and went in search of a Barnes and Noble. There was a huge movie theatre in the distance and I figured if I drove around this area there would be a bookstore somewhere. I figured correctly (as I said, you travel around enough, you know what signs to look for). Sure enough, I stumbled upon this area called Jordan Creek Town Center.

http://www.jordancreektowncenter.com/html/

This was a beautiful Town Center with a Cheesecake Factory, a Barnes and Noble (yay), a PF Chang's Chinese food restaurant, and an awesome movie theatre. The most noticeable thing about this Town Center was the big lake in the middle of it, with a fountain and all. It also appears that they have live music of some sort on Sunday evenings so I may have to try that sometime.

Now to the point of my post. One time I lived outside of Richmond, VA in a town called Short Pump.

Observe Short Pump Town Center: http://www.shortpumpmall.com/
Also has a Cheesecake Factory and Barnes and Noble. No lake though!

And on the way to and from Harrisburg, PA and Washington, DC:

Hunt Valley Towne Centre: http://www.shophuntvalley.com/

Anyway, all of this is to say. We're not as different as we think we are. I wish we'd remember that more often.

Iowa: Day 4

2007-08-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I joined a gym in Iowa, that will hopefully help me maintain my sanity. Of course, when it gets super busy here (even busier than it is already) I probably won't be able to go anymore, and that's when I'll need the gym most, but I'll take what I can get.

I spend most of my days in meetings about all kinds of different things: data, surrogate scheduling, new programs, field training, etc. It's great because I'm always thinking about new things. Of course the problem with having meetings is that you get a whole list of things you need to do, but then you have to go to another meeting and then you get another list of things you need to do (so I think you can see where the problem comes in here).

The campaign office is very campaigny. Nothing to write home about. But haha, I'm writing about it. Go figure.

I'm hungry now so I'm leaving the office. It's 7:36pm on Friday.

CT

2007-08-02T10:39:00.001-05:00

My First Trip to Sonic in Iowa

2007-08-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

Happened by accident. This morning I was going from my supporter housing to the office and my GPS system took me a different way than I'd gone home the night before. After driving for a mile or so I made a left turn and saw a sign. "Is that the sign I think it is?" I asked myself, not sure that I could really believe I was about to find a Sonic by accident.

It was the Sonic sign. So I did the natural thing, pulled in to get a Rt. 44 Diet Coke at 8:45 in the morning. And to my great delight, it was only 99 cents. I asked the window person if they were on sale, and he explained that Rt. 44s were 99 cents before 11am.

To quote Field of Dreams, "Is this Heaven?"

No. It's Iowa.

Ohio and Indiana

2007-07-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

On day #2 of my trip to Iowa, I crossed the states of Ohio and Indiana. Here are my trip notes:

1. I don't like turnpikes. This only allows you to get food/gas every 30 or so miles, and the only selection you get is whatever is at the little rest areas. To my horror, Indiana uses Mobile gas at the first few rest areas on their turnpike. I don't buy Exxon/Mobile because I think they're Satan, but I had to yesterday because that was the only choice I got. The governor of Indiana will be getting a letter. I mean, for crying out loud, they have solar panels collecting energy along the highway, so why on earth would you support Exxon/Mobile who makes record profits off of national disasters and THEN refuses to put money into R&D for new forms of energy?!?! Beyond me. Thankfully the other stations had BP (which was 40 cents cheaper than Mobile). I was so pissed because I was literally yellow light on empty at the second Mobile station so I had no choice. I only got 5 gallons though. But when I realized it was 40 cents more than the rest station 30 miles down the road...well you can imagine how I felt.

2. I don't like tolls. Ohio: $10.25 to cross the state. There should be some kind of reimbursement if you buy food at the rest area.

3. Ohio does not have much interesting scenery. But you still have to pay $10.25 to see it.

4. Indiana has no police (yay). And their speed limit is 5 miles higher than Ohio (yay).

5. I think in order to assist the USA with its weight problem, they should be forced to put Subway in the stupid turnpike rest areas along with McDonalds. The wonder why we're all so fat! We sit in cars for hours and eat McDonalds every time we stop. I'd still probably get McDonalds if I had the choice, but it's having the choice that would be nice.

Simpsonized Boston Red Sox

2007-07-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

For all the Red Sox Nation out there, you must check this out. It is the Simpsonized Red Sox.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/gallery/07_25_07_simpsons/

After you rate the Boston Red Sox as Simpsons characters you can upload a picture of yourself and make your own Simpsons character.

Photo Chronicles of Harry Potter

2007-07-24T09:04:00.001-05:00

As any good overage Harry Potter fan would do, we started Friday night at happy hour. Our non book reading friends drank 22 vodka and cranberries.

Around 11:30pm we headed for Borders. We had reserved our copy already, but probably 500 people beat us to the store.

At 12:01am the books started pouring out of the back. Borders had the worst system ever for getting the books out to people. In my previous Harry Potter post you can read about the idiocy of the wristband system.

After an hour of waiting at Borders with nothing happening, we abandoned ship for Wal-Mart. There was another line at Wal-Mart, but this one moved a bit quicker. Half the people in line with us had also left Borders, as you could tell by the wristbands and glow sticks.

Joann and I in line at the end of our journey. As you can see, the fatigue is starting to show. We got the book around 2:00am, went to McDonalds, then headed home to read.

What Does the Title of This Blog Mean?

2007-07-24T08:50:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention (thanks to my friend Big Boobs McGee) that not everyone out there knows what "The East Texas Democrat" really means. Observe the following conversation that took place on Saturday night:

Jeff: "I'm going to wear my Texas belt buckle for your going away happy hour."

Some random guy: "Why do you own a Texas belt buckle?"

Jeff: "I wanted a belt buckle in the shape of a state and Texas was the only one I could find."

Me: "That's cause Texas rocks. And is the only state that is in a cool shape."

Big Boobs McGee: "Why are we talking about Texas."

Me: "I'm from there."

Some random guy: "Where in Texas?"

Me: "East Texas, near Louisiana."

Big Boobs McGee: "Let me preface what I'm about to say by telling you that it is really idiotic."

Jeff and me: "Ok."

Big Boobs McGee: "Now that you're saying you're from East Texas, I understand the title of your blog now."

Me (stunned): "What did you think it meant?"

Big Boobs McGee: "Well, I thought it meant you were from Texas and then moved to the east so you were the Texan that lived in the east. The East Texas Democrat."

Table: Silence, then laughter.

So for any of you out there who were curious, the East Texas Democrat means I am a Democrat from East Texas, not any of that other nonsense.

And while I'm talking about nonsense, check this out:

http://www.earthball.org/

Earth ball homes.

You must check out the website, it has nifty diagrams about how your earth ball home can move on land or water.

Harry Potter Book 7

2007-07-23T08:23:00.001-05:00

No worries, I'm not going to say anything to spoil the book. All I will say is that it has been a fantastic read so far. I stayed up until 2am reading it last night and am thus dragging a bit at work today. I think I only have about 100 pages left, so I brought it to work so I could read on my lunch break. I'm ready to see how this whole thing shakes out.

Joann and I had an adventure of a night getting the book when it came out at midnight Friday night (or technically Saturday morning). We started at Borders in Harrisburg. It was terribly organized for such a big book release, in my opinion. First you waited in line to get a wristband that had a number on it. There were six colors of wristbands starting with orange. By the time we got there they were handing out Orange Round 2. After getting our wristbands we wondered around looking at all the costumes and decorations. Someone who had a little bit of confusion about which party they were at pointed a light saber at me and said, "The Force thinks you're pretty." I smiled and said thanks and just kept walking.

So at 12:01am they starting queuing people with orange wristbands (mind you the first set of orange wristbands) with certain sets of numbers. After half an hour they were through Orange #1 and on to Silver #1. 15 minutes through Sliver #1 I couldn't take it anymore and demanded we leave to go to Wal-Mart. They're usually quite efficient when it comes to these things. And at the rate Borders was moving, I could drive to Wal-Mart, inspect the line, and still get back to Borders for my set of numbers in Orange #2.

At Wal-Mart, to my dismay, they only had one cashier ringing up books. The line wasn't too terribly long though and so probably after 45 minutes to an hour we had the books. But then we were hungry. So we went to McDonalds (also to our dismay, the McDonalds is not open 24 hours in the 24 hour Wal-Mart).

Finally we got back to Joann's around 2:45am and I was so tired by that point I only made it until 3:30 reading the first night.

I took a photo diary of our journey, but of course left my camera at home today, so look for those pictures later this week. The one at Wal-Mart is the best, where you can clearly tell we are wearied from our trip.

According to Tom DeLay...

2007-07-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

If we didn't allow the 40 million abortions that have taken place in the USA over the last however many years they've been allowed, we wouldn't *need* the 40 million illegal immigrants to work in this country. Oh yeah, he actually said that. I didn't believe it when my friend told me, but watch:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/generation-chickenhawk-t_b_56676.html

It's about a 7 minute clip, he's somewhere in the middle being his normal, ridiculous self.

The Best Thing About Des Moines

2007-07-16T16:03:00.000-05:00

I've already discovered the best thing about Des Moines: Sonic.

SONIC Drive-In
141 SOUTHWEST 63RD STREET
DES MOINES, IA 503121537
(515) 279-4544

On the Road Again

2007-07-16T13:42:00.000-05:00

Well, folks. The East Texas Democrat is going to be on the road once more. No, not back to East Texas. This time I will be joining Hillary Clinton's campaign in Iowa. I thought I might manage to stay off the presidential campaigns, but I guess I don't know myself that well after all.

More information to come later, but if you want some good corn, you should come visit!

2 Weeks of Harry Potter!

2007-07-12T09:50:00.001-05:00

Last night I saw the new Harry Potter Film: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was the best of the movies so far in my opinion. I was relieved too because I wasn't a huge fan of the fourth movie so I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy this one much either. While it left a lot of the book details out, as is to be expected when the book was a ridiculous 870 pages long, I think overall it covered what it needed to cover to have the story make sense. I was particularly pleased with the casting of Luna - don't think they could have done that one any better.

I ordered Harry Potter book 7 today from Borders. I'm going to be on a business trip to Dallas next week so I have to pick up my copy down there. It's going to be a little bittersweet getting that one. On the one hand, it's great to have a new book to read. On the other hand, that's the last one, so what will I read for fun after that? Normally I just bore myself with stuff like the United States of Europe and how to talk about your values and other thrilling academic pieces like that. So I've rather enjoyed the reprieve with Harry Potter. Guess I'll have to find something new when it's all said and done.

I'm also going to have to emotionally prepare for the ending because I know people I like are going to die. And I had a horrible experience reading book 6. I was teaching English in Romania so of course they didn't get the book on the same day as the rest of the world. So two weeks after the release we finally leave and are changing through Copenhagen airport on the way home - I go tearing through the airport to a shop to buy the book, spend like $50 on it, and then run back to catch my flight. THEN, I decided I wouldn't sleep on my overseas flight but would read the book the entire way. I only had a few chapters to finish when we landed at our first stop in the U.S. so I sat down in the floor of the airport and kept reading. Then the really bad thing happened (that I won't say in case people reading this blog haven't read the book) and I start crying. Sitting in the middle of the floor of the airport, all of 22 years old, reading a children's book, crying my eyes out. It was not one of my finer moments. Thankfully I had the British edition of the book, so maybe no one recognized it and figured I was reading some serious, important novel. Doubtful though.

Another Republican Sinner!

2007-07-10T11:36:00.000-05:00

One thing I really hate about the Republican Party is how they parade around as the only people in the world to have morals. They are pure, love Jesus SO much, and most of all, would never do something so horrible as get a blow job by someone that isn't their wife.

One thing I really love is when Republicans go down in scandal as evil sinners! Like today. (They should learn a lesson from JT - what goes around comes around). The D.C. Madame - who was accused of running a prostitution ring in D.C. - released her phone records, and oh my gosh, look at that, a Republican Senator from Louisiana was on the list. But don't worry, he's already made his peace with God and his wife so he can still go to Heaven. Yay!

What upsets me even more is that AOL did a poll that asked the question, "Are you surprised that a Senator's name was on this list?" I answered "no" along with 96% of the other people who answered the survey. On the second question, "Do you think more politicians will be implicated in this sex scandal," 97% of people who answered (including me), said yes. I'm glad to see that we all have such good moral faith in our leaders. I suppose all the different scandals that have come out over the last few years (and beyond that) are finally getting to the American public. Now they see that our leaders, just like us, are humans and make mistakes too.

So I hope we can move on from this crazy expectation that our leaders be 100% perfect and maybe focus on their ability to do their jobs? A crazy suggestion, I know, but it's a start. Take the state of PA for example, the Governor and Legislators there were unable to reach an agreement on the budget, so 25,000 state workers were without pay for a day. That's unacceptable - our leaders should be held accountable for doing their jobs in the time frames they are given, just like all normal Americans are at their jobs everyday. Maybe if we went into an uproar over *real* issues that cost *real* Americans money, lives, etc. (instead of blow jobs) our government would function better. Or maybe it wouldn't. But at least it would be nice to see people care.

My Life is a Bad Comedy

2007-07-07T15:49:00.000-05:00

According to my friend George, anyway.

On Friday I had a check-in with my boss, and as soon as I got out, I got this weird phone call from Bank of America. It was an automated call from their fraud department talking about unusual activity on my account. They wanted me to enter the last four digits of my SSN and I assumed this was some kind of prank call to get my social (such a conspiracy theorist). Instead, I went online and pulled up my account, and learned that I'd spent $50 at Cosi and $300 at the liquor store while I'd been in my meeting. I thought, "Well, that's impossible, my wallet is right..."

Oh yeah, gone from my bag. Exactly where I left it.

So I told my colleagues, one had seen a suspicious man in my cubicle. Then I called all my credit card companies to have the cards shut off. We also called the police and building security. Good times all around.

After I filled out my police report (the officer asked how much my wallet cost, I chuckled and estimated $15 whole dollars - I'd bought it so many years ago there's no telling how old it was) I headed off to the liquor store with Jeff and George to investigate and check trash cans along the way in case he'd just taken my cards and dumped the wallet. No dice.

Upon arriving at the liquor store I explained what had happened the guy confirmed it was the same person my coworker saw and showed me the receipts:

Me: "And did you not think it was odd that the same person used three different cards to make these six purchases?"

Attendant: "uhhh"

Me: "Perhaps you might have thought, 'hey, this is a bit odd,' and asked for his ID?"

Attendant: "Oh, we asked for his ID. He had one that matched the name."

Me: "Oh yeah? So the old white man either (by some miracle) has my exact same name, or he was at one time a girl with long curly hair?"

Attendant: "Yeah. Uh, well I can make you a copy of the receipts."

Me: "Good, when I sue you this will be so easy. I mean, thanks."

I then moved on to Cosi and asked them to at least take the money off the gift cards he bought there. Don't want that MFer getting any free meals off my money. It was a small victory in my day.

After that I just gave up, was glad I only had $3 in cash in there, and went to have margaritas. Though I didn't get those until I caused a whole incident over the bar not accepting a copy of my passport, going home to get the real thing and threatening to take my posse of 7 elsewhere, being offered 8 free margaritas, and consenting to stay and eat dinner because I am easily bought off.

And then stayed out till 4am.

Forgot to throw in some pictures for Day 7

2007-07-06T09:27:00.000-05:00

The public garden outside our hotel in Stockholm:

The opera house and some other buildings and another park:

On our way to the airport in St. Petersburg I finally got a shot of Russian McDonalds! So cool.

Day 7: St. Petersburg/Stockholm

2007-07-06T09:15:00.000-05:00

Friday we woke up early to go to Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin was murdered) before we headed off to the airport. The palace itself was nice - I particularly liked the room that was decorated in more of the Moroccan style. Guess I need to visit Morocco next year. We toured the basement where Rasputin was poisoned and shot. He still managed to escape the palace, was chased, and shot again and finally died. They dumped him in the river wrapped in a carpet and the carpet was too big to move through the ice, so the police found him. Everyone knew it was the royals that knocked him off, but of course nothing happened to them because they're royals.

Our trip to the airport was 100% smoother than my previous two airport visits. We got there early enough to eat a horrifically disgusting sandwich which was nice - our tour guide had once again not factored in enough time for Bailey's meals. And SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) makes you pay for all food on the plane, including Diet Coke. In protest, I'd taken another apple from breakfast and bought a Diet Coke in the airport. In Europe, they don't care if you carry soft drinks through security.

On the plane I set next to two French people who seemed really annoyed by how long it took me to get stuff out of my bag before I sat down. I was trying to be courteous and not having to crawl out over them during the flight, so I grabbed my mp3 player, Bose headphones, apple, Diet Coke, and book before sitting down. They just scowled. BUT THEN, the little flight attendant guy came around and charged them 6 euros for their crummy sandwich and tiny drink. I bit into my yummy green apple and they looked like they were going to cry. I just smiled at them with my smart American tourist look.

Sweden was a beautiful country. I loved it the second I walked out of the airport. For one thing, it was sunny. I hadn't seen the sun in so many days I wasn't sure what it looked like anymore. But there it was. All happy in the bright blue sky. We had about a 25min drive into center city Stockholm. Along the way I noticed they had what I like to call "normal" driving laws. Another win for Sweden!

The countryside was very green and clean. And then we got into Stockholm, tree lined streets, public parks, gorgeous old buildings. I decided instantly that I was moving there.

We checked into our hotel, which was sitting right on the edge of the big public park. The four adults in the group were all frazzled because we had no guide. They kind of stood around like four confused squirrels or something. Sammy and I finally got annoyed and went upstairs. I grabbed the map and planned our walk down to the seaside. We walked through the park and the downtown all the way to Baltic Sea. It was such a magnificent day. I could have slept outside.

That night we also had the best meal of the trip, at TGIFridays. haha. Not even kidding here. Mojitos, potato skins, and chicken fingers. Can't beat that in any language! I was so full when we left dinner - it's nice to feel full.

Happy Birthday Diet Coke!

2007-07-05T14:14:00.000-05:00

I learned today that this is the 25th Anniversary of Diet Coke existing. It was born the same year I was! And for those 25 years has been making me a very happy and sane person! So here's to Diet Coke! The savior of this non-coffee drinker.

In honor of Diet Coke, I have prepared the following slideshow presentation to show it's value in my life.

My first international trip to Spain, with Diet Coke in hand:

Hiking in Glencoe, Scotland, with a Diet Coke on the knee:

And finally, surviving Copenhagen with a Diet Coke:

Day 6: St. Petersburg

2007-07-05T11:52:00.000-05:00

Full day number 2 in St. Petersburg brought less rain and tours of two palaces. The Winter Palace, also known as the Hermitage, was our first stop on Thursday. I believe the Hermitage is the largest museum in the world, second only to the Louvres in Paris. I could be wrong, but that's what our guide said.

One of the most remarkable things about the Hermitage is the floor. Many of the floors have the most intricate hand crafted inlaid wood patterns you've ever seen. The other remarkable thing about the Hermitage is the ceiling. One of the ceilings was a fresco of different Biblical stories. Another ceiling was an exact mirror of the inlaid wood floor below it, or the inlaid wood floor was an exact mirror of the ceiling above it (chicken and egg here people).

Other than that, there is some artwork by this guy Rafael and another one named Michelangelo. Who knew the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were so talented!

The corridor of impressionists was my favorite, and they had a great collection of Picasso. Sadly, we only spent two and a half hours in the museum. According to our guide, if you spent 2 seconds looking at each item in the museum you would spend 8 years there. So as you can see, we did not get enough time there!

We next toured the Cathedral of St. Issac's. It is right up there with St. Paul's and St. Peter's in London and Rome. My favorite thing in this was were the bright green malachite columns. Also, at the top of the dome of the cathedral was a painted dove. I liked that too.

Our last stop of the day was Catherine's Palace, my new summer home! It had a very interesting history. The Nazis occupied the palace during WWII and decided to burn it down when they left (how kind) after stealing all the amber that made up the amber room (also nice). So since then they have been working to restore the palace to its former glory. While the rooms were beautiful, particularly the rebuilt amber room which is just a room made of amber, I thought even more interesting were the pictures of what it looked like after the asshole Nazis left and what it looked like before the asshole Nazis arrived. And then you were standing in the room to see what it looks like now, after years of labor putting things back in order.

In lieu of dinner (argh) we stopped at a pastry shop on our way to the Russian folk show. Obviously someone forgot to tell my guide that I get really angry when I don't eat on a regular schedule. Not to mention our "chocolate" pastry tasted like the Gulf of Finland in solid form. Good thing I'd brought an apple from lunch.

The folk show was ok. Mainly I just wanted dinner. Shopping for my summer home takes a lot of energy!

That night I finally got dinner at 10pm at our hotel. Pasta yay! Best meal in Russia by far. There were also several tables of "interesting" people that we were observing while eating. I think my hotel might have been running some elaborate prostitution ring. But then, if I caught on after one meal, was it that elaborate? Perhaps not.

Next day we'd be off for Stockholm, after visiting the palace where Rasputin was murdered (see I told you, they murder a lot of people in Russia).

Day 5: St. Petersburg

2007-07-05T09:39:00.000-05:00

We woke up to our first full day in St. Petersburg on Wednesday (thankfully not attacked by Russian mosquitoes during the night). I took another seaweed shower and went down to a disappointing breakfast. Between the rice from the previous night and the bread for breakfast, I was beginning to notice a trend.

As in Copenhagen, we started the first day with a driving tour of St. Petersburg. Our first photo stop was a great view of the Hermitage (Winter Palace) from across the Niva river. This would have been a great photo, except for the rain. I mad Sammy share her umbrella with me and then started singing Rhianna's Umbrella. I decided this would be the theme of our St. Petersburg part of the trip and am planning to put together a powerpoint slideshow to Umbrella of us and our umbrellas. This brilliant idea resulted in a couple of even more brilliant pictures along the Niva River.

We then visited the fortress in St. Petersburg where a lot of the Czars are buried. I can't keep all that history straight, but Catherine the Great, Alexander the Great, Nicholas and some others were buried there.

Next we visited the Church of the Spilled Blood. Again, someone had been murdered and his son decided to build a church in his honor. They murder a lot of people in Russia, by the way.

After the Church of the Spilled Blood we went on a boat cruise to see some lovely panoramas of the city from the boat. Our tour guide aptly pointed out many "yellow structures with white pillasters" and even more "yellow structure with white columns." As soon as I could get my hands on a bottle of cheap Russian vodka, we started a drinking game everytime she said "yellow structure with white columns." It was good, drunk was the only way to be with our driver and the non-existent traffic laws in Russia. I was never more appreciative of things like: stoplights, stop signs, barriers to divide two sides of the road, and cops that give tickets. I can't even explain in words what driving was like there so I'm not going to try. Just know it was bad, very very bad.

For the evening, we were supposed to see Swan Lake. We stopped by the hotel for dinner and to change clothes. Although this seemed like a normal thing to do on a trip, it nearly resulted in my death.

Because, when we got up to our room, the hotel staff had undone my carefully crafted mosquito net and there were bugs everywhere AGAIN. Luckily, Sam and I had bought Raid bug spray the night before when we went to the Russian grocery to buy Coke Light. We quickly killed the bugs and while Sam went to change clothes in the bathroom, I crawled up on the table to fix my mosquito net.

This was all well and good until the table I was standing on started to lean. The best I could do was grab the window and hope for the best as I crashed into the table and wooden chair next to the table. The window slammed shut and then from the bathroom came:

"Bailey? Are you out there? Did you fall out of the window?"

I was laughing too hard to answer, but in fact I had not fallen out of the window (thankfully the Hotel Pribaltiskaya had foreseen something like this and only allowed the window to open 8 inches) I'd just had an accident with a wooden table and chair. It left quite the bruise on my leg, which I made worse 2 minutes later when I ran into the corner of the bed. It was a great day for me.

Swan Lake was fine. I don't care too much for the ballet and I didn't get the story either. Why would this Prince guy fall in love with a swan? Sam was convinced they were trying to advocate for bestiality, until her dad explained to us that the swans turn into women at night (or something like that). The story made more sense after I read the program.

We returned back to the hotel and walked down to the Gulf of Finland to have a drink. As we were strolling around, I noticed a familiar smell: my bath water. Ah hah. Gulf of Finland. Bath water. Same thing. Excellent.

Around 12:15am we figured we should go to bed even though it was still light out. White nights make the body clock go crazy! On the way back though we got a good shot of the crazy curtain contraption we had made. And that had tried to kill me earlier in the day.

The 4th in DC

2007-07-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

I went out to the Iwo Jima Memorial to watch the DC fireworks last night. Luckily it didn't rain on us and we had a terrific view over the river of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Capitol all lined up. As my friend George said, "It's a great view already. Then blow some stuff up and it's just awesome."

While we were watching they blew off some of those cool shapes fireworks, one that was a green ball with orange rings. This guy behind us got really excited and says, "Oh yeah. That's good. Give me some more of that Jupiter!"

To which I replied, "It's Saturn, moron." I guess since my limbs are still intact he didn't hear me, because later he starts talking about Rick Flair (the wrestler) and red white and blue and all this crazy stuff. So he might have tried a Rock Bottom on me or something if he heard me making fun of him.

While walking back to the metro, I was experimenting with my camera and some crowd shots of the insanity of how many people were out, but this is all I ended up with:

I'd like to say I'm artsy, but really, I just don't know how to work my camera.

Happy 4th of July!

Day 4: Copenhagen/St. Petersburg

2007-07-04T13:13:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday morning we were up early to head to the airport to fly to St. Petersburg. We ate breakfast, loaded the car, and got to the airport about 1 hour and 20 minutes before our flight. Now, mind you, this is an international flight, so that really wasn't enough time. We go over to the SAS counter and there are 300000 billion people in line in front of us.

Attempting to be my normal, clever self, I tried to use the electronic self-check in. Sadly, we didn't have tickets that would work for that. Time to play dumb American tourist! I asked this lady in a green shirt what we should do, and she walked off to the SAS customer service counter, came back, and said we should check-in there. This line only had 12 people in it. I figured she was crazy, but what the heck.

Just a few spots from the desk, this crazy blond woman starts yelling about how we're in the wrong line is only for people who had problems with the self-check in. Sam's dad and Bryan start yelling back. I told the ladies to ignore the entire incident and pretend we weren't with them. I wasn't getting out of this line until the lady at the desk told me she wouldn't check me in. I believe that each individual person makes the decision about what they will and won't do each day, regardless of what they're "supposed" to do.

So we get to the front of the line and I really pull out the dumb American tourist look (thank God I look like I'm 12 too). I told her I tried to use self-check in and then the green shirt lady told me to come here since it was so close to our flight.

Agent: Scowl.

Me: Dumb American 12 year old tourist face.

Agent: Grudgingly takes all six tickets and passports from me and checks us in!

Me: VICTORY!

Agent: "Why did you get here so late?"

Me: "Oh we were being picked up by this travel company and then our guide didn't show and we don't really know what happened."

Agent: "Well, next time you can't use these tickets for self-check in, you have to stand in the LONG line."

Me: Eh, she's on to me! "Absolutely, so sorry about that." As if I'm ever coming back here again, yeah right.

So off we went hurriedly through an airport (again) to get through security and passport control. Thankfully I wore the jeans that fit today. Learned my lesson in Newark.

We boarded the flight with no problem and though it was a bumpy ride, we got to Russia. Where it only took us one hour to get out of the airport. I will soon be starting a book on European inefficiency.

We were picked up in St. Petersburg by a guide and freakin-crazy bus driver. There was a lot of traffic so it took us a while to get downtown.

Dinner that night was a hint of the days to come in Russia: communist-style starvation. I ate rice and some more rice. Oh, and some more rice.

Then, I went into our hotel room. First thing I noticed. 13 scary looking mosquitoes on the window. Awesome. Sam killed them with our room service menu. I then devised a bug net system out of our curtains (which almost lead to my death the following day).

Sam took a shower and reported that it smelled a bit like dirt but it was ok. I took a bath and noticed how lovely and brown the water was. And it smelled like seaweed. Hopefully it was at least good for my skin.

The bug net kept bugs out for the night, though the curtains didn't block out enough light - we were now in the land of white nights.

Day 3: Copenhagen

2007-07-04T12:43:00.000-05:00

We arose on Monday morning ready to enjoy our last day in Copenhagen. I had managed to sleep with no nightmares of the artwork of the previous day (an of course considering how dashing the hotel staff was in Copenhagen, I might have gone ahead with the 14 baby plan anyway, as long as they all looked like Yoen. He was the most beautiful blond boy I've ever seen).

Anyway, while the hotel staff was dashing, they weren't very bright - in the intelligence-sense of the word. I had bugged them everyday about my bag arriving from the airport and had given up and decided we would just have to go to the airport ourselves to retrieve it. SAS baggage service took a holiday on Sunday for some reason, and we couldn't find my claim number in the online system, so I was beginning to think I'd never see my well-traveled bag again. So I go to the hotel desk and say I need to call the airport to check on my bag. "What's your name," they asked. "Bailey." "Oh, it arrived today."

Nice of you to let me know. Glad we have those room phones and all.

I was so ecstatic though, I just couldn't yell at them. And ran upstairs to change clothes and put on makeup. And put mousse in my hair. It was a great day.

Then we were off for the Danish Resistance Museum. It was a long cab ride and when we got there, we discovered it was closed. Now, why the hotel staff didn't bother to tell us the museum would be closed when they were ordering a cab for us is an entirely different question. Like I said, not too bright.

We decided to instead explore the Citadel which was right near by. It was kind of star shaped on an island, and since it had such an interesting shape, I decided it would be an interesting place to visit (am I a tour guide or what!). In fact, it was rather boring, but it was the oldest fortress in Europe or something like that. We also found a windmill there. And if I were the jogging type if would have been a nice place for jogging.

The other interesting find at the Citadel was a bird. I didn't know what kind he was, and he kept running away from me, but I finally got enough pictures taken so I could upload them to Facebook and get my bird-expert friend Matt to tell me what kind of bird it was. A Magpie (black-billed) in case you're wondering now!

I encouraged our group to do a little more walking and took them to the public gardens, past some churches made in the famous red-brick style. In the public gardens I found another treasure, literally, the crown jewels of Denmark! They were sitting right there in the middle of the garden! Ok, not really, but they were sitting in a castle that was sitting right there in the middle of the garden. We went in, looked at the sparklies and went back to the hotel.

That night we ate at another Italian restaurant (thank goodness we got fattened up a bit because Russia tried to starve me) and then Sam and I had a round at our local Scottish pub and the Hard Rock Cafe. Oh, and one thing I should note about the previous night at the Scottish pub. They played Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer and I got so excited because in the USA we all get up and sing. Clearly, not the same in Copenhagen as I learned. But oh well, I was free entertainment for the bar. Sammy stared on horrified, but has since learned Living on a Prayer so she can sing along next time.

You live for the fight when that's all that you've got!

Day 2: Copenhagen

2007-07-04T12:07:00.000-05:00

I've wanted to go to Copenhagen ever since the fall of 2003 when I studied wind energy in Scotland. What is the connection, you ask? Well, Denmark was the pioneer for wind energy development and had a lot of very interesting, proactive government policies to encourage the development of a strong wind industry. I was fascinated by this, and had seen the windfarms from the air once when I changed flights in Copenhagen, but had never spent anytime exploring the city.

Copenhagen had very weird weather while we were there. It would be sunny one minute, then literally 5 minutes later it would be raining, and then 10 minutes later it would be sunny again. That doesn't make for the best sightseeing experience.

We started our day with a driving tour of Copenhagen, with a photo stop at the royal palace and the statue of Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. And then it rained some more so we went back to the hotel.

The other thing to note about Copenhagen is that it is the home of the Carlsberg Brewery. Probably the best beer in the world. The Carlsberg family also bought an art museum called the Glyptotek (not to be confused with bibliotec). So we toured the art museum where I saw the most horrifying statue of my life.

We were walking along into the Winter Garden/Cafe area, you know, nothing out of the ordinary should happen in a place that sounds as nice as that. Until, right in front of me, there was a naked woman lounging with 14 or 15 babies crawling all over her. She was giving milk to one on each breast. It was quite possibly the most frightening piece of art I've ever seen. I contemplated running to the nearest hospital to have my ovaries removed (they have universal health care, so it wouldn't have cost me anything). Sam talked me out of it and promised to let me go look at the impressionists so I could calm myself down by staring at landscapes. But on the way there,we saw the second most horrifying statue of my life - another naked woman with her hands tied behind her back giving milk to a baby. That's about how I feel about childbirth, so needless to say, this was not my favorite museum.

After finally escaping the Glyptotek, we went back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. We ate dinner at an Italian food place and then went to a Scottish pub for some drinks. We thought there was going to be live music, but turns out that's every night EXCEPT Sunday. And of course, we were there on Sunday. That's right, drinking on Sunday.

Carlsberg. Probably the best beer in the world.

A New Spin on the Fear of Flying

2007-07-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

This is a great article from the AP. As you will see, I have faced the exact same problems that this author fears (read previous post).

New travel neurosis: Fear of not flying
By BETH J. HARPAZ, AP Travel Editor
Mon Jul 2, 10:04 AM ET

I know plenty of people with fear of flying. They agonize for weeks before takeoff, they go to doctors for prescriptions, they read books about their condition and ask their therapists for help.

But all the stories floating around about how awful air travel is this summer has given me a new neurosis: Fear of not flying.

You see, we have round-trip tickets for our family of four to fly from the East Coast to the West this summer. When we land, we'll have a busy itinerary of tours, hikes and activities. On the way back, we're getting home just in time for the first day of school.

But what if our planes are delayed for hours on the ground and we miss our connecting flights? What if our flights are cancelled? What if our planes are overbooked and our reservations suddenly disappear off someone's computer screen, leaving us ticketless? Our vacation will be ruined, precious days off from work wasted, money down the drain, and everyone in a bad mood.

See that? My flights are seven weeks away and I'm already freaking out. Do they make prescription drugs for people who are afraid that they'll never get off the ground? Because that's what I really need.

Virtually every person I know who has flown in the last month has encountered situations that used to be rare but are now routine. Showing up for your flight with a seat assignment in hand, only to get to your seat and find it occupied by someone who has an identical ticket. Flights cancelled for no apparent reason, with no word on rescheduling. Hundreds of people sitting in sweltering airplanes at the gate for hours with no information and no amenities. Leaving two hours to get through security and then just barely making the flight because the line was so long.

I'm a travel editor and I'm supposed to know how to deal with these sorts of things. But I'm afraid I've done everything wrong. Our flights are at the end of the day, just in time for late afternoon summer storms. The terminals will be crowded with lots of angry people whose earlier flights were delayed and cancelled, and they'll all have been rebooked on our flights, no doubt. I imagine sitting in the airport terminal for hours, only to finally be boarded and sit on the runway for hours. My kids are too old for little toys to keep them occupied; I'm thinking the best I can do is bring all the homework schools now assign over the summer and get them to do all of it while we wait. I expect we'll be there long enough so that my older son will be able to plough through "The Iliad" no problem.

Of course I know the rules. We'll buy our drinks after we go through security, and refrain from telling jokes about bombs at the gate. I think with a 14-year-old and a 9-year-old I'm safe from the type of tantrum that got a family escorted off a flight last winter. But I'll be sure to buy cough drops if either of my children has a cold, knowing that a teenager on a class trip from Hawaii was kicked off a flight in New York because she had a coughing fit.

I don't usually get paranoid about the possibility of hijackers taking over the plane, but these days I'm thinking I might just be held hostage by the pilot - stuck on a tarmac for hours with no toilet paper or ice.

But I will have a cell phone, and I figure if things get really bad, I'll make two phone calls.

The first will be to a Chinese restaurant in the terminal. I'm going to see if they'll deliver to the runway that I'm stuck on.

If that doesn't work, I think I may just call 911. If they won't send the cops to free us, maybe they'll send an ambulance.

Surely by then I'll need one.

Day 1: The Departure

2007-07-03T09:52:00.000-05:00

I left work on Friday to head to DC's National airport to catch a Continental Shuttle flight to Newark. The flight was supposed to leave around 7:00, arrive around 8:00, giving me almost three hours to check-in to my international flight to Copenhagen.

The flight pulled away from the gate on time but, to my dismay, parked on the runway. The pilot claimed that "high winds" in Newark were delaying landings so we weren't allowed to leave for 5-10 minutes. An hour later, the pilot came back on and said there was now an air traffic backup over Philadelphia (naturally the route we needed to fly) so it would be another 5-10 minutes before we took off. Half an hour later, the pilot came back on and said they were giving us a new route so he could get us to our international connections on time - there were 6 people on my flight that were supposed to be catching a flight to Tel Aviv. Around this time, the other three people I was traveling with called to say they were at the airport and had told the ticket desk that I was coming, but it seemed unlikely that I would be able to check-in. Then they gave me the even BETTER news that both of the Copenhagen flights leaving the next day were full, so I'd have to fly standby and hope for the best.

Around 10pm (international flight boarding at 10:35) my DC flight took off for Newark. We landed at 10:50 and I called my friend to let her know we were at the airport. The gate agents said that check-in was closed but I was determined to try anyway. As soon as the seat belt sign was off, I flew to the front of the aircraft, claiming I was VERY VERY late for an international connecting flight. As soon as the door opened I flew out of the aircraft and through Newark's terminal A. Of course, this would be the day I decided to wear my jeans that are a little too big now. You can figure out the rest.

Naturally, my flight wasn't taking off from Terminal A so I went to the Air Tram to go to terminal B. Then flew through Terminal B to find the SAS check-in counter. There was one guy waiting there for me. I had my whole speech prepared. First, I would ask nicely. Then, I would cry. Then, I would start screaming and name dropping all the important people I know.

Bailey (gasping for breath after running too much): Can I please check onto the Copenhagen flight? My flight from DC was delayed, the people I'm traveling with are already on the flight. Please?

Ticket Counter: Let me radio to the gate. "Yeah hi, I have passenger Childers here who has three family members on the flight. Can I check her in?"

Gate: "Yes, but she'll have to run."

Me: What?!?!? I don't even have to beg? What a ripoff. "Don't worry, I'll run."

The gate agent gave me a green dot for expedited security clearance. Of course I was the only person in line for security so what did that really matter.

Then I ran to the gate (shoeless and all) and went down the gangway to the plane. The flight attendant was happy to see my but then noticed I didn't have a seat assignment.

Me: "Oh, don't worry. I'm traveling with people I'll just find them and sit there." (Honestly, I would have sat in the bathroom at this point).

Before I could take off through the airplane the gate agent came back to get me and took me back up the gangway to give me a seat assignment. I told them I was traveling with other people and my seat should be by them.

They handed me a boarding card with the number 4B.

(Surely, this must be a grave error, but I'm not dumb enough to tell them).

I walked back down the gangway and the smiling flight attendant was still there. "Oh, that's a GOOD seat."

First class, baby.

As I'm throwing my tennis shoes and suitcase into the seat, I hear, "Bailey?" And see the three stunned faces of my traveling companions who couldn't believe there was any possible way I'd managed to get on the flight.

But I had, and we were all flying first class. In the sleeper seats no less. I really needed a nap after my unexpected workout in Terminals A and B.

The flight was terrific and though my bag didn't arrive in Copenhagen at least I did!

The Gulf of Finland and Bath Water

2007-07-02T10:08:00.000-05:00

What do they have in common? Well, sometimes they're the same thing. Like this one time when I was in Russia and I took a bath and the water was a murky brown and smelled like dirt. Then the next day we took a walk down near the beach of the Gulf of Finland (right outside the back of our hotel) and turns out it smelled EXACTLY like the bath water I'd sat in the previous evening. Mystery solved.

That and other stories to come as I recount my vacation to Copenhagen, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm!

Support the DNC's 50 State Partnership Program

2007-06-22T13:49:00.000-05:00

Today Howard Dean sent an email appeal for the DNC's 50 State Partnership Program. That program puts DNC organizers in EVERY state. It's been a great way to build the party at the local level - where we really turn elections. If you're going to give to the DNC, support that program!!

http://www.democrats.org/FundOrganizers

Politico Praises Progressive Majority Reception

2007-06-20T13:51:00.000-05:00

Progressive Majority hosted a reception featuring Donna Brazile at the Take Back America Conference on Monday, June 18. The Politico had the following to say:

"The opening-day highlight was the appearance by Donna Brazile and Robert L. Borosage, chairman of Progressive Majority and co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, at an evening reception sponsored by Progressive Majority.

Borosage was backed onstage by about 40 progressive candidates for all sorts of offices, including the Tempe and Denver city councils, and said: “This is the next generation of Paul Wellstones. These are the candidates that are transforming America from the bottom up. Now, when Newt Gingrich decided he wanted to create a permanent conservative majority, one of the things he started was GOPAC, in order to train, recruit and develop conservative legislators and politicians at the local and the state level. Well, Gingrich tried it, and it started to dwindle out. The Progressive Majority is just starting to grow and grow and grow."

Read the rest of the article here

Taking Back America!

2007-06-19T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Take Back America Conference, hosted by the Campaign for America's Future, kicked off yesterday. Barack Obama is speaking right now, but I ran into him in the hall...so I figure I'm ok just listening to the broadcast instead of going into the super-crowded ballroom. Plus it's probably a million degrees in there because the Hilton hasn't been able to maintain the a/c as much as I was hoping they would.

Yesterday, Progressive Majority hosted a very successful reception with Donna Brazile as the keynote speaker. I can't wait to see pictures from it - I would have taken some pictures myself, but I was busy running around making sure everything went smoothly (and except for forgetting the check for the band, it did). Our training tracks have also gone well - I've sat through three of them so far and trained on one. We have two more sets of those to go, one this afternoon and one tomorrow and then I'm done with Take Back!

Obama is 5 minutes over time. Edwards was supposed to go on at 12:30. And then at 1pm we are loading up buses to take everyone to an AFSCME rally on Cap Hill. I guess that's going to be running late too because if Obama goes into Edwards' time then Edwards will probably run late as well. Though who knows, maybe Edwards isn't here yet and Obama is stalling for him. =)

Things That Annoy Me IX

2007-06-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

People who don't understand the proper function of an alarm clock.

So this morning my roommate's alarm clock goes off upstairs at 7AM. I had taken Tylenol PM last night and wasn't due to be awake until 7:30AM. It keeps buzzing and buzzing, so I figured she must not have come home last night and had it set to go off this morning anyway. Which brings me to point #1: Set your alarm clock before you go to bed, not sometime during the day. Therefore, if you don't come home, it won't go off and wake up your roommate. Just like in college, there were always those annoying idiots who left for winter break or summer break and didn't turn the alarm off, so everyday all the other people still in the dorm would be awake from the never-ending buzzing (that is until we called campus security, broke into your room, and smashed the blasted thing to pieces).

So I get up in my foggy, post-Tylenol PM phase, can't find my glasses (still not sure where they are) and make my way to the stairs so I can go up to turn it off. At which point I notice her keys are there and I hear her turn it off. Now, I have to ask. What on EARTH took her so long? That I had enough time to determine she wasn't there, stumble around to get out of bed and my room, and almost start climbing the stairs, yet she couldn't roll over and turn it off? Please. So point #2: Don't use an alarm if you're not going to wake up and turn it off. If the simple loud buzzing won't wake you, maybe you should buy one where a giant hammer comes out and whacks you on the head to wake you up. Or squirts you with water, something.

And finally, I go back to bed, grumbling about my lost sleep, and proceed to hear her alarm go off every ten minutes for the next hour and a half. #3: If you're going to repeatedly hit snooze, why not just set the alarm to the actual time you're going to wake up? It's not rocket science people.

If you are careful with these three points, you won't be on the list of Things That Annoy Me.

#14: Colorado Rockies

2007-06-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

We were in a beautiful stadium on a beautiful day for a fantastic game! I could not have dreamed of a better experience visiting #14 on my MLB stadium list. The Rockies won 10-9 in the bottom of the 10th!

I didn't notice anything particularly great about the food - nothing special served there like in Pittsburgh or anything, but the hot dogs and nachos were typical baseball yummy.

Also, before attending a Rockies game, I'd recommend checking their website for ticket deals - we got 2 tickets in the lower outfield box and 2 bags of peanuts for $20. The tickets in that section are normally $36 each.

Why is My Life so Weird?

2007-06-06T17:26:00.001-05:00

I arrived at the Denver airport yesterday to fly back to DC, only to find out my flight had been cancelled even though nobody had bothered to tell me. They had scheduled me on an early morning flight out of Denver, which wasn't really ideal because I needed to be in DC by then for several meetings. Although we tried a couple of different options, I had no choice but to fly out from Denver today.

Thus another night in a hotel. This time at the Marriot at the airport. Delta gave me a dinner voucher so I went down to the bar at 10 (after getting back from our Denver City Council victory parties). That's when the night got interesting. This random old guy sits down next to me and starts doing card tricks. No, I am not kidding. The card tricks were fairly entertaining but I would have rather been left alone. Then he starts talking about some Romanian woman that lives with him that he has sex with. Thanks for that. I feel my dinner coming back up. Oh, and he was also a coach for the St. Louis Blues hockey team and had played in the NHL for 9 years. (By the way, I am on the PGA Tour and most people say I'm better than Tiger Woods).

I finally got tired of this weirdo/loser so I paid my bill and started to go up to my room. When he asked me if I wanted to "go for a run" (uh, I don't run buddy, clearly you don't know me). He said he'd make me feel real good (a Sonic Diet Coke would have made me feel better). Ah, I thought, I see what you're going for. I gave him a scoffing no and "oh my gawd you have GOT to be kidding me" laugh and walked off. He said, "I just had to ask. You look great by the way." Yes, because that's going to get me to change my mind. Oh wait. No it didn't. Hopefully the wine he was drinking could comfort his bruised ego as well. Total loser.

So I go to sleep (without the yucky old man, darn!) and at 5am the phone in the next room starts ringing. Keeps ringing. Stops then rings again. Then there's banging on the door and people calling a name. Then a cell phone rings. Then the room phone rings again. There were a lot of airline workers staying at the hotel so I'm guessing that it was a pilot or something who forgot to wake up. Thanks for staying in the room next to mine. I don't really like sleeping past 4:45am anyway.

Eventually I gave up on the whole sleeping thing and got ready to go. I got to the airport and thankfully I was actually on a flight this time. After our stop in Ohio, crazy screaming kids got on the plane and made me insane. Someday, when I win the lottery, I am going to create a child-free airline (though not a skanky one like Hooters). It's going to be the airline for refined/tired/non-child bearing passengers to enjoy their flight and arrive safely with their ear drums in tact. It's going to be a lovely day!

Not Your Average Highway Drive

2007-06-01T11:21:00.001-05:00

I arrived in Denver yesterday to do several events with our Colorado staff. After loading up the cars we headed west on I-70 to Glenwood Springs. This drive took us past Vail and other well-known skiing destinations, but the most impressive part of the trip was just a mile or so outside of Glenwood Springs. All of a sudden the highway is down at the bottom of a magnificent canyon. I believe the Canyon name is Glenwood Canyon, and it's just remarkable. The highway follows alongside the river down at the bottom of the Canyon and it might be the most picturesque drive I've ever taken.

I found a site that has some great pictures of it - I didn't take any because we were on our way to a meeting so we didn't stop for photos.

http://rockymountainscenery.com/glenwood/

If you're ever in need of a great way to spend the day in Colorado, I'd recommend driving I-70.

There will be more posts to follow with my other explorations on the Western Slope, complete with pictures. It's been a very interesting weekend so far! And the Colorado Rockies tomorrow yay!

Concert Review: Keane

2007-05-30T08:54:00.000-05:00

Last night Keane played the 9:30 Club in D.C. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the band. In modern music, I feel it's often a toss-up on whether the band/artist will sound good in concert or if you'll just realize the synthesizers do a ton for the group. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Keane really does have the talent. They played a good mix of music from their new CD, Under the Iron Sea, and their first CD, Hopes and Fears - it's important to me to get the mixture of music. I went to another show recently (by an artist who shall remain nameless) and he literally played every single song off his new album and only played two or three songs from his first two albums. Throw in the fact that I didn't find his third album to be as good as his first and second, and it made for a not-so-good concert going experience.

Rocco Deluca and the Burden opened for Keane - they did a good job but I just can't really get into their style of music. Also, I don't think Rocco Deluca has the stage presence that the lead singer of Keane has. Rocco puts a lot into his music, no doubt, but he doesn't play to the crowd very much, doesn't really seem to pull them into the show. That was my feeling anyway.

The 9:30 Club is a great venue for a concert. I've been to a similar club in Boston, Avalon, and I think the 9:30 has a far superior layout. It says on their website that there isn't a "bad seat" in the whole place (it's standing only haha) but really, I think we would have had a decent view anywhere. We ended up on the floor in the middle of the stage and about the middle of the crowd.

If you're a fan of Keane and they haven't made it to your town yet on this tour, I'd highly recommend going to see them. You will get your money's worth.

Things That Waste My Time

2007-05-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

Time is a valuable thing. In campaigns, we teach volunteers and candidates that you have three resources: time, money, people. You can always raise more money, you can always recruit more volunteers, but you can never add time to the clock. Once Election Day is here, time is up. That's it. The game is over.

Understanding that time is the most important resource in my line of work, it annoys me when I am plagued by things that are a 100% waste of my time. Like the communications workshop I have to attend next week. The entire DC office has to go to "Discovering your Individual Styles of Communication." We get to participate at a whole office (like it's going to make it fun that way or something). And it is three hours long. I can tell you with complete certainty that there are over a hundred things I could do for three hours in my life that would be a better use of my time.

As if attending the stupid three hour workshop isn't bad enough, we have to fill out this ridiculous form before we go. And when I say ridiculous, I mean ridiculous. Is is 30 some odd sets of four words and you have to choose which one you are most like and least like while at work. They say the form isn't going to be shared with anyone which begs the question, what is the point?

Just in case you're bored today and want to think about how you communicate at work, have at it. Here's part of the form:

Life Goal In Progress

2007-05-25T15:03:00.000-05:00

One of my goals in life is to visit every Major League Baseball stadium. I have probably blogged about it before, I'm thinking after my visit to Pittsburgh's stadium, but I'm too lazy to dig through the archives to find out.

I have to take a business trip to Denver, CO next week so you know what that means! Cross another stadium off the list baby! I'm going to a Rockies game. I've always wanted to go to Coors field, ever since they built it. I drove by it when I was in Denver in February, but as it turns out, there is no baseball in February. But there most certainly is in June! I found a really good ticket deal on the Rockies site - 2 tickets in the outfield box and 2 bags of peanuts for $20. The tickets alone are usually more than $30. So now I'm even more super excited than I already was!

And I figured I should make my stadium list for my own reference (though probably the next time I want to look at it I'll be too lazy to go through the archives and will just make it again):

1. Rangers Stadium (torn down) - Rangers
2. Ballpark at Arlington - Rangers
3. Astrodome - Astros
4. MinuteMaid field (lamest name ever) - Astros
5. Turner Field - Braves
6. Fenway Park - BoSox
7. Yankee Stadium - do I really have to say?
8. Wrigley Field - Cubbies
9. I have forgotten the sponsor of the new White Sox stadium, oh well
10. Great American Ballpark - Reds
11. Busch Stadium (the old one) - Cardinals
12. Camden Yards - Orioles
13. PNC Park - Pirates

So #14 will be added soon. Also, since I now live in DC I'll get to go to icky RFK eventually and the new ballpark when it opens here. And someday I'm going to Philly to see a game, I'm amazed I didn't do that last summer while I lived in PA!

Construction

2007-05-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

There has been construction on the street outside of my apartment for over a month now. I have no idea what they're doing, and they don't ever seem to make any progress, yet every morning at 7am they are there tearing up the street and making a lot of annoying noise. I think I've complained about this before, but it just seems to keep getting louder everyday. I can't even sleep through it anymore.

Here's what I was wondering how: how do they manage to start on time at 7am every single day? If my office were in charge of street construction and we were supposed to start at 7am, we would actually start around 8:30am because there is no way everyone would arrive on time. Some people would be stuck in traffic, others stranded on the metro, others still dealing with a hangover, others just being late for the sake of being late. So even though the construction drives me nuts, I have to say I'm impressed by their dedication to waking me up at 7am everyday. Last night I was thinking that I don't really even need an alarm clock anymore. They've proven to be quite reliable over the last few weeks. It's truly does amaze me.

Weak 24 Season Ending

2007-05-22T08:36:00.000-05:00

Spoilers ahead, so if you haven't watched the season finale, stop reading now. Or don't come crying to me when I tell you what happens.

I thought last night's 24 season finale was weak and boring (except for the offshore oil rig blowing up). The way they dealt with Jack's dad was extremely anti-climatic after his role in the season. Same with Cheng. No crazy Jack revenge scene, such a disappointment. The entire season was that way though - I felt there was so much potential at the beginning with Jack coming back from China, and it just got botched along the way somehow. First, too much of Jack's annoying family (like Marilyn and the kid). Especially Marilyn, she was pretty much pointless. All she did was cry and be useless. I don't understand the need for characters like that. Second, I think all the romance plots at CTU are getting old. I guess they at least shook it up a little this time with Chloe being pregnant, but again, what is that really adding to the show? 24 isn't structured as a show where we get a lot of character development and really start to care for the characters' personal lives, it's an action show. If I were the Director of CTU, I would issue a memo banning the dating your coworkers. Too much drama.

The part about Audrey (who is almost as useless as Marilyn) that annoys me so much is that Jack is so in love with her blah blah blah, but it's not like the show has really been able to develop that where it's even believable. We saw them somewhat together in one season, but then Jack kills her ex-husband and she doesn't love Jack anymore. Then Jack disappears and she decides she still loves him. But then they only get one day together and he goes to prison in China. I mean come on. It just doesn't work for me. Oh, and then we were supposed to believe that Audrey was capable of rescuing Jack in China? Unlikely.

My final gripe about last night is that I think there are still a lot of things up in the air about the show that they didn't really tie up:
1. Charles Logan?
2. Wayne Palmer?
3. Lisa (the VP's aide)?
4. Walid (not sure on the spelling on his name, but the one beat up in the camp by "terrorists")?
5. Curtis?
What happened to these three people? Did they actually die? We saw pretty bad things happen to some of them, but no official pronunciations of death. Are they going to recover? Did Martha Logan get re-institutionalized after stabbing her ex-hubby? Was Aaron like f-you crazy b*?
6. What happened in Denver?
After so many references to CTU in Denver, why couldn't they just let us know what happened there? What did Mike Doyle do that was so bad that Denver had to be dropped like 30 times during the show? Maybe for next season they're going to spice up the show a bit by moving CTU command to Denver.

Oh yeah, one other thing that annoyed me. Whoever leaked the plot spoiler about Jack getting in the car with someone he was really surprised to see - totally did not happen. I think wondering about that was the only thing that got me through the last four episodes, so you can imagine my disappointment when Jack stares off into the sunset and the show ends. 100% lame. I never really pictured Jack as the type of person to enjoy a sunset. Or I guess it was a sunrise. Whatever.

Did You See Tony Blair on Your Walk Home Last Night?

2007-05-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

I doubt it. But my roommate and I did!! We were walking to Stoney's for dinner and when we got to Connecticut Ave., the police had blocked off all motor entrances to the street. Since there were no cars coming, we started to cross and the cop yells at us and says, "Stay there. You're going to get runover." After I glanced up and down the empty street I responded, "By what?"

So we stood there and waited. Other people came to try to cross and he yelled at them too. Then the police allowed people to cross L St (so they were walking parallel to Connecticut), but no one was allowed to walk across Connecticut. So I'm standing there pondering how weird this is and I start to think. A. They have the entire road blocked off. B. They said we're going to get run over (apparently by a phantom car). And then it dawns on me. Maybe it's the presidential motorcade. So I start to get super excited, telling my roommate it has to be the motorcade, what else could it be?? I curse myself for not having my camera but grab my cell phone to get ready to snap a photo and then remembered my camera takes video (oh, that would be way better), so I get prepared. All the while my roommate thinks I've gone crazy and I keep saying, "But it's the motorcade! I've always wanted to see it."

Sure enough, a few minutes later the motorcade came zooming by. My video picked up a super excited "Oh my God!" as it drove past. Then my roommate says, why was there a British flag on the first car? So I said, well isn't Tony Blair in town this week to meet with President Bush? Though we couldn't see into the cars, we figured it was him and after all the cars had passed life went back to normal on Connecticut Ave. That was definitely the most interesting walk home I've ever had though!

The Corduroy Appreciation Club

2007-05-16T14:41:00.000-05:00

Today my coworker, Moises, wore corduroy pants to work. I told him that you are only supposed to wear corduroy when it's cold out, and he claimed that since it was "light" corduroy it was still acceptable. I disagreed and went online to see if there was a style guide for corduroy. In the process, I found a terrific website: The Corduroy Appreciation Club. Highlights from the page include their first meeting date, November 11, because 11|11 "is the date which most closely resembles corduroy." Oh yeah.

Also, if you decide to join the club and attend their meetings, you have to wear at least 2 pieces of corduroy to the meeting. Since I only own one pair of corduroy pants (that I only wear in the winter unlike Moises), I guess I won't be joining.

http://www.corduroyclub.com/

Koplinski Finishes 3rd - Recount on Friday

2007-05-16T12:08:00.000-05:00

I was back in Harrisburg yesterday to work for my friend Brad Koplinski's campaign for City Council. He was one of three candidates endorsed by the Dauphin County Committee and Mayor Reed. Not all of the voting machines functioned properly last night, so we had to wait until today to get the results. Unofficially, Brad is in third place right now, but there is supposed to be a recount on Friday. There were there slots for City Council, and the two incumbents finished first and second.

Yesterday was a great day for an election. It was so sunny and warm outside. I think I walked three precincts reminding people that it was election day. When I got tired of walking I made phone calls into a couple of other precincts. It was so hard to reach people at home though - I think I'm going to have to rethink some of my GOTV strategies for future campaigns. See if I can tweak the process I use a bit to make it more effective for what we actually experience on Election Day.

Anyway, for now, CONGRATULATIONS Brad!! So proud of you!

Bar Review: Habana Village

2007-05-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Habana Village
1834 Columbia Road NW
Washington, DC 20009
http://www.havanavillage.com/

Saturday night I met up with several friends for salsa dancing at Habana Village in Adams Morgan. The first of many good things about Habana Village is the mojitos. They were the best I've had so far in the city. While I do not actively search for the best mojitos in Washington, DC, I'm happy to share the news when I stumble across a particularly good one. Plus they were only $8 which seems rather reasonable in my mojito experience. Also, I tried the Cubano sandwich (bbq pork and ham) and it was excellent. It's always better to drink on a full stomach!

On the top floor of the bar they had a live band that made for terrific dancing. I'd never tried salsa before, but most of the people there are happy to help you learn. You end up getting paired with random people throughout the night - but it's a neat way to meet new people. By the time we got into dancing I couldn't really drink the mojitos anymore because I just wanted water!

When we left the bar, there was another group playing on the first floor. There wasn't as much dancing down there, but if you wanted to relax and enjoy your drink, it would have been a terrific place to sit and enjoy the music. I thought it was great that two live acts were there on the same night.

If you're looking for a more unique night out in the city, I'd highly recommend Habana Village. Even if you've never tried salsa before, I think you'll find it's quite enjoyable or you can just sit back, relax, and watch everyone else. There are some that are quite talented and they're fun to watch!!

Multi-country Debate Over HPV Vaccine

2007-05-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Today I was reading an article about how HPV can cause throat cancer from oral sex. Snuggled at the end of the article was a bit of info about debate in Canada about the "morality" of the government setting aside money to give young women the HPV vaccine.

It just irks me that they feel the need to debate the "morality" of the plan. Fine, if there is a question about long-term effectiveness, but I fail to understand why morality is the question when there is a drug that could potentially prevent cancer. Is it more moral to just sit around and let people get cancer? Sure, there is the argument that all the 11 year old girls will go run out and have sex thirteen times a day if they get the HPV vaccine, but that makes about as much sense as an alien walking up to me at work right now and tapping me on the shoulder.

First of all, if we do an adequate job of educating our young people about sex and sexual health, they would learn that there are far worse problems from sex than HPV. To name a few: AIDS and pregnancy. The HPV vaccine doesn't help with either of those (to the best of my knowledge). The HPV vaccine isn't a cure-all for all the diseases you could get from sex, so how I don't see how you can rationalize that people will go crazy having sex just because they get the vaccine.

I know I've ranted about this before, but sometimes I just think government is ridiculous. I guess I'm somewhat glad to know that the US isn't the only country that is goofy when it comes to these things.

Oral sex linked to throat cancer: study
CTV.ca News Staff

Oral sex has been linked to throat cancer in a new study by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Human papillomavirus (HPV), which can be transmitted during oral sex, is the main cause of oropharyngeal (throat) cancer, researchers found. The study is the first to prove the link.

Researchers compared 100 men and women who were recently diagnosed with oral cancer with 200 similar people without the disease.

They found that participants who reported having oral sex -- fellatio or cunnilingus -- with six or more partners were at the highest risk (8.6 times more) of developing throat cancer.

"It's the human papillomavirus that drives the cancer," Dr. Maura Gillison, the lead author of the study, told The Globe and Mail.

Gillison, an assistant professor of oncology and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said the more oral-sex partners an individual has, the greater the risk is of getting oral cancer.

Researchers found that those with HPV infection were 32 times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer -- regardless of the previously established risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use.

While there is no screening test for the cancer, Gillison said the risk is relatively low.

"People should be reassured that oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon, and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer," said Gillison.

There is also a new vaccine -- Gardasil -- that protects against several strains of HPV, including the one linked to oral cancer. However, it has not been specifically tested in relation to oral cancer.

The Tories have set aside $300-million for an HPV vaccination program for girls aged nine to 11 but debate remains about the long-term effectiveness and morality of the plan.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 3,200 Canadians will get oral cancer in 2007 and 1,100 will die from the disease.

Pizza Thief Gets Caught!

2007-05-09T13:18:00.000-05:00

So my coworker, Dwight, was telling me about this website called Bostonist (we're both obsessed with all things Boston as it turns out, maybe him more so than me). He was showing me this picture of the day of two tulips and continued down the page where I saw a picture of a pizza. I won't delve into pyschology to figure out what it means that I was more interested in the pizza than the tulips. I like flowers, I swear!

I thought the pizza looked yummy and started to read the article next to it. As it turns out, there was some guy in Boston who ordered pizzas and then pulled guns on the pizza delivery guys so he could get a free pizza. This just proves that there really are just plain dumb people in this world. How did he think he wasn't going to get caught? Well, whatever plan he concieved to convince himself that he would get free pizzas for life, he was wrong. The Boston Police Department caught him. I should have them call the DC Police Department and teach them a few things. All the DC police are good at is writing tickets to pedestrians (I promise, I will get over it someday, but not yet. not yet.)

Here's the full story, pretty hilarious:

Boston Police Take a Slice Out of Crime

Save Eastern Market

2007-05-08T10:06:00.000-05:00

Today bars all over DC are participating in the Save Eastern Market campaign. As you may or may not know, last week a fire destroyed most of the Eastern Market building. So tonight take your drinking budget to one of these places, where part of your spending will go toward rebuilding the Eastern Market:

http://www.easternmarketrescue.com/

24 = Best Show Ever?

2007-05-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

Normally I am happy to talk about how I think 24 is the best show ever, until this season, that is. I think the entire season has just been an all around disappointment. It started with an interesting premise, Jack coming back from China, terrorists getting hold of several nuclear bombs, Audrey being dead, but it just seems the writers weren't able to tie any of this together in an entertaining or realistic way.

Let's take last night's episode as an example. The Chinese break into CTU (counter terrorist unit) by going through the sewers? And they somehow managed to disable all of CTU's communication and their security systems. It seems to me that the Counter Terrorist Unit would be a little better prepared to deal with attacks on their systems. I don't recall the CIA being invaded through sewers anytime in recent memory.

Audrey is now gone from the story again, so I ask, what was the point of even bringing her back. She was in three episodes where all she did was rock back and forth and say "Bloomfield." Was that necessary? Maybe it's supposed to make us have a more emotional conncection with Jack but I don't even think it worked for that. I never felt they developed their relationship enough to feel they were that in love. And she just annoys me anyway. What have we seen in her that made it at ALL reasonable that she could go to China to single-handedly save Jack? Usually all she does is cry or get kidnapped. Shocking, she was kidnapped again.

Anyway, it's been an all around disappointing season of 24. I've seen a plot spoiler from the last episode where Jack gets into the car with someone he is "shocked" to see, so that's really all I'm excited about knowing. I hope something new is in store for next season.

Things I Hope Never Happen to Me

2007-05-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

When I was in high school, the yearbook folks came around lunch tables one day asking us what our biggest fear was. One guy I was eating with said, "being chained to an ant bed." It was still one of the funniest responses to that question I've ever heard.

While I hope I am never chained to an ant bed, I also hope this never happens to me:

Doctor Finds Spiders in Boy's Ear

I mean, so odd. How on earth do you end up with spiders living in your ears? Can you imagine if the spiders had mated the kid had a billion baby spiders in his ear? Just the thought of it is disgusting. I'm glad now that I always kill spiders in my apartment rather than letting them run off. Clearly, at some point, they will crawl in your ear when you're sleeping and build a new home. Gross.

The best part of the story, though, is the 9-year old's response: "It was interesting...what's next?" Roaches laying eggs in your tongue? (haha loved those rumors that spread all over the internet back in the day)

Full story:

Doctor Finds Spiders in Boy's Ear
AP
ALBANY, Ore. (May 6) - These guys weren't exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop.

What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy's ear - "like Rice Krispies" - ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.

"They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse Courtney said.

One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader's left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear - "like Rice Krispies."

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.

Jesse was given the spiders - now both dead - as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

"It was real interesting, 'cause, two spiders in my ear - what next?" Jesse said.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

2007-05-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

As it turns out, a Republican county delegate in Utah is claiming that immigration is Satan's plot to destroy the USofA.

According to this guy:
"In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S.," his resolution states. "The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness."

You know, I was reading the book of Revelation the other day, and now that I think that it, there was that one scripture where it did say, "And Satan shall destroy the United States of America in the end time." Oh wait...

I just don't understand this whole anti-immigration attitude. I can get that it is a burden on the educational and healthcare systems of some states (Texas, for example, where I grew up). But Good Lord, Satan's plot to destroy the USA? I doubt it.

First of all, I'd like to remind everyone that the United States is made up entirely of immigrants. Except for the American Indians - we really treated them right now didn't we (please note sarcasm). So if this guy's theory is at all legitimate and the devil has to destroy the US for the New World Order to take over, maybe it would have been easier for the devil never to create the US in the first place? Why create it and then destroy it? That's not very good long-term thinking, Satan. Maybe you could use some training in strategic planning.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether to just laugh at this guy or be afraid that people in the world actually think like that. I'll get back to you on what I decide.

Here's the entire story:

Satan behind illegal immigration, Utah County Republican claims
By Todd Hollingshead
The Salt Lake Tribune

A Utah County Republican delegate may not be catching hell for calling illegal immigration a satanic plot, but he isn't gaining any converts, either.

Utah County GOP Chairwoman Marian Monnahan says District 65 Chairman Don Larsen's resolution - asserting that illegal immigration is the devil's plan to destroy the nation by "stealth invasion" - "in no way" is endorsed by the Republican Party.

"It's just free speech," Monnahan said Thursday. "It's Don's right to do that."

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, a prominent Utah County Republican, says he understands Larsen's frustration with the federal government's slow response to immigration issues, but he doubts "there will be a lot of support for the resolution in its current form."

Party faithful will get the chance to discuss Larsen's resolution Saturday at the county's GOP convention. Monnahan notes Larsen, not the party, paid to print and distribute 1,300 copies of it for the gathering.

Larsen, who did not return a phone call or an e-mail seeking comment Thursday, is urging the closing of national borders to illegal immigrants to "prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion."

"In order for Satan to establish his 'New World Order' and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the Scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S.," his resolution states. "The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nations the way open warfare does, but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness."

Members of Utah's Latino community searched for diplomatic words to respond to the measure.

"It sounds like someone who is way out in left field, living in some fantasy world," said Tony Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah and former head of the state's Office of Hispanic Affairs. "He is just an extremist, radical right-winger."

Rolando Murillo, a volunteer for ACELA (the Latin American Cultural and Education Association of Utah), is startled that anyone would believe such a plot.

"Everyone can have whatever beliefs they want to have," Murillo said. "In the state of Utah, we're grateful that the vast majority of people do not embrace these ideas."

Satan has popped up in Utah County politics before. Last year, failed congressional candidate John Jacob of Eagle Mountain blamed the devil for his flagging campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, says he hasn't yet read Larsen's resolution, but he, too, expects it to fizzle.

"The majority of Republicans believe that illegal immigration is probably the most critical issue facing Utah today," said Bramble, who will chair Saturday's convention. "I don't think there is going to be a great deal of people attributing the problem to Satan."

An Interesting Walk to Work

2007-05-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

I figured today would just be a normal stroll to work, but as it turned out it was quite the exciting day. First, I saw Marine 1 and 2 flying around (those are the helicopters that fly the President). I always think it's cool to see them and then I was thinking how fun it would be if I could have a helicopter take me everywhere! It would definitely make my 20 minute walk a lot quicker.

So as I walked along pondering how to acquire my own helicopter, I saw police lights at the 1700 block of Rhode Island Ave. My first thought was: better make sure I don't cross against the don't walk sign so I don't get another jaywalking ticket! My second thought was: guess there must have been a car accident. So while I was standing there waiting for the walk signal, so I didn't get a ticket, I noticed that they were blocking off the street and weren't letting cars go down that part of Rhode Island Ave. Odd, I thought. Also odd, there weren't just police officers, there were also secret service men standing around.

Since I was a pedestrian, they didn't really care what I did, so I walked down Rhode Island and saw that there were a lot of people outside of the Cathedral of St. Matthews. When I noticed most were dressed in black, I figured it must be a funeral of some sort. I hadn't watched the news lately so I had no clue who the funeral could be for, but it had to be someone important because not everyone gets secret service and a street blocked off for their funeral.

When I got to work I did a little investigating online and found out that it was Jack Valenti's funeral and Governor Schwarzenegger and Steven Spielberg were expected to be there - which explains the secret service.

Anyway, way more interesting walk to work than normal...

Bonsai!!

2007-04-30T09:23:00.000-05:00

Here are some of my favorites from the Bonsai area of the Arboretum:

Pictures from the National Arboretum

2007-04-30T09:15:00.000-05:00

Such a great day yesterday for a stroll and some pictures!