01.28.08

Going Home

Posted in Personal at 8:58 pm by admin

This weekend Bryan’s Grandmother passed away. So for us it’s been kind of a long and tiring few days. I never realized how blessed I am to have multitudes of Grandmas. Yes, I do mean multitudes, at least in the sense that I happen to have many more than most. Lets see, there’s my Dad’s Mom who is very hip and I am often accused of forgetting that she’s forty years older than me. Then there’s my Mom’s Mom whom I love for her warm, home-cooked meals and her cookies. My Dad’s stepmom who I don’t see that often but I’m still really fond of. Then there’s my pseudo-Grandma on my biological Dad’s side of the family and my biological Grandma (who doesn’t speak to me but still exists) on that side as well. Then there is also the family who “adopted” me in college (hint: I’ve turned into the oldest of three siblings in that family) and in turn the grandparents have adopted me as well. So I have another Grandmother who makes the best apple pie in the world and I mean that and another Grandma whose flower creations amaze me and who always has time for tea and a big hug. And then don’t forget the other Grandma whose sense of fashion amazes me!

So, all in all, I think I have a few Grandmas to share with my husband who has now lost both of his within a year of each other. And I know of at least one who has definitely adopted him as her own….

01.22.08

Vote in 2008!!

Posted in Beliefs, Politics at 3:02 pm by admin

Thanks to Jamie, I took this quiz that matches your personal political views with the 2008 candidates. Admittedly, you do need to have some knowledge of what agendas are on the table right now in order to be able to answer some of the questions. My results are posted below. While I would never vote for Mitt Romney, I found it interesting how high his name came up in my final scores. I’d love to say that Huckabee or Tancredo have a fighting chance but I find it very unlikely.

If you’re looking for a website that will spit out where candidates stand on the issues check out this website.

84% John McCain
79% Mitt Romney
77% Fred Thompson
75% Mike Huckabee
68% Tom Tancredo
63% Rudy Giuliani
51% Ron Paul
50% Hillary Clinton
46% John Edwards
45% Barack Obama
43% Bill Richardson
41% Joe Biden
40% Chris Dodd
28% Mike Gravel
23% Dennis Kucinich

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

01.21.08

Because I’m wishing it was spring already…

Posted in Personal at 9:40 am by admin

01.18.08

Posted in Personal at 11:23 am by admin

What more can I say? He’s so darn cute!

01.09.08

What am I?

Posted in Beliefs, Literary Pursuits, Personal at 1:01 pm by admin

There is a class I’ll be attending this quarter that promises to be particularly challenging, if not frighteningly maddening. The topic is gender and rhetoric which is not my strong suit, partially my reason for taking the class. However, the true topic of the class is feminism and rhetoric, which also interests me and again-not my strong suit. The only frustrating part is every one else enrolled for the class. I think mid-way through the two hour seminar I had the intense urge to start banging my head against the table in front of me.

First off, there’s the young undergraduate (by the way, I’ve turned into a complete snob and I despise taking classes with undergraduates. I’d like to petition that the amount of time and money I’m spending on my Masters entitles me to classes with only my peers present) who has lots of high ideals and strong opinions but very little actual knowledge to back every thing up with. Then there’s the student sitting next to me who wanders off into the realm of her personal life for no apparent reason and feels the need to share with every one her emotions and current crises. Lastly, we have the highly intillectual and very opinionated bunch that won’t let the rest of us get a word in edgewise.  In the academic community we’ve moved further down the rungs of Dante’s hell to poststructuralism (for those of you struggling with postmodernism in contemporary culture I’m here to tell you that that’s “so yesterday” in academic circles) and nothing makes sense anymore.

A large part of my problem, I know, is the fact that I’m not huge into theory because for the most part it doesn’t translate practically into the real world. I get easily fed up with going round and round about how to define “man” and “woman” (one suggestion was lactating and non-lactating individuals and there’s always simply “chair persons”) or whether it’s more beneficial to seek equality for all the oppressed or focus on special interest groups, of which I’m apparently one since I qualify as a woman.

All this to say that gender and rhetoric is going to stretch me and while I dread some of the fist fights (figurative of course) that we’ll all be engaging in, I am very excited to hear what the professor has to say. She is a brilliant woman who knows a lot about a lot of things which means I respect her opinion far more than any one else in the class, even if I disagree with some of her views.