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Grex > Enigma > #379: Lynne's "I aint got no baby" Diary. | |
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slynne
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response 120 of 160:
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Jan 13 20:37 UTC 2004 |
Howard Dean "House Call"
It has been so long since I have really been social. I had forgotten
how much work it can be. It is a little frustrating too. My friends,
who used to go out looking for parties now seem to need to be dragged
to them. I am really missing the days when all you had to do was say
that there was a party on a certain night and folks would just show up.
Of course, those parties usually had really drunk people who broke
things while now things are a bit more tame at Casa Fremont.
I am having a Howard Dean "house call" thing on Saturday. I have
invited over 50 people so far. Only one person has confirmed that they
are coming. I have 6 strong maybes and about 3 weak ones. I'll be happy
if 6 people show up because I know that those 6 strong maybes can mean
that the folks wont show up if they are feeling tired or cranky or
whatever. Such is life, I suppose. :)
I have to say that just calling people has been good for me. I mean,
suddenly I have a reason to call folks I havent seen in a while.
Sometimes for several months. We end up talking and talking which is
good. There is a reason these folks are my friends. They are easy to
talk to. Most of them I have known since high school so we have a lot
of history. And then, small town gossip type stuff too.
In fact, I was kind of bumming because I called one friend of mine who
had some very interesting things going on. I had already called another
friend of mine just before that and while she had some news about
herself and some other folks, it wasnt nearly as filled with drama as
this other stuff which involved a psychotic ex girlfriend screaming in
my friend's front lawn. I know the first friend would have loved
hearing that story. Oh well, I guess that just means that if both of
them show up on Saturday, the friend with the crazy lady screaming in
her front lawn can tell the other friend all about it herself. First
hand accounts are better anyways. :)
http://lynne.tblog.com
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jaklumen
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response 121 of 160:
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Jan 14 09:32 UTC 2004 |
resp:119 What I had said about my job was fairly benign, so the joking
did seem mean-spirited. Not sure what there was to filter, so...
bye. It's one thing when I say something that I can see in hindsight
might look bad. I didn't see it in that instance.
resp:120 I hear so much about the Dean campaign that seems
encouraging... lots of grassroots work and such. I'm not fond of
Bush, but I don't think I could lean left enough to support him.
*shrug* Elections always give me a feeling of ambivalence... the
parties do play to their respective loyalties, left or right, and then
butter up to the middle. Clinton was supposedly moderate, but even
before his scandal, back before he got elected, he kinda scared me.
Anyway, political parties do seem to be retreating more to the left
and the right... and where I remain fiercely Independent and can seem
to dice myself anyway but moderate, it makes vote decisions hard.
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edina
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response 122 of 160:
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Jan 14 15:48 UTC 2004 |
Do you still vote, though?
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jaklumen
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response 123 of 160:
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Jan 15 08:57 UTC 2004 |
Sadly, I have not voted for a while. Apathy looms. Not a good
excuse, however-- I need to know the issues and vote on as much as I
can. Local stuff is easier, but again, anything that has a political
party stamped on it tends to give me that itchy feeling.
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edina
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response 124 of 160:
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Jan 15 16:00 UTC 2004 |
My personal philosophy is that if you don't vote, you dont' get to complain.
Dave doesn't vote - I don't recycle. I'm going to try and recycle, while I'd
like it if he votes, he doesn't complain and he doesn't give me smack about
it.
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slynne
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response 125 of 160:
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Jan 15 17:00 UTC 2004 |
Yeah. I get a little annoyed when someone gets upset about the results
of an election they didnt vote in. But, I have to admit that there have
been elections/primaries where I didnt care about the outcome so I
skipped voting.
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anderyn
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response 126 of 160:
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Jan 15 18:14 UTC 2004 |
I always vote. I do my best to educate myself about the issues, and I vote
in every election I am eligible to do it in. If we all did, maybe it would
be a better world.
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edina
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response 127 of 160:
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Jan 15 20:33 UTC 2004 |
Twila, you are so right you scare me. Let's take on the world and get rid
of the electoral college!
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slynne
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response 128 of 160:
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Jan 18 17:22 UTC 2004 |
I had to cancel my Howard Dean party. It started snowing in the morning
so a lot of people called to cancel. The roads were really bad when I
went to the store at 3 o'clock. But of course, as soon as I cancelled
the event, it stopped snowing and the plows came through and the roads
were fine. *DOH* Oh well. A couple of folks showed up anyways and we
had fun sitting around, drinking beers, and talking about why Howard
Dean is the candidate for us. It was fun.
When I went out to the store on Saturday, UPS delivered a package to my
house. It was an automatic kitty litter box!. The return address was
some company in Canada. There was no note or anything inside that
indicated who it was from. Weird. I think it was probably Aaron who
ordered it but he is out of town so I cant ask him. I have been talking
about getting one of these things with him. But I have been talking to
other friends too about my dislike for changing the litter. Heh. Well,
I am very happy with it and really thankful that I have a friend who is
thoughtful enough to send me something like this. I am going to get it
all set up tomorrow. Woo Hoo. No more cat box cleaning :)
Last Friday, I got to visit my friend Andee who just had a new baby.
Boy is he cute! It was really nice to visit her. She is awesome. We had
lunch and then we sat around and talked all afternoon. We played with
the baby although he doesnt really do much except lay on the floor and
look at stuff and smile sometimes. He sure needed a lot of attention
though. Whew. Maybe it is just as well that I dont have kids.
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slynne
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response 129 of 160:
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Jan 20 20:18 UTC 2004 |
Sometimes I have a little bit of writer's block. I hate that. It is
funny because sometimes I just feel like I want to run to my blog
(http://lynne.tblog.com) and write and write and then other
times...nothing. And then I ask myself, "Do I *really* have nothing to
say today? Really?"
Naturally, I usually have something I could say even when I dont have
anything I need to say. So? Here are just some thoughts in no
particular order of importance to me...
I was surprised that Kerry did so well in Iowa. I dont think Dean's
speech was as bad as the media is making it out to be. It certainly
hasnt changed my feelings about him as a candidate. I dont care a lot
for Kerry but I dont hate him or anything. I dont think he will get the
nomination. I was happy to see Edwards did so well. There is something
about him that I really like but I have not really been able to put my
finger on it. Maybe it is just that he seems nice. Naturally Dean is my
first choice for the nomination but I wont cry into my oatmeal if
Edwards gets it.
I have been watching a lot of foreign movies lately. I have been very
disappointed with the lack of movies from Russia. I have found that I
dont like most of the Soviet era ones and there just arent that many
more recent ones. I hope that changes. When it comes to foreign movies,
I like the French ones the best and the British ones the second best. I
dont know what that means.
Part of my job is to write techincal documents. Everyone on my team has
a yearly goal. Our fiscal year ends on the 31st and that is usually our
deadline for completing our goals. I am annoyed because on Friday, I
was sent an email informing me that the deadline for completing these
technical documents is Jan 21. It seems kind of smarmy to me to change
the deadline like that with only a few days notice. Oh well. I have
already turned in enough documents to meet my goal but not enough to
exceed it. I've exceeded every other goal I was given, though. I am
sure my review will be a good one and hopefully I will get a nice raise.
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jaklumen
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response 130 of 160:
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Jan 21 15:05 UTC 2004 |
I saw some news commentary on the Democratic turnouts and wondered
what the reaction would be from those that supported Dean... I mean, I
don't think the media has made much comment yet that I can see.
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slynne
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response 131 of 160:
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Jan 21 18:38 UTC 2004 |
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/nyregion/21hit.html?pagewanted=1
I have always been really interested in human behavior. I think that is
why I have pretty much liked most of the social sciences: anthropology,
economics, sociology, psychology, etc. As many of my friends will tell
you, I do the arm chair psychologist thing a *lot* ;) I have worked
with the mentally ill and even now, I kick around the idea of getting
an MSW (in like 20 years after I finish this undergrad degree haw!).
I dont find that I am often surprised by what people do. And yet, this
morning when I read about a woman who was apparently run over three
times by hit and run drivers, I found myself wondering how that could
happen. I have made up all kinds of situations about the motivations of
the drivers. Maybe they were drunk or had arrest warrants or had some
other reason not to want to come into contact with the police. Maybe
they were more concerned with their own welfare than that of someone
else. It is possible that they didnt notice although that seems
unlikely. I mean, I seen the damage to a car after it hits a deer about
the size of an adult human woman. If they hit this woman and didnt
notice, there is something really wrong with them.
All of this makes me wonder if there is something that I can do as an
individual to help prevent something like this? Is there something I
can do to encourage others to have compassion for their neighbors? Is
there something I can do to encourage some feeling of community
responsibility in people?
I have a friend who thinks that the answer is to spread kindness
around. That people who are treated with kindness are more likely to
treat others with kindness. Obviously this is not some new or original
concept. I dont know if it has merit. I have never heard of any studies
that show that treating a person with kindness results in them treating
others that way. However, I think that it cant hurt. So I am going to
go out of my way to be kind to the people I come into contact with.
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slynne
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response 132 of 160:
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Jan 25 16:28 UTC 2004 |
My Ypsilanti Howard Dean Adventure:
Yesterday, I volunteered to help do a "lit drop" for the Howard Dean
campaign. I walked door to door and dropped off campaign literature. I
knocked on everyone's doors and talked to those people who answered. It
was really cool.
The neighborhood in Ypsilanti where I was doing this isnt my
neighborhood but one I used to live in. I had really wanted to buy a
house in this neighborhood but found I couldnt afford one. Figures.
But, walking around and meeting the folks who live there kind of made
me wish I *had* bought a house there although when I think about it,
the things I like about this neighborhood are the same things I like
about the neighborhood where I live.
I was really impressed by the diversity of this place. There were
people of all ages and backgrounds and ethnicity living in this place.
There were kind people who invited me into their homes to warm up and
rude people who slammed the door on my face. There were a lot of Dean
supporters and a lot of supporters of other candidates. Also a few
Republicans.
What impressed me most about this neighborhood was how active everyone
seemed to be in the process. There were lawn signs up all over the
place. Political signs in the windows. Most people I talked too either
had a very informed opinion already or asked me a lot of questions
about Howard Dean. One guy (a Bush supporter) even told me that even
though there was no way in a million years he would vote for Dean, he
was really happy to see young people like me taking an interest in
politics. (I dont know how young he thought I was, he didnt look over
40 and I am 35. Maybe that new moisterizer wrinkle reducer cream really
works...hmmmm).
It was a very positive experience for me. I am so happy that I decided
to get more involved with things.
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slynne
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response 133 of 160:
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Feb 2 15:05 UTC 2004 |
Some monday morning thoughts about channel flipping and football...
Aaron came over last night just to hang out. He has a habit of
switching channels a lot rather than watching just one thing. A lot of
people seem to do this. I have never really understood it. Whenever I
am watching something on one channel, unless it is bad, I dont sit
there wondering if there is something I want to watch more on another
channel. In fact, since I often check tv programming guides before I
start watching, I usually already know what is on the other channels.
So what is the facination with channel hopping?
I will admit, though, that if it werent for Aaron's channel switching,
I wouldnt have seen any of the Super Bowl and even though I am not the
world's biggest football fan, it actually was a really good game. It
was also nice to have Aaron there because he actually knows the
football rules so I was able to ask him a lot of questions.
Usually, I dont like pro football because the players are so good, they
make it look easy. I *know* it isnt easy but that doesnt normally make
it more exciting to watch. I tend to find college ball much more
interesting even though the players arent as good.
But, that game last night was really really interesting. Very exciting
too! Especially the ending. Holy cow! Talk about racing the clock. I
was on the edge of my seat. It was fun. I even found it interesting
even though I was rooting for either team especially. Yup, it was just
one of those games that was good just because it was a good game.
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jaklumen
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response 134 of 160:
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Feb 3 01:45 UTC 2004 |
Channel surfing. LOL Boy, I hardly think about it, now, and yet I
remember days of TV without a remote, when I just sat through bad
commercials or whatnot.
Sometimes people flip because TV is just not really great but they
don't want to turn it off. But sometimes I think people want to avoid
commercials. Then again, you mentioned the Super Bowl, and sometimes
people watch the game so they can see those commercials, too.
Speaking of that, I'm not a football fan at all. I am dreaming of the
days when there is more coverage of rugby in the States.
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slynne
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response 135 of 160:
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Feb 3 17:49 UTC 2004 |
I got a phone call from a former boss last night. Unfortunately,
because of bad circumstances (the death of a former co-worker's
father). Still, it was *really* nice to talk to her. We talked for two
hours catching up. It made me realize that I am not always really good
about making the effort to keep people in my life. I think I need to do
more of that.
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slynne
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response 136 of 160:
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Feb 5 17:30 UTC 2004 |
I havent really been up to much this week. Sometimes I feel like my
life is soooooo boring. Yet, it isnt really bad or anything. It is just
that I have a goal to blog 4-5 days a week and sometimes I sit down
here and have nothing to write.
I could tell you that I spent my evening last night doing math problems
and then watching TV and then writing a sympathy note to a friend. I
was bad and didnt take the dogs for a walk like I usually do but now
that they are older, they dont seem to mind staying inside too much
when it is really cold out.
That sympathy note to my friend really got me thinking though. I might
be bored with my life but at least everyone I love is healthy and
alive. I feel stuck in a rut but really my life isnt all that bad. I
have a job that I dont love but I dont hate it either. I have a house
that I love. I have great people in my life who love me.
I think that there are a couple of ways to find happiness. One of them
is accepting what you have and the other is to find something you dont
have and then go about getting it. I guess my problem right now is that
I dont feel like doing either one of those things.
I am going to think about it though. That is my project for tomorrow. I
will make a list of everything in my life that I am happy with. And a
list of everything in my life that I am unhappy with and I will make a
plan to change one thing on the unhappy list and I will read the happy
list over and over.
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slynne
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response 137 of 160:
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Feb 8 15:30 UTC 2004 |
I spent the better part of yesterday morning passing out leaflets for
polygon, who is running for county clerk. It was really hard for me to
be out in public yesterday because of some disturbing news I received
on friday, but I am proud of myself that I was able to suck it up and
keep my commitments. I met some nice folks too. It is really nice
seeing people vote in a caucus or volunteer to pass out literature. I
really liked the Dean volunteers. They were really young (one of them
just 17) and it gave me a lot of hope to see them youngins
participating in the political process with such energy.
The weirdest thing was that I ran into my old therapist and got a hug
from her just when I needed it most.
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slynne
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response 138 of 160:
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Feb 9 16:44 UTC 2004 |
I have a friend named Kate who has monthly movie parties. They are
always a ton of fun. I really needed to be around people last night so
I went. I am very glad I did. I had a good time.
The movie of the evening was Sixteen Candles. What a trip down memory
lane that was! It was soooooo 1980's. I loved that movie when it first
came out. I remember hanging around in the halls at school talking
about it. It was funny because it was so unlike the school I went to
and yet we all identified with the characters. John Hughes really had a
talent for making movies that appeal to 15 year olds.
We all started talking about high schools and there was a woman at this
party named Angela who coincidently lived pretty close to me when I
lived in Detroit. She lived at 6 mile and Woodward and I lived at 7
mile and Livernois. Small world. In Detroit, there were two city wide
schools that were really good academically, Cass Tech and Renaissance.
Both schools had an admissions process similar to college. Anyhow, I
went to Cass Tech and she went to Renaissance. It was fun to talk about
high school in Detroit with someone.
I also got to see my friend Gary whom I havent seen in ages. He was
really supportive about some things I am going through right now which
I really needed. We talked a lot about it. When I whined about how I
didnt have a movie buddy anymore, Kate made a big deal about how she
*loves* to go to the movies so now we have a big movie date to see
Hildalgo when it comes out in early March. I am pleased about that.
I did get some bad news yesterday from Gary. He is planning on moving
to California in May (just after I get back, doh!). He has said this
many times before but this time I think he really means it. *sigh* I
dont really need to lose any more friends right now. Still I really
admire his courage. There is a big part of me that wants to pick up and
try something new too.
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jaklumen
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response 139 of 160:
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Feb 9 23:40 UTC 2004 |
I don't remember that movie, but my wife thinks it's pretty funny.
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slynne
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response 140 of 160:
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Feb 10 17:30 UTC 2004 |
My mom sent me this article about housing values in the city I live in.
I have to say that made me feel really good about buying my house. Not
that I needed to feel good about it but it helps sometimes when I am
paying my mortgage. I have a lot of equity in this house now and there
is a certain security in that.
www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-7/107623891371701.xml
http://url.rexroof.com/465
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slynne
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response 141 of 160:
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Feb 10 17:57 UTC 2004 |
I have to admit that I have been quite disappointed in Dean s results
in this race so far. It has been a long time since I have been so
enthused about a presidential candidate. There is some disappointment.
But luckily for Kerry if he happens to win the nomination, I like him a
lot better than I like George Bush.
I was reading an editorial in the NYT about the labor market. It is
dismal. People here where I work have been losing their jobs. I could
lose my job any minute (ok, it is unlikely but it could happen). This
is an issue where I have an emotional response: fear. I know that a lot
of people share that fear or, worse, are living through having lost
their jobs. Just this week, I heard a story about a small town in
Michigan that is going to lose the factory that employs most folks. So,
heck yeah, I am afraid of losing my job. An economic recovery without
jobs doesn t feel like much of a recovery to the average person who is
living paycheck to paycheck and just getting by.
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jaklumen
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response 142 of 160:
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Feb 11 06:38 UTC 2004 |
It's even worse for those struggling to get off the dole. There's that
writing on the wall-- funding will be cut-- but how does welfare-to-
work pan out when the unemployment rate is so stressed?
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slynne
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response 143 of 160:
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Feb 11 14:32 UTC 2004 |
I know. It is a pretty bad time to be without a job. I worry a lot
about that. Not just about my job but about the effects of having a lot
of unemployed people will have on society in general. I mean, it seems
to me that it means less tax revenue and increased need for state
funded welfare programs.
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jaklumen
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response 144 of 160:
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Feb 12 03:17 UTC 2004 |
I just hope it isn't a vicious cycle.
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