I expect better than this from a national party organization

This is a scan of a letter from Sarah Palin that a woman in my office received. Highlighting provided by addressee.

I hope you can read it. If it's too small, let me recreate the first two lines for you:

SARAH PALIN
Wendnesday Morning

Which I guess compliments nicely the pen that McCain's camp distributed earlier in the campaign:

The Republican Party...proud sponsors of the Is Our Kids Learning campaign.

Thank GOD I'm not my hair

Today I got a facebook friend request from someone that I guess I knew in church back in high school. (Truthfully, I can't place the name.) He has posted what will henceforth be known as The Most Embarrassing Thing Ever Posted Of Me On The Internet. I don't even know how to prepare you for this.





All I know to do is tell you that that's Susan Walker on the left and Kelly Sowers in the middle, just in case anyone is googlestalking them, so that they can be equally humiliated.

Update: So I talked to the guy on facebook and he just told me that my old high school boyfriend MARRIED the girl he dated before me. GOD I LOVE FACEBOOK.

With apologies in advance to my sister who reads here

You know how sometimes you wake up with a song in your head and you have NO IDEA the last time you even heard that song, much less sang it, yet...there it is.

That happens to me sometimes with Mormon hymns.

This morning I woke up with a hymn stuck in my head, and I couldn't even think of the beginning of it to be able to identify what hymn it was. So I googled the lyrics I could remember and it turned out to be "How Firm a Foundation."

Now, I've sang hymns in quite a few different Christian churches over the years, and here's what I know: the Mormon church changes theirs. They've taken hymns that other churches know, and set the words to different melodies. Or sometimes they take common melodies and put their own words to them. I don't know why they do this. Except that, you know, they just want to be different.

So the version of "How Firm a Foundation" that I sang growing up in the Mormon church is not the one that you know. Oh no. Ours repeated the last line so that the song actually ended like this:

You who unto Jesus
You who unto Jesus
You who unto Jesus for refuge hath fled.

Now, I was entirely too pious a child to think it was funny that the churchful of us were in fact yoo-hooing Jesus. (And when my older sister informed me that a "foundation" was another word for women's girdles, I didn't quite get the joke.) But now that I'm grown, I actually find humor in both these situations.

So imagine my disappointment when I googled these lyrics and ended up on this site, only to discover that THE CHURCH HAS CHANGED THE WORDS TO THIS HYMN. That's just sad. I like the part where he says:

I swear that every time this hymn is sung, there are some stubborn
YooHooers unto Jesus who refuse to go quietly into that good night.

I wonder if they're members who have been singing it the old way for so long that it's just habit, or if they're truly insisting on yoo-hooing Jesus.

Anyway, I haven't heard that they've changed the second verse of the song, so at least we can be assured that God still hates gay people:

Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, I will still give thee AIDS.

While we're on the subject of hair

So I was perusing the photos from last night's Chanel event in Central Park, seeing if any of the celebs or supermodels had my shoes on. I didn't see them. What I did see was an awful lot of Loubou's, which I don't fully understand. And lots of photos of Kate Bosworth with King Karl. Including this one from the side:

Girls, please do not do this to your hair. Buy some conditioner for pete's sake. Sadly, I think Kate must've done this to her hair on purpose, because if I'm not mistaken, she has very straight hair.

Also, this guy, who apparently thinks he's Freddie Mercury:

Goin Short

One of my readers* wrote to me after that last post. She's soon to give her pony tail to Locks of Love and wanted to know my suggestions for how she should cut her hair once she does.

My initial thought was, "You can't go wrong today with a cute layered bob." My next thought was, "Diane Lane."

Because 1) she's one of my very favorite over-40-and-looking-better-than-ever's [which really, deserves a whole post of its own] and 2) she got this cute cut when SHE donated her hair to Locks of Love and she let that evil Anne Curry** cut her pony tail live on Today.


Initially, Diane tucked it behind her ears a lot when it was very new and very short. It looks really cute and fresh and natural.


But here it is without the tuck. You get a good sense of the layers here.

Thanks to Posh's Duran Duran cut last year, bobs that are longer in front than in back are all the rage. Some of these look better than others. I, for one, am not a fan of the short wedge in back with long stringy locks in front. But a nice gradual slant from back to front, as illustrated by Friday Night Light's Tyra, actually adds some nice swing to a bob.

From my own personal experience, this is a cut that works better on hair that's not too thick. The obvious challenge with thick hair is, the shorter you go, the bigger it gets.

Diane also has the back shorter than the front, and it works really well, even when she doesn't sleek it down with a flat iron.


Lastly, if you prefer the standard bob, your hair idol would be the illustrious Reese.
Another one who can do no wrong. Can't wait to see her at 40.


* Actually, it was my sister. But she does read here. And I like the thought that a reader might write to me asking my opinion of her hair.

** Who ALSO cut her hair for LOL, and ALSO ended up with a cute cut, but Anne Curry gives me hives. So she gets no photos here.

Hairdo's (& Don't's)

Call me crazy, but I think Rose McGowan's hair looks absurdly cute here
















So perfectly casual-chic and unforced. Almost makes me want to buy Suave.



Unlike Little J's

Whose stylist went haywire with the layers













And she ended up with the Keith Partridge

How this blog brought not one - but TWO old friends back into someone's life

Back in May, I posted about growing up in the 70s, and in the post I mentioned two of my old childhood friends by their full names - Lisa Green and Rachel Tsuchitani. Lisa's name I used because it's a combination of two fairly common names, and Rachel's because I knew she had married and didn't go by that name any more anyway. So I didn't really think I was exposing either of their identities to the big nasty world-wide web.

Lisa I lost touch with years ago. I think the last time I talked to her she was in college in North Carolina in the late 80s. Or maybe it was the early 90s, and she'd graduated college and moved to North Carolina. It was so long ago that I can't remember exactly.

Rachel I've probably talked to twice in 20+ years. The last time must've been six or seven years ago when I was in DC for an event. I saw her and her brand new baby girl. (Who, BTW, was completely adorable.) We exchanged email addresses and sadly, I don't think we ever even used them. I'm horrible about keeping up with people obviously.

But then I got an email notification of a comment that was just this week added to that post from May.

Apparently, some Eastern European violinist who knew Rachel Tsuchitani from back in their old Santa Barbara days in the mid-90s was google-stalking her and came across that post on my blog. He left this comment, which is actually terribly cute in its broken-English sort of way:

Hi, sorry to bother here I'm a violinist myself from Hungary and Rachel Tsuchitani was one of my best friends in 1994 in Santa Barbara! Is there any chance that You could send maybe any of Her contacts through my website please? www.barnabaskelemen.com Thank You so much, I couldn't find anyone knowing Her on the net nor any contact!All the very best to You!

So I went to his web site and left him a message, that I had a centuries-old email address for Rachel and I would see if it still worked.

And guess what? IT DID.

And I am quite sure that my email to her, coming out of the blue like that after all these years, came as quite a shock:

Umm...first I should probably apologize for being so out of touch. I'm horrible that way. Now let me tell you why I finally pulled your email out of my long-lost contacts.

*Ahem* So I guess I posted on my blog about growing up in the 70s way back in May. I might have mentioned your full (maiden) name in the post. (Also, Lisa Green's.) Because dude! How am I gonna post about growing up in the 70s and NOT mention Rachel Tsuchitani & Lisa Green???

Well, I guess someone was google-stalking you and found the page, b/c this morning I get this emailed comment, from some Eastern European violinist (needless to say, there aren't just a ton of Eastern European violinists commenting on my blog.) (Especially considering I mostly talk about shoes.)

So IDK if you know this guy (I didn't even know you were in Santa Barbara. But then again we've already covered how poorly I've kept in touch with you over the years.)

I emailed the guy from his web site & told him I had a really old email for you & I'd see if it worked, but I didn't give it to him. In case he really is a stalker.

Let me know how it turns out.
And send photos of the family!
xoxo
k.

Turns out Rachel (who is an exceptionally talented violinist herself) spent a summer at a music festival in Santa Barbara, and she did in fact know this Barnabas. Also, her daughter is now SEVEN and she has a little sister who is four.

And that is the story of how the former Rachel Tsuchitani was in one day, put back in touch with two very old, long-lost friends because of this blog.

(McCain fans might want to skip this one)

So this morning I'm driving in to work on the expressway (what some of ya'll might call the "freeway" or the "highway," depending on where you live) and I encounter this spaced-out caravan of what appears to be a field trip from the suburban Evangelical high school.

I surmised this based on the fact that each of the giant SUVs was being driven by a woman/Mom and had six to eight teenagers in the car. The teenagers in the passengers' seats were all reading from a piece of paper - directions, I'm sure, as those uptight suburban-types don't travel often into the debauchery that is downtown. I knew what school it was because those SUVs that didn't have McCain-Palin stickers on the back had stickers with the crest of said Evangelical school.

Now, it was 75 degrees and beautiful this morning, and I was driving in with the top down. And yes, I have an Obama bumper sticker on my car. So every time I came upon one of these SUVs/substitute school buses, I would speed up to get around in front of it, thus sending those teenagers a very important message, and that is this: Republicans drive gas-guzzling, CO2-emitting SUVs. Democrats drive Mercedes convertibles. You choose.

And she was also Violet in The Incredibles

Question: Does one have to be a nerd to enjoy Sarah Vowell? One certainly must be a history buff. Is that one and the same?

I saw Sarah Vowell on Jon Stewart last week, promoting her latest book The Wordy Shipmates. I thought she was funny and insightful and considered getting the book. Then I thought maybe I should test the waters first, and go to the lending library and borrow some of her previous works to see if I like her writing.

So I grabbed the book from my trunk that's been overdue for...ever, and went to go settle my account with the library. I actually had some (several) other fines in the system, so I paid my $13.20 and cleared my name. What I love about the library is that I can come in there with a book that they fully expected to never see again, settle my dues and THEY'LL TOTALLY LET ME BORROW ANOTHER BOOK!

(Of course, when I went to check out, the only line that was open was the grandmotherly lady who had just checked me in. And she looked at me over her glasses and raised her eyebrows at me and said, "I'm watching you." and she shamed me into promising that I wouldn't keep these books for a year.)

Which, if you were going to steal books from the library, these two are totally theft-worthy. I started with Partly Cloudy Patriot, which I read in one day. It's a series of essays on a variety of American topics, such as presidential libraries, when flying the flag stopped meaning you support our country and started meaning you support our government, why Tom Cruise makes her nervous, buying a "Witch Xing" shot glass in Salem, the inaccuracies of a Rosa Parks metaphor and protesting the 2000 Inauguration. ("I have a soft spot for Bob Dole because he symbolizes a simpler, more innocent time in America when you could lose the presidential election and, like, not actually become president.")

Lest you think her politics might interfere with you enjoying her book - yes, she is a liberal. But the political part of the book is a very minor character. In her take on the 2000 election, she explains how Al Gore's nerdiness worked against him in the traditional "Nerd vs. Jock" competition. During that election year, she joined a political email group, which she calls "the all-time nerdiest thing I've ever been involved in, and I say that as a person who has been involved with public radio and marching band."

She is a self-proclaimed "civics nerd" who calls Abraham Lincoln her favorite writer. She is so very well-read — and well-traveled — that she is rife with trivial history that any history buff/ civics nerd (such as myself) will find fascinating. In Assassination Vacation, Sarah visits the most obscure locations to detail (in an absurd and wacky way) the stories of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley's deaths. Like seriously, who even KNEW there was a National Museum of Health and Medicine on the campus of Walter Reed where you can see actual fragments of Lincoln's skull?

One of the things I love about public radio is that you can enjoy something so thoroughly while at the same time, if you're not careful, you might actually learn something. It's what I call "education via entertainment." I find myself wanting to share the wealth of knowledge I've accumulated this weekend from her books, only I know people would look at me like, "Quit being such a dork. You're freaking me out. Talk about shoes or something." Which makes me wish I lived in Chelsea so Sarah & I could hang out at the coffee shop and read plaques together.

The Why

Yesterday I got this message from a high school alumni of mine who found me on facebook and happens to be a conservative, Mississippi redneck:

OBAMA HAS SO MANY GHOSTS IN HIS CLOSET HE COULD START HIS OWN CEMETERY. DOESN'T HE SCARE YOU JUST A LITTLE? AND BEFORE 2 YEARS AGO, HAVE YOU HONESTLY EVER HEARD OF HIM? I WAS JUST WONDERING WHAT THE LEFT SEES HIM AS, BESIDES A PUPPET AND PAWN. JUST A QUESTION FROM THE RIGHT, NOT TO START A FIGHT. JUST TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW A LIBERAL THINKS COMPARED TO A CONSERVATIVE'S POINT OF VIEW.
FRIENDS BEFORE POLITICS,
CHRIS

I responded back to Chris, but then I thought that maybe there might be one or two conservative readers here who were wondering the same thing. So I thought I would post my response for all to see:

Hell no Obama doesn't scare me. Why should he scare me? He thinks the way I
do - i.e. that receiving healthcare when you need it is a basic human right and
not something that should be reserved for those you can pay the extortion fees,
and that we had absolutely no business going into Iraq in the first place.

Frankly, I'm EXCITED by the thought that we might have a president from
my generation who thinks the way I do, rather than more old white men who want
to do it old-school. For instance, the energy policy. Most people of my
generation agree that something has to change about our oil-dependency - and
fast. For national security interests as well as for the fact that we're soon
going to be drowning in melted polar ice caps if we don't. "Drill baby Drill"
doesn't solve any of the issues at hand.

Not to mention the fact that Obama won't appoint Supreme Court judges that
will take away my rights as a woman.

What DOES scare me is that the United States has been hijacked by
neo-Conservative extremists and as a result has claimed the right to seize any
citizen of any country whom it deems offensive to it.

It scares me how America has licensed torture. And how we're more hated
around the world today than we were on 9/11.

The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld regime scares the hell out of me. A president who
believes he's above the law scares my most basic of democratic principles.

Today's economy scares me. Words like "recession" and "bail-out" scare me.

Let's face it - the conservatives had their chance for EIGHT YEARS and
all they did was fuck everything up.

Why Education is my #1 [Long-term] Issue of the Campaign

When Big Daddy & I got married, we were in our mid-20s. Neither of us had graduated from college, and we were unexpectedly expecting a baby. I had lived on my own, working and paying taxes since I was 18 and I am not ashamed to say that we took advantage of whatever social programs were available to us, including WIC and food stamps. We rented an 800-square-foot house that was smaller than most apartments but would at least have a yard for our new son. We paid our tuition with federal grants and took out student loans to make up the difference in both school and cost-of-living expenses.

I went back to school when Elijah was a year old, and I worked out a childcare deal with a friend of mine. Her child was 2, and she was also in school. I kept her son while she took MWF classes, and she kept Elijah for me on TT while I was in school. And we didn't pay each other. By the time Elijah was about 2 1/2, I was in my upper level courses and didn't have much options on my schedule. And he was ready for more social engagement, so I put him into day care part time while I was in school. Student loans helped with the cost.

We both finally got our degrees. I was 30 when I graduated. And we got jobs. And we moved up in the world. We bought a new car. Then a house. Later, a bigger house. And our income has steadily risen over the years and we are contributing, tax-paying members of society.

This is how social programs are meant to be used - as a temporary measure to support people in time of need. It's part of the reason I'm a democrat: I think it's important that we have these programs in place for people who need them. Where would we have been without them?

Because we earned everything we have by working hard in order to get ahead, I don't have a lot of patience for people who want to live forever on a handout. Or who want to steal what I have worked to acquire. Or who make excuses for not making a success of their lives (however you wish to define that).

I understand that there are circumstances that set people back - and again, this is why we need social programs to support people. I'm not talking about that though. I'm talking about people who don't want to take responsibility for improving their own lot in life.

Because WE STARTED OUT WITH NOTHING. And we could still have nothing if we hadn't been able to go to college. That's what made all the difference for us. And YES, we are still paying off those loans and probably will be for years, but that's okay because we can afford it now and we couldn't afford it then. The loans are there. Go to tech school or vocational school or a trade school. Get some form of higher education that will make you employable. Go to college. (DON'T major in psychology.) Anyone should be able to do what we did.

Unless you can't read. Or score high enough on a college placement test to get into school.

If the public school system failed you, and you're not educated enough to get a higher education, then you're screwed.

So the way I see it, if our education system fails (which it's well on its way to doing, seeing as we rank something like second-to-last in developed countries), then the domino effect begins. Our economy suffers. Our society suffers.

So yeah. Fix the economy. Deal with the mortgage crisis and Wall Street. Get us out of Iraq and improve our international standing. There are a lot of immediate issues for our next president to deal with. But long term? If we don't fix the education system in this country, we all might as well just climb in this handbasket and hold on.

Some pics from San Fran

This is the Golden Gate Bridge:Which, it turns out, is actually kind of the color of rust, and not gold at all.

This is me, demonstrating the enormous size of the bridge cables:

This is the hill I had to walk down to get from my hotel to our office in the financial district: Which should explain why I possibly qualify for disability now and may never wear heels again.

These are the signs on the streets that encourage you not to let your car go exploring San Francisco on its own:

This is Lombard Street, the curviest street in the world, or something:

IDK. It's a tourist thing. You have to go there. It's required.

This is the view from Lombard Street if you turn around and face the other direction:

Which you got to admit is pretty freaking cool. The Bay is on the left. That big tower has some story about firemen that I can't remember now.

This is the view from the restaurant where we had dinner called The Epic:

(Heh. I titled this photo "Epic View") This is a different bridge - the double-decker one that collapsed during that 80s earthquake. The restaurant was way hip and cool. We only got in because one of the guys knows Joe Montana or something. Because I'm pretty sure none of the three of us qualified as hip or cool enough on our own.

This is Alcatraz:

Which is no longer used as a prison but as a tourist attraction. They assured me that it's a great tour. I assured them that being buried alive in a prison cell during an earthquake is NOT the way I want to go out. Thanks anyway.

These are what I called the "jay-walking signs":

At certain intersections, the traffic lights go red in all directions, and the walk signs come on in all directions, AND YOU CAN WALK CORNER-TO-CORNER RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTIONS. It's the darnedest thing I've ever seen.