Letter...

Dear Obama,

I love you.

Love,
Katie


Dear Hillary,

Please stop. You will not be in the white house (or allowed near it). And not conceding? Is just hurting your tiny, tiny chance of getting in on Obama's coattails.

Katie

PS to you all - election night party, my place, featuring a cake like this or maybe this, entrance fee = proof of voting (even if not for Obama)

Day 4...

Adjectives...

Morning: ravaged (wishing a different rav* word started my day)
Afternoon: ordinary
Evening: searching

Has someone ever said something to you that is mostly innocent at the time and you don't think anything of it...and then some time later it's suddenly "WAIT. That's not true/I don't want that to be true/is that true"? Yeah. It's been that day, where I am rehashing all those innocent bits.

As a side note, you should vote tomorrow if you have a primary in your state. I don't care who you vote for, although some of the reasons for voting for your candidate infuriate me. Examples: Hilary because she's a woman. Hilary, because of her experience (PAH, being the first lady IS NOT experience. No matter how you want to twist it). Or voting along party lines just to stick to your party.

Fingers crossed tomorrow for Obama.

Sames and opposites...

Things I know and love:

• my cat has a faux hawk, and faux hawks are almost always lovable
• Barack Obama suddenly, thankfully, seems like he might have a shot. Let's do this.

Things I know and hate:

• a migraine + weird tonsils? That's cruelty.
• datamart

Potato, potahto...

I have recently acquired a love of baked potatoes (recently as in...yesterday). I think I may eat a baked potato a few times a week now. Totally delicious. Why did I never bake myself a potato before this (and it's so easy too!)? Mmmm potatoes.

Let's see...what to say...a lot of my recent blog posts have been kind of downers, huh? I'm mostly cheerful lately, so it's a bit sad that I'm taking it out on the blog readers. It seems to be my tendency to want to get out my frustrations blog-style.

School is chugging along. I haven't done much homework-wise and plan to continue along that vein. I have done a fair bit of reading for my participation oriented class, but I may stop that now. I'm sure I'll pass my classes, I"m going to try to worry less.

I recently actually donated money to politics. Yuck, right? I don't know why but I just heart Obama. I have for a while. I think our country will be better off if he's the one who gets the Democratic nomination...so I put in a few bucks to pretend to do my part to make that happen.

Sort of random post you have there...

Dreadful...

I have never felt so hopeless (weirdly, my fingers just automatically typed hopeful - I guess I type hopeful a lot more than hopeless) than I do watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?".

Hydrogen cars? Cost: $1mil dollar PER CAR in 2006, uber-expensive fuel., no infrastructure for the fuel, car won't work well in the cold (um, yeah, that makes it impossible), cars aren't reliable and get really small mpg. So why the hell is the government throwing all its eggs in that basket? It seems to me that it's because that means there is still some industry that provides fuel - it would be hydrogen, but it's still fuel.

So why did all the car companies retract their electric cars? Some of you may think that an electric car is a pipe dream....but you may not realize that Honda, Toyota and GM all had completely electric cars out there in the 90's. They were all pulled off the market (literally ripped from the hands of their owners) and CRUSHED. Compacted. Destroyed. Some of them not even recycled. Why could those cars not stay on the road? I just don't get it - I don't get how a technology that was available in the 1990's hasn't been brought back and improved upon. Yes, we have hybrids...but that means we're still dependent on fuel.

300 miles on one charge , 0 -60 in something that sounded really small, these are not useless cars. I don't get it.

How is it that industry grips us to that extent? We can't even give the automobile industry more money (and the electric industry) because there are no cars to buy....

The power of our government and big industry is staggering. And terrifying.

I am...um...proud....to be an american...

Except most days when I'm not. Because right now the face we're showing to the rest of the world (since, whether you like it or not, GW is our face) is not a good one. Commutation? Sickening. But I am still hopeful that the government can take a new turn with a new prezzie (no matter how naive that may be)...so I haven't given up on you America...

Either way, the city smells like barbecue and that's fun. There are people walking around and picnicking everywhere. And somehow traffic is light. I spent the day with family members that I like and ate a ton of food that I like. And I got my owls framed. I have nothing to complain about.

Hope you had a good fourth!

Sometimes...

There's nothing to say that will make me feel any better about the direction this country is headed. But I just think you all should know that while it makes me feel queasy and awful (and wish that it hadn't happened), I think this Virginia Tech shooting being all over the news is insanity. Just insane. I think my Dad is thinking along the same lines as me, but what about all the people who died in Iraq today? Why isn't that story splashed all over with big pictures and editorials into Why, why, why??

Not to mention the Supreme Court ruling against "partial birth abortions." Which also makes me feel like puking. Puking. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, you should go to this blog entry. And while the blog is slanted a little liberal, I think this particular post also provides a lot of aggregated info about the topic....

Public service letter...

Dear Electricity consumer,

I am proof for you that the Compact Fluorescent Bulb (CFL) does more than just "save the environment." I know some of you out there may be skeptical that there is even a need to save the environment (Dad). Last month I changed 12 of my 16 total light bulbs in the apartment to CFLs...yes, the bulbs are expensive. But I do believe I need to do my part to save the environment (because I watched An Inconvenient Truth and wanted to do what I could), so I bought them. Some facts for you (to hopefully convince you for the right reasons):

• Changing one bulb can prevent over 450 pounds of bad, bad emission from a powerplant.
• If everyone in the US changed just one bulb (no need to go for the full change, just one) we would:
  
• save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year
  
• prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

If that doesn't convince you to change just 1 bulb (look at your lamp next to you...just that one bulb), then maybe my energy bill will. Even with the huge rate increase, I am paying less this March than I have in the past two March's. Yes, it's true. I'm only technically saving $4 compared to last year - but that's entirely because of the rate increase. In February I paid almost two times what I had last year (due to the electricity rate increase). So if I do some fancy math, I actually saved an estimated $20....(double last March's bill subtract this year's March bill)...

So change your bulbs! A four-pack of CFL's will only set you back $15. $15 to save on every electricity bill and to save the environment? Totally worth it.

Heart,
Katie

Yippee!

Obama racing up the polls....

Preference for Democratic Presidential Nominee:

Hillary Clinton 34%
Barack Obama 31%
John Edwards 15%

Ha ha!

Ok fine...more like "Hillary Clinton dropping like a rock". Barack only gained 3%. Hillary lost 6%....

Check in later for some Harry Potter meme procrastination action...

Letter of the week...

Dear Barack,

I heart you. I heart your email. I know, I know, it wasn't only to me. But it said Dear Katie at the top (personal touches. Genius).

Yes, I was sucker enough to sign up for your myspace style website. And in the end I am glad I did, because it was fun to get an informative Iraq email from you.

Love,
Katie

PS - I just want to show off to you, you know, make you proud of me...so you'll be happy to know that I am now 75% compact fluorescent (I couldn't change the other 25% because of complicated glass lighting fixtures). I'm saving the environment. Are you proud of me Barack?

Obamania...

I can't help it - I want Obama to be it. I want him to get the democratic nomination. I want him to be the democrat I get to vote for. I know there's a lot of sort of derisive talk out there that he's running on his "celebrity" and such....but...who cares? He's charming - he's got me hooked. He seems to be genuine - and if he isn't, he's doing a damn good job of putting that front on. I think he's got that charisma that JFK or Bill Clinton had (who, by the way, I would have been all over if I'd been alive/of age). I guess I'm a fickle politics follower - I fall for the charismatic.

And it doesn't hurt that so far, I agree with almost all of Obama's politics.

I don't mind Hil, but I think I'm slowly going to get tired of her. I know she's full-steam ahead and right now, the most likely nominee (but I'm hoping that having an early lead is actually going to be a hindrance. Think: Bears, Superbowl).

Either way, I'll be watching closely. I may talk politics a little more on this blog...(although I probably still won't be any kind of expert...or even all that well-informed. All. Personal. Opinion. So, if your opinion differs, let's try to keep the comments nice and not nasty - I don't want to go back to the time when I was getting such mean comments that I thought about closing this blog down).

The way this blog leans...

Left.

And content-wise: personal.

I think I have to just embrace the fact that this is a personal blog and will never be anything else. I just really admire people who talk politics, feminism or even craft blogs. It feels like those blogs have such a bigger point (even the craft blogs - to help people craft!). Maybe in the future I'll start shoot-off blogs or just new blogs all together. But for now, this is just about me. And I guess I just need to accept that most of these posts will be self-centered. And so, lets truly embrace that now:

My boobs look awesome. The other day I mentioned the appointment with a "bra fit specialist". And my bra size was WAY off (way). Now I'm happy in my new bra. I can't believe how many attractive, fun bras they have for people with big boobs at the bra fit place. When I looked at the website before we went there I was like....oh no...they have like 5 bra styles. They're going to tell me my boobs are huge (which they did) and then I'm not going to be able to find any bras.

Not so.

I do think I have to return one of the bras I got (let's be honest....exchange. I feel serious yearning to go back to the store and go on a crazy bra buying spree. Totally addicting). Anyway, the bra makes my boobs look awesome, but after wearing it for a while, the seam was right across a sensitive area, and I was seriously overly sensitive. Too bad though...it's a cute bra.

I was going to throw a little contest - see who could guess my real bra size. But I thought better of that idea - that could be seriously damaging to the self-esteem - what if you think I'm a 38M or something? So yeah...no true bra sizes going up here. If you know me personally and can't stand the curiosity, email me and I'll tell you just how big these puppies are!