BiddiesInMyBrain

Today's Choices

Choices, choices, choices...

Somehow our choices have been dredged down to this.

I think the picture itself is a total giggle - I've been laughing all night since P sent it to me - but what does it really mean when it comes to the political process and the choices we have?

It's a three-ring circus out there and nobody's leading anybody except in circles. Well, Hillary and Obama seem to have McCain by the ears, but that's not saying much for the next move in the skit...

We're being led by the nose though a political performance - a gag routine - by three otherwise intelligent, articulate, and mostly sane people. I disagree with some aspect of each of their policies and positions, but I have come to respect (as much as one can respect a politician) one of them more than the others. Still, I feel as though Busby Berkeley (or Moe Howard - take your pick) is still somehow running the whole show from behind the scenes.

Every day we are bombarded by some new stupidity. My own husband was born in a foreign country but has been a citizen of the US since the moment of his birth. There should be no question as to his right to run for the office of the President - same with McCain, much as I despise him. This is a straw man argument, put out there to rile folks... and to distract us from the real problems out there - poverty, racism, environmental degredation, economic disaster.

Instead of this, I would like to see one of these characters help out the Joads (the main characters in The Grapes of Wrath) and do something substantive to solve the Steinbeck-esque problems facing us today. We don't need another Herbert Hoover being served 6-course meals by butlers and keeping up appearances while the nation struggles to get by.

Sorry to end on a gloomy note when the doctored photo is so hilarious, but it really bothers me that politics *is* a three ring circus - at the expense of a populace which is laughing all the way to the bread line. Is this *really* what we want in a presidential race?

Sucky Weekend With Great Highlights

Overwhelmingly, this has not been a good tummy weekend - was just miserable most of the day yesterday, and part of the day today... wish my upcoming endoscopy/colonoscopy were this week instead of the first week in March. Yeah. I've been feeling THAT ill. Thank goodness for Crash - he has babied me all weekend and been terribly solicitous. Such a kind man. :::::smiling hugs::::: Crash rocks.

BUT, we started watching Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet on DVD last night and it was tremendous - what we saw of it, anyway (we only got through Act I, Scene iv). Can't wait to finish it - probably next weekend at this point. Maybe Tuesday night. We'll see. It's a four hour movie, so it may need to be finished over multiple nights.

I went to church this morning for the first time since ... good grief... Christmas Eve services! Crash said he was worried about me - my color was off and I really didn't feel great - but I enjoyed myself immensely even so. And Rev. Bill gave the most incredible sermon to a packed house. The sermon was on unbelief and disbelief - right up my alley - and it garnered him a round of enthusaistic applause at the end. I'll spend some time with it in a couple days when I get a chance... and when I can download it from him. It really and truly was terrific. A perfect way to go back to attending church!

Went out to lunch with ten other adults and the most adorable baby today - all from church. Such a joyous group!

Am reading the *best* book on gay rights - it's a Greenhaven Press 'American Social Movements' series book called The Gay Rights Movement that was in a YA section of a library somewhere - I got it from Amazon Marketplace for super cheap. Anyway, it is full of primary sources and analysis and I *love* it so far. Have to finish it tonight and write a short paper reviewing it. It's very hard to find at the moment - I think my class bought up all the remaindered copies and available used copies out there - but my... if you get a chance, it really is quite good. Last week we read Out of the Past by Neil Miller, and I loved that, too. This topic really is out of my field of study, but I am enjoying the heck out of these books - I'll take them while I can get them!

Don't know much else. Still pondering the other item. We're having a conversation now, and it's... interesting. I am tentatively hopeful, though there is a long way to go before I can say anything. At least we're talking about this whereas before this we never took this option seriously. It's a fascinating discussion.

Up Again, Down Again... And Up Again

::chuckle:: It's been one of those days. Got up as Crash was leaving for school this morning... I was waaaaay tired, but I am so glad he got me up; I taught this morning and needed some extra "awake" time before I went to campus.

But once I got there, teaching was *great*... I can't believe how much I miss it! Teaching ROCKS. And I got to talk about one of my favorite time periods and give one of my favorite lectures - talked very basically about the switch from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era and all that ... and moved into the advent of electricity with the spectacle of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition... and the Sears Catalog of 1897. It was a lot to pack into the hour, but it was a fun hour and it kept them on their toes. Me too. It was *FUN*. I simply *must* teach again next semester if I can at all swing it.

Had a brief spa midafternoon, then went to a late lunch with IRL BFF. We traded war stories and had a wonderful lunch for two... then I came home and - I swore I wasn't going to make my blog into a random place to complain - but the tummy troubles from last year have continued unabated. Called the Blue Cross nurse line and talked with them about what on earth to do... and have decided on my own to fire my current gastroenterologist. It's been a long time coming and this week has been the last straw. But, I think I am on the road to a better place with this. We'll see.

I took a long nap, and have gotten up to a cheerful evening. Tonight's plan is a pleasurable mix of school reading and Foyle's War. I have a *lot* of reading to get done, but I have a very positive outlook.

And besides. I taught today. ::grin::

Coueism

"Every day and in every way I am getting better and better!" or so says Herbert Lom in the opening of Pink Panther Strikes Again, a la Emile Coue. It just cracks me up, but so many people don't get it when I use the line. I guess I'm just odd that way.

Did you know that Herbert Lom, born 1917, is still living? I just loved him in so many movies from my childhood... and I am glad he is enjoying a ripe old age. ::smile:: Cheers!