Things That Make Me Happy

Today has been one of those days. 

I cried at work. And since I work at home when I'm not working in other states, I get to deal with things like answering the door to let the cable guy in looking a (hot?) mess. Even mustering up what was hopefully a cheerful, "Hi! Thanks for coming to fix our cable, here's where we are having issues kthxbye!" didn't really hide the swollen red eyes and snotty nose. 

I do pride myself on being an optimist, seeing the glass as half full. So in the spirit of looking on the bright side of life, here's my list of things that made me really happy today:

1. Top Chef started! OMGOMGOMG - two chefs from Boulder are competing this season! I have to say that Boulder has become quite a culinary hot bed in the 6 years since I re-moved here. Frasca and The Kitchen get written up quite often. And now, chefs from Centro and Jax are in one of the best shows ever! I was already quite excited for the new season, and now I'm simply giddy to cheer on the home-town heroes!
2. Will! Due to the fact that Will works from home too, he could hear the conversation that made me cry through my ear piece. Not many people are lucky enough to have their husband give them a well needed hug during tough work conversations. Also, we had a good laugh coming up with a story about why a police car was heading into our neighborhood as we headed out for dinner tonight. We thought either our cat was busted for dealing catnip, or our elderly neighbors were busted for dealing pot. When we got back home, there wasn't evidence to confirm either scenario, though the cat was still home. So clearly he hadn't been hauled off to the clink. Also, we don't really think our elderly neighbors deal drugs. But if you knew them, you'd think it was a pretty funny idea too!
3. Noodles & Co! Nothing like a big plate of delicious carbs to make everything better. Okay, maybe not the healthiest response to stress, but at least I ate something other than mac and cheese.
4. My college roommate, Carrie's, new nephew! Haven't met Parker yet, but he sounds beautiful even though he was 11 days late. New babies put life into perspective and hearing about this new guy makes me happy.

So I'm going to wrap up my day, snuggle with my cat, and get a good night of sleep. Tomorrow doesn't have any mistakes in it yet, so wish me luck that I can keep it that way!

Sey-rah & SINdy Campaign in Boulder

Boulder is a little, um, liberal, for those who haven't noticed. In fact, the Colorado Republican party ran ad campaigns against a democratic Senate candidate with attacks calling the opponent a "Boulder Liberal," like that was on par with Osama bin Laden and clubbing baby seals.  The "Boulder Liberal" won, by the way.

I had a group of friends that decided the Wednesday before Halloween that we should really go out this year on Pearl St. We don't have kids (yet), and a good college friend was in town - all reasons to drink like fishes.  The hard part, of course, was coming up with costumes.

In the end, we had a whole group of Republicans heading out to Pearl St. I was Cindy McCain, complete with pain pills and pearls. If only I had a black turtleneck instead of a white one. Will was my secret service agent. We had a Maverick with us - dressed as Top Gun Maverick, but in spirit a true mavericky maverick (wink, wink). We had Todd Palin. We also had a truly outrageous Jem and a gaucho. I don't know their political affiliations, but they didn't mind being seen with us.

The true star of the show was my friend, Colleen, who was a spot-on Sarah Palin. She had the hair, she had the glasses, she had the Nordstrom $1,750 price tag sticking down the back of her suit jacket. People were losing their minds when they saw her walking down Pearl St., wanting to take photos with her and talk to her. If Colleen wasn't there with her husband (dressed as Todd Palin, of course), there was a nerd-costumed guy at the bar that would have gladly gotten her number and followed up.

The funny thing is, Colleen has never been a big Halloween costume person. It was never her thing to dress up as someone else. I can think of a few Halloweens in college and after trying to figure out a costume for Colleen on Halloween day. So for her to literally have the best costume by far was a surprise and so fun. And maybe next year she'll kick it up another notch! Start working on her costume in August. Or maybe, two days before is the secret to Colleen's success.

Hope, Yet H8te

I've just let out a big exhale for a breath I didn't know I've been holding for the past 8 years. As I watched Obama's acceptance speech last night with tears in my eyes I thought, "I finally matter again."

Not that the past 8 years have been completely miserable. I met and married the love of my life. I watched friends and relatives have babies, believing that the future held more than the present. I made strides in my career. I made new friends and kept the old. I learned something new each and every day for the last 2,920 days.

But the hardest days have also happened in the last 8 years. I functioned day-to-day through a debilitating painful disease. I've watched as my investment in my future - taking the leftover money from college to buy a house - has dwindled to "dear God please let me just break even" after living here 7 years. I watched my Dad, who was a rock, suffer through depression on a level I'd never seen before, and hope to never see again. I watched my Mom write a letter to the president explaining how painful my dad's illness was to our family, asking him to help pass legislation to take better care of vets. Only to get a form letter back that didn't address any of her concerns. I watched a war start that hasn't ended. I watched problems emerge, only to have the government say that shopping was the solution. I watched the rich grow richer, even as I came to the realization that I will not be the millionaire I thought I would when I was little. I've pondered whether or not I'll be able to give my (future) child(ren) the life my parents gave me, and pretty much have come to the conclusion that it will be radically different. I've lost my pride in being an American because we had truly become the "ugly" part of our reputation.

And yet last night, I felt proud again to be an American. I felt like the small guy mattered. I felt like my $50 donation to the campaign was as appreciated as any big-wig corporate money-tree. I felt like we could be world leaders again - in science, the arts, in human rights, in being creative and solving problems. I felt like Obama is asking us all to be part of making this country right again - and hell yeah, I'll sacrifice to make this world a better place.  

I was actually registered as a Republican for a long time. I grew up wanting to marry Alex P Keaton and be a yuppy lawyer. I believed, and still do, very strongly in states rights and fiscal responsibility. But I also believe that the measure of a good community, state and nation is how we treat the least among us. That we protect and take care of those that can't take care of themselves. That we educate children. That we care for the sick. That plants and animals count in our equations of wealth. That we don't cause our own extinction. And so, I'm now registered as a Democrat. Don't let me down, okay Democrats?

And yet, in the midst of all this hope, eyes welling with tears among my renewed pride, I'm devastated by the passing of Proposition 8 in California. This is one of the final frontiers of discrimination in this country and I can't be okay with 51% of folks saying that gay marriage is illegal.

I love too many people in this world who are gay. Back when I was single, I analyzed a lot of the relationships around me. And it was a relationship between two men that made me think, "That's the kind of relationship I want." They both have AIDS, and wake up every day committed to caring for each other. And they both believe that if they can love and support each other, then they make the world a better place by drawing on that foundation to care and love for those around them. That's the kind of commitment that the government should recognize.

The folks that wrote and passed this law are acting like us straighties have the marriage thing nailed down. That we treat marriage as sacred and that we never screw it up. But 50% of marriages are projected to end in divorce - so clearly this isn't something treated with reverence by those who currently can get married. How come it is okay for straight pop stars to get married and divorced within 55 hours, but not okay for couples that have been committed to each other for decades to get married? 

So yes, we've come so far... and believe you me, we've got a long way to go. 

How Do I Love You, Neti Pot

Let me count the ways:

1. You are fun to say - it feels like an exotic treatment to say, I'm going to go Neti now.  In reality though, you are really just a fancy, enhanced nose cleaner. Like a giant, wet kleenex.
2. When my mom and brother gave you to me, Mike had to tell me how to use you. His explanation went a lot like this: "You put the nozzle that looks like a Smurf penis against one nostril and pour water in your nose. It comes out the other nostril - and you won't believe the nastiness that comes out with it!" Needless to say, it took awhile for me to become so desperate for relief that I'd put a Smurf penis anywhere near my nose.
3. Amy Sedaris loves you, and anything good enough for Amy Sedaris is good enough for me. Conan though - he's still not convinced. You have some work to do there.

So, what started out as an annoying tickle in my throat last Sunday is now a full blown sinus infection, complete with antibiotics courtesy of my doctor.  I'm heading out on a plane tomorrow and am praying to the baby Jesus that my sinuses don't hurt the way they did on Thursday flying back from last week's work trip. 

Also, apologies to my fellow passengers on the Thursday flight. I completely realized that I was "that person" infecting you with my germy air and I did not take it at all personally that you all acted like you needed a sterile bubble separating us. But seriously, the dude sitting one row up from me who was hacking a lung into his hanky... you needed to be more worried about his germs than mine.

Drill, Baby Drill!

Remember back in school when you had mandatory fire drills?

I've been out of public education now for a few years (13, ahem) and haven't been through a fire drill in awhile. It hadn't really occurred to me that I was missing anything though. I mean, Manual was kinda ghetto - we had bomb threat drills in addition to your standard fire drills. And for about a 2 month period, we had fire drills every Friday because it was good times for folks to pull out a 2-foot long sheet of paper towels and then light it on fire. Yeah, we knew how to have a good time back in the '90s. Go Bolts!

So imagine my surprise today while type type typing away on my computer at my hotel, there was a fire alarm. Apparently these days, it isn't just a bell that sounds to alert your teaches to get you out of the building without losing track of students who decide to ditch class for the rest of the day. No, the Sheraton West Des Moines has a fancy system, complete with a speaker to announce the type of drill you are having.

Type type type... Loud, blaring alarm noises... Announcement to please leave the building calmly due a reported "incident" - do not take the elevators, please.

I'm always one to follow directions, so I left my hotel room with all necessary materials for my next meeting. I walked past some dude blatantly ignoring direction and waiting for the elevator to come get him. I found the fire exit stairs and got down 8 levels pretty quickly, all the while comforting the poor lady who was cleaning rooms on my floor.

Turns out, it was completely a false alarm. But it also turns out, I learned a lot in high school that can be applied to real life. It was a win-win situation.

Dear Peeps on the Plane

Dear People on the Plane with Me,
Since I travel just about every week for work, I've picked up a few things that make life easier on the plane. Please feel free to use the simple and helpful tips.

1. Board the plane when your designated boarding group is called. You don't get on the plane faster by huddling around the line to board. You just end up causing a traffic jam that holds up the whole process.
2. If you need to get into a middle or window seat and I'm in the aisle seat, let me get out of my seat to let you in. I know my legs are short, but it isn't actually more convenient for me to have you straddle over me to get to your seat. Inevitably, some part of your nether regions ends up in my face and that's just a little too personal considering I don't know your name.
3. If you get separated from your significant other in the seating assignments, don't get crazy upset because a) it is only a 2-hour flight and that's not really enough time for your spouse to fall in love with some dude from South America and decide to leave you for good; and b) in 98.9% of cases, someone will change spots so you can sit together. Yelling just adds unpleasantness to the world.
4. Just because you had a bitchin' weekend getting drunk in Vegas, the whole plane doesn't necessarily want to hear all about it. Your friend sitting two rows up isn't going to forget about how wasted you were, or how cute and sensitive that guy was that held your hair while you puked. In fact, your friend is probably really pissed to have to relive what was probably a crappy night for her taking care of your drunk ass.

Also, DIA, I'm putting you on notice. Your whole "Expert Traveler" and "Family / Special Assistance" security designation doesn't really work when the wheelchair line filters into the "Expert Traveler" security lines and not the "Special Assistance" line. When you are harassing an old lady who wants to bring yogurt on the plane in her pocket, you are really a buzzkill for the expert travelers. Oh, and we're the ones who are cutting it close to make our flights - most folks in the other line are about 6 hours early for their flight.

Thank you for considering these tips. Now please sit back, relax and enjoy your flight.

On the Bright Side

Will actually said that it might be worth if for McCain to win, if only so Tina Fey will keep coming back to Saturday Night Live to play Sarah Palin. That's some serious commitment to comedy!