hard work

moving is

ok i'm lame.
because i started that post below and didn't follow through. i'm cooking it though. stay tuned.

my apartment looks like it was raided by wookie thieves, jack is in constant turmoil, and i have the biggest bag of pre-move paper recycling ever to haul downstairs. three days and this will be over - all but for the cleanup. and the new paintjob looks nice. if you're needing a local painter with good prices i have one.

xoxo

corporate peace; aka doin' it for others what we can't do for ourselves

i promised myself a rant but i'm edging on tired right now and might not be able to thoughtfully complete this until a later date.

today i realized that a friend of mine is going to africa for the next 2 years to work, live, and help. it's not entirely clear what her role there will be, but she'll be in an impoverished village where electricity and running water will be scarce, and she's stocked up on hot showers in the days before leaving. more than likely she'll somehow devote most of her time to aids work - educating, care giving, spreading information, etc. i'm not entirely sure how the programs work, but i know from the peace corp website that in this part of africa, that's what they do there. other parts of the world are different.

knowing that over 70% of cases of aids in the world are in sub-saharan africa, it would seem they need as much help as they can get because clearly, something is not going right. the little that i know about the situation in the area is this: the us is providing minimal funding to help, and many cases are mis-diagnosed or undiagnosed due to lack of medical equipment.

all of this us sending peace workers to africa got me thinking about the other countries we're helping out. and after checking out a map, it would seem the countries we're helping are aplenty. thailand, the philipines, indonesia, china, the ukraine, the entire former soviet union, jordan, morocco, much of sub-saharan africa including south africa, sri lanka, much of south america, and the list goes on.

i know we have this big brother motif here in the states, and i know we have the audacity to think we're still the top of the planetary food chain in every aspect imaginable. but when i go to look at the facts, we find the us down at the bottom in so many areas, especially education. and when you really start digging for information you'll find that basically our education system is so flawed, that our kids are turning out dumb. embarrassing then, that we're sending them to help in countries that are actually showing to be smarter than we are.

i'll pull some facts together for us in my next post. i've got to get to sleep right now. my big american brain hurts from thinking too hard.

my kid sister voted for romney

it's true.

and the only solace i take in knowing that is knowing that he dropped out today.

frequently i find myself angered and wondering how this little drooling girl could have turned into a liberal-hating, ultra right-wing, neo-con.

we were raised by the same parents, in the same house, in the same era. we're only 3 years apart, mom and dad both working for the public schools, always preaching the importance of family, the environment, and diversity. also frugality, the high cost of living, the unfairness of taxes, and the importance of being middle class. i mean hell, mom made that dress she's wearing, pattern of white splotchy hand prints, and a pillow to match. she just got rid of the pillow before they sold their house and moved.

her monotoned rhetoric disappoints me. her lack of ability to speak her convictions shames me. her misunderstanding of who her family was and is, her inability to look at where she came from, her notions that her beliefs - no matter the persuasion, do not need affirmation, flusters me.

where did my sister go, and who grew this beast in her place? how is it possible that two children of the same tree could grow in such opposite directions?

i listen to her choices and know my entire life disappoints her.

only her views, or lack of them, disappoint me.

i miss my drooling baby sister, the innocent, the pure one, the one who never would have cared if illegal immigrants jumped over a fence to threaten american jobs, or teenagers got abortions to threaten american morality.

i don't know when the maladies of others got in the way for her.

i don't know why she cares so little, so much.

GET UP AND VOTE!

blah blah blah - civic responsibility
blah blah blah - voice counts

but srsly, you can't complain if you don't vote.

interestingly enough, my boy kucinich is still on the ballot.

it's a wonderful thing to have the right to vote and the more i hear about my candidate, the more i know i made the right choice.

it's glaringly obvious we need change and whether it can be brought from the government or from somewhere else isn't for me to say.

i'd like to think i'm part of something slightly bigger on a day like today.

now log off and get to your local polling place.

super 2sday

i think i'll take tomorrow off too.

a sick girl needs to take her time

deliberating the candidates

and stuff.

farm seeking

i've decided
though not completely committed
to volunteering on a farm this summer.

i can see myself picking or planting or weeding
harvesting or digging or raking
doing whatever that farm needs me to do.

i want to see little things grow.
if you know of a farm, tell me about it.

micromanaged

my boss is a heartless

evil minded

cold

overweight

unhappy

person.

who believes it is unconventional that she is my boss anyway.

jeez.