be yourself

On Thursday night, I had the pleasure of viewing an e-town radio show taping, which featured my dear friend Gregory Alan Isakov. E-town is a nationally syndicated radio program, broadcasting to over 1 million listeners. Needless to say, it was a pretty big deal. As always, Gregory sounded amazing. If you haven't checked him out yet, please do so immediately.

Also featured were Lila Downs, who has one of the most incredible voices I have heard in a very long time. She won a grammy this year for her song in "Frieda." I was most impressed by her rendition of Fleetwood Mac's song "Black Magic Woman." So awesome.

As an added bonus, Jim Hightower, a political writer/speaker was also interviewed. Not only was Mr. Hightower extremely intelligent concerning the presidential race, but he was also hysterical. The crowd was howling. Somehow, he managed to work in this fantastic Oscar Wilde quote: "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." Loved it.

why a lot of people don't go to church

Click here.

(And I'd like to thank Natalie for sharing this amazing video with me.)

registering to vote

Today my friend Rusty and I spent about an hour knocking on doors in my neighborhood, passing out voter registration packets.

The last day to register to vote in the upcoming election is October 6th. If you've moved or changed your name recently, I encourage you to check and make sure you're registered correctly. If not, you'll need to re-register. You should be able to do this online.

If you live in Colorado, you can double-check it here. Also, you can check up on your friends, then harass them if they're not registered. :)

And for my fellow Buckeyes, check here!

Rock the vote, my friends!

greek orthodox festival

Here's a photo of me, my friend Stephanie, and two of the dancers/singers from the Greek Orthodox Festival that we attended last weekend. Both were hilarious to watch.

My favorite moment was when an elderly lady named Aphrodite warned me that I may get drunk from eating the brandy cake. (I didn't.)

why i'm voting for obama

I just want to clear up exactly why it is that I'm voting for Obama . . .

While there are a lot of reasons, such as his plans for Iraq, education, renewable energy, etc., the main reason I'm voting for him and not McCain is that I truly believe that out of the two of them, he is more likely to be an instigator of change in both our government and our fellow citizens. Also, I believe he could drastically improve our international image, as he does represent a different America than George Bush has represented to the world. (My German friend, Adam, who spent the summer in Berlin, told me that everyone in Germany loves Obama and is hoping he will win.)

It's not that I think McCain is a bad person. I respect him and what he's done for our country; however, I cannot bring myself to vote for someone who has sided with George Bush 90% of the time . . . not to mention that I am not nearly as conservative in my views as Sarah Palin, who believes in doing things like banning books from public libraries. Not cool, Sarah. Our country believes in something called "freedom of speech."

I realize that Obama doesn't have a perfect record -- but neither does John McCain. Obama has been involved in earmarking, but a lot of that money was for non-profits. Sure, maybe he shouldn't have been participating in those kinds of activities, but I would rather see our federal money spent on giving to the less fortunate than building a bridge to nowhere.

Today my dear friend Kell wrote a blog that I feel really reflected my views on this race. Here it is . . .

At least in the United States, I don’t believe who the leader is, is as important as their ability to inspire and motivate the people. Any politician (or leader), is just another person who will get stuck in the quagmire that is government, unless they can get the people involved on a large scale. The United States was founded on, "Of the people, by the people, and for the people" and THAT is its real genius.

Unfortunately, for too long we have been content with letting the government do its thing while the people do theirs…and we wonder why we are in such a mess with minimal accountability. If/when the people, en masse, become active and engaged, THEN things will happen… because as long as we look to our leaders to do the work for us, we are missing the point.

Obama's ability to get large masses of people off their asses, riled up, excited, and engaged in local and national communities is the one thing that gives me hope. If he wins and can sustain that motivation and excitement in the American people, at least then we will be working together to create our future. And, as far as I am concerned, a better future will only happen if we all work together to create it, not if we wait for the government to do so.

Of course, McCain/Palin’s current ability to get people riled up and involved to win the election worries me, because I haven’t yet seen where that involvement extends beyond November 4th. If it is simply a motivation to win, no more…then after the elections I fear we will settle back into apathy and continue to fall apart as a country and as Americans, together.

a not-so-fun flex day

As I've mentioned before, once every two weeks, I get a day off. Well, today is the day. It's cold, rainy, and I had to go to the doctor. If you've talked to me at all over the past two weeks, you've heard me whine about my back. This morning I had an appointment with a chiropractor, and she was able to tell me almost immediately what the cause of my pain has been: a rib out of place.

Believe it or not, when I was in high school, I popped one of my lower right ribs out of place in an attempt to escape a boy from tickling me. This time, I popped one of my upper back ribs out of place in my sleep. Surprisingly, this can happen from a slightly strange movement, coughing, or sneezing. Weird, I know. (If you're really interested in this, you can read more about it here. But I'm doubting you are, and that's okay.)

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be seeing the chiropractor, attempting to get the pesky little rib back in place. In the mean time, you may continue to hear me whine about being so sore from all of the adjustments. Sorry. :)

more on sarah and her family

Here's an interesting article about Sarah Palin and her family:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26583001/

Seems as though she has tried to integrate her family into her political life as much as possible; however, I think she may find this a lot more difficult as vice president. 

Again, I respect her, but I would not make the same choices.

okay, okay . . .

In response to the comments left on my Sarah Palin post, I'd like to say that I might have been a little too hard on her. And yes, I'll agree, I am being a little sexist and biased. 

I should say that I respect Sarah Palin for all that she's accomplished in just a few short years. Just twenty months ago, she was the mayor of a small Alaskan town of approximately 9,000 people, and now she's governor of Alaska/vice presidential candidate. That's a big leap -- but still, most likely too big of a leap to make me comfortable with the potential of her holding the fate of our country in her hands. But big enough of a leap to make me admit that I respect her. She has something like a 90% approval rating in Alaska, which is pretty much unheard of, so she must be doing something right up there. 

And it's true that Barack Obama is probably being a little unfair to his two little girls as well. I'll admit that. But really, my point was that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and having a baby the same month as inauguration, and just four months ago, she gave birth to a baby with down syndrome. And yes, if Barack Obama were dealing with the same issues in his family, I would say the same. Do I feel this more strongly because she's a woman/mother? Yeah, probably. If that's sexist, so be it. I don't think that anyone could disagree that a 17-year-old pregnant girl would rather have her mother with her on the day she's giving birth than her father. If it were me, I would be insistent that my mother be there with me, as well as the month or so to follow (common among a lot of women). 

And sure, maybe the Palins have already thought this through, and maybe she has plans to be with her daughter much more than I expect for the birth and months to follow, and perhaps their children are completely supportive of her being VP. It's totally possible, and if so, then I'll admit I'm totally wrong and should not be passing judgment on her. But as for now, that's just how I feel. All I'm saying is that I don't think it's an ideal time for her to be placing herself in the position as potential President of the United States. 

one of the stupidest things i've ever heard

So I've been at work for well over 11 hours now, and I'm beginning to feel like the survivors on Lost, sitting here, pushing one button over and over and over again. (I'm waiting on an order to ship, and I have to constantly hit "enter" to refresh the screen.) While sitting here, I overheard someone say, "That's why I smoke; I don't want to live that long." When asked if she didn't care that she might end up with lung cancer someday, she said, "Oh, I'll quit when I start to feel sick." WHAT? Who are these people? One more reason I need to get out of here.

wedding announcement: bucky and woody

On Saturday, August 30th, gnomes Bucky and Woody, both of Columbus, Ohio, were married in North Boulder Park. Their parents are Mandy of Frankfort, Ohio, and Jenna of Springfield, Ohio. Bucky is currently a cheerleader for the Ohio State football team, and Woody is the quarterback. The couple met while chasing butterflies in Jenna's petunias.

In attendance: Jenna of Springfield, OH, mother of the bride; Mandy of Frankfort, OH, mother of the groom; Adam of Los Angeles, CA, officiant; Katelyn of Boston, MA, flowergirl; Greg of Santa Fe, NM, disc jockey; Rusty of Springfield, OH, photographer; Shauna of Indianapolis, IN, caterer; Adam of Berlin, Germany, balloon entertainment.

The happy couple spent their honeymoon in an enchanted garden. They now reside in Boulder.

(Many thanks to Rusty for the photo of the cutting of the cake!)

sarah palin

I've been fighting the urge to write this post for the past couple of days now, but, alas, I have given into temptation . . .

There are about a million things I could say about Sarah Palin. I've made it clear to nearly everyone around me that I think McCain made a terrible, irresponsible decision, and I won't be fooled into voting for him just because his VP is the same gender as me.

The issue that upsets me the most, which I feel compelled to say something about, is her decision to run as VP with McCain despite having five children, one of which is an infant with down syndrome, and another that is 17 years old and 5 months pregnant.

So for the next couple of months, as her daughter is entering her third trimester, her mom will be traveling the country, far away from Alaska, campaigning to be the leader of the free world's backup. If McCain is elected, he'll be inaugurated in January -- the same month that Bristol will be giving birth to Palin's grandchild.

I am 27 years old, and I have no children, but if I were a mother, I can't imagine that I'd want to be anywhere but home with my teenage daughter during this time.

And if I were to get pregnant--even at this age--I can assure you that I would still want my mom to be willing to be focused on helping me through it. I can't think of another time in a young girl's life when she needs her mother more.

Additionally, I most definitely would not be happy to see my name plastered all over the national news. I'm sure it's difficult enough to be 17 and pregnant without having to deal with the entire world talking about it.

I'll stop my ranting now, but I just felt the need to bring these point out the inconsistencies I'm seeing in this campaign. I realize that no one is perfect and there really is no ideal time to become vice president of the United States, but for Sarah Palin, I think this should have been one opportunity that she needed to let slide on by due to her current family situation.

That's all. Feel free to comment and tell me that I'm wrong and need to mind my own business. :)