Meme

1. Which would you rather have: the ability to fly, or the power of invisibility? To fly. So I could go home whenever I wanted to.
2. What was your favorite dish at Thanksgiving this year? Stuffing
3. What is your favorite movie of all time? It's a Wonderful Life
4. If you could have an all-expensive paid trip anywhere, where would you go? Italy
5. Describe your favorite pair of shoes ever. Those cheapie target slip ons.
6. No internet or no TV: which would you pick? No tv. different answer if the que!
7. What is your favorite season? Spring. Warmer days, longer days. Least: winter.

Thanksgiving 2010

I feel a bit like I did on Easter yesterday. Missing "my" family who were all together in my original Big D, all of them minus me. I guess Paul will be left out at Christmas, but it makes me sad that we all won't be together.

The Turkey Trot was good but sooo crowded and cold. We finished in 27:16 and 27:17.   And the game was a downer, and we lost after coming back to win.

I am grateful for a number of things. Health, jobs, family, friends.  But this year, I come being bittersweet.  I feel like surviving this year was harder than usual.  And I worry about the next one.

SMC and ND

This sad story, of a 19 year old girl named Lizzy Seeberg, a woman who apparently committed suicide after she was sexually assaulted by an ND football player, is getting some press so soon after another ND student died in an accident.

How sad. And how disappointed am I in both schools. I really hope it is not true that ND waited til hearing about the story in the Tribune before moving forward. I find it sad that some commenters seem to want to exonerate this kid--no evidence, no DNA, he didn't actually finish the rape....whatever. There was something to this, and sad that the University apparently wanted it to stay quiet.

Memories

First grade. Reading groups. Miss Rupinski. Full days and uniform skirts.  And wearing glasses more and more.

Big kids. Straight brown hair and early 80s little girl fashion. Maybe my happiest year in grade school, actually, because we all got along and there was no bullying and we had our reading cliques.  I remember reading Little House books and Beverly Clearly and Charlotte's web and then the Shoes books. Ballet Shoes and Pauline, Petrova, and Posy.

I remember playing outside a lot. Garden. At McGregory. Hide and go seek. Roller skating. Seeing movies. Lots of good memories.

George Washington, Our Greatest President

I just finished, much to my sadness, Ron Chernow's fantastic bio of George Washington. I had never read a bio of Washington before, because he always seemed overshadowed by the more glamorous biography picks like FDR, TR, Lincoln, and Reagan.  But this book was fantastic and filled that void. Whether it was his difficult childhood and prickly mother, his love-hate relationship with fame and money and comfort yet his humbleness and his desire to go back to his beloved Mount Vernon, to his flirtatious ways yet devotion to Martha, to his strength of character, his dignity, his honor, and his devotion, I was so impressed with the man. His love for his family, his country, and his home really transcended Chernow's pages. I was very interested in his description of Washington's desire to free his slaves, yet his knowledge that he depended on them and his fear that his country wouldn't survive their freedom.

George Washington was no saint, but he was a hero. He was a complicated, complex man who was contradictory at times, displayed an ego, struggled to hold his temper in check, was plagued by tragedy and loss, and was a consummate family man despite the fact that he had no biological children of his own.

He was a leader at a time that the infant country desperately yearned for one, and despite his apparent reluctance, he became the greatest of leaders.  He was not a remarkable general, or the most intelligent of men. He was surronded by some of the leading men of all of time, yet he was greater than them all. I really do appreciate now the evocation: First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.  Nearly 211 years after his death, Washington was still alive in the pages of Chernow's book. Definitely my favorite read of 2010.

Memories

Before kindergarten...

Getting glasses. Amy and Diane. Edmore.  Station wagons. Grandma and Grandpa and Grandpa Joe. The cabin. Being a sister. Sunday school.

Kindergarten...learning to read. Being scared. Half days. Superbooks. Sister Teresa. Needing to learn colors and numbers.  Graduating to something more.

Best Bookstores

The world's best bookstores.

I'm skeptical about the one in China--how can it be, with so much censorship there? The only one on the list I've been to is City Lights, and I'm not sure I'd place that at the top.

In DC, the obvious answers are Politics & Prose and Kramerbooks.  Borders and Barnes & Noble are usually the default choices for books, but at least they provide a brick and mortar choice. Nothing compares to flipping through a book and reading a few pages, scanning it to see if you want to buy it. I have three to read: finishing up Chernow's fantastic Washington bio, George W. Bush's memoir Decision Points, and HW Brand's book on the gilded age. Fun!

Rangel

Congressman Charlie Rangel was convicted of committing all sorts of ethical violations of House rules.

What I don't get are why punishments are limited to a House vote deploring his conduct, a fine, and denial of privileges. You only hurt your constituents if you deny privileges, and he's too broke to pay a fine if he can't pay for his legal counsel.  A vote is a slap on the wrist.

I don't get why they waited til after the election to schedule this "trial."  But even more so, I don't get why his constituents voted for such an ethically challenged individual. How sad. 

Two Degrees II

Again, how small is this city.

And there's a lot I can write about this, too.  Rewarding incompetence, overlapping linkages, putting one and one together. Whatever.

Two Degrees...

How small is Washington?

Packard

I can't remember if I linked to this previously, but compelling images of Packard.

It's Okay

To have an afternoon snack. You are hungry!
To have two mini meals.
To drink five cups of water.
To walk home.
To read open documents as read onlys.
To swear no more wine and then drink some the next night.
To just give up at 4:45 pm on a Friday afternoon after little sleep and a 7am flight (even if it was central time).

Birmingham

Another quick trip. I stayed here. We ate here.

Scallops were disappointing.  The sorbet was fantastic, as was the company.

A Little Niece (or Nephew)!

So Joey is going to be a big brother next year! SOOO excited.  In an otherwise crappy day full of craptastic work stuff, this is good news.  He is going to be the best big brother, and I am so excited to have another little niece or nephew to spoil

Bye Wade Phillips

After another embarrassing loss, Wade Phillips is a former Cowboys coach. 

Though there seems to be confusion and disorganization around this. But still, for many Cowboys fans, and one in particular, this is a happy day in Dallas.

Though I think the most celebrating firing ever was the Fire Millen movement.

Name change

So for the third time, I have a new name: 8 Mile Diaries. I want this to be a journal, a diary, like the one I kept for so many years. But I don't always want it to be an intimate recollection of my daily life. Some things are personally private, and others are outrageously public, when I have something to say or to remember or refresh.

So 8 Mile Diaries it is. And maybe I'll revamp this project or do something else.  But no one needs to know.

Is it 6 yet? Or event 5?

Sparky, RIP

And today Sparky Anderson passed away. RIP.

Detroit lost Ernie Harwell, and now Sparky. Two legends in Michigan, and two men that many people have such fond childhood memories of.

Sparky

First Ernie Harwell was sick and passed away, now we hear Sparky Anderson is in hospice care related to complications from dementia.

Prayers for the family.  1984 is a special year for Tigers fans, and all Detroiters, and the fact that it was 26 years ago does not lessen the impact.  We remember it still, when the city was hurting, "Bless You Boys" was the anthem.  Lance Parris and Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris and Darrell Evans and Chet Lemon and Dan Petry and Tom Brookens and the the gang became the old Detroit World Series champion of my lifetime, and of now nearly two generations.  Sparky was their manager, but also their mentor and life coach.  So many prayers for his family.

1994

That fateful, turning point election of 1994 is in the news again, as pundits wonder if the Republicans will repeat the successes of that year.   Others are pointing out that the experts were wrong that year, forecasting far fewer seats than the Republicans ultimately gained.  Still others are concerned that 2011-12 could be as divided as 1995-96, with a government lock-out and an ultimate Clinton reelction.

But Obama is no Bill Clinton.  He's no Ronald Reagan, either.  He has squandered a great deal of goodwill in two short years, alongside his arrogant partner, Nancy Pelosi, and blandly pointless Harry Reid, who may suffer the same fate as Tom Foley did sixteen years ago.

I was eighteen in 1994, and it was my first election. I voted absentee. In an era before the Internet, I don't know how other than Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune I gained my knowledge of the world.  But I remember becoming engaged in the process that year, and it ultimately switched my major from Business to Political Science. I was a charter member of the newly formed CR club, and it was great to meet like-minded women.  Not all young college students are liberals.  In fact, I know now that many are far more conservatively active than I even was.

I remember driving to see Newt Gingrich in Indianapolis Senior Year, and I remember having about 50+ at my first CR meeting as president.  It was an exciting time that truly formed who I am politically.

So hopefully there will be cheery results yet again in 2010, and indeed it will be a good night.  A very good night.  2008 was a temporary aberration, and 2006 showed the hubris of arrogant Republicans. Hopefully they have learned their lessons in humility and can teach a thing or two to the displaced  Dems. And in particular, Obama.

Election Hype

Before tomorrow's results, here are a few things that will be remembered from the 2010 Midterm Elections:

• Christine O'Donnell upsetting Mike Castle, and her inane comments on everything from contraception to witchcraft.
• The tea party candidates, from Rand Paul to Sharon Angle and Joe Miller to of course, Christine O'Donnell.
• Primary upsets from Delaware to Utah to Alaska. And the third party challenges. Colorado governor.
• Charlie Crist's flip flopping.
• Ben Quayle.
• An interminably long campaign season, that really began with 2009's elections in NJ and VA and Scott Brown's election.
• Comparisons to 1994.
• Sarah Palin's endorsees.
• The emergence of Rubio, Rodriguez in NM, and hispanic/black Republicans.
• Poll after poll after poll...
• It'll be the last time before we'll start talking about the 2012 presidential election,which will begin in about 36 hours...
• Americans are just scared, right, Obama?