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?