Obama

Every once in a while, every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made in all those town meetings and all those constituency breakfasts and all that traveling through the district, all those people who you looked in the eye and you said, you know what, you’re right, the system is not working for you and I’m going to make it a little bit better.

And this is one of those moments. This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself, doggone it, this is exactly why I came here. This is why I got into politics. This is why I got into public service. This is why I’ve made those sacrifices. Because I believe so deeply in this country and I believe so deeply in this democracy and I’m willing to stand up even when it’s hard, even when it’s tough.

Every single one of you have made that promise not just to your constituents but to yourself. And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.

-This man is not perfect, he's not a silver bullet and he has disappointed in so many ways already. But goddamn if he doesn't talk like the president we wish he was. The president I still hope we deserve.

Mean People Suck

I recently became friends with the accountant from my old job on facebook. My first job-job. Where they made me cry all the time and once told me when I hadn’t done what they’d wanted but also hadn’t been given clear, no, any instruction, that it was “amateur.” I was 23. Yes, an amateur.

I decided to take the LSAT while I was still working there, I didn’t want the added stress of being unemployed or just starting a new job. I signed up for the Fall administration of the test in 2004 and later went into one of the partner’s offices. This was the “nice” one. I told him I was taking the LSAT and I wanted to take the week before it off. He said, “Sure, you can have that time off, but if I were you, Sarah, I’d really reconsider going to law school. It’s very competitive and difficult and you’re obviously… overly sensitive.”

This remains probably the meanest thing anyone has ever said to me. I think it’s mean because, well, it’s just an asshole thing to say to someone. But it also shows the way he saw me, which is the complete opposite of how I’ve ever wanted to be perceived—weak and incompetent? Um, no. It’s also mean because, um, LAW SCHOOL IS NOT THAT HARD. I mean, it was a lot of work, but intelligence has nothing to do with it. No one knew the girl who graduated first in our class because she was not being “competitive,” she was studying at home alone and never speaking to her classmates. That’s insane, not "competitive."

The incident created lots of fodder for jokes among my friends at work, the most popular alternative career suggestions were bunny farmer and flower arranger. You know, so my feelings don’t get hurt.

Anyway, reconnecting with the accountant, she mentioned this episode and how she wanted to drop a line to that partner, tell him I graduated and am on my way to being barred in 3 jurisdictions. I told her not to bother, he has received employment verifications for each of these background checks. He knows. He knows I worked in a federal prison, he knows I was admitted to Wisconsin, he probably by now knows about Arizona. He may not know he’s a total asshole, but I do. And that he was completely, absolutely and dead wrong.

Eggs!

Recently we decided eggs are something we're willing to spend more money on. Charlie and I can both taste a difference in grass-fed/free range eggs and now that I'm eating some eggs again (thanks, Simvastatin!), we want the good ones. Also, eggs are one of the only foods I've heard of where the organic or natural version is actually substantially more nutritious and healthy than the regular version. For example, 1⁄3 less cholesterol, 1⁄4 less saturated fat, 2⁄3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3s, 3 times more vitamin E, 7 times more beta carotene than typical eggs. We've even casually discussed getting our own chickens... but I put the kabash on that until we live in the same place... all of the time. Anyway, soon after we decided to pony up more for eggs, a woman who works in my building began selling some grass-fed eggs from her local friend's chickens.
They came today, aren't they gorgeous? It's like an Easter Basket for lazy people!

St. Patricks Day

Scenes from the Oil Change Waiting Area

Man: Oh, no, I forgot I have weapons in my truck. I should take those out.

Oil Change Place Dude: Don't worry about it, they won't touch them. Besides, everyone who comes in here is armed. 357s, hunting rifles- almost every car we see has guns in it.

And this concludes your slice of Arizona...

UPDATE! This was on the radio coming home. Good lord this state is nutty about guns.

Litigious Teens

Baby sister is negotiating her first apartment for sophomore year. Her
potential roommate's email ends with:

>> If you are not willing to take either of
>> these compromises, both of which are not what I wanted going into
>> this, then we will have to go with the original terms of the
>> contract.
>

And all of the sudden, there's a UW Madison freshman who I have never
met and who I want to beat with a stick.

Also, PS, teen, the more you learn about contracts, the more you learn
they don't mean crap. I suggested she try out the term "efficient
breach" on this girl. Then realized I wanted to beat myself with a
stick.

Also had weird flashbacks of being expected to smell African spices
and pitch in for things I neither bought nor wanted...

AND finally...

Has anyone tried buying a tv lately? It is literally impossible to not get a super deluxe flatscreen fancypants one and literally impossible to get one that costs less than I make in a week. Yes, I need a new job, but I don't think this is the problem.

Something I never mentioned....

Remember when I listed some weirdo legal presumptions? Well, presumption of death after 7 years definitely turned up on the Multistate Bar Exam. And I remembered it, because I had blogged it. And thus, finally putting to bed the question of whether the internet has done anything for me at all...

Jolly Roger

Have I mentioned our family crest? Whenever we see skull & crossbones out in the world (which happens more and more often, the world is getting creepier?) we say "he's in our family!" "she's in our family!" It's just a little thing we do...

Dog collars and keychain from here, dog tags from here.

Simmering

At our house right now...

Slow Cooker Chipotle-Lime Chicken Thighs Jamaican Rice and Peas

and

Cuban Black Beans

and

Tuna Tostadas

Post-bar life is grand!

Tranblemanntè v. Terremoto

I just have one quick thing to say about the recent Chilean earthquake. Well, probably more than one and probably not so quick. First, as I've been reminiscing a lot lately, I spent a really wonderful six months in Santiago. It wasn't wonderful because of the 70s architecture or the esmog (do I miss blowing my nose black every night? Um, not really...) but it was a time of little responsibility, where I came as close I ever have to "speaking" spanish and where I spent some great time with people who remain some of my favorite Americans. Perhaps not the cross-cultural exchange Wesleyan had in mind... but those people are still my good friends. So that counts.
But this has nothing to do with that. Someone retweeted something on Twitter on Monday about how Haiti v. Chile was a good example of "good government".... and it pissed me off. I didn't respond because, well, folks rarely retweet expecting a total diatribe in 140 character intervals. And also... I was busy. But anyway. Shockingly, like everything else in life, this is so much more complicated than that. I can speak to it because I was a Latin American Studies major and half a Latin American Studies master, right? Riiiight...
Chile and Haiti have nothing in common. From vastly distinct colonial histories to vastly distinct modern histories, these countries evolved in opposite directions. Haiti is dirt poor, we know this. We know rebuilding isn't really "re"-anything, it's creating systems and infrastructure for the first time. Chile is usually the most prosperous Latin American country with that 70s style modern architecture in Santiago and with total poverty in the campo. Not, like, Haitian poverty... but poverty. But Chile doesn't want to deal with it's poverty because that's not the Chilean image of itself. Much of Chile's economic success comes from the foundations laid by Pinochet and the neo-cons during his reign, which was also brutally repressive. The country remains divided between those who emerged from the Pinochet-era disgusted by what had happened to their country and a strong 1/3 of the population who believe that certain "excesses" were worth it because the economy did so well. And Chile continues to enjoy overall economic success because of the foundation laid during that period. "Good" government, Pinochet?
Resources alone do not dictate how a government will respond to disaster. Um, Katrina? But they do dictate how well a country can prepare through zoning, building codes and emergency channels. And how well a country can respond through emergency responders and so on. There are legitimate gripes with the way Preval handled things in Haiti. Michele Bachelet seems to have done a better job (because she could) but is also faulted with saying Chile could do it themselves.... resulting in fewer international donations. Text CHILE to 901901? I don't think so...
It's a natural comparison because they're the same kind of disaster happening to countries somewhere south of us. But it's irrelevant. It's like comparing the way France and Somalia respond to disaster. I suppose you could say France would fare better because of "good" government. But it's kind of silly and obviously incomplete. And really just feeds into blaming developing nations for their own underdevelopment without even considering that the developed world got that way at their expense. It's all terribly more complicated, I know. But please, the take home is... be careful what you re-tweet, because it could very well be setting off a firestorm in Flagstaff.