i think i must have woken up shortly after this part of the dream, because i can’t remember what happened next.  i know we never found your entourage, but i don’t think that was a problem because we were having such a great time in the process of looking together.  (cheesy, i know)

i woke up with one thought in my head.  one word really.  service.  such a simple word.  a simple word with great depth.  a simple word i have never given much thought to, except to describe the multiple jobs I’ve had slinging coffee, and in reference to the brave men and women who serve in the military.  a simple word that carries so much promise and future for our country.  a word that you have made to mean so much more to me than i ever thought possible.

yesterday was a very emotional day for me, and from what i gather from the world around me, it was a very emotional day for just about everyone else too.  part of it was seeing you elected and what it means, President Elect Obama, but another part was a eagerness to get started on the path to repair.  I WANT TO HELP.  i want to be a part of this country like i NEVER have before.   the last 8 years has all but decimated my faith in a government for the people, by the people, but seeing you elected has made me believe that we, as a nation, can fix what has been broken and the system isn’t dead yet.

President Elect Obama, i am due to graduate from college in a month and a half.  i have no job prospects and a small child at home.  i have mountains of debt, a husband that works too hard in a dangerous job, and $150,000 loss in equity on my house.   i have animals that i can’t take to the vet because we don’t have the money.  i have 1 pair of pants that don’t have holes in them because i have to buy my son clothes and food, and i can’t afford to shop for myself.  i drive 2 1/2 hours a day so that i can get an education and the gas is killing us.  i literally lie awake at night worrying that we won’t be able to stop global warming in time and i mourn the loss of the hundreds of species that die out every day.  i worry about how much college will cost for my son.  i even have to worry about the toys that i give him to play with.  Barack (can i call you that?  typing out President Elect Obama makes me lose my train of thought)  Barack, my story is not unique, as you well know.  so many of Americans are losing so much more than me, and i worry about them too.

but an interesting thing is going on despite all of this.  people have hope.

i met a man today at a coffee shop.  i started up a conversation about the books he had on his table and the conversation meandered until we were talking about our lives.  he mentioned how he went through a period where he was beyond hope.  i looked at him and said, “you know, funny thing the mind is.  it occurs to me that for the last 2 days, the words “beyond hope” don’t seem to make much sense to me.  i can’t seem to comprehend it.”  we both smiled and agreed, the WORLD has become a more hopeful place the last few days.

so, Barack, i am ready to get to work.  i am ready to serve my country, my community.  but i don’t know where to start.  i have heard this sentiment echoed on 3 or 4 different NPR shows today.  people are ready!  people are inspired!  we are vested in this country and we believe in you.  but some of us don’t know where to start.   so what i am asking of you is to give us direction.  continue this momentum that you have created and show us the path that we must take.  give people like me a starting point.  we look to you for leadership.

thank you, President Elect Barack Obama, for giving me hope again.

love,

Andromeda

ps- black lab/border collie mix makes for a FANTASTIC family dog.  i speak from experience.

CAN I GET A HELL YEAH!!!!!!

can i get a w00t w00t for the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BARACK OBAMA!!!!!!

i am so excited, i can barely sit still.  the nation has spoken.

SUCK IT NEIGHBORS who egged my house for my signs.  SUCK IT county that i live in who supported mcsame.  SUCK IT to all of those who would try to smear his name with lies and meanness while avoiding the great failings of your own party.  my nation has spoken and it is chanting YES WE CAN!

i admit, i was pretty hopeful yesterday.  with an air of caution i thought, “there is really no way he can lose.”  well, i thought that after about 3:30 when i FINALLY finished the stupid take home essay for art history. (yeah, it was due at 3:30 yesterday)  anyway, i did think it.  and then the voice of pessimism started to creep in and said “remember 2000?  SUCK IT voice of pessimism.

i’m actually a little glad that i ended up having to finish my art history paper at school.  it meant i needed my laptop which i was all prepared to leave at home because the signal i get in printmaking is so weak this semester.  (any one have any idea why my airport thingy in my mac would suddenly lose strength?)  because i had my laptop i was able to check msnbc for election results.  i’m also glad that i was with a few friends when the results came in.  i kept all of those in the art department up to speed and i think they appreciated it.  the funny thing was that my professor assumed i wasn’t going to show so i could go home and watch the results.

i left school at around 8:45 and got in the car and on the road just in time to hear the speech.

and then i cried.

and the thing that keeps choking me up is the knowledge that my son is going to grow up knowing anything is possible.

i have always had hope that i would see a demographic other than an old, white man as president.  i thought i would be an old woman.  i did not think that it would happen in my 30’s.  i am so proud to see the progress that has happened in this country.

and disappointed that while we are showing progress in one direction, we are showing regression in another.  preliminary tallies are showing prop 8 as winning.  how can we as a people JUSTIFY taking away RIGHTS from one specific group of people?  it angers and disgusts me.  oops.  prop 8 passed.  sickening!!!!

but i’m so happy about Obama that i can’t get too mad (today) about prop 8.  i will save the H8 for later.

so, i hope that America has sent the message to the rest of the world that we are not defined by the last 8 years of crap in the white house.  we are better than that, and we intend to show you, world, that we will once again stand beside you, as equals, with a president that is in tune with the problems facing this world and this planet.

yes we can!!

don’t for get to vote (for Barack Obama) come Tuesday if you haven’t already voted.

RAmen

this is awesome.  and soooooo much better than taking a class at a JC just to have access to a darkroom.  i have really come to love the solitude that a darkroom allows.  there is a sense that only you and the image exist.  not only that, but you are the reason the image exists.  you are the creator and the judge.  in my case, i am the artist and the patron as well.  i am sure that people in my current class think that i am a one trick pony.  i take HEAPS of pictures of the Dictator.  what can i say?  he is my muse.  he is my world.  and i don’t get out much.

after all, he won’t be 3 forever.  some days that is a blessing, some days a curse.

i think i’m going to teach the Dictator how to work in a darkroom.  he has a few years to go before i’d let him do any of the actual exposing, i don’t think he has the finesse to do that just yet, but i think he could be a great little tray agitator.

when i was in preschool (i think, but it might have been in kindergarten) we took a field trip to a photography studio.  at least it had to have been.  they had a darkroom and we all got to put our hands on a piece of photo paper and make an exposure.  i still have mine somewhere.  i come across it now and then.  i think i might taking photograms of D’s hands.  (i think they are called photograms.  or something like that.  it’s a direct exposure- using the object, as opposed to a picture or negative.)  i’m not sure if that visit planted a seed inside my heart for photography, but of all the snippets of childhood to remember, why that?  and will i be able to instill this love of art in my son, or will it be relegated to the abyss of lost memories?

what did you experience as a small child that foreshadowed your current life?

all this crap about ACORN is just a distraction so you don’t notice how corrupt and unfair they are.  i’m sorry, but if you cant win it fairly, you shouldn’t be in the white house.  hasn’t the last 8 years taught us anything?

so here is the article:

Block the Vote

Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?

for people outside California, prop 8 is a hateful proposition that would change the state constitution to allow for Californians to be treated unequally based on sexual preference.  in June, the cal supreme court ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriage.  the hateful reich (right-wing) has put a proposition on the ballot to change the constitution to ban same-sex marriage under the heading “protection of marriage”.  protection my ass!

the reich is trying to say that this will mean that they will be teaching our children about GAY marriage in school because the California Education Code Section 51933 states that “Instruction and materials shall teach respect for marriage and committed relationships”.

i’m sorry, but i must have missed the day where i was taught that marriage was between a man and woman only?  i don’t ever remember being “taught” that in school.  as far as i can tell, the educational code only states that respect will be taught.  nowhere in there does it say that the schools should teach what marriage means.

as a parent, it is MY responsibility to teach my son our morals, values, and ethics.  i do not expect those, nor do i want those, to be taught to my kid with some one else’s agenda.  however, i would hope that the people that are teaching my son to be respectful of our morals, values, and ethics if they differ from theirs. and frankly, i would be OUTRAGED if equality and respect did not happen in the classroom.  we are not christian, and i have plenty of issues with christianity, but i would NEVER NEVER NEVER allow my son to be disrespectful to someone who is.  it’s wrong and immoral to do so.  so basically, the most immoral people in this fight are the ones supporting prop 8.

these people that are supporting prop 8 need to get their heads out of their asses and see the truth:  GAY PEOPLE EXIST.  THEY ALWAYS HAVE.  THEY FALL IN LOVE.  THEY HURT.  THEY BLEED.  THEY GET HEARTACHES JUST LIKE THE REST OF US.  THEY DESERVE TH RIGHT TO BE MISERABLE/HAPPY IN THEIR MARRIAGE JUST LIKE THE REST OF US.  THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN YOU AND ME.  THEY WORK NEXT TO YOU IN YOUR JOB.  THEIR KIDS GO TO SCHOOL WITH YOURS.  GET OVER YOUR FUCKING SELF.

remember, it wasn’t THAT long ago (in the grand scheme of things) that they were feeding christians to lions.  does your story not teach you anything???

another thing i just realized: the argument that allowing gay marriage would somehow “invalidate” straight marriages is conspicuously absent.  could it be that straight marriages have remained UNCHANGED in the state of California since June.  oh SNAP!  that argument sure didn’t pan out well did it?  now the riech is clinging to the refrain “what about the children???”  yeah, what about the children?  i see nothing wrong with teaching them to be respectful of others.  in fact, i see everything right with teaching them to be respectful of others whose decisions might differ from theirs.  after all, we are not a nation of 1 kind of person.  we are a nation of millions.  millions who have made BILLIONS of decisions that are different than mine.  so what?  should i hate them all??

i really only hate 1 kind of person.  the hateful kind.  but it’s ok, they are cool with hate.

**update**  the signs are gone today.  i doubt they were stolen, as liberals don’t usually STEAL things.  especially yard signs.  we might be tempted yes, but i have yet to hear a complaint from the riech about stolen yard signs, but i have heard of plenty of assults, accusations, and theft in regards of obama stickers and signs.

lots of things have kept this girl busy lately.

numero uno: school- bleh.  but photo..good!  i have really been enjoying my time in the darkroom.  i feel like i am finally starting to get some control over what i am doing.  amazing what a little inspiration, direction, and paying attention can do.

well, that and the fact that i made a resolution to graduate at the end of the semester.  that’s it.  no “i will get good grades and do my homework all early and shit“.  none of that.  i will be totally, completely content to be a “C” student this semester if i’m not feeling it in a class.  i don’t have to be the best, brightest, or most talented.  i think it has been made clear to me that i am not these things, at least how some would define them.   (i’m am really feeling photo though!)  i have a lot on my plate and i refuse to try to live up to someone else’s idea of what i should be doing.  i will graduate and the C’s won’t freakin’ matter because i am not going to grad school.  nope nope nada.  forget it.  so screw it.  i just need that piece of paper saying that i am educated.

back to photo.  i haven’t scanned anything in lately.  i’ll get around to it….  eventually. but i did get my very own medium format camera!!  yes!  i got a HOLGA for my birthday (mine is periwinkle blue!).  sweet baby jesus, i can’t wait to find out how my pictures will turn out!!!  holga cameras are plastic.  all of it.  even the lense.  i should take pictures of just how campy and silly this camera is.  however, despite the silliness, there is a whole cult following of holga enthusists.  it gets light leaks, distortions due to the plastic lense, and the photographer has little to no control over the aperature and focal length.  but it’s cool.  we will be developing the first 2 rolls this week.  too bad i just have 400 ISO film.  bright daylight pics might be all washed out.

aside from school and the driving to and fro, i have attended a beautiful wedding of my sister-in law and my new brother-in-law.  (totally rad people and i wish them all the best!!!)  then there is the dictator: he occupies a lot of my time.  hmm…  oh yeah, and offsprung.  i love that place.

the elections have my blood-pressure through the roof as well.  i am soooooooo ready to be done with it.  just put Obama in office and let’s be done with it.  i can’t take the neocons neo-nazism anymore.  or their hypocrisy.  any of it.  i just can’t stand it.  i vote absentee.  my ballot goes out with tomorrow’s mail yet i still have 3+ weeks of campaign ads to endure. (side note: i really considered changing my absentee status so that i could take the dictator to the polls for this monumentus election, but i can’t have him breaking into choruses of “O-BA-MA!  O-BA-MA!  O-BA-MA!” of which he is so fond of doing.  it’s actually illegal in california to do any sort of anything even remotely like campaigning within 100 yards of a polling place, so it is a really, really bad idea to take him to the polls.)  i was going to throw some links in the above paragraph to highlight all the things i find disgusting and untolerable from a presidential candidate and the vp nom, but the place where i found the links to the articles is unavailable right now.  check back with me later.

goodnight.

RAmen

and oh my dear zeus, she’s local.  she is also confused as to the difference between water and the constitution.  i’m just saying… the 2 things are very different.

the real mavericks

aside from her hypocracy, let’s look at the quote and dissect that.

“there’s a special place in hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.”  <–that’s the real quote by the way.  we are talking about HELPING.  not unilaterally SUPPORTING.  big difference lady.

ok, as a woman i know what albight was trying to say.  women are kinda bitchy to each other.  women are taught from a young age many ways to be nasty to each other.  whether by other girls being nasty on the playground, to being catty to another woman who has what you want.  it runs the gamut.  what she was trying to get at is that we should try to help one another out as opposed to being mean for mean-ness sake.  that said, i doubt albright would be very happy about her quote being distorted into some sort of unpatriotic stance to be a woman and not vote for the antichrist mcsame/palin ticket.

also, let’s see how the quote would go over if used by Obama (were he a racist, sexist, chauvinistic bastard, which he’s not).

“there is a special place in hell for blacks who don’t support other blacks”  (we’ll go with palin’s misquote)

whoa…would the press have a field day with that!!  but somehow it’s ok to call out women.  got it.

what about if it was used for the other gender?  “there is a special place in hell for men who don’t support other men”.  ooohhh…not so good!!  do you see where i’m going with this?

you know what palin?  you say you don’t want sexism to be a part of this campaign.  well guess what lady, it goes both ways.  if you don’t want it to be a part of the campaign, then stop bringing it up.  you can’t clamor for equality if you aren’t acting equal.

and by the way, this woman is going for a candidate who actually HELPS PEOPLE.  women included in that group.  i’ll cast my vote for someone who talks about issues rather than someone who talks about the quotes they found on their starbucks mocha.

UPDATE:  it turns out the words “FUCK” and “women” that appear many times in this blog post are generating quite a bit of traffic for this post among the internet porn set.  welcome internet porn seekers!  you will find none here!  but i have seen what the search results give you and i am sure you already knew what this post would be about before you clicked the links.  turns out you have interests outside internet porn.  good for you!  vote Obama and you can keep your internet porn.  vote repuglican be prepared to loose way more civil rights than you ever knew you had.  you better believe that internet porn will be right up there with all the things satan and the libruls are using to aid the terrorists.