Pre-Black Friday

I didn't see it, but I can't believe the line at the local Best Buy is at least 100 people and it's not even midnight.  And the sales aren't even that good this year!

 

I miss the old Black Fridays.  This new mania is just not the same.  Back then there was this shared experience of waiting for amazing (free!) sales that just isn't around anymore now that it's gotten SO popular.  People used to get there early but didn't wait in tents overnight.  And the stores used to open later.  I remember being on line waiting for Circuit City to open at 7 and I was only about 20 people back and we had a great time even though it was freezing.  Now, there's people on line there and it isn't even midnight.  It's just become so ... business-like to go Black Friday early shopping instead of fun!

 

I'm a big Black Friday shopper but I'm not planning to go to Best Buy or Circuit City early this year.  The sales just aren't good enough for it to feel worth it.  Target on other hand... Target's the only one that's kept pace with last year's sales.  (Not that last year's sales were as good as the old days, but have to start somewhere.)  And I love Target.

 

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! 

Blender

Umm.

The QVC host just went into an explanation for why you should buy this special gold jewelry.

Paraphrased, her reasoning basically went like this, "You can tell a lot about someone by the gift they give you. Gold jewelry is a special gift. If someone gets you gold jewelry, you know they think you're someone special. It's not like if someone gets you a blender for Christmas. If they get you a blender (not that anything's wrong with a blender), they see you as a practical person. It's not like if they buy you this gold jewelry."

Huh?

I get that there is a difference between a blender and jewelry (and yes, the blender was the example she used). But if a blender means you're a practical person, then jewelry means... what? I don't get it. How do you complete the comparison? If you get jewelry, you're not a practical person? Do people not want to be practical? Confused...

Naps

I don't want to rewind just for this, but I swear one of the L'Occitane co-hosts just told the other to go take a "nappy-poo"...

OK, I rewound it.

She did say it.

And people wonder why I leave QVC on when I work.

Teenagery

The people on QVC (other than currently having a conversation about the word or non-word "teenagery") just talked about how you should buy this L'Occitane stuff because it's more "fun" than regular soap. And how if people stay at your house during the holidays instead of at a hotel, you should get them better bath products as a treat for staying at your place instead. Maybe it's because we don't entertain guests often (small NYC apartment and all), but do people really go out and buy special soaps just for visitors to use during the holidays?

Away

We spent the weekend up in Milton at the Buttermilk Falls Inn, and it was amazing. We left less than 12 hours ago, but I already miss it. I miss the ducks that followed us around the grounds, the llamas and the goats, the view of the river, the cute little inn, the spa, and especially how relaxing and peaceful it all was (even if it was 10 degrees colder than at home). It's so sad that it's already back to the work week.

Salmon Cake

I'm renaming the "Randomly Chosen Screensaver Picture" label to "Snapshots."

It may still be randomly chosen by the screensaver, but I like the name Snapshots better.

So, for this snapshot from my life...

July 2008. At sea somewhere in the northern Pacific Ocean. This was my lunch entree. I think it was a salmon cake tower on top of pad thai. I remember it being very good. All the food on this Holland America cruise was really good. I want to go on a cruise again. And I love looking at old pictures.

Kota

Just saw an ad for this new Kota the Triceratops toy from Playskool.

The thing is HUGE. Kids can sit on it, feed it leaves, etc. But it's gigantic. You have to have a decently large house to have one of those!

Overpass

I'm completely exhausted from walking all day (and it's almost 2 am), but I'm trying to post more consistently, so here's another random photo of the day.

It's from Hyde Park in Chicago near the University of Chicago. I used to see this overpass every day that I drove back from school, but I don't even remember taking these pictures. (According to the data, it's from May 2004.) Looking through the set of pictures, I also don't remember the area by the law school being so green! The last couple of times I've been in Chicago, it's been cloudy and gray.

I try to take photos of the "everyday" life we're living, but sometimes there are little details that you never have pictures of because you never think about taking something so ordinary. Yet, years later, looking at the pictures, it brings back the everyday, the ordinary, the routine. Looking at something familiar is kind of nice sometimes, even if it's just an overpass from a familiar drive.

Pom Wonderful

Today was day one of Red Mango's Pom Wonderful flavor. Of course we weren't going to miss it!

It was really, really good. We had the pomegranate flavor at tangysweet in DC over the summer, and were wondering how long it would take before it landed at Red Mango and Pinkberry. It's not an overwhelming flavor, but I liked that it wasn't. Yum.

Annoyed

Today has been, for lack of a better word to describe it, "annoying."

Maybe it was a reflection of the weather, but everything was annoying today! To illustrate, today I was annoyed:

- when I woke up and read the emails waiting for me on my blackberry

- that it was dark, cold, damp and/or rainy all day long

- that I have felt sick and/or weak and/or weary day after day, causing me not to go to the gym for over a week

- by all the work I have to do and all the work that just doesn't seem to get done

- that I had to go to Europa for lunch to avoid the rain (but luckily it's in our building) instead of someplace more exciting

- that when I went to Europa for lunch, some girl slapped her umbrella around getting my entire suit jacket wet, since I deliberately went to Europa so that I wouldn't get wet

etc, etc, etc. There's more where that came from.

The bright spots were no line at the bank when I went to deposit a check in the morning and the serenity at an odd moment of the day when I sat alone in a conference room waiting for a meeting that ended up not happening but where it was quiet and peaceful and I got a lot of work done (despite an active movie shoot on that floor).

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day. I'm feeling a little less annoyed now after watching Eli Stone...

Oh Well

It was so disappointing when I realized that tomorrow (work day tomorrow) wasn't Friday. Sigh.

Victoria

Last summer, we went on a cruise to Alaska. The last port before disembarkation was Victoria. I hadn't been to many places in Canada prior to the Victoria stop -- none of the major cities, only a few cities on the eastern coast of Canada (on other cruises).

I really liked Victoria. Unfortunately this was an evening stop and (a) many places were already closed, like the museums and aquariums, (b) it was our last night on the cruise and there was major packing to be done and (c) we had to get back to the photo center on the ship to pick up the photos we ordered before they closed. Therefore, I didn't get to do much in Victoria other than some walking around, photography (golden hour, amazing light), and general soaking in of the city. I think some of my relatives went to a pub and had beers, but I guess they didn't have anything to do back on the ship. All this means is I'll have to go back!

I would love to go on a cruise right now. They are so incredibly relaxing. People do everything for you and are always willing to help. The food (at least on ours) was fantastic (and all included!). You can catch up on sleep (I napped a LOT). There's just something nice about being at sea and resting. I could really use this now (as I'm working...).

Mmm... maybe I'll daydream about cruises to the Mexican Riviera. Sigh.

Explosion

I learned tonight that you can actually learn things from commercials!

I think it was a commercial for a cell phone company (AT&T?) that says that if you don't thaw out a turkey enough and then fry it, it can explode. I just checked online and it sounds like that's true. I never knew.

Of course, I don't know what it says for the advertising that I remember the lesson about the fryer more than who the ad was for...

Update

An update to yesterday's post...

Today brought no progress.

Sigh.

I realize we're working with "island time" but it still makes me anxious.

Rollercoaster

Wedding planning is a bit of a rollercoaster.

Maybe it's not bad for everyone, but we have been trying to finalize the venue, date and pricing for over 7 weeks. We finally made some progress tonight (compared to the past 7 weeks), but it would have been nice to be at this place weeks ago. Part of it was internal issues at the venue which we had no control over (at least 4 weeks of the delay), but still frustrating that we couldn't get some of this stuff done earlier. But not going to stress about it anymore because there's no point. Time's gone and complaining about it will just waste more.

Hoping tomorrow brings more progress!

Gossip Girl 2.10

Not even 10 minutes into tonight's Gossip Girl, and already 2 scenes in our neighborhood!

I remember a month ago when they were taping in the area and I went looking for the filming, but couldn't find it. Now I've seen the scenes. Woohoo!

Headlines

I contemplated starting a new feature last week with a "Headline of the Day."  The reason I thought of it was because of the headline that the GOP was sending a lawyer to Alaska to get Sarah Palin's clothes.  (A lawyer? To get clothes? Seriously? But if they're going to do that, I'd go... sounds like a nice thing to get paid to do...)

 

The story gets odder, apparently, according to a new AP report.

 

Sarah Palin apparently spent the weekend looking through her clothes to see what belongs to the RNC.  (This after some press conference where she said all the clothes she had now were her own and that they weren't sending anyone up to get her clothes.)  Her dad told reporters that she was "frantically" sorting it all out and that things happen, such as kids losing underwear.

 

Why did the RNC need to buy Sarah Palin's children underwear?  Why would they need to buy anyone underwear?  Was their current underwear not good enough?  Could they not buy their own?  If that's true, it's completely ridiculous to think that the RNC went out to buy underwear... And their claims that the clothes would go to charity?

 

And why was she frantically searching through clothes if she supposedly left everything behind when the campaign was over and things were getting inventoried?  How much could there be to sort through?  She couldn't possibly have taken all $150,000+ of clothes back to Alaska, could she?

 

Confused.

 

The article also mentions the elementary school her daugher attends and how the secret service is no longer there.  But when was her daughter in school?  I thought we saw her constantly on the campaign trail to the point where we wondered if she even went to school.

 

Just bizarre.

Mid-afternoon Thoughts

1.  I love split pea soup.  Yum.  I didn't know until I went to Cafe Europa that there existed both yellow split pea and green split pea soup.  I love green split pea soup...

 

2.  Being at work when not feeling well is not fun!  And I could use my Poang chair here at the office...

 

3.  I thought for sure that Joe must go.  His behavior during the campaign was despicable.  He said he wouldn't go after Obama personally and he did, even questioning his patriotism.  If it's true that Obama wants him to stay in the caucus (which he said he would only do if he could keep his precious chairmanship), I have to think he must have a good reason...

 

4.  Cold weather is back.  Wheee...

 

5.  I wish my office light switch had a remote.  There are multiple times a day when the sun shines really brightly on my computer area (which I love), and I want to turn off the artificial light, but it requires going up to the light switch.  I'm not against that, except half the time, 1 minute after I sit back down, the sun is gone. 

Berlin

Mmm... from Hallo Berlin in May. We really should get back there sometime. Good food, good beer.

Stats

Looking at my web stats for the first time in awhile, and not surprisingly, the page loads spiked on Tuesday. I only wrote like 30 posts because of the election.

Apparently most of the search traffic came from people looking for those ridiculous CNN holograms. Which weren't really holograms?

Assorted Thoughts

A few assorted thoughts on this Saturday night:

1. I'm sick. It started Thursday night and I have felt like crap all day. I don't really know what it is and am not very good at identifying the symptoms, other than "sick." At least not right now.

2. Since I am sick, I basically slept and watched TV all day. That's probably good for the DVR since it was almost full of shows we hadn't watched yet. Sleep is just good for everyone.

3. I can't believe Norm Coleman is trying to force them not to do a recount. The vote separation is so close that a manual recount really could change the outcome. Of course, that's exactly why he's acting like this, even though you can be sure that if it were the other way around, he would be yelling for one.

4. I wish the apartment could just clean up itself.

5. The soups at the Ollie's by our apartment are gigantic bowls. I got won ton mein (spelling?) when we went yesterday to try to help with my sickness and the bowl was gigantic. That dish reminds me of Hong Kong because when I went as a teenager, we had it for breakfast daily. I like that, a big bowl of noodle soup for breakfast. It's a nice start to the day. Nowadays, I just eat half a bagel.

Pho

It's a bit of a problem when you're not feeling well and thinking about what you want for dinner, and what you want happens to be all the way out in Chicago.

 

Our favorite pho place out there made the most delicious chicken pho, with tender lean cuts of chicken in a heavenly broth.  I loved getting that when I was sick (except this was pre-smoking ban Chicago, so I would go out when sick to get some healthy curing soup but couldn't breathe because of the cigarettes).  I miss it and it would be perfect on a damp fall day like today when I'm not feeling well.

 

But it's in Chicago.  And I'm not in Chicago.  And I'm searching online menus and can't find an adequate replacement.  I don't want to travel far (like to Chinatown) because I'm not feeling well, but the only thing I can find that might get close is one of the Thai soups, but that's not pho.  Sigh.  I guess I could settle for tom yum or something, but it's different...

 

Oh well.

Bus

I can't remember where I saw this headline (and I wish I could), and I certainly can't take credit for it, but "Governor Palin, Meet Bus."  It's not even 48 hours from the end of the election and the McCain staffers are clearly trying to kill her career.  Not that I don't enjoy seeing the interesting things that come out of it (especially considering her campaign tactics), and not that I'm surprised seeing as how "unity" didn't even make it to the election, but I do find it odd that they are trying to push all the blame to her... when they're the ones that picked her.  They could have avoided the whole thing by actually having a vetting process, but if they did, who knows if we would be in the wonderful place we are today.

 

Anyway, in the past 24 hours, we have learned, if Newsweek and Fox News are to be believed:

 

- That the Neiman Marcus/Saks shopping spree may have been more than $150,000 as previously reported (and the whole thing was hidden from McCain)

 

- That Palin wanted to give a VP concession speech which is not traditional and was vetoed

 

- That Palin thought Africa was a country and not a continent

 

- That Palin did not know what countries were part of NAFTA

 

- That aides tried to prepare her for the Couric & Gibson interviews but she refused (great idea, that one was)

 

- That some campaign people went to visit her for the first time and she appeared in a towel to greet them

 

... and I'm sure there's more to come.

 

And it's bizarre but this morning I was thinking about how much fun it would be to go on an American road trip right now.  I think it was prompted by some report from Mike Seidel that MSNBC was airing where he was in North Dakota under a blizzard warning.  So it makes no sense.  And it's cold in many places...

Time

It's 4:47 pm and it's DARK OUTSIDE?!

 

The way it looks outside, it feels like it should be so late already, but it's not even 5.

 

It's still so amazing today.  Feels like a brand new day.

Postscript III

NBC is calling McCain the "apparent winner" of Montana.

Have they been calling them "apparent winners" all night and I just haven't noticed?

I was hoping to take Montana. I wonder how close it is.

So that leaves North Carolina and Missouri...

NYC

Looking at the NYC numbers (according to CNN):

Manhattan: Obama 85-14
Bronx: Obama 88-12
Queens: Obama 75-25
Brooklyn: Obama 79-20
Staten Island: McCain 52-47

We have some work to do in my home borough. :) But we did get a Democrat into Vito Fossella's old seat by a pretty decent margin. That's good news.

Postscript II

NBC News calls Indiana for Obama.

(Alaska was called too, after the race was over, but while it wasn't a runaway, I didn't think we'd get Alaska.)

So that leaves Montana, North Carolina and Missouri. Who would have thought this 2 years ago.

Change

"Change has come to America."

"Out of many, we are one."

"Yes we can."

This has been such an incredible night. One of those moments in history that I don't think you ever forget.

And since this probably got lost below:


Millions of people making a difference, voting and hoping for change.

Victory

I need the text of Obama's walk through history speech tonight. It was amazing. Something to keep for the history books.

Puppy

Obama mentions the puppy for his daughters in the victory speech!  Fantastic.

Helping Out

I'm curious to see how my donations did. :)

Obama - Yay!

Elwyn - Not called yet. I think Michele "Democrats are anti-American" Bachmann is still ahead.

South Dakota abortion ban - MSNBC said it failed; CNN hasn't called it yet.

Dan Seals - CNN says he lost. Boo.

Al Franken - Still tied.

Bob Lord - CNN says he lost. Darn.

Eric Massa - CNN says he won. Yay!

Darcy Burner - This one's not going to be over for a while.

Gary Trauner - CNN says he lost. Boo.

Mark Begich - Polls just closed but I hope we're saying goodbye to Ted Stevens.

Jim Martin - Not called yet but it looks like we're losing...

No on 8 - Not called yet. I don't like the way the percentages look right now, but it doesn't look like SF has reported yet...

First Family

The red and black color coordinated outfits of the new first family are awesome.  Mostly the fact that they're coordinated.

Ice

The Rockefeller Center ice rink with the NBC map looks like it's melting since it's kind of warm.

Postscript I

And we get Nevada! Thanks Nevada!

(And it's really sad about their field director. So young.)

McCain's Concession

Thoughts on McCain's concession:

- It is the only thing that has made me stop crying so far.

- McCain sounds more sincere than he has sounded in weeks. And he's blinking a lot less than in any of the big public speeches or debates recently.

- At least he tried to stop them from booing such a historic moment.

- I find it interesting that his concession speech comes in his home state... which hasn't been called yet. [Interesting note: MSNBC calls Arizona for McCain during the speech.]

- We got another "my friends"!

- Part of me wonders if McCain is glad to be himself again. And if he will go back to 2000 McCain.

- It was actually a really good speech. Thanks John.

Tears of Joy

This is such an incredible time. I haven't stopped crying for the past 15 minutes, I'm so happy.

Thank you Colorado, Virginia, Florida. Let's keep turning this country blue.

Amazing Moments

What an amazing moment in history.

I am overjoyed, relieved, inspired and so moved by what we just achieved here today.

We're so young but I really never thought I would ever see something like this happen.

Absolutely amazing.

Presidential Results

MSNBC projects Obama as President, taking California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii. This is truly historic. What it must be like to be in Grant Park right now.

Returns XVIII

will.i.am as a hologram on CNN?

This is too amusing watching the holograms.

Returns XVII

Paraphrasing Chuck Todd on MSNBC about Nebraska:

"I love these Midwest states. All their districts are so square."

Funny.

Returns XVI

The networks seem to agree that Obama is at 207 electoral votes. (Except CBS at 206.)

With the Pacific coast states and Hawaii coming up in 22 minutes, this could be over.

I'm so cautiously optimistic. I'll believe it when I see it.

Returns XV

Rachel says the South Dakota abortion ban failed. Good news.

Returns XIV

I'm sorry, I think it's funny that Arizona is "too close to call" after an hour and it's McCain's home state. Even if we don't get it, that's an achievement.

Returns XIII

The next closing is here!

Go Iowa!

Not that I think my calls made any difference, but it makes Iowa feel special to me. :)

Utah was expected to be deep red. No surprise there.

C'mon Montana and Nevada. I want to turn the Mountain West!

Returns XII

Jim Himes wins!

No more Republicans in New England. Nice.

Returns XI

We got New Mexico? Nice.

My Vote

Not that there was any surprise about New York, but I'm proud that my vote was part of a historic election. I voted for the first African American majority party nominee, and hopefully the first African American president.

Returns X

Is MSNBC the only one calling Ohio?

Returns IX

MSNBC took 37 minutes to call Arkansas. I thought it would be called before I got back from dinner.

So it looks like Shaheen, Hagan and Warner are in. Fantastic.

Returns VIII

Woohoo!

MSNBC calls for Obama:

New York
Minnesota
Michigan
Wisconsin
Rhode Island

And for McCain:

Kansas
North Dakota (they said it's the first toss-up... and they're calling it this early?)
Wyoming

Arizona is too close to call? I would LOVE to take Arizona away from McCain...

Still so nervous.

Time

Made it back in time for the 9 pm closings!

159 electoral votes, 15 states, including my own! Woohoo!

Dinner

Must get dinner before they call New York...

Returns VII

It took 33 minutes for MSNBC to call Alabama.

Crazy.

Returns VI

Go Kay Hagan!! MSNBC calls it for Hagan.

I would say Libby Dole deserves it for trying to call her Sunday school teacher opponent godless. Despicable.

Returns V

With every state, I feel a little bit better, but it's not over yet. A long way to go.

Must get dinner before they call NY at 9.

I may miss Arkansas at 8:30. :)

Returns IV

Fox News called New Hampshire for Obama, but CNN hasn't.

Grant Park

I wish I were in Grant Park right now.

Returns III

OK, tempering the enthusiasm and being cautious... CNN has not called Pennsylvania yet. They're being cautious.

But CNN amuses me with their map (which is why I LOVED that SNL part of Weekend Update). "Let's just pick a county." At random.

Returns II

NBC calls Pennsylvania for Obama?!?!?! And New Hampshire?! (If true, does McCain no longer "love" NH?)

And:

Illinois (expected)
New Jersey (expected)
Massachusetts (expected)
Maryland (expected)
Connecticut (expected)
Maine (expected)
Delaware (expected)
DC (expected)

And for McCain:

Tennessee (expected)
Oklahoma (expected)

Looking at the map, I guess I missed South Carolina being called (but it's expected).

Makes it 103-34 according to MSNBC.

Holograms

CNN has HOLOGRAMS?

"CNN's Jessica Yellin via Hologram from Chicago"

OK...

"I'm in a tent in Chicago..."

Well... you look like you're in a newsroom...

And I thought the floating map on MSNBC was weird. This is just bizarre. Standing on a little red button in the air? This is bizarre.

Edited to add: Wolf said "You make a terrific hologram." This is strange.

Returns I

NBC News projects:

Kentucky for McCain (8)
Vermont for Obama (3)

I don't think either of those 2 are shocking.

Why bother calling states "too early to call"? The polls just closed in those states! Of course they're TOO EARLY TO CALL. I don't know why we call states early anyway.

I Voted

I voted!

I was so happy to vote for Obama that I just wanted to look at my vote for a bit to let it sink in. It took me so long to vote that the lady outside checked on me to make sure I was ok. But really, part of that time was reading the proposal that I didn't know about beforehand.

And then I got free ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. (It was next door to the polling place!)

And then I phonebanked and called a list of Iowa voters. Only one person that I got through to hadn't voted yet, everyone else had, and 2 people enthusiastically volunteered that they voted for Obama. Woohoo!

Off to do more phonebanking and watching the returns (polls are closing in 2 minutes in a bunch of states)!

I really hope things work out right tonight. I'm so nervous.

Nerves

All of these voter problems have made me very, very nervous and frustrated.  Now, tell me, why are there no voter problems being reported from people trying to vote for McCain?

An American Lunch

When I started thinking more than an hour ago about what to get for lunch, I was undecided.  This is a special day, this election day, the first presidential election where I'm actually voting in a booth, and hopefully the day our country starts to move in a better direction.  What lunch could be appropriate for a day like today?  It had to be someplace close by, since I am trying to leave at 4 to go get in line to vote.

 

I started out thinking about sandwiches, soups, burgers, hot dogs, salads.  But why should an "American" lunch have to be traditional picnic food?  Why not something ethnic, something celebrating the fact that America is this huge diverse nation with many cultures which are all American?  Why not get something symbolizing the fact that we have all come from other places (well, other than the natives) and are all part of this country?

 

Nothing was living up to the standards of a lunch for a special and historic day.  Everything just seemed ordinary.  So I ended up just going to the Pret down the street and getting a half chicken and mozzarella baguette and a small spicy chicken chowder.  This is a special election day even with an ordinary lunch.  Hopefully it will all work out for the best.  And would someone please help all those voters in Virginia with their broken machines, misinformation and terrible lines!

Election Returns

I set out intending to write a post about past election days, but first decided to read through posts from 2004 to see what things were like.

How depressing. How can we go through this again for a third time? It was painful reading these entries.

This wait is agonizing (and I haven't even voted yet, so I'm not sure why I'm complaining about "waiting"). It's going to be a really long day.

Rallies

It just feels odd that it's almost 2 am eastern time and on MSNBC they are waiting for rallies to start.

Dixville Notch

Woohoo! Obama officially has 15 votes in New Hampshire!

I love that this place votes at midnight.

Confused

I just saw that horrible Rev. Wright "Hate we can believe in" ad from that Republican PAC on MSNBC.

What's going on here? I've now seen ads for "fair and balanced" Fox News and "hate we can believe in"... during shows like Countdown and Rachel Maddow. It's not like I'm watching Morning Joe. I don't get it.

Vote II

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday! Vote early to avoid long lines (if possible) and whatever you do, don't get off the line!

Phonebanking

I phonebanked (is that even a word?) this afternoon for the Obama campaign. I wish I had time to get more involved in the campaign earlier, but for one reason or another, never found time until the last minute. But I wanted to make sure I volunteered and did something other than donating $ to feel like I did some work to try to get to the finish line.

It's an interesting experience making phone calls for hours. A few observations:

1. I think people were screening their calls. The weather was not so nice in Pennsylvania that all of those people weren't home. I can't say I blame them. Some of the people I actually got to talk to had been contacted 4 times that day, and sometimes from call centers in different cities. I screen my calls based on caller ID, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing the same considering the call volume they must be getting. Which brings me to...

2. I started thinking at one point in the phonebanking that I shouldn't screen calls on my phone because I was learning what it felt like to dial 10 numbers in a row and get 10 voicemails/answering machines. Then I thought about it a little more and remembered why I do it at all.

3. Some of the people I called were so enthusiastic and it was so great to talk to them. Reminds you of why you're doing it. I only got 2 calls that turned out not to be supporters, but unfortunately they were the last 2 I made today.

4. I wonder when the day will come that we can have portable real-time technology that updates based on each phone call or home visit, so people in all different cities can track progress on all different levels all at once in the palm of their hand. I think that's more fantasy than reality at this point.

5. Phonebanking reminded me of just how big the world is, and it kind of makes you feel like a really small part of it all. You can hear a population number, or even see crowds of people, but when you're holding sheets of paper with names on them and the lists just go on and on, it really is a different way of seeing just how many people there are.

6. I didn't mind getting sent to voicemail that much. You could hear the message and sometimes I was wondering what the person was like and what they were up to. All from the sound of their voice and their outgoing message. Some people (like mine) had the generic message up so there wasn't much wondering going on there.

7. I liked knowing where I was calling, geographically. I think I had a sheet or 2 of Pittsburgh, another of Philly and a sheet of Johnstown. I think it's my map thing, why I wanted to know where I was calling. It also helps when you feel like you have a "stake" (for lack of a better word) in the outcome. Like when CNN zooms in on a county and you know you've called there. That's kind of cool. Like the way I'll be tracking certain downticket races because I contributed some $.

8. You know that every day you are living through "history." But there are just certain moments when you really feel like you're living through something people will read about in the history books years from now. Hopefully this time it's for something amazing, as opposed to the last 3 things I can think of that are in the history books (9/11, Katrina, the Bush downward spiral). It would be amazing to think of the type of uplifting history that could be made this week, and that we might live through it. One can only hope.

It's going to be a stressful and anxiety-filled 48 (or less) hours...

Sigh

My computer is dying.

I logged on this morning to do work after suddenly getting 3 blue
screen errors yesterday. And I couldn't get it to stay on through
start up without a blue screen error and restarting itself.

Luckily it is working enough (for now) to let me save stuff in safe
mode. Sigh. But I did lose some pictures. Sigh.

Time Changes

I think it's sad that it's been years since I have been asleep during the daylight savings time changes. It was always nice to sleep early, and wake up realizing you got a free hour of sleep. Or, on the other side, sleeping before the time change and not having to watch the time jump from 2 to 3 and realizing you have lost time.

Vote

Don't forget to vote on Tuesday! (Or early, if you can...)