Scratching the rash decisions

It occurred to me a moment ago that it's going to be a challenge to look for an apartment in Minneapolis when I don't know a single thing about the city except my boyfriend's address. It also occurred to me that I might have decided everything without thinking very hard about practicalities.

Oops.

Too late, it's done now, and I'm leaving next Saturday for icier pastures. What am I going to do? Where am I going to live? How will I possibly survive without destroying my relationship, rendering the entire move pointless? I'm not so sure I have answers to any of those, but I have faith that I can figure it out. I mean, faith is a fact! Wait, maybe that was the blooper reel...

Urge to participate in democracy rising...

Why, Russ, why? You...are...just...so...wrong! All of your ideological and geographical compatriots were smart enough to vote no. Obama, Durbin, Harkin, Dayton, Stabenow; All four Sentators from California and Maryland voted right-WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM MAN!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

First Ashcroft and now this. You realize voting for this douche isn't going to obscure the divorce in your doomed presidential bid, right?

I'm fighting the urge to make angry phone calls to both you and Kohl. I expected it from him, but you? I'm so disappointed...

Marylanders, you should call your Senators and say nice things to them. Lucky bastards.

It's come to this.

My roommate is off surfing, my couch surfer is working, and I'm sitting in front of my computer at noon on a Thursday eating dry cereal in my pajamas. It is Thursday, right? I'm so uninspired I don't even know what day it is. I can't even blog about boys! I need to get a job...

The Last Straw

So the place that I didn't really like all that much and never quite put my all into laid me off yesterday, and on top of it all they "can't" pay me for another 10 days or so. The whole "rent is due on the 1st" thing doesn't seem to register. I've officially crossed the threshold. For all the times I've spoken of it without really explaining, here it finally is: I'm moving to Minneapolis to be closer to the boyfriend, and now that there's nothing keeping me here, I'm doing it in just a little less than two weeks. TOD will continue, but please be forgiving while I pack and move. Things are sure to be a bit hectic.

UPDATE: How fucking wacko is it that it's CHEAPER to stay in New York than to move to Minneapolis? When has that ever happened in the history of mankind? I just want to go back to the midwest, and I can't. This fucking sucks.

If you have to ask, you're not invited...

Submitting writing samples with your resume blows just a little bit. It gives you another opportunity to think about all the kick ass articles you ballsed up somehow that you can't send in. I also hate cover letters. In my opinion, if you actually have to worry about what your cover letter says, you're probably not well-connected enough to get the job, so you should chill out about how it distinguishes you from the 9,000 other "candidates" for whatever you're applying for. Who hires based on merit these days anyway? Then again, I've been pretty fortuate on this front, so I guess I'm half-ranting, half-self-congratulating about avoiding actually competing for jobs.

This one is out of my hands now, thank goodness. Now only time will tell if I'm geeky enough for public radio. It'd be sweet if I am, but I'm just a poor imitation of ubergeek Little Sis.

Cleaning

I'm on a rampage. My drawers are clean, I've got a bag full of stuff to get rid of, the piles of paper are almost non-existent, and I'm ready to start hand-washing some of my more sensitive clothes. Where did this sudden burst of energy come from? Who knows? I think I've done enough for one day; how will I fill the next two weeks if I do it all now?

Distractions

This knitting thing went a lot faster when I didn't have to follow a pattern. My inability to memorize the damn thing is slowing me down too. That and how easily distracted I am. There are a lot of effective time killers out there, from my newfound craftiness to cleaning up my bedroom in anticipation of the big move to showing my long-term houseguest around the city(today is Roosevelt Island day-Liliana, I'm spreading the gospel!). It's really too bad that the things I'm avoiding are the cover letter for a job in Minneapolis that I might love and doing the work that will fund the move. My other favorite is list making-right now I'm working on "Reasons to Use my Return Flight." I'm still on #1. Any ideas? Anybody? Bueller? That's what I thought.

In case you were wondering, I'm also a wee bit uninspired on the writing front. It might get worse before it gets better; sorry. In the meantime, enjoy this quote from my great-aunt, one of the most talkative people I've ever met:

I don't think he looked much like President Bush-he looked like Ricardo Montalban!

That'd be a much more interesting president to have, don't you agree?

Old Haunts

I'm back at our beloved Nation today and tomorrow, a time that seems too short for how much I love it and a little too long when I think about how embarrassingly little I've done since leaving for what I thought was the last time in June. I see two other former Katrina interns here right now. That sight alone makes me happy to be leaving New York for prospects less Nation-dependent. I'm sure it's great work and all, but you have to cut the cord sometime...(Liliana, I'm glad you're out of here, although I do wish you and Lauren were here to distract me). Up next on my latest nostalgia tour-Zen Palate and some Sesame Medallions.

Flashback

Rich teenage girls are wasting their parents' money by going to Ivy League schools with the intention of being stay at home moms. Is this a surprise? Only if you've been hiding under a rock. I had been thinking about writing about this "new" trend, but my laziness means that the Times got there first. This isn't rocket science-after watching many of our mothers approach the adult diaper years while still having to work before we're even done with undergrad, having kids at a younger age at the expense of career advancement does seem just a little bit more appealing than those monster gauge in vitro fertilization needles.

This is not to say that I think we should all embrace a return to the home as the future of the women's movement. Being a stay at home mom(or dad) is really only fun if you have enough money to hire someone to do the dirty work for you. I'm sure it's a blast to hang out with the kids all day, shuttling them from playdate to baby music classes to soccer practice when you've got a Nicaraguan immigrant doing your cooking and cleaning.

I don't want anyone to think that I really believe that it's a good thing that so many young women are so flippant about the importance of a career to overall satisfaction with one's life. I am, in my own way, one of these girls. My mother stayed home with my sister and me and did all the icky household stuff, and she's always said that she's glad she did it. She also tells me she always knew she just wasn't a good enough multi-tasker to have a job and raise kids and manage to do both to her (admirable but unreasonably high) standards. I'm lucky to have grown up in a part of the country that made it possible for the four people in my family to survive on one state bureaucracy salary. It was a huge luxury to know that my mom would be around when I was done with school and that, unless it was summer golf-league Wednesday, my father would walk through our front door by 5:30 every night. This anachronistic security was great because I walked away knowing that the way to make things work better is not by making more money or having two full time career hounds or a total return to 1950's labor division. A return to slightly more "traditional" family setups might actually work if BOTH people made sacrifices, which seems to be exactly what these girls aren't looking for.

This article, much more interestingly, lays bare exactly how dumb today's youth is. Observe:

"I accept things how they are," she said. "I don't mind the status quo. I don't see why I have to go against it."

After all, she added, those roles got her where she is.

"It worked so well for me," she said, "and I don't see in my life why it wouldn't work."

There are no words. I take that back. I do have some words, and a suggestion for these women-Thalidomide vaccines. Wave of the future. Make your kids smarter and many times more special. Maybe even up to four times more special.

Resolved

I think I've contracted some sort of terrible illness. I can't stop thinking about ways to improve myself. Is acting like a grown-up contagious? Could it be sexually transmitted? Ethan, is this your fault? As I contemplate ,I'm going to go back to knitting. Also, I've decided to cut down on the drinking-maybe even cut it out.

I finally heard back from my editor about the interview. She's editing it now, so it should be up soon. Another byline-Yay!

Back to thinking about furniture...

But on a Tuesday?

Because I don't have enough to occupy my time right now, I went out last night and am now regretting it terribly. My head hurts, so instead of working I'm trolling Craigslist Minneapolis and imagining how cute my things would look in some of the apartments. Liliana and Lauren, I know that you're busy fact-checking right now, but without your bloggery to distract me all I think about is moving! It's all I can do to keep myself from buying a ticket that leaves tomorrow! I think I need another intervention...

Curses!

Why must that tiny orange "T" thwart me so? Why? I hate you New York Times! You broke my heart! I'm TimesSelecting a new homepage! It's over!

A Follow Up Question for Joe McIllhaney Jr.

It's not really news, but teenagers are on their knees in equal numbers for purposes other than praying. It's actually quite reassuring to see that boys do more than just receive nowadays. One reaction to the study leaves me a bit confused.

Joe McIllhaney Jr., chairman of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, said the new data confirm trends he has seen as a physician, but he has doubts about some of Wagoner's conclusions. "I question how much girls enjoy" oral sex, he said."I'd like to know a whole lot more about the pressure boys put on girls."

Mr. McIllhaney, your organization seems legitimate and not conservative, so I have to ask-why wouldn't girls enjoy oral sex? What on earth are you talking about? Please! Explain!

Who Could Forget This Guy?

With a name like Jack Noseworthy, you'd be hardpressed to do it. I was walking down the street yesterday, trying to find a radio station that would pump one or two good songs into my headphones, and I stumbled upon Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses," from that mid-90s period of big ballads with music videos that told a "serious story." Two things occurred to me; one, "Bed of Roses" starts with the line "I wake up and french kiss the morning," and that's gross; two, I started wondering what happened to the stars of Bon Jovi's OTHER massive mid-90s power ballad, "Always." The girl was Carla Gugino, who most recently watched Elijah Wood eat her hand in Sin City, but what of the guy? I had hazy memories of an MTV show, but only an IMDB search could reveal the name(he was on Dead at 21!). That show was the only live action one I remember from that period where they played all the kick-ass cartoons like Aeon Flux and The Head.

The other thing I remembered about Mr. Noseworthy is that my 12 year old self thought he was really, really ugly. Now I think I was too hard on the poor guy. Besides, in the last 11 years I've grown up and moved forward, and his last big movie was Undercover Brother. I wonder how often someone asks him if he feels UN-Noseworthy...

Nostalgia

I'm at the Nation right now, doing some work, but mostly just remembering the good old days of the internship. The loving and warm embrace. The fall interns are being oriented at the moment. My own heady days seem so far away...

Also, I'm a little worried that the new web editor will not want to put my interview up. How cruel can someone be? Never fear-if she won't do it I'll post it in its entirety on the blog.

Also, Liliana caught a great moment of mine a few minutes ago. Sometimes I really need to keep my mouth shut.

No Time for Language Games

I sit, waiting anxiously for any crumbs of information, and it looks like today I must occupy myself by debating the possible meanings of "begin a conversation." Sent over email. In reference to a future telephone conversation(hopefully tomorrow). But why "begin?" I may go mad.

Aimee Mann Moment

I'm not listening to her music right now, but I have a line from one of her songs stuck in my head, the one that was also a line in Magnolia. The line when the cokehead woman says to the cop, "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?" It won't go away.

There was a car accident outside my apartment last night and a small fight broke out between the drivers. It seemed much of the neiborhood wanted in on it too. My question is this-a cab driver not carrying his driver's license? WTF? The cops came before anything interesting happened, but for a few minutes, it was chaos.

For DJ

Just because you're always complaining about the changes in your old 'hood...it's not a Brooklyn theme park just yet.

Piling Up

Do you ever have days where you manage to get tons of work done that has absolutely nothing to do with what you're doing right at this moment? You know, all the good, "future planning to-do list" stuff? That was my day. I took out my garbage and did my laundry(two things that are, I suppose, very present oriented), but other than that I've been chipping away at this massive rock face labelled "FUTURE" in big letters, trying to find the way through, and it's just not working. I'm more confused today than I was yesterday, and I'm sure that tomorrow will follow the pattern. I'm starting to worry that by the time I get to Friday I'll have no job in Minneapolis, no job here, and no idea how to fill the rapidly approaching winter months. Too much! It's all too much!

Inappropriate thoughts

I'm really tired of being angry about Hurricane Katrina. I'm also sometimes not very nice. These two things combined with a photo I just saw on Americablog(the one of the waterlogged cemetery) led me to one very, very bad thought-what if the floods spilled voodoo supplies throughout the city, or, alternately, what if the bacteria showing up in the stagnant water were a new mutant strain, and reanimated the dead? That's right, in this time of tragedy I still can't stop thinking about zombies. I guess the Administration could have it worse; they could have the evacuation, the rebuilding, and bloated, waterlogged walking dead. Somehow I don't think this is going to be one of McClellan's talking points next week, but I'm certainly thankful. Think back to the images of the Superdome and the Convention Center, etc., etc., and then imagine zombies there. It's Land of the Dead(a movie I didn't see because it's my WORST NIGHTMARE, or was until last week)!

Sorry about that, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore.

The Times hunts for justice and bags itself...culture wars

My love and fellow Badger pointed my attention to the start of the Rice Lake massacre trial in Madison, WI. This was a huge deal when it happened, and the issues the article raises are real ones that all native Madisonians think about(mostly it's just a sense of unrest that comes when we think about all the gun-toting people who surround us in Wisconsin and beyond into Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.) We are a different breed, and UW Madison is a great school in a state where, last time I checked, something like only 25% of people graduate from college. I know that the concerns of the Rice Lake residents are about more than the "context of hunting culture," they're linked to the sense that a liberal city won't give a fair trial to a minority who is accused of killing a bunch of 'northwoods hicks who probably voted Republican' because Madison is too PC. Thinking about it makes me long for the article about the Minnesota State Fair and the Butter Princesses

Oh, and in case you missed it...

Some people are actually writing well. I'm sure no one did, but just in case.

Changes

So it looks like Michael Brown is a goner. Good riddance. Do you think his old organization will provide a steed for him to ride into the sunset?

Also, someone told Cheney to go fuck himself and Cheney cracked the guy was probably a friend of John Kerry-while talking about the HURRICANE. But, you know, I'm sure it wasn't political.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K right now, but it's nice to be back in New York. Also, I miss my baby.

Transit

So I'm finally on my way back to New York. I'm also a little overemotional thanks to modern medicine, so who knows how this trip will go. I can't wait to get back to everything, no matter how trivial it was. I've missed my life. See you guys soon.

"Ultra-catastrophe?"

Kyra Phillips of CNN just said "disaster to ultra-catastrophe." ?!? Joe Lieberman also just admitted that Homeland Security failed. People are holding up photos of their missing children on television. And the Bushes are calling up images of welfare queens lounging at the Astrodome. I just have to get this out-the President of the United States let people die. No arguments like the Iraq war; the bloated bodies floating in the streets didn't sign up to be poor. No more whining about what Blanco and Nagin should have done-they asked for help before the hurricane. I'm sure Tierney would be crying like a little bitch for help from the Feds if his pretty pretty New York abode was destroyed by natural disaster or, I don't know, terrorism. Be skeptical of government if you want to, but it exists to protect its citizens in exactly these situations, and it FAILED. I hope they all pay, and pay as dearly as I can wish without bringing the Secret Service down on myself.

A close friend of mine will be driving from Canyon, TX to Houston over the next several weekends to volunteer with the Red Cross, and he's opened his home to friends and former colleagues left with nothing. This is a man who can't afford a telephone right now, who's been charging his groceries. And he wants to do more. That's what we need, not live footage of pumping water from New Orleans. We need investigations into who was in charge when trucks with food and water were turned away by federal officials when local officials were begging for help. We need some revolution.

If you haven't watched the video of Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard on Meet the Press, avoid it. Those five minutes lay bare everything that is wrong with this country.

And, for the conspiracy theorists:
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and his constituents have had many good things to say about the Federal government's response to the hurricane. He is a Republican.

New Orleans is a heavily Democratic city with a Democratic Mayor, and Louisiana has a Democratic Senator and Governor, and, well, you've seen what's been going on there. It seems that it's a lot more dangerous to be a "D" in the South than I thought.

Drive-by interview

So yesterday I finally, at long last, spoke to Simon Reeve. He sounds brilliant. And Gorgeous. And I did it while in a car. On its way to Kentucky. With my whole family. Journalism never seemed so glamorous.

It'll be a little while until the interview actually goes up, but I'll post the link when it does. He's definitely on my list of most erudite, most admirable, most interesting role model types in the world today. He's still my hero.