I was standing in line at Petco buying a 50 dollar water fountain for my cat with a bladder infection when a very upsetting thought occurred to me.  How could I possibly explain to the poorest in the world, to some Hatians, that we have entire enormous buildings filled with nothing but items for our pets.  Pets that are never eaten or asked to guard our homes.  Animals who are so important to us that we rush them to the vet in the morning when they show signs of a bladder infection and give them prescription medicine to make them well.

I'm not saying I don't love Loki and won't pay what I have to in order to keep him safe and healthy.  I'm just saying that I would feel a little bit ridiculous and ashamed trying to explain it to someone who makes cookies out of dirt, butter, and sugar just to keep their family alive. 

We were never a big tv family when I was a kid.  Yeah, there was always one or two "appointment" shows at any given time, but aside from Saturday morning cartoons and the obligatory PBS line-up, we were book people.  My parents never encouraged excessive tv watching, but the lack of options probably did a lot to discourage us, too.  We had NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, and whatever Christian network western Michigan was stuck with.  That was it.  On a good day.  Fox only came in when the stars were in a particular alignment and, for some reason, CBS and PBS got crappier signals as the years went on.  Watching a show often required someone sitting next to the antenna dial thing so they could adjust it on commercial breaks.  It was tedious and frustrating, but it was what we had.

 . . . except when we went to visit my grandparents in Illinois.  The grandparents had cable.  This was the golden age of Nicktoons, which my classmates always talked about and I never saw.  MTV was a mystery, as well.  My grandparents never had to adjust an antenna and they had a ridiculous selection of cartoons on Saturdays.  My first memories of M*A*S*H come from their house and Nick at Night introduced me to shows Adams Family and Mr. Ed.  When we were a little older, my sister and I would go to the upstairs bedroom tv while my parents and grandparents were downstairs and spend our evenings watching forbidden shows like Bevis and Butthead or South Park with that thrill you only get as a child doing something with the fear of being caught.  At home, living in the sticks of Michigan, cable wasn't even really an option (this was before the days of Dish Network or Direct TV), but I vowed to have it someday and never let it go.

Which I did, from college on.  It amazed me for some reason that college GAVE you cable.  In hindsight, looking at what room and board cost, we paid for it, but it still felt free.  It was basic cable, sure (if you ignored the fact that Lisa and Annie's room randomly got some more, um, adult materials from time to time), but even that was more tv than any college student should have if they want to accomplish anything.  College cable introduced me to The Daily Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (we didn't get WB at home), and Angel- three of my favorite things in the entire world.  After college, there was Dead Like Me, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs (oh, Mike Rowe), Deadliest Catch, and on and on.

This is why what the husband and I are about to do feels like such a betrayal.  We have a digital internet and cable package through Brighthouse that current costs us around $120 dollars.  This is without any premium options like movie or sports packages.  We have an HD tv, now, and we upgraded to an HD cable box and dvr.  We knew that was coming.  But less than a month after the upgrade, our rates went up.  This week, only a few weeks after the rate increase, we were notified our taxes went up.  "Just a few dollars on your bill", they always say, but when it happens three times in a two month span, it hurts, and we are not exactly wealthy right now.  It hurts a lot more when, frankly, it doesn't feel worth it anymore.  We have shelves and shelves of movies that we never watch because there's always reruns of M*A*S*H or King of the Hill that we've seen multiple times.  All the first run shows we do watch are available either through free online streaming or by downloading from somewhere.  When you get right down to it, the only thing we're really worth paying for is reruns of tv shows that you can buy on DVD.  We paid 21 bucks for an HD tuner and get clear over the air channels.  Done.  Canceling cable will save us at least 60 bucks a month, which is a grocery bill for a week. 

Breaking up is hard to do, but at this point, it kind of feels like the bastard is cheating on me with the FCC, anyway, raping me, and generally making be feel dirty.  Maybe I'll go back to him someday, but he's going to have to prove his worth, and the way things are going, I don't see that happening. 

HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Josh: Our kids will not be in charge of our house

 How someone could be with someone for 8 years, spend three weeks apart from his 8-month pregnant wife, decide in that time that he's not happy, then inform her when they come home from the hospital that he's not sure he wants to be married anymore.  Spend countless hours with your wife while she's in labor (induced, btw, so that she could give birth while he's in town before he has to go back to his teaching job), watch your first son be born, all the while knowing full well you're thinking of leaving.  Not call your wife, the mother of your newborn son, for an entire God damn month after you go back home to work.

This is the first true example I've exampled of why counselors/psychologists should never counsel friends.  I don't think I could sit face to face with this person, someone I've never had reason to dislike in my life, without telling him to go fuck himself.  Granted, I haven't revealed this to my friend, because she's angry and heartbroken enough without me calling her husband all kinds of filthy names, but still.  Even Josh wants to beat the shit out of him, and Josh is about as pacifist as you can get and still be a human being.

I know people make stupid choices, I know this individual may have valid issues that need working out, but he's handling them immaturely and his timing is fucking cruel and if he decides not to try working things out with her, it will take a lot for me to forgive him.  I've known this friend since high school and she is one of the sweetest, kindest, most gentle people I've ever met.  Her entire family is amazing, and so was the husband I knew.  I hope to God he fights for her, because if not, he's one stupid son of a bitch.  

I wish I knew when it became a mandate that Christians must vote Republican.  I don't know why this is bothering me so much, but it really is.  There's an application on Facebook right now that lets you "donate" your status to remind people to get out and vote.  You can select either just "vote", or you can select your candidate.  The app shows a list of all of your friends who are donating their status', and let me tell you, my little sidebar list shows a staggering trend.  Of all my friends donating- college friends, old high school friends, adult friends I have, young friends, etc- the only ones on my list that put their vote status as McCain are my friends from church.  And not a single one of my church friends who donating their status did so for Obama.

I'm not trying to say that I think every single one of my friends should be voting for Obama.  I've made my choice (clearly) and they made theirs, and I respect that a great deal.  I just wish their was a bit more of a mix in the results I'm seeing.  We're the only car in our church parking lot every Sunday with an Obama magnet.  People we really love from church start talking to us about politics as if they assume we agree with their views.  One of our best friends starting complaining to me about how "Lobama" was bought all this airtime, may interrupt the World Series with it, yet he wouldnt' sit down and do interviews.  "I mean, they don't even let Biden do interviews because they don't trust him to talk".  You can't just talk like that to someone and assume the agree with you just because they go to church with you.  By the way, this friend's teenage daughter, who is one of the greatest kids I know, admitted to Josh that she vandalized someones car magnet.  I wonder where she got the idea that that was ok.  Both my husband and I have gotten e-mails from church friends with propoganda (Obama's a Muslem, he's not a citizen, he's a terrorist).  An e-mail I got from a woman from church that was only sent to three people.  I know she has way more friends from church, so I'm certain that I was very specifically targeted.  Meanwhile, we haven't sent a single e-mail to anyone, let alone spoken to anyone about our political views.  

Let me tell you about Josh's experience through this campaign.  He volunteers every Wednesday as a high school youth leader, along with several other adults.  One of the other leaders has been sending him multiple e-mails a week of the above propaganda persuasion.  He was letting it go for quite some time, even though it really bothered him because this individual knows where he stands and is very obviously trying to change his mind.  Mind you, he never TALKS to Josh about his views to strike up a dialogue of some kind.  He just sends these e-mails.  Additionally, not one of these e-mails outlined why to vote for McCain, simply why not to vote for Obama.  Finally, Josh got one questioning Obama's citizenship, loyalty to the country, etc, and that was the last straw.  After talking Josh down, I told him that he was well within his right to tell his friend politely to stop sending these e-mails, and that's exactly what he did the day after Josh early voted.  His friend has yet to say a word to him in person about this.  

Josh would have been happy to have a spirited, intelligent conversation about policies and beliefs with this person.  He's done his homework, and as shy as he is, he has been remarkable passionate about politics this year (we both have) and I would have paid good money to see that conversation.  But, as has been the trend with our friends this year, this didn't happen.  Just a string of e-mails containing easily disproved information meant to scare people.  As Josh said, if he had been sending good information about why McCain was good for the country and what he stood for, it would have maybe been a different story.  "Tell me why I should vote for this main without using Obama's name" was the example we used.

I've been a Christian all my life.  I've been active in every church I've belonged to, over and above the call of duty.  I feel very strongly about my faith and I love my church family, but I'm beginning to comprehend why so many young people are disenchanted by organized religion.  Josh and I are one of maybe three couples are age that belong to our church.  When I was at Hollins, I went to a church within walking distance of campus, and I was usually one of maybe two people my age there.  When a group makes you feel like you don't belong because you have liberal values, that can really wear on a person.  I don't want to have to constantly defend my faith as being real just because I believe that my gay friends should have the same rights I have, or that a rape victim and her family should have a choice in what happens to her, or that I can support the military without agreeing with the war, or that maybe we shouldn't take the creation story so literally.  The God I believe doesn't vote or belong to a political party, and if that makes me a radical socialist, so be it.

Vote.  I don't care for who, only that you've done your homework before you do.  One of my coworkers told a bunch of us that he didn't want us to vote because he knew who we were voting for (this person is a political science major, btw).  I told him that I found that funny, because I knew who he was voting for never once thought that he shouldn't vote.  Enough said.

For reasons completely unrelated to the last Office episode, the hubby and I are embarking on a weight loss contest.  It was mainly spurred by Josh's inability to motivate himself and my constant bitching about my figure, I think.  So, for the next 10 weeks, we'll be weighing in weekly to see who can drop the most pounds.  To take into account the possibility to look better through exercise without really losing much, we'll also be measuring waistlines to see if that changes, though it won't really count for the contest.  There can be no crash dieting, no intentionally skipping meals, etc.  This is just to see who can lose the most through exercise and changing eating habits.  

What's on the line?  We're settling on an amount of cash to set aside for the winner to spend as they see fit, just in time for Christmas!  

Stay tuned for smack talk and good times.  :-)
  

 So, yeah, we still want to see a movie, so get on picking that for us.  But we're not seeing the Rent showing, because they want 20 Goddamn dollars a ticket, and I paid that much for a front row seat on Broadway, so they can kiss my ass.

Through an interesting twist of internet links, however, I now have tickets to see Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp with a touring cast in Tampa in July '09.  ADAM PASCAL.  I might die right now.  I have always, always wanted to see him play that role and I thought the movie would satisfy me, but now I get to, and SQUEEEEEEEEEE!  

Poor Josh.

So, while the entire country goes broke and the republicans and democrats eat each other alive over it and my bank goes broke (Thanks, WaMu), Josh and I want to go see a movie.  What should we see?

Ghost Town
Burn After Reading
Tropic Thunder (Yes, we're that far behind)

. . . there's a BROADWAY filming of Rent coming out?!  Holy crap!  Where have I been?

I have Wall-E reusable shopping bags.  

That is all.

 

 It doesn't matter if you're liberal or conservative (God, I hate those terms), or who you support, you should read this:

A Journalist's Appology

Brilliant stuff.