Presidential Traumatic Stress Disorder

This morning I was preparing my Neil Med Sinus Rinse with CNN in the background. A story came on that mentioned our new president without using his full name. Apparently my knee-jerk reaction to hearing the phrase "The President" is still to clamp my hands over my ears and yell "LA LA LA LA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Eight years of this does some damage. It might take me a while to realize that "The President" is actually an awesome dude now.

Best. Birthday Gift. Ever.

Today is the last full day of the G.W. Bush administration. I don't think I could ever get a better birthday gift. Ever.

The sweet taste of victory

I'm pretty bummed that Ben and Jerry's new flavor Yes Pecan! is not available in the grocery store. It would make a perfect inaugural-night dessert. Election night I rationalized my pregnancy cravings by eating what I thought was the perfect B&J flavor for that occasion: Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream. (It is DELICIOUS. Maybe I'll have to settle on splitting another pint with the hubby on Tuesday...)

Oh yeah, that!

I never posted on Wednesday, November 5, about the incredible results of the election the night before. I was up till midnight, glued to my television and the internet. The acceptance speech brought me to tears - before it even started.

Today my Gmail had a link to a Larry King interview with Bill Maher. It was interesting, thoughtful, and funny. Excerpt ....

King: You recently issued one of your new rules decreeing that Obama must give comedians something to work with. Any suggestions?

Maher: No. It's very difficult. We have been spoiled, first with Bill Clinton and then George Bush. And here's a president now who -- he's not stupid. He's not angry. He's not a phony. He's not fat. He's not cheating on his wife.

Who needs a jerk like that around for the next four years? Come on.

(LAUGHTER)

But look, he's going to be the president and we're going to have to get over our nervousness about making fun of a black person. He's not a black person. He's the president.

Campaigning LOLs

Historically, I am a procrastinator. So it's not a shock to me (or my friends and family) that my first effort to volunteer for the Obama campaign came tonight, on the eve of the election. I must admit that until very recently I thought Georgia was a lost cause. Recent polls predict I could be wrong, so I knew I had to do something or I'd kick myself later. Moveon.org requested volunteers, so I signed up and showed up at the local Obama HQ in Decatur at 7 PM tonight. They put me on phone duty, but I only got to place ten calls before the callers caught up with the data entry folks and we ran out of numbers to distribute for a bit. I reassigned myself to stapling duty for the rest of the night. Those ten calls made a big impression, though. Here's how one of them went:

Me (timidly, since this is only the third call I've placed where a human being picked up, the second of which hung up on me before I finished my first sentence): Hello, my name is Tori and I'm calling for the Campaign for Change here in Georgia. I'm calling for Barack Obama.
Lady on Phone: Girl ... ! We Republicans!
Me (trying to follow the script without sounding ridiculous but also trying not to sound defeated): So, can Senator Obama count on your support tomorrow?
Lady on the Phone: We don't cross that line!
Me (giving up, as instructed by script): Thank you for your time and have a lovely evening...
Lady on the Phone, laughing: I'm just messin' wit' you! Course we votin' for Obama!

The ninth call reached a man who said I was the second person who had called him tonight, and that he planned to vote for Obama. As I thanked him for his support and apologized for the duplicate phone calls, he interrupted me to say that nobody had called to ask for his wife, would I like to speak to her? I said of course I would, and she got on the phone to proudly tell me that she also supports Obama. It was a pretty bitchin' ninth phone call.

I hope I can sleep tonight. I'm excited and nervous. And going to bed. So I can get up early and vote.

Two out of Three Atlanta Friends Surveyed are Voting for McCain

No wonder I miss Chicago at times.

Breaking the Silence

Since I last posted about my last day working from home, we've been up to a lot. Just not a lot of writing:

• Visiting our new nephew Brennan in Baton Rouge. He was 3 weeks old at the time and sweet as can be. Pictures soon to follow (issues in uploading pics, see item below about home computing).
  
• Wrapping up my last week on-site at my former employer in Chicago. I stayed with Elizabunny and had a great dinner with Dad and Linda on Friday night.
  
• Eating lots of meat. Especially rotisserie chicken.
  
• Wondering what the future architecture of our home computing environment will be, given the relinquishment of my laptop to my former employer. The IBM Thinkpad is on the fritz and Ryan's desktop is inconveniently situated at present.
  
• Lots of sinus rinsing. Elizabunny was sick with a particularly nasty cold when I crashed on her living room floor. I have somehow escaped it ... so far.
  
• Marveling at the ultrasound of the baby girl we are expecting in March!
  
• Starting my new job here in Atlanta.
  
• Being grateful for my sister-in-law and her stash of maternity clothes that saved me during my first week at said new job.
  
• Finally changing the light bulbs over the front door (they burn out SO quickly) so that the trick-or-treaters will be able to see the skeleton/ghost hanging on our front door and know we're handing out the goods.
  
• Consuming an entire gallon of Garrett's popcorn cheese and caramel mix (which surprisingly is the same ridiculous price on line that it is in O'Hare).
  
• Realizing it's probably going to be less painful to vote on Tuesday than to stand in line at the ONE early voting center available in Dekalb county.
  
• Thinking about volunteering at the Obama office in Decatur on Monday evening.
  

The Highlight of the Game

I am going to post a longer story about our weekend adventures, which included great seats at a depressing Bears game here in Atlanta at some point soon. But I couldn't wait to share that the highlight of the game was the result of the "In-Game Voting" presidential poll, via text message.

Enough Already

Words and phrases I'm either tired of hearing or have not heard that much but simply find ridiculous (without even beginning to get into Peggy Palin-Hill's gaffes):

From McCain:

reaching across the aisle
You've probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac until now.
my friends (referring to US Citizens)
maverick
earmarks
it's like nailing jello to a wall
It's not that hard to fix Social Security, Tom.
Senator Obama has never taken on his party leaders on a single issue.
President Reagan is my hero.
Oh wait, no, sorry. My hero is actually Teddy Roosevelt.
I looked in [Putin's] eyes and saw three letters: a K, a G, and a B.
"that one"
What I don't know is what all of us don't know.

From Obama (This is not an unbiased report, so there's only one):

aaaand

And from both of them:

The United States of America is [a/the greatest] force for good.

Now for the truly important stuff: McCain's suit, my sister pointed out, fits him poorly and looks a little... cheap. His tie, it looks like a candy cane. Obama's look, on the other hand, has been tailored to perfection. The muted blue tie is sublime. Perhaps McCain is spending too much money on all his mortgages and has to shop at Mens Wearhouse?

Also. McCain sounds like he's teaching kindergarten when he speaks. His tone of voice is downright condescending.

Sales of Palin Saryh wine plummet since VP announcement.

Bottle shock

Thanks, SHARON!

That'll be $1000, please.

Palin's town charged women for rape exams

My blood is boiling

Thanks to Ali for pointing these out to me.... I'm a little slow since I don't always get to listen to news in the morning.

Lose your house, lose your vote.

Obama campaign files suit over "voter-foreclosure" plans

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

Thanks, Aunt Sarah.

Shenanigans

I really don't watch The Daily Show frequently enough. I got this link from Mr. Armstrong over at blurbomat.com.



My feeling that Sarah Palin was stretching the truth just a teensy-weensy bit when she spoke last night has been confirmed by objective news sources. Heather Armstrong posted an article worth reading, and I love her description of it:

(please read this, it's a report from the AP, not some spooky liberal blog that wants to kill babies)

Queen of the Hill?

I was chatting earlier today with my hilarious vegetarian coworker, S, about McCain's VP pick of Sarah Palin. I had recently confessed to S that I had eaten bacon, among other meat products (for reasons I think almost everybody who reads this already knows). We started digging up internet gossip on Palin, and S immediately noticed a similarity to a familiar animated face. She shortly thereafter sent this image to me. (Apparently Palin enjoys hunting.)