So, Thanksgiving is over and it went well. My mom and Gary got to meet and I got to have my friends over for dinner. And that's always fun. Now comes the inevitable letdown after bustling activity. My house feels really quiet and my job feels intolerable.

I need a new job. If anyone knows any good websites, books, etc on how to find a nonprofit job, let me know. I just can't stand being at the library anymore. I'm constantly in a bad mood and I snap at customers. I'm becoming one of those grouchy DMV people.

Gary gave me my Christmas present early and I am now the proud owner of an iPOD. I love it! It can hold 10,000 songs so I'm not likely to fill it up anytime soon. All I want to do is just sit in front of my computer and download songs for my iPOD. I even got it this cute pink leather protective cover. I'm going to have lots and lots of fun with it.

I liked the list posted on the SUGAR IN THE RAW blog, so I thought I'd post my own.

THINGS THAT I AM THANKFUL FOR

1.Gary (the Love of my Life)

2. My Friends and Family (they're basically the same thing)

3. My lovely home

4. Having a job

5. Being surrounded by likeminded people

6. the opportunity to volunteer and help others

7. my cat, Toulouse

8. free DVDs at the library

9. books, books, books

10. cool museums in Denver

11. cards and letters in the mail

12. unexpected surprises

13. Cherry Creek Mall

14. good health

15. opportunities to travel and see the world

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

So, there's a new blog in town.

The Dewey Diaries chronicles true-life tales from an unnamed Colorado library. You'll get to read all about the crazy customers and day-to-day moments of several disgruntled library workers. Check it out. (no pun intended)

http://www.deweydiaries.blogspot.com

So, I am having trouble with weirdos today. First of all, this guy I went on one or two dates with about four months ago has been calling me. He's a nice guy but I just don't want to be friends with him. It's not my habit to buddy up with guys I've dated in the past.

THEN, this guy that used to stalk me at the library showed up again today. I thought he had finally given up because he hasn't really bothered me lately. Well, today he showed up with a pink rose for me.

THEN, this crazy guy who always causes problems came in and started yelling about how good I look today. He asked me why I was dressed up and I told him it was because I have an event to go to tonight. (I'm doing a Junior League facilitation) So he said, "Well, tell me where you're going 'cause I wanna be there!" with this lascivious grin. My friend and co-worker Gary was mortified by the guy's behavior. This customer is a Class A Pig.

I guess this tells me that I should stick to jeans and plain shirts for work and never dress up. I'm telling you, it's raining crazy people and stalkers today. Is it a full moon or something?

This is my kind of quiz...


You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?

So, I have a confession to make. I really love holidays. I think I have decorations in my basement for just about every holiday. Any chance to celebrate life, right? But I really love the period from Halloween through New Year's Eve. I don't like being hit over the head with Christmas decorations in October but, when appropriate, I really like seeing decorations start to go up. I really lament not having a yard because I would be the crazy person on the block with the giant inflatable turkey at Thanksgiving and the gazillion Christmas lights twinkling on the house. I love decorating my house and playing Christmas carols. I love caroling and going ice skating. I love driving around looking at Christmas lights with a thermos of hot cocoa. I love curling up and watching my favorite holiday movies. And most of all, I love shopping for present for people!

I went to see "Polar Express" with a lot of misgivings. I'm usually a purist about books and I didn't like the idea of one of my favorites being made into a weird-looking movie. But I actually enjoyed it. I even got teary-eyed at the end. I think seeing that movie officially opened my holiday season.

Now, I don't typically care that much about getting presents. I really don't. I get the most enjoyment out of GIVING presents. But if I were to make a "pie in the sky" list for Santa this year it would be:

1) 20 or 40 GB I-Pod
2) Kodak digital camera like Sara's
3) anything off my Amazon wish list
4) lots of frequent flyer miles!!!!!
5) gift certificates to restaurants and movie theaters

I'm so looking forward to Thanksgiving. Only a week away!

So, I have developed a new pet peeve.

A few hours after the planes hit the World Trade Center, I was driving down I-25 and saw a man standing on an overpass waving an American flag for all he was worth. It kind of brought tears to my eyes. It was a small statement of both solidarity and spirit. It said, "we will not be defeated and we will never give up." Well, that statement was quickly corrupted for me when everyone started driving around with flags covering their automobiles.

It was like everyone had to jump on the flag-waving bandwagon. (as comedian David Cross puts it) Now, the latest trend in Denver is for everyone to put those ridiculous large magnetic yellow ribbons on their cars that say "Support Our Troops." Those magnets just really offend me. Honestly, who doesn't "support our troops?" What those magnets really mean is "support the war." Just because I don't believe that my fellow Americans should be sent across the ocean to die for a cause I don't believe in doesn't mean that I don't SUPPORT THE TROOPS! One of my dearest friends has been serving over in the Middle East during all of this mess. He knows I support the troops. I don't need a bumper sticker to say "Hey, look at me, I'm a patriot!" Being a patriot doesn't mean accepting whatever your leadership says without questioning. It doesn't mean always going with the norm and never standing up for what you truly believe in. It doesn't mean vilifying people who happen to have a difference of opinion. And it doesn't stop at simply waving flags around and covering your car in propaganda.

Being a patriot means loving your country and fighting to make it the best that it can be. It means standing up for what you believe in even if it isn't popular opinion. It means going out to vote and campaigning for the candidate you believe in. And even if your candidate loses, it means working to make sure that you keep the winner honest by bombarding him or her with lobbying e-mails, letters and phone calls.

I don't need a sticker or a ribbon or even a flag to tell the world that I'm a patriot and that I support the troops. I just have to live my life like I do.

So, I have been thinking lately about where we learn our values and morals. Obviously, we typically learn them from family members or other influential adults. I am of a mind that being raised in a church affected my moral view of the world. My boyfriend believes it is the responsibility of parents to teach their children and that church isn't necessary. And maybe that's true. But I think going to church affected the person I have become. (and, incidentally, my boyfriend was raised Catholic so who knows how that may have influenced his development) There is (another) great article in the December issue of ELLE that is called "Confessions of a Very Good Girl" by Carlene Bauer and it talks about this very issue. Bauer talks about the lasting imprint of her strict religious upbringing even though she is no longer a practicing Christian in the framework of visiting a Christian women's conference. This is my favorite part:

"And yet the words the Gospel writers have Jesus speaking--"This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you"--still have a hold on me. So while I feel that Jesus as I understood him would not be down with the intolerance aired onstage, I also feel that he wouldn't want me to be standing here seething with bitter and self-righteous feelings. Jesus might even feel moved to remind me that is was Christianity that helped me to build a strong sense of purpose and self-respect--qualities that drove me to excel at school and eventually got me to New York. Jesus made me who I am today, I suppose. And I'm still having a hard time deciding whether that's something to value or to regret, or both. Sometimes it seems that all I got from those years of churchgoing was the inability to lie. But my religious education also taught me to value people and ideas over money. It taught me that abstract concepts of love and justice and mercy can be, should be made real. It gave me--pardon the expression--character.

It happened that before I got religion I got feminism, and it was religion that introduced me to the notion that there was more to life than boys; it helped me to avoid the messes girls get into when they can't see any other way to feel good about themselves.....Christianity tells you that you are destined for something more than life on earth, and while I wasn't particularly looking forward to heaven--it seemed at once terrifying and boring--I did respond to the idea that we were more than our bodies..."

It's a thoughtful article and I recommend that you look it up and read it.

I feel that Christianity made me who I am today. I did learn values from the adults around me growing up but most of those adults were in the religious sphere.

Can you be a moral person without religion? Of course you can. But I like what Christianity has taught me and I like the examples that is sets. And I hope to raise my children in the church someday. While their godless communist of a father sits at home and watches football. (just kidding Gary)

So, what ever happened to common courtesy? Politeness? Etiquette?

It seems like people are just rude and self-centered nowadays. There is a great article in the new issue of ELLE magazine about people and their food hangups. You can't have a good old-fashioned dinner party anymore without worrying who's a vegetarian, who is on Atkins, who isn't eating sugar, who is only eating white foods this month. You practically have to get a list of people's food issues before you have a party and then try to figure out what the heck to serve.

The only food issues I really have are that I don't eat veal or lamb and I try to avoid red meat for personal reasons. I really can't eat veal or lamb. It makes me sick. But if I'm served red meat, I'll eat it because I don't want to offend my host. I would never want to embarrass someone over food they are serving me when I am the guest.

I have also experienced the following:

1) When you make plans with someone and then cancel for a better offer....that's rude.

2) When you show up to a dinner party or special event and bring someone who wasn't invited without asking...that's rude.

3) When someone brings you a host/hostess gift and then you make a big show about how you don't like it...that's rude.

4) When you show up late or make people wait on you when you are a guest...that's rude.

5) When you complain about what you are being served when you are a guest...that's rude.

What is so hard about just being polite? If you don't like something on your plate, just push it aside. Don't eat it. And don't make a big deal about it. When you RSVP in the affirmative for an event, you should go unless you are sick or something major comes up. People plan events according to RSVPs and it's rude to cancel for no good reason at the last minute. Also, if you have RSVP'd in the negative, don't show up at the last minute after all.

What is so hard about all of this? I'm not perfect but I'm making an effort to be more polite. I'm even reading classics of etiquette like Leticia Baldridge and Emily Post. Because common courtesy goes a long way in keeping people from getting offended and having their feelings hurt.

There are some very interesting Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times today. One of the best is on religion and politics by Gary Hart. Check it out here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/opinion/08hart.html

We Democrats really dropped the ball this time around. And I think pieces like this one and others that have come out in the last week (such as works by Arianna Huffington and comments by Bill Maher) have really pointed out where we fell apart. Hopefully, we can learn from all of this and move on. But the one thing I really agree with and that I've been thinking a lot about is this trend to combine religion and politics. And not just any religion, it HAS to be Christianity. The separation of church and state is becoming more and more ambiguous and that troubles me because that way of thinking excludes a large portion of our country. I"ve always thought one of our strengths was our diversity, open-mindedness and inclusiveness. Well, at least we still have diversity. Anyway, check out the article. It's very thoughtful.

So, my mourning period is over. Kerry was the first candidate I believed in in a long time. So, after all that faith and hard work, it is a painful blow to lose. But I still believe. And I watched my very favorite Colorado senator Ken Gordon get re-elected. And before too long, I will see Mayor Hickenlooper of Denver become the next governor. And I sobbed when listening to Kerry's concession speech but it was very moving. I won't lose faith. We will overcome. In the meantime, I dedicate this New Radicals song to Kerry and his followers:

"Wake up kids
We've got the dreamers disease
Age 14 we got you down on your knees
So polite, you're busy still saying please
Fri - enemies, who when you're down ain't your friend
Every night we smash their Mercedes - Benz
First we run and then we laugh till we cry
But when the night is falling
And you cannot find the light
If you feel your dream is dying
Hold tight
You've got the music in you
Don't let go
You've got the music in you
One dance left
This world is gonna pull through
Don't give up
You've got a reason to live
Can't forget
you only get what you give
Four a. m. we ran a miracle mile
Were flat broke but hey we do it in style
The bad rich
God's flying in for your trial
This whole damn world can fall apart
You'll be ok follow your heart
You're in harms way
I'm right behind
Now say youre mine
Fly high
What's real can't die
You only get what you give
Just dont be afraid to leave
Health insurance rip off lying FDA big bankers buying
Fake computer crashes dining
Cloning while they're multiplying
Fashion mag shoots
With the aid of 8 dust brothers
Beck, Hanson
Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson
You're all fakes
Run to your mansions
Come around
We'll kick your ass in!
Don't let go
One dance left
Championed by a soulless media misleading
People unaware they're bleeding
No one with a brain is believing
It's so sad you lost the meaning
Never knew it anyway
Human natures so predictable
I'm a fool to do your dirty work whoa, whoa "


Kerry supporters....you've got the music in you. Don't lose faith.

Well, the library staff is very quiet today. I think we are all hurt and demoralized by the turn of events. I guess this is really hard for me because I worked so hard on this campaign. I cared enough to host fundraising parties, attend rallies and go door to door canvassing. How many of you Bush supporters can say you cared enough to do that?

Time will tell what will happen. I predict we will engage in other wars no one understands simply for the agenda and profit of Bush and his cronies. (Halliburton seems to be making lots of money off Iraq already so Bush can check that off his list) More Americans will die on foreign soil for reasons none of us can understand. The poor will get poorer. Unemployment will be higher. Gays will be persecuted more than ever. The draft will be reinstated. (and now they are saying it will include women ages 18-34) And we WILL be attacked again because the world hates us now.

The nation voted for Bush because they felt he was the "moral" choice. Well, if you want to vote for a leader on the basis of his stance on abortion and gay marriage and how much he publicizes his church attendance, then you voted for the right person. Because, after all, that's all we really need in a leader, right?

But Kerry is also a Christian. He just doesn't use it for political gain. And sometimes morality means more than just being anti-abortion. How about programs for the poor? Better education? Better healthcare? More equality? Basic domestic issues that Bush chooses to ignore in the name of flashy media-grabbing wars. Bush does not speak to the lowest common denominator. As he has said many times, his "base" consists of the wealthiest elite. He doesn't care about you. You don't have enough money to mean anything to him.

So, congratulations Bush supporters. You got us four more years of benefits for the elite few. I hope it was worth it.