August? Already?

August is the time when I have to start gearing up. I have decided that I will allow myself to think about school (I am certainly not ready for that quite yet). Warren's birthday,the beginning of 2L, and duh duh duh, my birthday. This year I will be turning 30. I will be honest I am feeling a little apprehensive about it (although I think this cupcake is being a little dramatic) but I still have most of the month prepare. My brother-in-law, Ian, suggested I celebrate by remembering my Twenties.

"The Last Twenty of my Twenties" - each day I will celebrate by doing things that remind me of being in my twenties. **Please note I did not do these things all the time just on occasion (in case my mom is reading this).

1) Listen to Dave all day (If only I hadn't gotten rid of that wall sized poster I had of him)
2) Drink Margaritas made with varying grades of tequila, cheap to expensive
3) Spend hours analyzing a phone call my friend received from a guy
4) Spend an entire day watching "Sex in the City" in my pjs
5) Spend time obsessing about my career and the state of education
6) Wander around Seattle (might have to be Spokane)
7) Spend the day in a coffee shop (There are two I really like here)
8) Pull an all-nighter stressing about something (but what should I stress about?)
9) Go for a long run (might have to walk some of it)
10) Drink a flaming drink. I love those! ( I think they bring you closer to the Gods. It is like touching the heavens and I might have referred to them as "the truth and the light" a time or two.)
11) Smoke a cigarette (So bad for me,sorry body!)
12) Buy a cd
13) Go to Mexico (I can't really do this one so I will have to put it in the bank for another time.)
14) Eat Papa John's Pizza
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21) (Remember I can't go to Mexico so I need an extra one)

Uh oh. Not quite there? Any suggestions? I would love to hear any terrific ideas you might have, especially healthy ones, most of these seem to be things that are hard on my body/full of calories/involve me sitting around.

Away we go

I absolutely love the movie Away We Go. It makes leaving everything you love and know to have an adventure seem a little less daunting. The actors in it our spectacular and it was directed by the American Beauty director. I would highly recommend it.

Another reason to love Kate Winslet

As if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind wasn't enough.


I found this on moveon.org.(Love this site but take it's postings with a grain of salt) It really makes you think. I love seeing untouched photos with the actual published ones. It is so disturbing. How can we encourage children to grow up and love and accept themselves when we can't do it as adults or as a culture? Downer.

But on the bright side Kate Winslet is an amazing human. I wish all celebs would take a page from her book.

A feeling of...

Do companies have a moral obligation to the places where they make most of their profits?

I was looking at moveon.org and found out that there is protest planned in Apple stores on June 4th. I have no idea what this protest would look like (how many people there will actually be) but was telling Warren about it mostly because I liked the suggested protest chants (“I can sync my iPhone with my Macbook. Why can’t I sync it with my values?” ouch! biting.) and because they knew how to spark my ire/interest linking unpaid taxes to schools and police men. (I find this to be especially interesting because there is always a Spokane Policeman sitting in the Apple Store when I walk by it.) Warren does not trust the validity of the info on move on so I did some looking around on the internet. Does Apple really want to be a part of this so called "tax holiday"?

Here is what I found.
Apple along with many other big name/big money companies (including Microsoft, Cisco, and other tech and big pharmaceutical companies) are a part of this lobbying group called Win America (sweet name!). Their mission being to influence Congress to "pass legislation to offer an immediate reduction of taxation on income earned overseas by innovative American businesses to allow that money to be brought home and invested in the United States." Now mind you there is no law stating that they can't bring the money back themselves but they are hindered by the fact that they want to make as much money as is humanly possible and not lose any money to taxes. This 60 Minutes report byLesley Stahl helps to shed some light on why the companies choose not to return to the US and keep more of their profits. I like when someone calls the tax lawyers maneuvering, "shenanigans".

Now, I am far from an investigative journalist but I am glad that I was able to find more information and educate myself. I am also left feeling a little hopeless because it all seems so crazy. Trillions of dollars, so much money that I don't really even have a concept of it, money that could really be helping people in the U.S. ( I know that one could also argue that this money would just go towards the military budget which is insanely large and towards politicians wacky agendas). But that money is just a percentage of what these companies made just last year. It is mind-boggling.

It is all so frustrating and leaves me feeling perplexed and a little mad at my iPod. Perhaps instead of protesting on June 4th I will just make a conscious effort not use my iPod. Take that Apple.

Have you ever noticed?

I was reading this article about how teachers are not impressed with Arne Duncan or President Obama. I really like how people are running around talking about the disconnect between one thing and another. Buzzwords are the best!

Allergies

I

love spring. It is wonderful to be in the sunshine, despite the fact that it is making my Kindergarten friends a little nutty, unfortunately it also brings back my old nemesis, Pollen. I am already being bested by the outdoors. Any suggestions for fighting hay fever (a term Warren claims never to have heard before. He called it "another farm disease", which I thought was pretty funny.)? I tried the Neti pot but I hate that feeling of going swimming without actually having gone swimming. I find it to be disappointing and I worry that it is making my sinus unable to work properly by themselves (although that is kind of already the problem).

Shame SpiralS

Have you ever been in a shame spiral? A shame spiral is what happens when you are feeling bad about yourself. So bad that you can't exercise and must eat/drink wine and then continue to feel bad about yourself because you didn't exercise and ate and drank wine. The worst thing is that instead of the books that I should be reading (see the picture) I am back on watching "Weeds". It is the only thing that can bring me joy. I am in a shame spiral.

Question Time

So, I was doing some editing of my blog, you know the kind where you post something and notice a typo. Oops. I was starting to notice a lot of question asking in mine. Here is a new and important question: Am I turning into a Carrie Bradshaw wannabe? You know, "I couldn't help but wonder, does the apple really not fall far from the tree?" (I don't think that is really one but it is probably close.) or "I couldn't help but wonder, are we shoulding all over ourselves?" I actually liked that one because I totally do that. I continuously feel guilty for things I think that I ought to have done. It is exhausting.

So, I couldn't help but wonder, are all these questions annoying or do they speak to my scientific/introspective nature?

While I am asking questions is blogger not hip anymore? Should I find a new place to put my blog so more friends (and by friends I mean strangers) will read it? I heard Tumblr is where it is at.

Reinvention

I have been thinking a lot about reinvention. What if you could change a lot of things in your life? or what if you had to make a major change in your life? Stupidly enough I have been thinking about it because I have been watching television shows that have gotten me to ponder this question. My Name is Earl, he was not a very good guy, he was in an accident and learned about Karma and now is trying to make right all the things that he did that were wrong. The show is silly but I think it is a neat idea. I also just started watching Samantha Who? She was in an accident and has amnesia. She was not a very nice person either and is now trying to change/learn things about herself. This one I think poses an interesting question: Do you like everything about yourself? If you forgot everything would you like what you learned? If you were going through a big life change would you see it as an opportunity to try again to make different choices? It really has me thinking about things in my own life. What would you change in yours?