Barack Attack?

So the dem rally is today, and the weather is certainly not cooperating. Is this portentous? I hope not. At my peace group meeting last Sunday several members said that they didn't think Sarah Palin could make a difference and shouldn't be taken seriously. I bet they've rethought that one.

Okay, so I'm interested in the election again. Lena and Julie are responsible. Lena for coming over and sparking my interest and Julie for sending me an alarmist email. I guess it's time to step up to the plate. I thought I'd just hang material on people's doors and run like hell for the car, but maybe I'll rethink that one.

You know, I know how it sounds when I write about the whole liberal and peace group thing, and I bet every time Josh reads this stuff he shakes his head. But I don't care; I'm gonna keep plugging away for the right to be naive and, well, maybe we'll just leave it at naive.

On Sept. 11th I read a myspace post written by my friend Rob, who's in Iraq and who still supports the war. It gave me pause. It's one thing to stand somewhere with a peace sign in the safe confines of CNY, another to be there "camping" as he refers to what he does sometimes.

Since my post is becoming decidedly morose, and since I want to cheer myself up, I think I'm gonna answer the question I asked about who I'd want my picture taken with. I think I'd want a picture taken with pictures of all my ex boyfriends, and they'd all be dressed in black turtleneck shirts and gray pants and I'd have a red cocktail dress and red high heels on. I don't know why, but I think that would be very funny.

The hunt for local tights begins in earnest today. Most of the time I can't make myself go shopping, but today's the day. I need knee socks too. Alternately, I could start wearing pants like everybody else, but that's not likely. Wish me luck. I'm going to look at cars too. All that and go to the rally and the sustainability fair? What a woman! Who's gonna mow the lawn? Happy weekend. What are you gonna do?

It's going to be an exciting 7 and 1/2 weeks

That's what I heard when I turned on NPR tody. I don't know who the interviewee was, but I know that he's insane. The next weeks until the election are, in my opinion, going to be anything but exciting. They'll be full of dems and republicans making fools of themselves and treating us like we're the morons some polls seem to reveal we actually are.

I guess I should have said right at the start of this post that I'm in a pretty crappy mood. Yesterday as I was driving the little blue boy down the Arterial on the way to work, a truck passed me and cut in fast and when it did a chunk of twisted metal flew off and wedged itself under Blue (yes, I name and personify appliances and vehicles). The noise was horrible and actually terrifying. I was able to pull over to an exit ramp, where I (in a skirt and knee socks, mind you; I was on my way to work) pulled the metal out from under the car. Something, perhaps a heat shield, got ripped up in the process, and I'll know today if there's more damage.

The crazy thing is, I've had a feeling all week that something bad was going to happen to Blue and me. Yes, I'm your psychic friend. I just had this creepy feeling every time I drove. The bright side? Well, now it's happened and I can worry about whether or not the car is a death trap while I'm driving it. It's a good thing my mechanic, Buzz, is only six blocks away.

In other news, whatever I did to my back three weeks ago is not going away, and I have to act like an adult and call the doctor.

The good news: well my students are turning out to be fun and pretty good writers. The Breadman and I are going to make another hopefully perfect loaf of bread this morning using Clark's recipe, and Lena's coming for coffee if this post doesn't scare her off. So, all in all I guess things aren't so bad. Thanks blogger, I feel better already.

The dems sent out another flier saying that you can get your picture taken with "our own" Barack Obama at Saturday's rally. I think that could mean something worse than the cutout I envisioned. I hope they haven't hired a B.O. impersonator. I'll keep you updated.

So what's new by you? Any hurricanes, or objects falling on or under you? I'd like to hear from anybody who had a good week, so I can know such things do happen. If you had a crappy week like me, go ahead and let me know. Misery loves company, yo.

B. O. and me

Barack Obama, that is. The other day the Kirkland dems sent me a flier for our upcoming rally on the Green (everything is "on the Green" now in Clinton), and one of Saturday's events is an opportunity to get my picture taken with Barack Obama. I don't think he's really going to be here, though. I would have heard about it. I think it may be an opportunity to get my picture taken with a life sized cutout. And that got me to thinking.

I wonder whose "picture" I'd like to get my picture taken with? Great sentence, huh? But you get my point, right? It'd be someone I don't really want to meet, maybe. Or someone whose presence in a picture with me would be really ironic for some reason. Or maybe it would just be my idol, Stuart Murdoch. I met him once and nobody took a picture then. I just don't know who it would be.

So I'll ask you. Whose picture would you get your picture taken with, and why? I'll think about it too, but right now I have no answer.

Have a lovely day, and stay warm wherever you are.
Jess, get that permit and get out on the TP. Pretty soon you'll be "challenge driving" like Mr. Nick does.

Tights, a decidedly girlie post

One good thing about the coming of autumn is that I get to wear tights, not pantyhose, which I loathe, but tights. They're the greatest thing ever invented for women who try to dress, well I'd call it professionally but some of you who read this blog would chuckle. Interesting tights give flair to even English teacher outfits, so I actually look forward to pulling on that first pair today. It's in the high 40's this morning, and it'll get up to almost 70, plus I have a meeting with our school's new president, so it's time to cover up those bare legs and wear a pair of real shoes too. It's not so cold that I need the heavy duty tights yet, so I should be able to pull off some interesting, eclectic look.

But there's a problem. Finding interesting tights in central New York isn't easy. I like stripes, polka dots, and unique colors. Evidently I'm the only person in CNY who does. The stores here have tights, yes, but the selection is less than inspiring. There are plenty of woolies, for good reason.

So I turned to the Internet and what do you know? If you google women's tights you can find all kinds of things. The trick is that many of them are not exactly what you'd teach English in. I don't need hosiery that comes with an apparatus to which it needs to be clamped, thank you. And I don't need to pay $42.00 for that pair of bird's eye tights from a website named Spanx. And while I'm at it, Victoria's Secrets really shouldn't categorize some of that stuff as tights, c'mon. "Hide and Peek" pantyhose? Leather leggings for $198.00? I want tights!

I'm going to keep looking, and out there somewhere is a rack or a website that'll have what I want: chevron designs, stripes, a powder blue pair to go with my new paisley skirt. I don't want any of that tie-dyed hippie stuff either. That would be a little too eccentric and would make my legs look even shorter. I'm going to find them, these wonderful tights, and they're going to look great. Wish me luck, and if you have any ideas, let me know. Maybe there's a tights r us store in NJ, Jess?

Thunder

I woke up this morning to thunder. It's definitely not the hot meets cold violent thunder of summer, though, and that served as yet another reminder that summer is over. It also reminded me that I told our school's sustainability committee that I'd be spending some time in my comp class talking about sustainability and what we can do to reduce global warming. The other day I read that if we all reduced our meat consumption by one day a week that act would have a huge positive effect. But I love my steak so much. Besides, I think I do some good things for the environment. I drive a small car, don't use air conditioning, buy local when I can and recycle and reuse faithfully.

What I need though is a glamorous or fun way to talk about sustainability in my classroom. When I told my students that we'd be talking about the environment they groaned, maybe because it had been the topic of their convocation and the speaker was dogmatic and righteous enough that I wanted to through my plastic water bottle in the wrong bin afterward.

That's the problem with issues like being green; there's a perception that they're boring and that the only people who are interested in them are ineffective left-wing middle class liberals who want to tell everybody else what to do. It's the same with peace efforts. So two of the things I affiliate with are boring to a lot of people. What am I gonna do?

I mean, literally, what am I gonna do? Put on your thinking caps and help me come up with some outlandish imaginative way to teach greenness. Do you remember those cholesterol demonstrations with blocks of fat? How about the old tooth in cola? Bad nasty smoker's lung? I don't think I want scare tactics; I want something fun. I've got a few ideas, but I want to see what all of you imaginative people can come up with. Remember, it's college not grade school.
Peace

C'mon

Yesterday was Astroland's last day, something I don't quite understand. If Coney Island could weather the 1970's when it seemed like nobody came to NYC for any reason other than to commute to work from Jersey, why is Astroland closing now when the city is so full of tourists that I could make bus fare back to Jersey from all their will you take our picture requests?

Gentrification, maybe? Is Astroland too rundown and tacky? Is the boardwalk a passe idea now? Maybe we want a bluer ocean to look at than the Atlantic? I'm sure the future of Coney Island will be more tasteful, less tacky.

Maybe Astroland's decline began when they stopped selling egg creams at Coney Island. They may be there still, but I couldn't find one the last time I was there.

The blogosphere yielded the following information about what's rumored to be Coney Island's future:
Developer Thor Equities plans a $2 billion amusement, retail and residential project along the boardwalk. The plan, which some reports have characterized as "Vegas-style," includes more than 20 new rides.

Besides amusements, it envisions entertainment, what it calls a "family hotel" and indoor water park, retail spaces and residential condos and hotel timeshares.

Timeshares at Coney Island? Sign me up. It's not like I went to Coney Island much. In fact, I've been there more as an adult because when I was growing up it was scary and dirty and nasty and nobody went there. But that changed and Coney Island was a place where people could go for cheap and have fun, and they did.

I just want to know what's next? What icon of Americana is going to fall? The North Pole? What's the world coming to? How 'bout you? What do you miss?

You Ate What?

When I was making vegetable soup yesterday with the last of my fruit-and-veggie-stand vegetables, I started reminiscing about something an ex-boyfriend told me he and his roommates used to do. He said that at the end of the week they would take all the leftovers from the fridge and put them together and eat them, no matter what they were. He described putting leftover hard boiled eggs into things like leftover Chinese food and anything else that happened to reside in the fridge at week's end. He even implied that dessert items would occasionally be tossed into the mix, but this I don't believe. How disgusting? How daring? How practical?

I play it pretty safe when it comes to incorporating leftover foods into new dishes. I put Friday's kamut pilaf into my soup, but that was hardly an out-on-the-ledge choice. In fact, I didn't even combine chili and macaroni until I was almost thirty.

So I wonder, am I missing out on a whole universe of palate-tempting concoctions? Should I be combining Tuesday's leftover tofu and broccoli with Thursday's TVP spaghetti sauce? Should I throw caution to the wind and maybe come up with something intoxicating?

Maybe this leftover dilemma (which is a real one for anybody who lives alone) is the reason I eat steak so often. I've evolved into an almost-otherwise-vegetarian with a three night a week steak habit for a reason, I think. Steak is easily consumed, and accompanied by vegetables, very satisfying. It leaves no leftovers if you make sure you portion correctly. If done correctly (very rare) it satisfies any blood lust that can be satiated without committing a crime.

But back to the world of leftover combining. What am I missing? What do you put together to make something new out of leftover food? Is it anything anybody else would really consider eating? My mother used to fry leftover spaghetti in butter and that was pretty good. Are you just poor and desperate and you have to eat it all anyway, so combining is a way to pretend it's something new? Let me know your special dish, or maybe how you like your steak cooked.