kapachino

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  • Why I Don’t Like Politics

    So there’s some political stuff going on in the country. You may have noticed. One thing I have come to learn about myself over the past few years is that I don’t like politics. At all. Lately I’ve been wondering why, and this is what I’ve come up with:

    1. I am competitive by nature, and I don’t really like that about myself. I don’t like the way I feel or view others when I get caught up in a competition. I’ve been trying to be better and learn to deal with this, because I want to be able to enjoy games and have healthy discussions with no hard feelings. But in the sphere of politics, there are so many places to disagree, therefore so much room for argument. So I’ve just avoided it.

    2. Because I’ve avoided it for so long, I don’t really know anything about it. I don’t know much about any of the candidates, or really much of what is going on in the country, or even what I think and why. So I find myself disagreeing with everyone simply because I want to keep an open mind.

    3. I don’t like confrontation or fighting of any kind. Especially when I’m involved. I just want everyone to get along!

    Last fall I had a conversation with one of my best friends who is very involved in politics and in fact works for a non-profit organization in that area. I promised her that before the 2008 election I would figure out what I think about the issues and be able to come back to her to have an informed discussion. This is a huge undertaking for me, and one I’m not really looking forward to. But. I don’t want to stay ignorant. So here I go.

  • Book Club

    My roommates and I started a book club quite awhile ago, maybe even a couple of years ago now. It started out just the three of us, and now it has grown to a whopping five! We’ve had some people drift in and out from time to time, but the five we have now are steady. I like it to be small like this though, because we can be flexible with each other and the discussion is much more interactive with less people.

    We read a book a month, then meet over dinner or coffee to talk about what we read. Pretty simple. Some books we talk about for an hour nonstop, and others we find ourselves out of things to say after about ten minutes. Our discussions are rarely literary or high-minded. It’s just our thoughts and impressions spilling out. I find that I enjoy books much better after having talked about them with others. I gain so much insight this way.

    For example, tonight we discussed the book Atonement by Ian McEwan. It was definitely one of the better books we’ve chosen. It was beautifully written, suspenseful in its own way, haunting, sad, hopeful, and surprising. I loved it, but after our meeting tonight I realized I had totally missed a couple of important points. Now I feel its impact even more.

    Other book club favorites of mine:

    The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
    The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
    The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
    In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
    The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
    Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
    Stardust by Neil Gaiman

  • Back To School Encounter

    It was back to school today, my last first day of school. We had a really good lecture about cellular anoxia and hemodynamic monitoring, but I will spare you the details of that. Instead, let’s review the following conversation that I had with one of my classmates.

    ***

    E: So did you get anything really great for Christmas, did you get engaged or anything?

    Me: Not yet.

    E: Sucks, doesn’t it? I was sooo disappointed.

    Me: Oh, were you expecting it?

    E: Yes, and he gave me a ring, too! In front of his whole family. I was so excited, all ready to say yes, and when I opened the box it was this ugly ring, and it was missing something called a diamond. I was so mad I wanted to cry. His family probably thought I was so rude. And then later I went into the other room and I did cry. I mean we’ve been together forever, and I don’t want to just keep dating and then have him dump me for some 20-year-old, because that’s what will happen!

    Me: Wow, that’s not fun.

    E: So I keep dropping all these hints. I found the exact ring that I want, and I keep leaving the catalogue lying around where he’ll see it, open to that page. The other day I asked him if he were to buy an engagement ring, which one would it be? When he showed me I told him it was the ugliest thing I had seen, and I would return it if he gave it to me.

    ***

    And this was after she showed me all these pictures of her and him making out in front of the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, where she says she wants to get married (even though she’s not a member of the church). My thoughts? I’m so glad Boyfriend David and I are on the same page with our desires and plans for our relationship.

  • bouncing back

    Life is busy, and obviously sometimes it’s hard for me to keep up with writing here. Sometimes, for one reason or another, I’m tempted to quit. But I’ve come to realize that I really like this thing, this little space of mine. So I’m still plugging away. It wasn’t a resolution of mine to blog more, but it’s as good a time as any to try to. You might get some entries that aren’t very interesting or good, not that they ever are really, but from now on they might be even less so. I’m just saying.

    Now onto my topic for the day. It’s tough when things don’t meet expectations, even little things. For example, for Boyfriend David’s birthday I bought him an FM Direct Adapter for his Sirius radio to get hard-wired into his truck. What this is supposed to do is eliminate all the static which annoys him to no end. I thought it was an awesome present, and when I gave it to him last night he was really excited. So we decided to take his truck in to Best Buy to get it installed today while we were both at work.

    We dropped the truck off, and I gave him a ride back to work. A few hours later they called to say it was ready. As we drove over to the store we were both really nervous that it wasn’t going to work, but deep down we knew it was going to. Why would they sell the things if they didn’t work? So we got to the store, paid, got his keys, and then both climbed into the cab for the moment of truth. “The Lighthouse’s Tale” by Nickel Creek was blasting, and guess what? So was the static. Our hearts sank.

    We got the guy from the Geek Squad to come out and listen to it, and he told us that the FM direct adapter that I bought must be bad, that there was a bad batch of them, that everything else with the installation went fine. He said he would exchange it for a new one and reinstall it. In order to do that we had to go to customer service to print out a new receipt, after waiting in a long line, of course. Finally, receipt in hand, we went back to the garage and handed it to the guy. Almost as an afterthought, we asked if he had any more in stock. Of course, as it turned out, they don’t. Neither did any other Best Buy around, except for one about 30 minutes away, which supposedly had three.

    I went back to work, and David started driving out there to pick one up. But he didn’t get far before turning around, because the traffic was so bad. He decided to go in the evening instead, and have a coworker help him drop his truck off tomorrow. But when he went to the store this evening, the Best Buy that supposedly had three FM direct adapters actually had none and never did have any. So now we’re stuck with a faulty one, waiting for another shipment of some kind.

    Many times today I’ve had to fight the urge to feel bad that my present that I was so excited about didn’t really work out, and instead only caused more stress. It could have led to a disappointing evening. But David and I are learning to adapt and be positive, and instead we got Bennigan’s to go and spent the evening eating, playing with the dogs, watching our favorite show, and enjoying each other. I am very grateful for that.

  • hello, happy birthday, the year begins!

    Hello friends. Funny thing. I just got back from vacation, and I wrote a whole post before I left, but then I forgot to publish it. Sorry about that. But before I get any farther, happy birthday David, my love, and I hope to spend many more with you. :)

    Had to get that out of my system, but before I get too sappy, a brief rundown of my vacation. For the fourth year in a row I traveled with my good friend and former roommate Carmen and her sister Lauren to stay in a cabin in Angel Fire, New Mexico. We decided that three years of doing something makes a tradition, and so this has become one of ours. Highlights of the trip included skiing, snowmobiling, eating, holing up in the cabin and reading, watching movies, and playing games.

    Now I am getting back into the swing of normal life. I was back at work today, and classes start Wednesday. Also on my priority list is running to get ready for that fast-approaching race I’ve entered and trying to pay off some of the credit card bill that I somehow amassed.

    Oh, and happy new year! Last year, one of my resolutions was to floss my teeth every night, and that one actually stuck. For the record, this year I resolve to stop sending text messages while I drive, an action that, although it is something at which I excel, I recognize as a dangerous habit. I already broke it once because I forgot, but I’m trying really hard now.

    It’s going to be a momentous year!