Potpourri

I think my friend Cherry put it best when she saw this Baskin Robbins Thanksgiving themed ice cream cake.  “I don’t know if I want it, or if I want to throw up on it.”  Nicely said.

Which segues so very well into politics these days, and a reminder of Will Rogers’ famous quote, “I’m not a member of any organized political party…I’m a democrat!”  Gah.  It sure feels like that some days.  Pelosi has been an amazingly effective Speaker, what with health care and so on, and yet people blow her off and say the election is her fault.  Obama has accomplished quite a bit in his first two years, attempting to save the economy; health care reform, which so many presidents have tried to accomplish; he lowered the taxes for 90% of Americans, yet because we didn’t get a stupid check in the mail like we did from Bush, no one noticed.  Frustrating.  His administration was great at pushing his agenda, making it look all cool and like a good idea, before he was elected.  Now that they’re actually getting things done, why haven’t they done a better job of selling it?  I don’t know.

Against all better judgment, we watched a 6 minute excerpt from Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which I refuse to link from here (though I will link to a fairly critical review from The New Yorker).  If you thought she was an idiot before, this will confirm your beliefs.  If you thought she was a viable candidate, a person who could improve the status of our country, you will be sadly disappointed.  Amongst her stupid “wow!”s while watching bears hunt for salmon a mere 30 feet away, I started to wonder why she didn’t mention that gosh, they’re really dumb for hanging out that close to wild bears, that perhaps they should row their idiotic boat a few hundred feet in the other direction, and it’s kind of irresponsible to fail to mention that in amongst the boat with the camera, there is (hopefully) someone with a big gun.  Wild animals are called wild for a reason.  But gosh, that beautiful Alaskan landscape made me want to go back.

I went and gave blood yesterday.  I’ve mentioned before that I dislike giving blood.  Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s always gross and unnatural, and those little bags of blood accumulating on the ground beside you are nothing if not disgusting.  But if people stopped donating blood, good people would die.  Bad people too, I’m sure, but my blood only goes to good people, just like my taxes only go to firefighters and police officers and schools and roads and V.A. hospitals, and not war or corruption or waste.  Got that?  So anyway, the phlebotomist who stuck me in the arm did an awesome job, and I barely felt it, and I thought all was going to go well.  But about 50 or 60 seconds in, I started feeling a pulse, like the needle was quivering inside my vein.  UGH.  I’m totally squeamish, so this really freaked me out.  I tried to soldier through, and ignore it, but the phlebotomist could see that something was wrong, as my face turned pasty white, and came over to see.  I told her what was going on, and that it didn’t hurt, it was just grossing me out, assuming she wouldn’t be able to help.  She said it was the valve on the tubing, that she could feel it, and she fixed it.  But not before I totally embarrassed myself by needing 4 cool towels, to be laid down flat, and have my legs moved back and forth to move the blood towards my head, in order to avoid passing out.  Truly.  Ugh.  It was really gross.  I do it anyway, though not nearly as often as I should (maybe once a year), because I can (many people have health conditions that keep them from being able to), and because I love the feeling that I’ve saved a life or two along the way.  Doesn’t hurt that the last time I went, I learned that, at least so far, I lack the anti-bodies in my blood due to a viral infection very common in people (like maybe 50/50), which makes my blood a better candidate for premature babies and people with compromised immune systems.  So really, I should do it much more often than I do.  It’s just.  So. Gross.  I came home, had a nap, and Ted made me an iron-boosting dinner of steak, spinach salad, and baked potato.  I also drank a LOT of water and a few glasses of wine (much later), and am happy to report that I’ve made a full recovery.

After the Emmies this year, I decided I wanted to watch “The Good Wife“, so we netflixed it on DVD, got caught up there, and now are watching it in real time.   I confess, I really like it.  I like the conflict and the courtroom drama and the kids and Mr. Big.  All of it.  There isn’t a lot on right now that I really like on real life TV these days, so that’s a good thing.  Oh, also really enjoying watching Nate on “Parenthood“.  Maya had Thursday and Friday off for Veterans’ Day, and Ted took Friday off, and they went into San Francisco for the day, while I stayed home and worked.  After work, I watched a couple of episodes of Buffy on DVD, and then watched Parenthood on OnDemand.  I fell asleep for a few minutes (happens any time I watch TV while laying down on the sofa), and woke up to see Loralie Gilmore (on Parenthood) and wondered what the character was doing on Buffy.  Yeah, naps are weird that way.

We flew our flag for Veteran’s Day on Thursday.  We have our fair share of soldiers in the family, though none lately on my side.  My great-grandfather was in World War One, my great-uncle in World War Two.  Ted’s dad was in Vietnam.  I had ancestors in the Civil War, the French Indian War, and the Revolutionary War.  In their honor, and the honor of all Veterans, in times of war and peace, Thank You for your service.

Football season has come to an end, at least for the Freshman team at Maya’s High School.  It’s been fun watching her cheer all season, but I’ll admit to being glad that they’re cheering for basketball next, which I hear is indoors, and heated.  Also, the rumor is that they cheer sometimes for the boys’ team, sometimes for the girls’ team, which thrills me.  LOVE that.

Maya and her friend have been busy the last few days making a copy of the offices from Mad Men for a science project, comparing the components and characters in an analogous way, to cells.  Really interesting and funny.  I love teenagers, though I sometimes wish they would make their beds without being asked.  I know, right?