Strange Brew

It seems that not even Starbucks can weather the economic recession. I guess it's better than cutting more jobs or closing stores. During the two or three days that I was in training there, I did think that brewing fresh pots of coffee every half hour was a little excessive, but hey, whatever works. Four dollar coffee really is getting to be a luxury these days and I'm thankful to have paid for a many a cup with the help of holiday gift cards.

Nowhere To Go But Up

So maybe it wasn't his best speech ever. It certainly can't really compare to the 2004 speech at the DNC or even the acceptance speech in Denver less than a year ago. To me, it was an affirmation that we as a nation have to go back to work. We've spent to long standing idly by while things like the economy, health care and the environment take a nosedive.

This article postures that Obama, having the most of the nation behind him,can afford to use a little muscle to keep people in line. I hope Congress can get its act together because the expectations really are high. Then again, I think taking a step back and reflecting on the past eight years is good enough to realize that we have nowhere to go but up.

Coming Down

Coming down from an election victory high, this video explains what has happened to the Obama supporters:

Catharsis

It's finally over. Last night, Americans turned out in record numbers to elect the first African American President. As I watched the results on television with family, I couldn't help but think about how far the Obama campaign had come since that cold winter day in February of 2007. I thought about how Katherine and I cranked out the 12 hour days in South Carolina during the primaries when no one thought that we would ever beat the Clinton machine. In the bleakest of times, I too had my doubts about what we were even hoping to accomplish.

It was hope that led us on a train to the south. It was hope that encouraged us to push on and continue campaigning for the Senator once we retuend to the west coast. And I firmly believe that it was hope that drove millions to the polls yesterday to turn red states blue, vote for change, and most importantly vote at all.

At about 8:01 pm last night, one journey ended in Arizona and another began in the parks of Chicago. McCain's concession speech was gracious and he is to be commended for it. I'm just glad this entire campaign has come to a close and we can finally move forward. Now the endless analysis begins and the blame game is sure to flare up on the cable news channels. It's nice to savor the moment while we can. A good friend of mine just passed away due to cancer last Thursday, five days before the election. I've never met anyone who would've enjoyed last night as much as he would've. He used to organize Bush impeachment rallies by himself. I hope he's smiling down upon us from above. I hope we can finally get to work.

Take a minute to enjoy some of the headlines from around the world...

Silly Season

I can see the finish line. I'm sure the whole country can at this point, since the election is less than two weeks away. It's been a long and agonizing ride through another campaign year and silly season has indeed gotten sillier. From the SNL appearances by the candidates to articles about undecided voters and even viral videos, the barrage has continued.

Of course, it can be kind of hard for me to monitor everything that goes on when I go to work before the sun comes up and the fire is barely flickering behind my eyes. It takes awhile for me to adjust to the surroundings of the 24 hour news cycle. I've learned to sleep hard and often drift off before my head even hits the pillow. It's hard to imagine that it'd be difficult for me to get up that early since I did for the better part of my college career to go to crew practice but I guess this campaign has really worn me out because we're so close to electing change.

Anyway, these two videos reminded me that whatever people may be saying about past associations and who spent how much money on clothes for a politician, there are people willing to make fun of it all. Enjoy.

Maybe McCain should hire these directors to do some of his ads...




And who wouldn't want to fly into Sarah Palin's airspace?

Win It For...

This website has been passed around among some of my friends. So far, responses have come from all over the country. I found it an inspiring way to start the day. So, who do you want Obama to win it for?

http://www.winitfor.com/thank_you/

Proud Face

I awoke to the sound of a frightening voice mail. Apparently I had made the mistake of leaving my phone out in the living room so I didn't hear when she called me. No matter. The sounds of crying on the other end of the message made me call back right away. What could it be, I wondered? I called back to find out.

A few minutes later, Katherine called me back and said that she'd dropped her keys down the elevator shaft on her way down to go to work this morning. However, she managed to get her dad to drive her to work but I still felt bad since I was asleep at the time and could've woken up to help. At any rate, I went down the elevator to investigate....and thus began an entire hour of trying to fish out the lanyard of keys.

My first instinct was to call a maintenance guy. However, I quickly realized I knew no such guy around the apartment so I decided to put my ingenuity to the test. I went back upstairs and grabbed a flag we got from the DNC speech and examined the dowel. Could this reach all the way down? I went back down to see. It didn't.

I remembered a had a flashlight in my car so I ran outside and then stuck the light over the shaft opening to see how deep it actually was. I couldn't tell for sure but I knew that even if I extended the dowel all the way down, it wouldn't reach the keys. So, I headed back up to the stairs to lengthen my fishin' pole contraption. I knew we had other flags from Denver but I couldn't find them anywhere. My idea was to tape two together and then try to make a sort of hook that would make MacGuyver proud. Instead of another dowel, I repeatedly taped pens, metal objects and at last a unfurled paper clip at the end of the stick until I was able to come up with something long enough to fish out the keys.

Well, "finally" came about the fifth time I went down to the ground floor. Luckily, no one saw me kneeling over the tiny space with a flashlight in one hand and a grabbing instrument in the other trying oh so carefully to pull out the trapped keys. As soon as I felt the paper clip hook the lanyard, I pulled the stick, hand over hand until I had the keys.

This wasn't the first time that I'd heard of keys falling in the tiny space below the elevator. A realtor came by once and told me it had happened to her but I remember I couldn't do anything about it. I guess if I'd only had my trusty invention, things would've turned out differently. Just being able to get the keys made me swell with pride, and even as I type this I have a proud face. I think I'll hang up the grabber and save it, in case something like this ever happens again.