Journeywoman

Thirteen reasons I am voting for Senator Barack Obama

For all the Americans reading this, you know that a lot of people are going to the polls and voting or caucusing on February 5.

I am a registered Democrat, though I have voted for republicans in larger elections. I vote the person, not the platform.

That being said, after careful deliberation, I am voting for Senator Obama on Tuesday, and here are 13 reasons why.

1) After the past 8 years of hyper-partisan politics, Barack Obama is speaking to Republicans as well as Democrats.

2) Did you hear his Iowa Victory speech? I have never been so moved at a political...anything!

3) Hillary, and I've got to say her campaign, assumes that just because I'm a woman, I won't look at the candidates. I vote with my finger, not my vagina.

4) I think his health care plan makes the most sense (okay to be honest I thought Senator Edwards' health care plan made the most sense, but he's not in it anymore).

5) Look at his campaign events. Look at the diversity of people there. You go to a campaign event for a republican...well they are all white.

6) I believe that it is time we had someone who isn't white leading this country.

7) He wants to be an AMERICAN president. He is an AMERICAN candidate--not just a Democratic one. It is time to stop the bickering.

8) He helped create the Illinois Early Learning Council. My friends in Illinois needed Early Intervention for their child...Barack Obama, from his time in the state legislature--made sure that they got it.

9) He will both revamp NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and FUND The damn thing. NCLB has laudable goals, but you can't get there without funding and there has to be more than just teaching a test. Senator Obama sees that. I am the wife of a teacher, and that makes sense to me.

10) I get so furious at the pundits who jeer when Senator Obama says that he would sit down with world leaders who do not support the United States. What else is he supposed to do? Bomb them? You HAVE to sit down with people who don't agree with you. They are people, not demons. Maybe you get something accomplished, maybe you don't, but failure is not trying.

11) When the republicans say "Let's work together" they seem to mean "Let's do what I want you to do." When Senator Obama says, "Let's work together" I believe him.

12) In the past 7 years, I have seen the America that I love disappear. When the towers went down, I could see the smoke from my apartment. My friend's cousin went to work that day and never came home. Another friend, was supposed to be there that day and by a miracle wasn't. In the digging they found the nameplate of his desk. Since that horrible day, I barely recognize my country. We torture. Our president listens in on private conversations. We attacked a country that didn't hurt us! I love my country, and I weep for what I lost. Senator Obama, has made me believe in it again. He has made me believe that this country can return to the hope that it was.

13) "Because I am tired of it. Year, after year, after year. Of having to choose between the lesser of Who Cares. Of trying to get myself excited over a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can't get elected president. I don't believe that. Do you?"--Aaron Sorkin

If you live in a state that is voting on Tuesday VOTE. I don't care who you vote for, really, I'd love to hear about "record breaking turnout."

If what you have read here interests you, I will respond to anyone who requests me to talk with them.

Madame Defarge

Not a whole lot to report here.

I've become an Obama girl, as indicated from my last post.

Another thing I've been doing is knitting. Quite a lot. I'm in the middle of making my sister a Gryffindor scarf. It's coming along nicely.

I've been thinking quite a lot of Madame Defarge. For those of you who aren't literature geeks, she was the villain of the book Tale of Two Cities. She would knit a register of the people who pissed her off.

If my knitting were to be a register of people who pissed me off these people would be listed.

The people who made my "9-10 month wait" a possible 4 year wait for a child.

People who tell me to "just adopt"

Doctors who think that fat automatically = unhealthy. If I come to a doctor's office with an ear infection, I don't want to hear about my weight.

The entire Bush administration.

Health insurance companies.

People who take their cute 19-20 month olds with them when they go to the fertility clinic. I love my dr's office so much when they told a woman who was LITERALLY showing off her child to people waiting for bloodwork and dildo-cam rides. "Yes, he's 18 months. Isn't he cute. I think he's cute." He is, lady. You make me want to puke.

Most of the drivers in New Jersey.

So yeah, my mood has been better. But I do have my knitting.

Who would you put in your knitting register?

Hillary, You have lost me

I have always been a fan of Barack Obama.

I think he is the best choice for the Democratic party and the nation at large.

That being said, I have always said that I would support any democratic candidate. However I am more interested in attempting to end the bitter partisan politics than any other thing.

Hillary's campaign in South Carolina has soured me to her candidacy in general. There are ways to say "Vote for Me" that don't denigrate the other competitor, but Hillary let Bill be her attack dog. This is not the role of a former president--not even one married to the candidate.

I am right now, so disgusted with the idea of bringing back more left-wing partisan politics to replace the right wing partisan politics, that I would consider voting for John McCain.

To be honest, I don't know. I can't imagine voting Republican, but right now, Hillary, Unless you show that you can be big enough to lead without denigrating others, you will not get my vote.

Thirteen great TV shows--and the men and women who wrote for them

Yes, last week I did movie quotes*. This week is TV shows. Those wonderful shows that you watch with the lines and characters that you invite into your living rooms...they are created by people. NOT the actors. People write their words and the actors read their lines--very well, but the actors don't just think up the great lines and situations.

Here are my favorite TV shows, and the people who created and wrote them.**

1) Star Trek
Gene Roddenbery (creator)
DC Fontana, Gene L. Coon

2) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Joss Whedon (creator)
Marti Noxon

3) Picket Fences
David E. Kelly (creator)
He also did most of the writing.

4) Moonlighting
Glenn Gordon Caron (creator)
Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno

5) M*A*S*H
Larry Gelbart
James Fritzell, Gary Markowitz

6) The X Files
Chris Carter (Creator)
Darin Morgan

7) The West Wing
Aaron Sorkin (Creator--and writer of most episodes)

8) Grey's Anatomy
Shonda Rhimes (Creator)
Krista Vernoff

9) Dharma and Greg
Dottie Dartland and Chuck Lorre (Creators)

10) Mad About You
Danny Jacobsen and Paul Reiser (Creators)
Jeffrey Lane

11) Happy Days
Garry Marshall (Creator)
Barry Rabinowitz

12) Mad Men
Matthew Weiner (Creator)
Andre and Maria Jacquemetton

13) The Sopranos
David Chase (creator)
James Manos Jr.

* My Bad. Last week I didn't put the names of the movies.
Here they are
1) Casablanca
2) It's a Wonderful Life
3) The Princess Bride
4) Apollo 13
5) ET
6) Silence of the Lambs
7) When Harry Met Sally
8) A League of Their Own
9) A Few Good Men
10) Airplane
11) Raiders of the Lost Ark (He also co-wrote Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi)
12) Sudden Impact
13) The Wizard of Oz

** Please note most of these shows have many writers, what I did is go to my favorite episodes and see who wrote them if not the creator.

Blogging for Choice

I know I'm just squeaking it in under the wire, but here I am, blogging for choice.

I have friends who have had abortions. None of them. None. of. them. made the decision lightly. I hate when people say "women just use it as birth control." That has been patently false in every situation that I know about personally.

To anyone who reads this blog who would call themselves right-to-lifers, I concede that for some life begins at conception. But I cannot condone thinking that the mother's life and well-being does not supercede the child's life. And if the mother dies, more often than not the child dies too.

To those dealing with IF who thinks that abortion rights have no influence on infertility treatments, think again. If abortion gets outlawed, they will come after IF next.

My mom is 80 years old. She still weeps when she told me about her college friend who died of a botched abortion. The friend was in more pain than anyone could imagine, and everyone around kept implying that it was the girl's fault that she was dead. The feminist part of my mom was born that day and she passed it on to me.

On the anniversary of Roe vs Wade, let's increase sex ed to include abstinence and birth control. Teach the kids to make a choice and give them the tools they need to keep abortion rare.

Keep it legal. Keep it safe. Keep it rare.

Soul feeding

It's been a slowish weekend.

We had company yesterday. I made a pretty decent dinner.

Today I've been in a funk.

I suppose it started with Parenthood--the movie. It's a great movie, but I wonder if it will ever apply to me--you know? I've got to call the social worker about updating my homestudy. After that, I have to really sit down and think of what I want the homestudy to say.

We're waiting for our child from China. That's a given.

But my agency will allow us to do an adoption before that and we are highly considering it.

I'm doing some navel gazing and wondering.

Why do I stop reading some blogs when there's a pregnancy announcement and not others? Some IF blogs, when the writer becomes pregnant I read through to the conclusion...and after. Two of them are Cecily and Julie But others. (No I'm not naming names here.) I don't read. Once they get pregnant I delete them from bloglines, and check back only occasionally.

Part of it is self protection. Some people (and again, no names) forget they ever went to IF Island. The blogs have sonograms and big belly pictures and I just can't handle it. It isn't that I'm not happy for them. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. But I get too sad for me.

Maybe this makes me a bad person, maybe not. I've got to stare at my belly button for more time to think about it.

Why do you stop reading a blog when you do?

Thirteen great movie quotes--and the people who wrote them

You might have heard something about a hollywood writers strike. Now I'm sure a lot of you watch movies, at least at home. But do you know the name of the writer(s) who wrote the lines you love? The actors didn't just think of it on their own...trust me.

Below are movie lines and the people who wrote them.

1) Play it Sam. Play, As Time Goes By
Julius J and Philip G Epstein, Howard Koch

2) Every man on that transport died! Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry.
Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra

3) Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die
William Goldman

4) We have never lost an American in space and we're sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch!
William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert

5) E. T. Phone Home
Melissa Mathison

6) I must go now, Clarice. I'm having an old friend for dinner
Ted Tally (This line was not in the original book)

7) I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
Nora Ephron

8) There's no crying in baseball!
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

9) You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.
Aaron Sorkin

10) "Surely you can't be serious!"
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley!"
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

11) It's not the years, honey. It's the mileage
Laurence Kasdan (Bonus points if you know one of the other Harrison Ford movies he wrote!)

12) Go ahead, make my day
Joseph Stinson

13) I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!
Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf

Loving to Learn

Sorry it's been quiet in my little corner of blogland. Haven't had much to say...that I haven't said a million times before. Wait Sucks. Wait Sucks. Being Infertile sucks. blah blah blah blah.

I don't really do resolutions, but one thing I want to do in 2008 is learn.

I love to learn. Yes, it's me. The geek in front of the room in middle school who waited for the oooh wow of the idea that the teacher was putting out making sense--that was me.

So I've been taking physics. Yes, physics. Not in a traditional class, no, but by Apple iTunes university and Professor Levin. He's cool. He makes physics fun, and when I had a question, I emailed him and he answered me in two weeks. I've never taken a physics course before. Not in high school, not in college. But now I've signed up and am taking his video lectures. And I'm enjoying it. I'm looking at the world in a different way, and it is all because of him!

So I've decided I want to learn other things. I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. It's been two week and I have about 4 inches of scarf!!! Okay, it is OBVIOUS that I've never knitted before, but I'm learning.

One of the things I get annoyed with is that today people don't seem to give kids a learning curve. They want the kids to pick it up and be amazing be it reading, or writing, or science, or math. Just be amazing. But if you go slowly, celebrate the little triumphs you learn better.

I've got to go watch my physics class.

Thirteen things I like about being Jewish

I'm watching this show on PBS called The Jewish Americans. It is fascinating. It looks as Judaism both as a culture and as a religion. While I haven't been very big with Gd lately, I still am and always will be a Jew. So Today here's thirteen things I like about being Jewish.

1) Sabbath Candles on Friday Night
It is one of the traditions I keep. These little lights have power. Even if their power this week is just to keep the darkness of the soul at bay, they keep that power. I like it.

2) The Music
I'm listening to Fiddler on the Roof as I write this. Humor, fun, and hummable tunes and Bock and Harnick were only one. Most of Broadway's golden age composers were Jews. Rodgers, Hammerstien, Loewe, Irving Berlin--yes, the man who wrote White Christmas was Jewish.

3) The Ritual of Mikvah

4) Matzo Balls
Chicken Fat, Matzah Meal, Salt, and Eggs, somehow it manages to be yummy.

5) A Culture of Mitzvot
Mitzvot--the closest description I can give is that they are good deeds that Jews are required to do. Growing up I would watch my mother cook extra meals for her friends in times of trouble. My neighbors are stunned that when they are sick I make them a casserole. They call me a throwback. I'm not. I'm a Jewish woman whose mother taught them the value of mitzvot.

6) Chicken Soup
It's called Jewish penicillin for a reason. There is something wonderful about a cup of chicken soup done just right. I make great Chicken Soup. My mother said so and since she learned it from her mother and her mother.

7) Humor
George Burns, Jack Benny, Billy Crystal, the list could go on and on and on. We have a weird way of looking at the world. And it's funny as hell.

8) Yiddish
Yiddish has entered American vernacular. Putz, klutz, kvetch, and the most yiddish expression of all Oy Vey! It is a language that is very descriptive.

9) Latkes
Potato Pancakes. Enough said.

10) Yom Kippur
One day a year Jews all over the world fast. They fast to grow closer to Gd. They fast to atone for their sins in the past year. At the end of that day the Shofar blows and atonement has been made. I feel so...CLEAN that day. I love it. I just love it.

11) Pesach (Passover)
I love hosting the Seder. I love talking about freedom and what it means in these times. I love Matzah (okay the first few days of Passover...after that not so much)

12) Joshua son of Miriam (Aka Jesus)
A religious woman I know used to have a Christmas Tree every year. I never understood it but I was forbidden to ask about it. Finally I got up the courage and she explained that she is celebrating the birth of the most celebrated Jew ever to live. Jesus was Jewish.

13) The Talmudic Parable of the prodigal son.
Everyone knows the story, but the Talmudic one is different. Instead of the whole killing the fatted calf thing, the father sent word to his son. "All is forgiven. Come home. Come home."
"I can't come home." The son responded. "I've come too far. I've changed too much."
"Come as far as you can." The father replied, for he loved his son so very much. "I will come to you the rest of the way."

Electoral thoughts

First off...I am VERY psyched that Barack Obama won Iowa. Don't get me wrong, there is no way I would vote Republican in this election, none of the candidates on that side of the field thrill me. (Though I have voted Republican in the past and will again, no doubt.) However when I saw Barack Obama at the 2004 convention I remember thinking, Why isn't HE running. And now he is. Listen to this victory speech and see if you can sit through it unmoved. I love the message of HOPE instead of just "return to the 90s." Go Obama Go!

Usually, Sunday mornings will have me watching CBS Sunday Morning. I enjoy it. Ben Stein is one of the commentators on it, and today he said that it really doesn't matter who the President is, because change comes from people, not Presidents. To an extent he is right, except, where he is not. Yes, for the most part (excluding this {censored} administration), the President has checks and balances. However the President sets the tone. A President who is PROUD of the fact that he isn't well educated, sets the tone for the rest of the country that they don't have to be well educated. A President who doesn't even try to be civil to his countrymen will reduce the tone in civility for the country.

For me, I like Obama. But truly watching the debate last night, I was proud that of the 4 Democratic candidates (I also like Bill Richardson VERY much), There isn't one that I wouldn't be glad to vote for.

As to why I like Obama? I'm going to quote Aaron Sorkin.

"Because I am tired of it. Year, after year, after year. Of having to choose between the lesser of Who Cares. Of trying to get myself excited over a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly look at it. They say a good [person] can't get elected president. I don't believe that. Do you?"

Do you?