Happiness: November 14

THING FOURTEEN: This is an abstract thing, but hopefully it makes sense. The thing that makes me happy today is things that are familiar.

For example, I was in the elevator coming up from the Metro yesterday and saw a dude with an old Nokia candy bar phone, which just happened to be very similar to my mom's first (or maybe second) cell phone. Something about his phone was very comforting. Like a blast from the past. Simpler times, when phones didn't take pictures or video or have the internet. Not that I don't love those things, because I do.

And then tonight I had a meeting with a professor that I had in Freshman year. We weren't meeting on anything in particular, we planned just to have s soda or whatever, and chat about the election. We didn't talk much about the election, but instead mostly about me, which made me uncomfortable a little bit. In any case, she's one of my favorite professors ever, and she reminds me that good, intelligent people always exist somewhere.

Happiness: November 13

THING THIRTEEN: Ethiopian food! I'm craving it. no time this weekend, unfortunately. :( also, expensive, and far. but it will make me sooo happy when I get it!!

Happiness: November 12

THING TWELVE: THIS makes me so. freaking. happy.

Woo Oregon!

Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8

However much I think that Keith Olbermann is a tool, he has some very poignant and emotional things to say.



Too bad the man didn't vote...

Happiness: November 11

THING ELEVEN: Maybe this is a cop-out for today, but I'm cranky because I have to go to work on Armistice Day/Veterans' Day, and my eyeballs hurt and my head hurts and my face hurts.

Anyway! Complaining is not the point of November posts! the point is happiness.

What makes me happy on November 11, 2008:

SLEEP!!!!

Enough said, I believe.

Happiness: November 10

THING TEN: THIS GIRL!!! she is right here also-->


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Ten happy things already! and still 20 more to come! I'm very excited.

Happiness: November 9

THING NINE: Planning surprises for other people. I can't say more than that, because of, you know, it being the internet and all. I'm terrible at it, though, I always want to tell the person what I got her! or him! my mother and sister both have extensive experience with this.

I was going to try and find a clip of the crazy surprise lady on Saturday Night Live, but now I'm just distracted watching funny sketches, so I'm just going to go ahead and post.

Edit: I can't find the first one, so here's the second one Surprise Lady sketch.

Happiness: November 8

THING EIGHT: Random dance parties. I just got home from dinner and a movie with some girls from freshman year, who I barely ever see. I texted Maeg to see if my friends were still awake when I got home, and when she didn't respond I just decided to go over anyway. The music was really loud and so I knocked for like an hour, and then I heard Tim say "I hope that's Marika!" and hey! It was. Everyone was there, playing Apples to Apples, and it was so fun, even though we stopped playing when Niki got home because she hates the game.

Then we danced around to Prince and Queen (total coincidence on the names) and the Beatles and a little bit of everything else. we couldn't get Maeg to dance but it's ok, because she's going to be my roommate, and I forgive her. She was very floppy, and it was very funny.

PS! me and Maeg are moving in together!

Happiness: November 7

THING SEVEN: Yogurt-covered pretzels. Seriously. These things are the shit. It's like, two of my favorite things, yogurt, and pretzels, but combined!

When I was in grade school I had pretzels in my lunch almost every day, and frequently yogurt as well, and at some point I got the brilliant idea to dip my pretzels in the yogurt. so good. Turns out it's even better when the store has already made it for you, with delicious caked-on yogurt that I'm sure is full of chemical additives to give it its wonderful sweetened hardness.

White chocolate covered pretzels are also delicious.

Happiness: November 6

THING SIX: Gummy LifeSavers. Chock full of delicious corn syrup, that is what it's all about!

Ok I lied. Really my favorite thing is this: finding new places that were there all along! For example, today I went into the WVAU studio for the first time ever. I'm pretty sure the only other time I've been in a radio station is KMUN, in Astoria, but that doesn't really count because I don't really remember it. The only time I was there for a substantial amount of time was to read bedtime stories once with Margit, and I think I might have been 12.

In any case, this awesome studio is tiny but really cool. I was there while my friend Michal was DJing, and it just seemed so magical that she could be working two turntables and two CD players and a complex-looking board that adjusted levels and I don't know what and she could make it all look so easy. So I hung out there for a while and was mystified by the workings of this place that has been there all along, I've just never seen it!

The kittens got a new bag of food, so Thing One is back in action.

Also, I really do love gummy LifeSavers. I ate a whole bag of them today in about 7 minutes. It was awesome.

Omnes una manet nox

One night awaits us all. 

I didn't take my camera last night downtown, which is probably good because it would have broken, I know it. So you'll just have to believe my saga.

Niki and I drove with Meris, Dashy, Tanya, and Mark to Dashy's apartment in Dupont-ish area. as soon as we got out of the garage, we see hundreds of people running. Of course, we decide to run with them! Niki and I get separated from the other 4, and we just kept running and running down the middle of the street, screaming and shouting "I love you!" and "We did it!" and high-fiving and hugging people leaning out their car windows. 

We had no idea where we were, so Niki and I hailed a cab and told him to take us to the White House. He said "Still?" and we said "YES!" and then I made friends with him. He is from Iran! I told him that I would like to go there someday. We got out of the cab and gave him like a 70% tip, and then started running some random way, screaming and hugging the whole way. 

Somehow we realized we were going the wrong way, so we turned around and went back towards our goal, the White House. We had just hugged and high-fived a block full of people and we did covered the same folks all over again. A random guy with a snare drum appeared out of nowhere, so we started following him and screaming "O-BA-MA!" to his drum beat, and it turned into a little mini-parade through the park that's behind the White House (Liberty Park? something like that. It's supposedly haunted. very creepy).

We finally got to the front/back of the White House (the back is technically the Ellipse side, and you can get much closer to the back, but most people don't know that, so we were at the front but it seems like it's the back), and there were at least a couple thousand people there. Throngs and throngs of people. A giant cardboard cutout of President Elect Obama, people with signs, people with flags, people with drums. Everyone hugging everyone. High fives for all. conversations with people who had to be at work at nine, just like me, about how we changed the world tonight. Everyone screaming Congratulations we did it, Yes We Can, Yes We Did. 

At some point we met a man from Kenya, who gave Niki his email address because she's going to Kenya next term. He's going to hook her up with his cousins in Nairobi! Hugs all around. 

We finally caught a cab, split with some random guy from some small news network, but then we actually drove past Mark, Meris, Tanya, and Dashy, so we hopped out, tipped the driver 120% or so (he drove us maybe 1/2 a mile, and we were in love with everyone), and got in Mark's car to get home. We drove all the way home with the windows down, screaming out the window at every person we saw. 

Oh, and at some point on the street we made friends with a random French dude, and he was on the phone with the French radio, so we were on the radio?? I screamed in French "VIVE LA FRANCE JE VOUZ AIMEZ" which I'm not sure is right. I spoke some French to someone else from France, and he said I had a good accent even though I spoke the wrong words to him (I told him "bonne nuit, which I knew is wrong, but still. Oops.) And then I ran across some people from Spain, and I yelled at them "VIVA ESPANA" as they were sucked back into the crowd. And I missed Lindsey, and everyone who is abroad, and wished that you all had been there dancing in front of the White House on this wonderful night of victory

VICTORY

OBAMERICA!!!!

Happiness, November 5

THING FIVE. Drinking tea to soothe my sore throat, but this only qualifies as a Happy Thing because of the source of my sore throat. Standing in front of the White House at 3am on Election Night with at least 1,000 other people and hugging literally every person I come across and screaming "We did it!" and "Congratulations!" and "Can you believe it!" and "O-Ba-Ma!" at the top of my lungs is a good reason to have a sore throat. And a sore throat is a good reason to have tea.

So really, this is kind of like Victory Tea.

Election Day, Part III (THREE!!!)

Guys. I just got back from the White House. THE WHITE HOUSE.

Remind me to post about it in the morning. OH WAIT IT IS THE MORNING. AAAH!!!!!

Omnes una manet nox

Oregon: unsafe at any speed

Election Day, Part II

WE WOONNNNNNNNNNN

Cheers, Senator McCain. Great concession speech. Good campaign, minus the whole Governor Palin bit. You're a good man. Great Senator.

MSNBC is reporting 338-156 EV

No news yet on CA Propositions 4 and 8, but SD defeated their abortion ban bill, and marijuana has been decriminalized in MA and MI.

FLORIDA, OHIO, NEVADA, VIRGINIA, this shit ROCKSSSSS

Edit 1: Tim just said, "Our work starts tomorrow." How true.

Election Day, Part I

So, folks. It's Election Day. I'm already going insane.

From fivethirtyeight.com, here is a list of 10 reasons why I should be ignoring exit polls.

1. Exit polls have a much larger intrinsic margin for error than regular polls.
2. Exit polls have consistently overstated the Democratic share of the vote.
3. Exit polls were particularly bad in this year's primaries.
4. Exit polls challenge the definition of a random sample.
5. Democrats may be more likely to participate in exit polls.
6. Exit polls may have problems calibrating results from early voting.
7. Exit polls may also miss late voters.
8. "Leaked" exit poll results may not be the genuine article.
9. A high-turnout election may make demographic weighting difficult.
10. You'll know the actual results soon enough anyway.

Nevertheless, in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first city to vote in primaries and general elections, there were 15 votes for Senator Obama, and 6 votes for Senator McCain. Of 21 voters. Woohoo Dixville Notch!

Earl Blumenauer has given me this lovely thing!! It is an Election Night Scorecard. Not sure how it works yet but I AM GOING TO FIND OUT. And update when I figure it out. I'm currently making predictions of states. I'm going to get SO much work done today. Just like the rest of America.

Edit 1: Read this article. It's beautiful, and reflects why I have my burning desire to get an "I Voted" sticker... which I will never get on my own so long as Oregon votes by mail. I'll just have to steal my coworkers'.

Happiness: November 4

THING FOUR. Ok judge all you want, but I really love instant oatmeal, Maple & Brown Sugar flavor. It's basically the highlight of my morning, when I get to work and have a ton of nervously exhausted energy, but my tummy is soooo empty. So then I dance around stand in front of the microwave for 2 minutes, and then ding! I have delicious warm globs of brown sugar to put into my mouth. My coworkers make fun of me for this, but I put in less water than you're "supposed" to, because if you put in the amount of water that it calls for, the sugar and maple gets all diluted! and that is not as delicious.

Month of Happiness, November 3

So, November is notoriously a month where one tries to do things. Such as:

1) Write a novel (see: NaNoWriMo)
2) Write a tune every day (see: my friend's crazy flute playing mom)
3) Post a picture every day (see: NaPhoPoMo, my sister)
4) One blog post every day (see: various)

I have decided to extrapolate on this theme, and post to my blog every day. Not only that! But the theme of the post will be something that makes me happy.

Today, since it's already November 3 and I have missed days 1 and 2, I will post THREE WHOLE THINGS that make me happy.


THING ONE. That my kitten will continually dig the old kitten food bag out of the trash and carry it around the apartment. He's a die hard kitten food fan. It's very cute.

THING TWO. Photos of friends. I recently printed many and got some of those frames that have many slots, and put them on my wall. Not only does it make my wall look less depressing, it is nice for my friends and family to tell me hello when I come home, or wake up in the morning.

THING THREE. The man who hands out Express at the Rockville Metro Station. He stands at the top of the stairs and hollers to everyone to have a great week. One of my roughest mornings was the first time he talked to me personally, probably a couple weeks ago, and he told me, "Stay strong, pretty eyes." I almost cried, because at that point I think I had no makeup on, I was probably about 30 minutes late to work, and I was starving and cranky. Several days since then he's told me the same thing, and I'm sure that he tells lots of people that, but I don't care.

This morning, he told me that I looked beautiful. I grinned all the way down the Pike to my office. I think I'm his biggest fan.

Game On

Ok, despite all the fun I've had watching Gov. Palin on SNL, and laughing at how ridiculous her silly Midwest+Alaska=Palin accent is, it's pretty apparent to me how terrifying she is as a politician. This morning on the train I was reading Washington Post's Express, to which I'm now nearly-certifiably addicted.

Page one: Picture of Tina Fey, and huge voter turnout in Florida! This page makes me happy.

Page two: Funny story about a cat show. I'm a crazy cat lady, this makes me happy.

Page three: Headline about how Sen. Obama keeps 9 point lead over Sen. McCain, and another story about how Sen. Biden's health records show he's in excellent shape. Needless to say, another happy page.

Page four: the following headline -- "PALIN: BAN GAY MARRIAGE"

Anger anger anger anger anger! I actually think I growled at the newspaper. I read the article with a scowl on my face, and it didn't ever quite leave me, even after Pearls Before Swine brought a killer whale onto their baseball team on the second-to-last page.

Here's a version of the full article from the Associated Press. It makes me sad and angry. Just like Sen. McCain said at the last debate. The American people are angry, I'm angry, the American people are angry, blah blah, something like that. I think we're supposedly angry about the economy?
If the American people are angry, it's for the wrong reasons. We should be angry because people like Gov. Palin are in contention for positions of very serious power. We should be angry that people who promote marriage between teenagers simply because they don't know how to use birth control, but believe that two happy, consenting adults shouldn't have the same right as those punk idiot teenagers have the power to influence any law anywhere, even if only in one state. But the whole country!!

We can't just sit back and let that happen. Game on.

Clearly, our current president is of the same persuasion. However, he hasn't done anything about it. I most certainly believe that it would be one of the first things on her agenda, no matter where she may be on Pennsylvania Avenue, whether it be in the White House or the EEOB next door.

To help soothe my angry angry brain right now, I have a delicious lunch. Grilled chicken with tomato, basil, and melted mozzarella. Baby carrots. Chicken noodle soup with veggies (including garbanzo beans!!). A piece of whole wheat bread. A cup of deliciously cold water. AND. Oregon Chai. yum yum.

Obviously this hearty lunch serves to nourish me for the next two weeks. It's going to be rough and it's going to be awesome.

Game. On.

Two Weeks Out

THIS IS PERHAPS THE MOST HILARIOUS THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE




SUPER awesome. She just shouldn't be President, or even Veep. Gov. Palin, that is. On the other hand, OBAMA/FEY 2012!!!!

Update:

Here's the Weekend Update Palin Rap, which makes me love Amy Poehler just a little bit more. Oh wait, a lot more.





Gosh I sure do hope she doesn't become vice president. [/strange midwestern twang]

I'll update on the movie "W" later.

The Option Period

This is a post of schedules. Boring Boring Boring.

First, my potential spring 2009 class schedule!

Mondays/Thursdays
11:20-12:35 -- US Foreign Relations Since 1914
12:45-2:00 -- Ballet
2:10-3:25 -- Latin America: History, Art, Literature
3:35-5:15 -- Chamber Singers (100% definite)

Tuesdays/Fridays
8:30-9:45 -- First Aid/CPR/Medical Emergencies (with the worst professor ever but I'm obsessed with First Aid)
9:55-11:10 -- Beginning Golf!!!

I register on November 6, which is only a week after registration opens, so that should all be open. And full of seniors with the same goal as I have - to slack off as much as possible because your major and general education requirements are done or nearly done!
I'd be taking more that one history class except there are NONE THAT ARE GOOD. also, back to the lazy point.

My bosses are going to hate it! I can only work 25 hours a week (that is, if I'm working my ass off) and they have previously mentioned that they are under the impression that I'll be in the office 32 hours a week. Which is ridiculous. There is no way that someone can fulfill all these requirements:
a) go to school full time (15 credits in 6 classes)
b) work 80% of full time
c) have an HOUR long commute each way, with no car
d) dance 2 nights a week
e) be captain of Mock Trial, likely compete in the region
f) prepare for a European tour with choir
g) eat, breathe, relax, play with kittens, clean apartment every once in a while, have friends?
h) survive

I don't know if all those were in the correct tense, but Requirement F brings me to my next point!!

Tour Schedule!
May 15, 16 -- Budapest, Concert in St. Elizabeth's Church
May 17 -- Debrecen, Concert at Debrecen Univ.
May 18, 19 -- Sibiu, Concert at Philharmonic Hall (Tricked you, that's not the Hall, it's just a pretty panorama of Sibiu)
May 20 -- Brasov, Concert in the Black Church
May 21, 22 -- Bucharest, Concert in the Choral Temple

I love Europe. After all, that's where the history comes from.

ALSO EASTERN EUROPE HUNGARY AND ROMANIA I'M OBSESSED