The Best Chester

Today, I made peppermint pals with the little girl I used to nanny. I'm back in the town where I grew up for the weekend, babysitting. Anyway, the peppermint pals were adorable. For those who enjoy minty things, I'll probably make them again. Alas, I only like minty in my toothpaste. Check it out:

The dough started melting towards the end, so some of the penguins and polar bears are slightly droopy. Whatever, they're still the cutest dessert ever. I couldn't finish mine (I ate the tiny green penguin), so Ben the dog took care of the rest of it.

Ben the dog has been pretty awesome. Yesterday, he was annoying the crap out of me, jumping and barking at me. But today, after I found out that a friend from high school lost her battle to leukemia, he completely changed his tune and was totally there for me. So thanks, Ben the dog. Lacey the cat was also very sweet to me. Animals pick up on that stuff, the emotions I was trying to hide from the kids--I'm supposed to be taking care of them, I didn't want to be crying and upset in from of them. So the animals were there in their sweet way. Even Curtis the dog, who is very sick himself made sure to nuzzle me a few extra times.

Even though it had been a while since I had talked to Casey, I always thought of her. Sometimes she drove me crazy--how could anyone be so happy and smiley all the time? But she was, it was genuine and that's why we love her. The funeral is on Tuesday, and I'll be going to say goodbye. Last night, I had a dream about Colin, who died a few years ago. I couldn't bring myself to go to his funeral, and I've always regretted it. Today, when I found out about Casey's passing, I knew that I couldn't rationalize myself out of going to her memorial service. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends who love her so dearly.

She's Back!

Britney is back, and she's looking good. I always held on hope for the former teenage pop-star, and I'm so happy to see her looking sexy, confident and doing what she does best. No, she's not the most talented singer, but she's an entertainer. It saddened me that we watched her fall apart with such intrigue; I'm happy she's making her comeback for real this time. As much as I hate to admit, I've always enjoyed her music. Her newest song, "Womanizer," is not good, neither are any of her other songs. But it's fun, and I enjoy it, which is all that matters. So, for your viewing pleasure: Britney is hot again.

More of something else

So, there's a guy at work who always has some sort of comment for me. Sometimes it'll be entirely inappropriate, such as a sexual innuendo about the skirt I'm wearing. Other times, it's down right offensive. Over the summer, he's the guy that said "I saw a picture of you last Halloween and you looked so thin. What happened?" He tried continuing that conversation a few weeks later, asking me about my diet and exercise routine. Whatever, I've lost weight since then, but it still pisses me off. Also, on Saturday he pointed to the corners of my mouth and asked if I got bitten by a bug. Well, I had a couple of pimples. Hi, that's embarrassing. Who says that to another person? Clearly they were zits. I usually have clear skin and yes, I was upset about them. I don't get it. Then today, he told me to adjust my scarf. Anyway, it's weird, and I don't like it.

In other news, my acupuncturist bought me a delicious vegan brownie while she was at the shore yesterday and called me up to get from her office. She knew it wouldn't last until my appointment Friday. I think that that was just the sweetest thing, and it totally made my day. Plus the brownie is b-b-banging.

Be sure to register!

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Also, Leonardo DiCaprio will make me swoon til the day I die.

Les Misbarack

Politics and showtunes. I am content.

I can see Russia from my house.

Listen, even as left and as liberal as I am, it's possible that I might have been on board for McCain '08. But I do not want someone as inexperienced as Palin anywhere near the Oval Office. McCain is old, he could very well die and Palin could very well be our next president. As I typed that, a frisson ran down my spine. Could you imagine the judges nominated during that administration? Roe v. Wade would be overturned in seconds, leaving women no option when it comes to their bodies. I'm clearly heated, thus I should stop before I really start offending people.

In other news, I got moccasins today and I'm running a 5k in the morning. Good luck to me!

We're not gonna take it (no, we ain't gonna take it)

Conservatives have finally discovered sexism in the media. It's unfair, damaging to their careers and invasive towards their personal lives. Except, of course, when a crazy liberal like Hilary Clinton charges the media with sexism--that's not sexism, it's whining or "playing the gender card."

Sarah Palin, as you should know by now, is Sen. John McCain's running mate. It's been an extremely exciting and historical election season, what with the first African-American candidate for president of the United States. Palin indeed should be congratulated for becoming the first woman on the Republican ticket. Geraldine Ferraro put a crack in the glass ceiling for the Democrats in 1984, but why is it 24 years later that we're still chipping away at it?

The primary season was exciting because for the first time, there was a viable chance that Sen. Hilary Clinton could have won the Democratic nomination; she came closer than any woman before her. She got 18 million votes, despite the hostility and blatant sexism from the media. Good luck with that, Palin.

So why is it only now that we're finally seeing women making legitimate headway (of course, it's only white upper-middle class women) in politics? Too many people in our society still feel threatened by women in the workplace. Strong, ambitious women in a leadership position make men (and some women) uncomfortable.

The truth is that public discrimination is bad for all women. Sarah Palin has faced the onslaught of the double standards in the media. She has faced a very different kind of sexism than Sen. Clinton, but it's there nonetheless. And let's be real, I will not vote for McCain/Palin, because that administration (however agreeable that may be to you on other issues) would be awful, and potentially more detrimental to women's rights than even the Bush administration. McCain and Palin are equal on issues such as reproductive rights and same-sex marriage.

Pundits expostulate on whether a mother with five children should be running the county, and thereby shoot themselves in the foot. Would they really be asking if a man with five children should be running the country? We all know the unfortunate answer to that. They also question the priorities of women who work outside the home. So many things are wrong with that, including but not limited to that most women who are not upper-middle class and white do not have the option to stay at home. People are up in arms in the fact that she only took a few days of maternity leave. These same people aren't, however, upset about women on welfare being forced back to work a few days after giving birth and that the majority of women workers are not given the option to the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Palin, a pro-abstinence only education supporter, has a 17-year-old daughter that got herself knocked up by the high school hockey hunk. A saucy distraction for the media, surprisingly it has yet to completely derail any chance for the Babies & Grandpop Campaign (thanks CB).

Amazing the conservative hypocrisy present here: Palin talks about her daughter's choice to have her daughter. Choice? The GOP insisting that this is a private family matter, the right praising Palin for choosing to carry her son with Down syndrome. These are the very same people who don't allow girls or women to have a choice. The stigma that once surrounded young mothers and single moms decreased because of hard work from the second wave of feminism; the oppressive right wing's judgemental discourse did nothing. For example, Palin has voted against abortion even in the case of rape or incest, even if it's detrimental to the woman's health. Throughout McCain's career, he has consistently voted against funding for birth control and family planning. And the supposedly unplanned pregnancy of Palin's daughter comes at an interesting time for people that are pro-abstinence only education.

It will be difficult for Palin, especially when she's trying to establish herself in a man's world when they talk about her clothing choices rather than her policies. Wouldn't it have been nice, however if all those talking heads took notice when people started commenting on Clinton's decollatage. Unfortunately, these trends of sexism in the media will continue in the media while the outdated notions of gender roles continue to exist.

So when we continue to vote for anti-women's rights candidates like McCain and Palin, what are we saying? We're saying that we'd rather vote for someone based on assumed gender roles, rather than whether or not they have earned the position.