I was thinking about the things that I'm thankful for and I considered listing all of the presents I received for Christmas or all of the fun I had with my family, but...I feel like I should be grateful for less superficial things. I'm blessed with so much! Here's my top five list:

5. My new apartment, also known as "the palace." It's so beautiful, so big, and so much more than I need or deserve. It's been convenient to have a guest bedroom over the holidays, but I really don't need one year-round. And my neighborhood is amazing! I swear, if any of you ever move to the Twin Cities, this is the coolest part of town- it has the best stores, best restaurants, and it's right next to the lakes. Honestly though, I'm so lucky just to have shelter, a warm place to live, because there are still people standing alongside the highway off-ramps even in this frigid weather.

4. My social capital. Not to revert to Ed. Psych 101 terminology, but I have so many resources at my disposal which will help me to succeed in our society. I speak English, I have had a great education, I understand societal norms and protocol, and I have a network of family and friends who can rescue me if I ever get into trouble (loan debt springs to mind :>). If nothing else, my graduate school education has taught me that having connections in American society is invaluable.

3. Freedom. This is tied to social capital, but also to living in the United States. We have so many liberties, the greatest of which might be the freedom from harm. As much as I don't very much like our President, he is keeping us safe (which all Presidents have tried to do). Here I don't have to worry about guerrilla warfare, famine, or epidemics of disease. We have been taught how best to survive natural disasters...hopefully wel'll help other countries to learn those techniques too. We are also blessed in the fact that there is enough money and intelligence that people are constantly working to keep us safer and healthier. Say what you will about big pharmaceutical companies, my dad is doing amazing work which will hopefully save lives around the world. I'm grateful for all the freedoms in this country.

2. My health. I'm blessed just to be alive, nevermind healthy! For all the time Americans spend obsessing about weight, there is something to be said for having such an abundance of food and medicine. In respect for the millions of starving around the world, I sometimes feel like our culture should just stop eating so gluttonously. I'm also very lucky to have a healthy family.

1. Love...obviously! I'm so grateful for the love of my family and friends!! In our highly neurotic society, it's amazing that I still love my parents and don't resent (very much) that I'm becoming my mother. I'm so lucky to have a network of people supporting me, as well. My new friends in the Twin Cities are so much fun (although they have a bizarre love of karaoke!) Most of my old friends are still in touch with me, too...that will be so helpful when I face the sureality that will be my five-year high school reunion. Finally, I have somehow managed to keep a continuous faith shining through my entire life so far. One could say that it's easy to have that relationship with religion when I've been so blessed, but it seems like it would be just as easy to give up when I have nothing more that I need.

Wowza, that's a long list. Sorry :). So, John and I are going to the amusement park inside the Mall of America for New Year's Eve. It's going to be really fun- they turn the lights on all of the rides and it's beautiful! Happy New Year, everyone! May the blessings of the season be upon you and your family.

Today I accidentally said the "worst" swear word in front of my mom. In my defense, I was quoting the title of a book that I saw, but it nonetheless shocked her to the core. "I've NEVER said that word, Nicole!" Well, I'm sorry. I'm around future teachers all day and that crowd is just like sailors. I see her point, though...I should probably work that out of my daily speech before I start teaching kindergarters, huh? And more important, I've never said what I think is a worst word and I almost walked out of the Vagina Monologues because it was used so often. So I'm not completely corrupted yet ;>

PS- please add more modern Christmas songs to my list below! Does anyone know who sings the punk rock little drummer boy? Hmm...

PPS- It's really funny to watch the British House of Commons on CSPAN! Their president actually has to defend his actions AND apologize when he's wrong...that's so, um, democratic! We must avoid that at all costs.

The New York Times had an editorial today that said that there are no Christmas songs for this generation (or any generation after the 1940's). Excuse me? There are so many that I love!! Here's a list of my favorite Christmas songs (post-Greatest Generation):
"Maybe this Christmas" by Ron Sexsmith
"Happy Christmas (War is Over)" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
"Christmas Don't be Late" the Chipmunks
"Step into Christmas" by Elton John
"Do they know it's Christmastime?" by Band-aid
"Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano
"Last Christmas" by Wham, rerecorded by Jimmy Eat World (which I like better)
"Donde esta Santa Claus" by Guster
"Just like Christmas" by Low

Add your favorite song to my list below, please, and I will recommend that you not receive coal (I have connections).

Now, my cousin Maria has something to add:
Maria Louise maria mom dad dog (her typing)

(Her message to you):
Dear friends,
I am Nicole's cousin. I am 5. My name is Maria. Merry Christmas!

I just read the card that my class gave me today, on my last day as their student-teacher.
Oh the front:
To Misis Nicole
Inside:
Will we miss you!
As most of you know, I don't cry about important things, or things that actually make me sad in a great sense; only about little things that in their smallness speak volumes. So I was looking at the names written inside the card, because each student signed it. And right at the bottom, there are 3 little r's and a bunch of half-moon squiggles. To anyone else, they probably look like kindergarten doodles. But that's how the kids at the special ed table (who are really just developmentally delayed) sign their names. Anyone who didn't know these kids wouldn't know that Johnny only seems to write r's for his name and that Shara isn't able to draw diagonal lines yet, so can only make half-moons. I know that because every morning when we all do activity sheets, I go to their table and write their names on their papers with highlighter so that they can copy it. They both work so hard, trying to do it. Sarah's parents might not even understand her disability yet, which is serious and will impact her entire life, because they only speak Cambodian. Johnny's parents, though, came to parent-teacher night and talked about how hard they work with him, to try to get him to speak. He will be perfectly normal eventually, but now he is delayed by the chaos of his life. But he is such a sweet little boy. Whenever he sees something he likes or understands well, he stands up during calendar time and points, with a big cheesy smile on his face. Last week he pointed at chicken, because there are chickens in his family's apartment. And yes, he can never stand still in line, or sit criss-cross applesauce, but I can tell that none of his misbehavior is deviant: he's just too happy to keep still.

So anyway, thinking through all of that helped me to realize why I only cried about my barking dog when I left Washington University. It was suddenly clear, in that moment, that everything that I cared about in St. Louis (which were so many unrelated things) made sense to me in the idea that I had wanted to give my remote-controlled dog to Schroedter because he had loved it so much but I had forgotten and by then it was too late. I felt that way about everything. That's wistful, but it's true.

So I'm really excited to go back to the school on Friday, for the holiday party. We're supposedly making crafts and singing songs... It's always a little bit funny (and I mean this in a nice way) to watch a bunch of non-English-speaking kids try to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. They have absolutely no idea what they're saying! I'll get to say goodbye to all of them again and meet their parents (I'm crossing my fingers that they'll all come). Stephanie cried today when I left, because she did understand that it was my last day, but I couldn't remember how to say "I'm going to see you on Friday" in Spanish, so I don't know if she knew that. The best part of the whole thing will be that I'm bringing my grandparents too! My "funny"-grandparents and a bunch of people who don't speak English. It's going to be pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself.

End of Year Survey

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Got my own apartment. Paid my own bills. Ooh, and got my own Christmas tree. It's real too, although it looks somewhat like Charlie Brown's pathetic Christmas tree.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I wanted to lose weight and be nicer. I'm pretty much the same weight and I honestly don't think I did anything mean.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My great grandma. She was 95.

5. What countries did you visit?
Hmm, not even Canada!

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A job! I need to get one for next fall. I would also like a man. ;)

7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The day I found out that my great-grandma died. I hadn't been told that she was sick and that made me act pretty irrationally, but I'm glad that I got to go to her funeral. It's kind of strange, but I thought that graduation was pretty anticlimactic. And way too hot.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I got into graduate school at the University of Minnesota.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Well, some people could look at this as a failure: I realized that it's better for me to stay away from people who express negative perspectives on life and/or are generally pessimistic because it rubs off on me to a greater extent. So I failed in being friends with people like that, but by avoiding them made myself much happier.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No injuries, besides multiple bruises caused by constant kneeling in kindergarten. I had a super-bad cold twice; once in the summer and once this fall. It starts with sinus pain, becomes a runny nose, progresses through multiple sounds of cough, then ends in a combination of the above.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I really like my Old Navy pants. And I got a semi-sphere chair at Urban Outfitters that I love love love.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My cooperating teacher at my student teaching placement has been really nice and so helpful in my learning. I was lot luckier than most of my friends, who's teachers were psycho control-freaks who worked their fingers to the bone. Also, I celebrated on the inside when Johnny, a boy in my class who has developmental delays, wrote his name for the first time! He's been through so much (refugee camp in Thailand, death of brother, not speaking), but he's always so sweet.

My new friends in the Twin Cities are so much fun. Jenny, Jake, Erin, Julie- we need to hit the Independent! Button-down shirts are much needed. Also, my friends in St. Louis were amazingly supportive. I've never met a nicer bunch than the ECMers and I probably never will.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Well, I didn't get along with a roommate (see above about pessimism). My family has a history of depression, so that's something I just can't tolerate.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Did I ever have money? I have a bad habit of buying dvds with my student loan money, but otherwise, it almost all goes to rent. My apartment is much nicer than I deserve (or can clean).

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Teaching kindergarten. I love it so much! I'm excited to go to school every morning because it's the most fulfilling thing -for me- in the whole world. I pretty darn excited for Christmas too.
16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
The entire Keane cd, Hopes and Fears. No one has heard of them, I know, but they're big in England. I just love the song "Somewhere only we know" because it reminds me of my jaunt (can I pull that word off?) through the deer park in Magdalen college at Oxford...I actually walked across a river on a fallen tree.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier
ii. thinner or fatter? the same
iii. richer or poorer? Well, that depends. My parents are no longer giving me any money, but they never would have given me as much as I have from my loan. On the other hand, they won't be asking me to pay them back (+interest), so I'll say I'm poorer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spending time with my cousins. Enjoying college life. Relaxing after graduation (tomorrow I start my first vacation since Spring Break)! Running.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I had spent less time feeling insecure at college based on what some people told me that others were saying about me (which was unfounded, as it turns out).

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
My parents and my brother are staying with me (oh, how much fun will that be? ;>) But we're spending Christmas day at my Aunt and Uncle's house.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
No.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The O.C. Oh my gosh, it's so good. Also, the Apprentice, even though the Donald has been so wrong many times this season. And finally, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, because it always makes me cry.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don't really hate anyone...but there are some people I distance myself from.

26. What was the best book you read?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's so moving and fun to read- I recommend it to everyone.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Keane. And Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah.

28. What did you want and get?
I got into graduate school, I got a beautiful apartment, and I got a pretty fish.

29. What did you want and not get?
I wanted to get a Cairn terrier, but I'm so glad I didn't. I mean, if I can't find time to do laundry for a month, a poor little dog wouldn't stand a chance.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really can't remember. I'm looking forward to The Phantom of the Opera.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I can't remember what I did. Is that bad? I'm so old that I'm losing my memory.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I'm pretty happy.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Well, I was typical college student until October, when Kindergarten teacher fashion began. Though, I have been able to avoid the gaudy holiday buttons and tapered-leg pants look.

34. What kept you sane?
Friends, family, music.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Clive Owen. I think he should have been cast in the Da Vince Code (instead of Tom Hanks). Oh, and did anyone see Closer? Huge hands ;>

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The election stirred up so much. I angry about Iraq, especially, and the rift in social beliefs in our country.

37. Who did you miss?
ECM, my parents.

38. Who was the best new person you met?  Jenny

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
Love what you do and you will be good at it.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting old and I need something to rely on. So tell when, you're going to let me in. I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin. (That doesn't really make any sense, but I like the song ;>)

Further proof that I am a "cheap date"...
I had one cosmopolitan tonight- only 1!- and I had to firmly grip the rail when I climbed up the stairs to my apartment. Honestly! The only time I have this much confidence, albeit induced and unnatural, is when I'm a little tipsy. And obviously, this is the worst time for me to be looking for a guy. I know that, but I'm still mad that my friends wanted to leave the bar early. Grr. My head feels kind of heavy though. LOL. And my tongue is slightly swollen-like. lalala.

I feel like such a sucker.

I was perusing the perfume counter at Bloomingdales while chatting with my grandma on the phone, when a v. handsome scentier (is that the word?) completely charmed me into spending $65 on lotion Lotion! I should have seen it coming. By this age I know my limits, and cute guy rubbing lotion on my wrist leads to huge spending every time ;>

My life is craziness!

Last Tuesday, I went home for the first time since June. I use the term "home" lightly, since I've only spent 7 nights there so far and I live in a corner of the attic ;> And also because my parents' new house looks more like a hotel then a normal house. Just add a chandelier and a few magazines to the living room and it could be a hotel lobby. It's kind of off-putting how schwanky it is! I mean, my mom still shops at Talbots and she lives in a 6-story townhouse- I hope they don't start lunching or caring about society stuff. I don't think that will happen. Anyway, it's in such a fun location: right on mainstreet in downtown Ann Arbor. We walked everywhere all week. On Wednesday we went to an Irish pub, on Friday a tapas bar, and Saturday, a sushi restaurant. I did mucho Christmas shopping on Friday and spent 4 hours on Saturday studying at the gorgeous U of M law library. And we all spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Frances' house.

Student teaching is amazingly wonderfully fun (and a tiny bit stressful). If anyone has read about the cultural clash between the Hmong immigrants and the, um, white people living in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I deal with many Hmong children and families on a daily basis and I've never seen it. The media is definitely trying to drudge up ignorant xenophobia for news' sake. If you're interested in the Hmong people, their history, and the immigrant/native clash, read the book "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman. It's a tragic and true story about a Hmong girl with epilepsy and the miscommunications between her parents and the US health care system. The children in my class are adorable, and their parents are extremely involved and appreciative of teachers (i.e. perfect parents to a teacher).

Today I taught calendar time, a math lesson, and a wriitng lesson, and I was observed my my advisor. Why are the kids always animals when she comes? I felt like a lion tamer while reading The Hungry Caterpillar. After school, I had to give a presentation in my night grammar class (4:30-7:30pm). I had made a 22-slide powerpoint presentation, but due to the chaos of the room, and the fact that I had to present four times, I only had 6 minutes. So I sped read! However, Focus and Emphasis (phonological, lexical and nonphonological, and syntactical) are indeciferable at that speed. I mean, did you know that the stress of an affirmative declarative sentence falls on the accented syllable of the last content word? And that that is also where the intonation pivots from rising to falling? Did you ever think anything could be that boring? No, me neither.

My life=craziness. I teach every day this week. Plus, tomorrow night I'm going to a Hmong teaching panel, Friday I'm going to an English as a Second Language Carnival, and Saturday I'm going to a trivia party. I have two lesson plans to write this weekend (which need to include Standards- National, ELL, State, Writing, and Math) and I need to do all the applications in the grammar book.

What keeps me going:
The kids- cuteness personified.
The approach of Christmas- I'm hosting my whole immediate family for two weeks, plus organizing caroling and hot chocolate partying.
My friends- What's up Leaning Tower of Pizza?
My future job- where should I go? Hint: it can be anywhere in the world!! They pay really well in China. But I really want to go to Mexico. Or maybe England. Hmm...

Oct. 19, 11:28 p.m., South Main Street
A 29-year-old male was taken into protective custody after creating a disturbance in the Hanover Inn lobby by yelling "What a [expletive] lovely pumpkin display!" The intoxicated male, who had previously trespassed in the Hanover Inn, was later released from the police station.

I miss my hometown.

I love the feeling when you find a song that fits a moment in your life perfectly...
So, obviously, I found a song that I'm absolutely in love with. Everytime I hear it, it makes me so happy and nostalgic. It's called "Somewhere only we know" and it's by Keane. Keane is my band du jour- they're British, they use lots of keyboard (like Coldplay), and their music washes over me like a cool stream. Buy their new CD! It won the British Grammy for best album of the year.

Anyway, the song reminds me of Oxford. Well, yes, they are British, but it also has the feeling of growing older, being independent, and pure genuine happiness. I would wear my UK styles- plaids, peacoats, and wool sweaters- and walk down the cobblestone streets, past the ancient libraries. I would stop at Sainsbury's grocery store for lunch- they had about 20 different kinds of sandwiches on white bread, all packaged daily. They also had the best pasta salads, too! And creamy, sour yogurt with fresh strawberries. Then I would walk to the park by Christ Church and sit with my friends, eat lunch, and watch the crew teams stroke down the river. On Sundays, I would walk past the horse meadow towards Christ Church, walk through the commons, and teach Sunday School to the sweet little British kids. "Somewhere only we know" reminds me of those days. It's brilliant (which is a British colloquialism for cool). They'll be in St. Louis soon- go see them! And they're coming through Michigan and Minnesota in February. Call me. We'll go. Maybe you'll love them too!

"Somewhere Only We Know"
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete
Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

So if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

Sometimes I feel like I'm sane inspite of my mind. Like this morning: I woke up, got dressed, came into the kitchen, got out a bagle, and decided to finally wash my bagel knife (it was looking a bit crusty). I reached for the faucet, when I suddenly realized that the two knobs were gone and there was a lift-up handle in their place. The first thing that popped into my head and out of my mouth was "Shit! I'm in the wrong apartment!"

So, I think my landlady changed them without telling me, but evenso, I couldn't stop laughing at myself for five minutes, and if that isn't a sign of insanity, I don't know what is.

It was a pretty strange day overall. The first thing that one of the Spanish-speaking kids in my class told me when I got to school was that she had seen a dead man today. That one really puzzled (and scared) me for a while, until I figured out that she had walked past a funeral on the way to school.

One more thing- it is imperative that everyone who reads this buy the new Keane album "Hope and Fears." They're British, they don't have a guitar-player, and they are my absolute favorite band. Some even call them the "new Coldplay." I think they're better. Besides which, we all know that England is just a little bit cooler than America. I mean, they have actual handsome princes there.

Well last night I went to the movies, and since I cough up a lung unless I'm constantly drinking, I bought a large Sprite. I guess I've never bought a large drink at the movies before, because something funny happened: I couldn't really pick it up. My hand was too small to hold the large plastic cup without it slipping, so I had to juggle my shopping bags, jacket, and the gigantic cup. Anyway, this got me thinking about the pros and cons of having tiny hands (which are, with my hands as the standard, hands that have a 6 inch span -when outstretched- from tip of thumb to tip of pinkie).

Cons:
-I can't pick up a large soda at the movies singlehandedly.
-I can't reach an octave on the piano.
-I can't hold a tennis racket (or baseball bat or football probably) without constantly adjusting my pinkie. Well, I guess that's more based on my genetic pinkie curvature, but it definitely doesn't help.
-It's hard to find rings (size 4 or 5).
-I can't do cartwheels (but that might just be my lack of skills).

Pros:
-Good ice-breaker with cute guys, when I ask them to compare hand size, palm to palm...like "oh my gosh, your hands are so big!" I know that's so obvious, but it works!
-Good for hand-holding.
-I can wear my 9 year old cousin's mittens.
-My veins are closer together, which my doctor mom says is a good thing IV-wise.
-Less nail to paint, which probably saves me about a day over my whole lifetime. Also less nail to clip.

Otherwise, the only thing I'm thinking about is getting over this cold. It's a beotch. I'm hacking all the time, and yet I'm not technically "sick," since everyone gets colds, right? Um, no. This is horrendous, and I don't have a moment of peace if I'm not constantly drinking (like at the movies) or popping cough drops. I even have to sleep with a cough drop in my mouth, which is probably awesome for my teeth. Tonight I'm going over to my Aunt's to watch Shrek 2 with my cousins. Then I'm going to a Divali party, hosted by the doctoral candidates in economics. From what I know about economists, I have a feeling this party is going to be wild and crazy. Just kidding. ;>

Hilarious stories of a kindergarten teacher approaching insanity...
the kids have been pretty squirrely lately (that IS the technical term we use), so my cooperating teacher put mini-carpet squares into place. That means that all throughout my calendar lesson, the kids are sliding around on their squares. Then I asked all of the kids to start raising their hands when they have something to say (instead of yelling "Teacher, teacher, TEACHER!" constantly). So now they all continually raise their hands. They offer intriguing comments like:
"Teacher- purple."
"Nobember!"
"Teacher, you forgot (activity I'm about to start)"-- this comment comes every few minutes from one student, to the extent that I started telling him that I have a list and I know what's next.
"Teacher, mumble mumble mumble, smile."
Or my favorite...
(silence for twenty seconds).

On top of the fact that these adorable kids are driving me crazy, I've had the most gross cold for the past week. I feel so horrible when I cough and sneeze all day around the students (even though I use the elbow cover) and my voice has been getting really nasal.

If you had one minute alone with the President, what would you ask him? (Imagine that he would be forced, in that moment, to respond truthfully!)

Take the quiz: "WHAT RELIGION BESTS SUITS YOU?"

Average Christian
You're not going to become a minister anytime soon, but you do your best to live your life in a Christian way. This means that although you probably don't attend church every Sunday, you do your best to follow the Ten Commandments, help the needy and generally be an all around good person. Who needs to follow the entire bible anyways? It was written ages ago, and Christ transmuted it by giving his life.

Isn't that a little bit sad? I guess I present my faith as being pretty superficial...that's because I never want to overwhelm or offend anyone. I think I also try to appear vanilla about my beliefs because it's hard to relate to someone who wears such a huge personal choice on their sleeve. This is so hard to explain! My cross necklace isn't a fashion statement or a badge of support for others to see; I wear it because I like to touch it when I'm very happy, sad, or scared, or when I'm just thinking about my life and God. To be cheesy, it's my Jesus security blanket.

Cricket : "Jesus is never mad at us if we live with Him in our hearts!"
Tommy Corn : "I hate to break it to you, but He is - He most definitely is."
I really liked "I Heart Huckabees," but it gave me an existential nightmere. In it, I was shopping at a huge estate sale with my mom (which I've never done before) and we were walking throughout the mansion, which was filled with antique furniture. Suddenly my mom was gone and I was alone. I kept walking from room to room, but they all looked the same (very musty...like the house in Great Expectations). It was trés Kafka-esque.

Quiz from Caroline's Blog:

13 random things you like
Salty little jalepeño peppers dipped in Hummus (it's so bizarre, but I love it)
piglet
my fish Tutu
British accents
Barack Obama
Being a teacher
Dry erase boards
My Franz Ferdinand cell phone ring that my brother bought for me
Arby's market fresh salads (especially the Martha's Vineyard)
New England
Christmas Carols
Pineapple/Coconut air freshener
My baby cousins

12 random movies
Home for the Holidays
Cinema Paradiso
Alfie (I must see that this weekend!)
El Crimen de Padre Amaro
Dirty Dancing Two: Havana Nights (it popped into my head :>)
Stranger on a Train
When Savannah Smiles
Escape from Witch Mountain
Duck Soup
Azucar Amarga
The Princess and the Soldier
Charlie Brown Christmas

11 good bands or singers (first 11 that come to mind)
No Doubt
Franz Ferdinand
Keane
The Thrills
The Killers
Jem
Travis
U2
Coldplay
Pulp
Elvis Costello

10 things about you... physically
My hair is great for curling or straightening (it behaves)
Blue eyes
Teensy hands
Curved pinkies (which is why I can't play baseball ;>)
Tiny mouth
Pear-shaped
Polish jaw (I guess?)
Low blood-pressure (I used to faint in high school)
A nickle alergy in my left ear but not my right
Size 7 1/2 feet

9 great books
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Bel Canto
Nickle and Dimed
How Race is Lived in America
The Nanny Diaries
The Da Vinci Code (I read it in 12 hours with no breaks)
A Tale of Two Cities
Aráncame la Vida
The Old Gringo

8 favorite drinks
Arizona Green Tea
Piña Colada
Corona
Skim Milk
Earl Grey Tea (preferably Twinnings)
Diet Coke
Veramonte Chardonnay
Horchata (Mexican rice milk)

7 places you love
Hanover, New Hampshire
Oxford
Paris
Anywhere my whole family is
My new apartment
Epcot Center
Barcelona

6 things that annoy you
Tailgaters
Less funding to public schools
Bitter cold
When someone agrees with you and they say "Right?" but as a rhetorical question (I hate that!)
Anything by James Joyce
French haters (j'adore les franceses!)

5 things you touch every day
My hair
The fish food container
My toothbrush
My purse
My necklace

4 shows you watch
Seinfeld (5, 5:30, and 10pm every day! But I don't watch at all those times)
The O.C. (bitch)...it's like tv cotton candy and it comes close to being a satire of itself
Anderson Cooper 360
The Late Show with Conan O'Brien

3 celebrities you have a crush on
Trent Ford
Gael Garcia Bernal
Jon Stewart
(I also had a little crush on Tucker Carlson- because it's rebelious to like a Republican...they're the new "leader of the pack"- so the clip from Crossfire was perfection)

2 people on lj you have kissed
No one, I think (I mean, I don't know if any of them have live journals)

1 letter you like
L...I'm a big fan of glides, but I hate those pesky nasals (they sound like gagging- I wish my name didn't start with one)

It's those that are the strongest that God gives the most challenges...we must take that as a compliment and keep fighting!

I made my vote count. Now back to life without politics...hopefully.

Alissa's halloween party was hilarious! Julie dressed as a chain-smoking, beer-guzling pregnant woman with curlers? Classic! Plus, I met people who actually want to go dancing on weekends (instead of just heading to a bar and camping out) and a really nice guy with Peter Sellers glasses. I changed my mind at the last minute about being a hula girl and instead went as Fallon Carrington Cabot (aka Alexis' daughter on Dynasty). It was a little too obscure for most people to guess, but for some reason, a lot of people coveted my silver lamé heels. Is lamé back in?

A lot of my classmates were talking about their futures: how can we plan out our lives so that we have no regrets? Well, personally, I think "no regrets" is a state of mind. BUT, I am so happy that I jumped right into graduate school after college, because I'm one of the youngest in the class and therefore have a lot more time to plan for my future. I'll have a full-time teaching job (and a Masters) by next September! Isn't that crazy?

Happy Halloween, everyone! Feliz día de los muertos! I bought my first sugar skull. Besides which, Halloween officially marks the slide into Christmas. I can't remember who I've told, but my immediate family will only be together for one day this Christmas. My mom will be here until Christmas Day, when my dad will arrive. They're schedules are very tight. So, I told my mom that I want a trip to someplace warm for Christmas. I have half of January off and they will have more vacation days then, so I'm crossing my fingers that they'll buy me a round-trip ticket to Bermuda and a free scooter rental! I'll be a little burnt out by then, especially from the infamous Minnesota winter. But I've never ever been on a vacation where I'm just allowed to sit around and tan, read trashy novels, and watch tv. Our family vacations are always either educational or jam-packed with activities and reservations. And also, all you Wash U students who had the entire summer off (or graduates who've had even more)--- I've only had two weeks off from school since graduation!

Today I wore my snow white costume to school. I pinned my hair under and wore bright red lipstick.


This is what happened:
-My cooperating teacher said that if teaching fell through, I could always get a job on a cruise or at Disney World.
-When I went to the principal's office, he laughed.
-My students kept asking, "Are you Miss Nicole?"
-A boy in the hall asked me if I was the real Snow White. When I said "yes," he turned to his friend and said "I told you so."

I love being in kindergarten, where dressing-up is accepted!

However, I'm not going to wear this to my peer party. They're aiming towards Dolly Parton (why? I don't know) and I would be just a little out of place. I think I'll be a hula girl.

Here is a pulls-at-the-heartstrings story, but it reaffirms my decision to become a teacher.
Today, little Johnny came into class with a new shirt on- it had jack-o-lanterns all over it, which we have been talking about for the past month in books and in songs. He is a small, thin boy with a huge smile and he was beaming about his new shirt. I could tell that he was in a really good mood, even though he can't speak with verbs yet, so he couldn't say it himself. Anyway, he ran over to his table and finished his activity as quickly as anyone else. Johnny sits at the "special ed" table (the implied label which is never used), but when his aide his isn't there, he often works more productively. Anyway, everything was going smoothly. Then, after computers, the special ed aide came.

First, it was fine. However, he kept Johnny at the table after the other children had been sent to the carpet for storytime. The aide let him come over after five minutes, but when Johnny sat down, he was naturally distracted by his untied shoe lace. The aide said, "Johnny, you need to look" [at the teacher]. When he didn't look immediately, the aide physically picked him up and made him go back to his table to write his name over and over for the next 15 minutes. After Johnny did it successfully 10 times, he still kept him there. When we all lined up to go to lunch, Johnny was crying at his table. I'm sorry, but it breaks my heart!! He can't speak any English, so he can't stand up for himself with the teacher. He only wanted to be part of the class, to look at the book with his friends, and not to be kept so obviously apart.

This is who teachers need to fight for: the little children who can't stand up for themselves. If schools are underfunded, these are the little children who feel it first. When children are treated like test scores, these are the children who are needlessly held back. And if we don't create a caring environment in the classroom, these are the children who drop out before graduation. I bet he chose to buy that shirt just because he was excited about what he was learning in school. I'm such a tender heart, but that makes me cry. It gives me a goal and a definite purpose though, too.

Wowza, sorry this post is so long :>

All of my friends have been talking about how happy we'll be when the presidential election is over with. I've been trying to think of a way to explain how tired I am of partisan division and angry rhetoric, and I found it...in an article in Time magazine by Garrison Keillor:

"...and what will come of all this on Nov. 3? Some people will pick up the morning paper and save it for a souvenir, and the others will wrap up the garbage in it.

What will reconcile us is what has always restored our sanity, and that is the plain pleasures of the physical world, our commonlove of coffee, the world of apples, the movements of birds, the lives of dogs, the touch of skin. Music. Dancing to music. Shooting baskets. Shooting conservatively, scoring liberally. Lacing up our skates, gliding through the dusk. Having worked ourselves into a fever over the future of Western civilization, we will now begin enjoying our oatmeal again, with raisins, chopped apricots and honey from bees that grazed in meadows of clover."

My karma has an ironic sense of humor.

Last night, Jenny came over to chit-chat and gripe about our program/professors. I said, "I know I'm going to get sick, since I'm around 11 kindergarteners every day, and I honestly don't have time for that." Well, last night when I was falling asleep, I was freezing cold; I assumed it was because I have no control over the heat in my room. Then I woke up at 2am and I was burning up! So, I took my temperature and it was 100.3, plus my body ached, my eyes hurt, and I had the chills. Those are the exact symptoms that WebMD gives for influenza.

I went to bed at 1am this morning and woke up at 12pm...I guess the week wore me out more than I thought. Last night at 10:30pm, I had a sudden craving for junk food, so I drove to the 24hr grocery store, which is a three minute drive, and bought three bags of "light" chips and then ate 1/2 the bag of low-fat cape cod chips. I think I can write it off as a meal since they were light and made of potatoes. So it's kind of like I ate a baked potato with butter last night at 11pm. Which is reasonable.

Yesterday, I went with people in my graduate school class to a hugemongous Kerry rally. Because we live in Minnesota, it was held next to the stadium, instead of inside it, which would have been much less chilly. It was kind of fun, but I was so far away and so short that I spent most of the time staring at the winter jacket of a really tall guy in front of me and jumping up and down to warm up my toes. Anyway, I never actually saw Kerry, because of those reasons and because I lost my glasses two days ago, but it was fun to see thousands of Kerry supporters together! The news said that there were 20,000 people there. I can't believe the election is so soon. I'm honestly starting to get scared.

I have one issue that's bothering me. I have read polls and articles that suggest that Democrats are inherently more easily scared than Republicans. During the Democratic National Convention, Tucker Carlson said that most Democrats have conveyed to him a fear of our current government and their propensity to make very big mistakes. Yes, I'm scared of that! And then, last week, I told my grandpa that I was scared of President Bush being reelected, because I thought that without the need to campaign again, he would start creating more right-wing propositions. My grandpa told me not to be scared and my grandma said that I needed to remember that the world would not end if Bush were reelected. The media also keeps mentioning that both candidates are using the politics of fear to play with voters' minds. How can President Bush simultaneously say that he'll protect us and that we'll be attacked again, and think that people won't see that incongruency and be scared? Well, I read this in the New York Times this morning:

"In a disturbing article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, the writer Ron Suskind told of a meeting he'd had with a senior adviser to the president. The White House at the time was unhappy about an article Mr. Suskind had written.

According to Mr. Suskind, "The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' " The aide told Mr. Suskind, "That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality." "

That scares me!

I'm a girl who's afraid of spiders, calories, and physics, but I think it's time for America to stop being afraid to hold our President accountable for his actions and skewed view of reality. There are only 11 days left and I'm sick and tired of being scared!

So today at school we went apple-picking. It was adorable. Since only one of the children is verbal (i.e. uses verbs), the entire bus trip involved "Look- apple tree! Look- barn!" ...they pick up new words quickly. It's amazing to watch them improve because it's so rare to see a learning process from the very beginning. For example, Bee suddenly started speaking English today! It was as though she had been sitting on the carpet listening for the past month and just decided that today was her day. Anyway, it turns out that she knows the numbers 1-10. Isn't that just a little bit miraculous? A month ago she was living in a refugee camp in Laos.

I'm having some problems with the two native-Spanish-speaking students. I speak Spanish to them for clarification purposes, but I'm so rusty, so I avoid complex verb conjugation. Anyway, because they hear me speaking it, they assume I'm one of the adults who knows how and start rattling off sentences to me! Most of the time I pretend to understand what they're saying ("Sí, Stephanie!") and then take a minute to work it out. I think Yahayra caught on today because I kept pushing her higher on the swings when she was saying that she wanted to stop (in my defense, I think she was using a subjunctive command form). I felt like such a bilingual fraud! Oh well. For most of the kids, I have no idea what they're saying to each other so they don't even try to speak to me (Have you tried Hmong? It's tricky). Anyway, our bilingual Hmong aid is going to pick up his fiancee in Laos tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see if he acts differently next week. It will be interesting for her too, I'm sure, since apparently she's only 21 and speaks no English, and he looks like he's about 50.

I'm going to go carve the pumpkin I got at the orchard. Tomorrow my friends and I are all rallying for Kerry (he's visiting again) and then John's coming to stay for the weekend.

PS- Has anyone seen the clip of Jon Stewart on Crossfire? Well, if you know me, you know that he's my favorite, and his message -that debate shows have become simply partisan stereotyping- is so true. I'm tired of politics...even if GWB wins, at least that means he'll have only four more years to screw up the world. If John Kerry wins, it will be one huge party on Nov. 3rd!

I woke up to an empty apartment this morning...it's a widdle bit sad :(

My brother went back to school yesterday and my grandparents left early this morning. We had so much fun this weekend, though!

On Friday morning, my cousins gave us a tour of their elementary school. Then G&G and I drove down to Northfield...and we got stuck in traffic for an hour on the highway. Traffic jam has new meaning when the other people in the car can't stop talking about how elitist John Kerry is! Grr.

On Saturday morning, our whole group -the aunts, the twins, the five Hartnetts, my grandparents, John and I- went apple picking. It was absolutely freezing though! We just filled our bags really quickly, while the babies screamed, and then jumped back on the hay wagon. It was worth it to eat donuts and cider in the tent with the fiddle players and watch my cousin Eli dance (he's 1 1/2). Then John and I went to a Kerry rally in Minneapolis...there is so much momentum here! I got a "Christians for Kerry" pin. It's been starting to offend me that Bush supporters take a moral and religious highground, as though Kerry supporters are sacreligious. We had to drive to the Kerry headquarters to buy John a huge sign for his dorm's hallway. Later, John and I went to IKEA and got his missing chair part (so the seat isn't on the floor of his room anymore), and went to dinner at a sports bar in the Mall of America. The Red Sox were winning the entire time we were there- it was creating completely false hope. Anyway, we then went to see Jerry Seinfeld, which was his birthday present. I couldn't stop laughing, but it was mostly because Jerry was on the stage and it's kind of surreal. My favorite joke was about weather forecasters. He said "if 5-day forecasts were really for 5-days, you would only need them every 5 days." I honestly never thought of that.

Sunday morning my little party went to St. James on the Parkway. And my uncle Chris showed up! Living here is like constant Christmas because before moving to the Twin Cities, I only saw these relatives during the holidays. Then I dropped John off at the commuter bus with his huge sign...the bus driver almost refused him service (for partisan reasons)! Then I went to the Lessin-Burris's for dinner. My little cousins all helped me make scenary for my lesson plan on prepositions. Then we ate dinner and compared the pies from the annual post-picking bake-off. The cream-cheese custard apple pie won.

Well, anyway, this morning I'm so tired and feeling like I'm behind already for this week. But I love going to see the kids every morning! My student teaching position is easy like a bake oven and the kids are cuteness personified. And I realized that I'm starting to dress like a kindergarten teacher. How you may ask? Today I'm wearing warm brown pants, socks, and suede clogs, and a pick toggle sweater. It's a slippery slope towards corderoy jumpsuits and gaudy holiday pins! Yikes.

What I've learned so far about public education:
There are huge inequalities between the best public schools and the worst. I was so lucky; I grew up in one of the best. In 5th grade, we put on a musical version of Beowulf and took a weeklong trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where we took part in authentic whaling excursions! That is so unique, though. Two years ago I worked in downtown St. Louis in a preschool classroom. The school was failing and its funding was being cut. The children were fed only plastic-covered, processed food, and never any vegetables. Now, I work in an ESL kindergarten classroom in St. Paul. I am so hopeful for these children! They need money and support to learn English...and they're 5 years behind typical American children. These children are being tested and their scores affect the amount of funding which the school will receive. Our children are not test scores! Rewarding schools that are already ahead is taking away money from schools that actually need it. It's not about equality of funding, it's about equity. There are many more issues that need to be addressed in inner-city schools and rural communities. Right now, No Child Left Behind is grossly underfunded. That is neglect of children who need education the most.

It's time to start providing for the Anthonys and Bees (another one of my students!) of the world. I really didn't need to learn whaling songs (which I unfortunately still remember...although I've forgotten everything I learned in calculus:)) I wish I could have given some of my funding to them.

Sleepiness...
I woke up this morning and got dressed and made-up (well that sounds stupid, but it's true) all before I ate breakfast. I swear I haven't done that since high school! Then I drove to my elementary school and spent all morning in the classroom. I love the kids! They are so sweet, even though I don't understand most of what they're talking about: they speak Lao, Vietnamese, and Cambodian, and I don't. I work with Anthony, who is so smart, although can't say "three" yet, so avoids it as much as he can which is so cute. But my cooperating teacher is so inclusive- she's like, "create your own lessons, do whatever you want." I bought my Snow White costume last week, which was outrageously expensive, but I wrote it off as a teaching expense. Besides which, I look like Snow White now -especially with bright red lipstick- and the kids are learning about witches. This is possibly the most fun I've ever had for class credit! I'm really excited for our apple-picking trip next week!

Then I went to class...my teacher is completely soporific (such a useful SAT word). She speaks like Mr. Rogers and her lessons are so simplistic. Today, after spending 45 minutes discussing our homework assignment in groups, she asked if we wanted to keep doing the activity. We all (30 of us) looked at each other to try to think of a nice way to say that we thought the class was pointless and we were bored out of our minds and couldn't believe we were paying thousands of dollars to attend the class. Finally, Audra said, "Um...well, honestly...um, not really." I feel bad for my teacher, but how can you teach us to be teachers when you can't teach us yourself? We started laughing because Audra had said exactly what we were all thinking. Oh well. Only 8 more months;)

My grandparents arrived this evening. They brought so many bags that it looks like they're moving in.
Anyway, I was just watching NewsNight on CNN and they showed a clip of George Bush saying that John Kerry wants to make terrorists into a "nuisance" but that he wants to kill them all. I swear that Bush said that the war couldn't be won just a month ago. So I made an angry sigh (like "grr...sigh") and my grandpa, who was in the kitchen, asked what was wrong.

Me: "George Bush is driving me crazy!"
Grandpa: 'She's making coffee."

It's going to be a long 11 days... :)

Here is further proof that the Patriot Act is unconstitutional:

The Promise of the First Amendment
By ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., chairman and publisher, and RUSSELL T. LEWIS, chief executive, The New York Times

Published: October 10, 2004

Last Thursday, a federal district judge ordered a New York Times reporter, Judy Miller, sent to prison. Her crime was doing her job as the founders of this nation intended. Here's what happened and why it should concern you.

On July 6, 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV - formerly a career foreign service officer, a chargé d'affaires in Baghdad and an ambassador - wrote an article published on this page under the headline, "What I Didn't Find in Africa." The article served to undercut the Bush administration's claims surrounding Saddam Hussein's nuclear capacity.
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Eight days later, Robert Novak, a syndicated columnist, wrote an article in which he identified Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as an "operative on weapons of mass destruction" for the C.I.A. "Two senior administration officials told me," Mr. Novak wrote, that it was Ms. Plame who "suggested sending Wilson" to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium ore from Niger. After Mr. Novak's report, several other journalists wrote stories in which they said they received similar information about Ms. Plame from confidential government sources, in what many have concluded was an effort to punish Mr. Wilson for speaking out against the administration by exposing his wife as a C.I.A. operative. The record is clear, however, that Judy Miller is not one of those journalists who reported this information.

Because the government officials who revealed Valerie Plame's status as a C.I.A. operative to the press might have committed a crime in doing so, the Justice Department opened a federal criminal investigation to find whoever was responsible.

During the course of this investigation, the details of which have been kept secret, several journalists have been subpoenaed to provide information about the source of the leak and threatened with jail if they failed to comply.

On Aug. 12, Ms. Miller received a subpoena in which she was required to provide information about conversations she might have had with a government official in which the identity and C.I.A. connection of Mr. Wilson's wife might have been mentioned. She received this subpoena even though she had never published anything concerning Mr. Wilson or his wife. This is not the only recent case in which the government has subpoenaed information concerning Ms. Miller's sources. On July 12, the same prosecutor sought to have Ms. Miller and another Times correspondent, Philip Shenon, identify another source. Curiously, this separate investigation concerns articles on Islamic charities and their possible financial support for terrorism that were published nearly three years ago. As part of this effort to uncover the reporters' confidential sources, the prosecutor has gone to the phone company to obtain records of their phone calls.

So, unless an appeals court reverses last week's contempt conviction, Judy Miller will soon be sent to prison. And, if the government succeeds in obtaining the phone records of Ms. Miller and Mr. Shenon, many of their sources - even those having nothing to do with these two government investigations - will become known.

Why does all of this matter? The possibility of being forced to leave one's family and sent to jail simply for doing your job is an appalling prospect for any journalist - indeed, any citizen. But as concerned as we are with our colleague's loss of liberty, there are even bigger issues at stake for us all.

The press simply cannot perform its intended role if its sources of information - particularly information about the government - are cut off. Yes, the press is far from perfect. We are human and make mistakes. But, the authors of our Constitution and its First Amendment understood all of that and for good reason prescribed that journalists should function as a "fourth estate." As Justice Potter Stewart put it, the primary purpose of the constitutional guarantee of a free press was "to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches."
The founders of our democracy understood that our government was also a human institution that was capable of mistakes and misdeeds. That is why they constructed a First Amendment that would give the press the ability to investigate problems in the official branches of our government and make them known to the public. In this way, the press was sensibly put in a position to help hold government accountable to its citizens.

An essential tool that the press must have if it is to perform its job is the ability to gather and receive information in confidence from those who would face reprisals for bringing important information about our government into the light of day for all of us to examine. Without an enforceable promise of confidentiality, sources would quickly dry up and the press would be left largely with only official government pronouncements to report.

A quarter of a century ago, a New York Times reporter, Myron Farber, was ordered to jail, also for doing his job and refusing to give up confidential information. He served 40 days in a New Jersey prison cell. In response to this injustice, the New Jersey Legislature strengthened its "shield law," which recognizes and serves to protect a journalist's need to protect sources and information. Although the federal government has no shield law, the vast majority of states, as well as the District of Columbia, have by now put in place legal protections for reporters. While many of these laws are regarded as providing an "absolute privilege" for journalists, others set out a strict test that the government must meet before it can have a reporter thrown into jail. Perhaps it is a function of the age we live in or perhaps it is something more insidious, but the incidence of reporters being threatened with jail by the federal government is on the rise.

To reverse this trend, to give meaning to the guarantees of the First Amendment and to thereby strengthen our democracy, it is now time for Congress to follow the lead of the states and enact a federal shield law for journalists. Without one, reporters like Judy Miller may be imprisoned. More important, the public will be in the dark about the actions of its elected and appointed government officials. That is not what our nation's founders had in mind. *

I'm scared that Bush will be reelected. It's past just my conscience and my beliefs; I'm beginning to feel physical knots in my stomach at the thought of giving him the power to enact even more damaging rights, environment, and education bills.

I think there should be a word for the fear of continuing George W. Bush's immoral and uncompassionate decisions. Does anyone have a suggestion?
-nicole

It's been a busy weekend!
On Friday night I hosted a debate party for my class...we were so excited that Kerry finally mentioned No Child Left Behind, because we're a bunch of future teachers and could listem to the candidates talk about that for 90 minutes! I didn't see anyone I knew from Washington University, even on the CNN pre-debate shows, but my friends and I enjoyed the woman in the flag shirt and the cute guy with square glasses. Was it me or did John Kerry always refer back to Nikki? Jake thinks that that was the only name Kerry could remember. My question is: does Bush knowingly receive $84 a year for having stake in a Timber business?

On Saturday I went to meet my parents and my brother at St. Olaf for parents' weekend. First, we went to the Jesse James museum, where we learned so much about a bank robbery. During the tour by the elderly owner, my mom kept saying "I'll be darned," because there isn't much else to say when someone tells us that the actual clock from the bank was found only 100 miles south of the town, 30 years ago. Afterwards we went to the St. Olaf homecoming game and barbeque. The Ole (their team name) fight song is so sweet: it's really slow, like a drinking song, and the refrain is "um yah yah, um yah yah..." repeated over and over! My brother has a radio show called "The Donner Family, " and their slogan is "come eat with us" (because it's at lunch time). It's just a bit morbid, but I guess pretty creative too.

Last night I went to Jenny & Jakes to play games. It's so great to have nice neighbors. Jenny and I reminised about when Ricky Martin was still hot ("Vuelve") and Jake did physics parlor tricks. I didn't get any sleep, though, and I have to do all of my homework really quickly before my parents come up this afternoon.

Do you attend Washington University in St. Louis? Do you want to be on TV?

CNN will have an outdoor broadcast space there on Friday. All of the shows will be taped there and there will be opportunities for students to ask questions of reporters, political analysts, and campaign managers! (I'm such a freak for being excited about that). Anyway, if I were there, I would make signs, camp out there all day - it's a worthy enough reason for skipping class- and get on tv!

Possible questions: How is President Bush planning on reversing the huge deficit that is growing bigger every day? How will he safeguard social security for our generation? When will he begin funding education to the extent needed by No Child Left Behind?

One possible sign to make (and if you're as big a marker-nerd as me, this will be the best part):
Side 1- The Economy, Education, Health Care, Social Security, the War in Iraq.
Who's gonna save us? (*from the song by The Living End...quite apropos ;) )
Side 2- Kerry, Edwards! Help is on the way!

I hope I get to see at least one familiar face on tv Friday night!:)

My grandparents and I finally agree on something political: the campaign season is too long!
Being the well-informed retirees that they are, my grandpa and grandma recently attended a conference in Ottawa about Canadian politics (isn't that one of the most random things?). Anyway, they learned that the campaigns there are only permitted (by law) to be about thirty days long! Wouldn't that be so nice? I am so sick of the rhetoric...that could be because I'm watching too much CNN, though. My dad sent me an email last night and said that I obviously need to stop;) Dad, a girl's gotta stay informed.

Anyway, I had heard about the Canadian system from Jean Chretien, the former Prime Minister of Canada, when he came to speak at the U of M. Another interesting tid-bit about politics up north: their bureaucracy is so much smaller than ours! When he was minister of the park system, he told his wife that he would create a state park for her (he told us this story with a really thick French accent, which made it a lot funnier). So he flew to the capital, and discussed with the Minister of the Northern Territories. Which was him. And he agreed. Then he talked to the Minister of Native Indian Affairs. Which was him. And he agreed too. Finally, he asked the Minister of the Cabinet, which was also him, and he agreed. So he created the park...and he never had to talk to anyone else!

I'm really excited to see my parents this weekend! It's funny: they called me this week just to chat...I don't remember them ever doing that before! ;) I think they're getting bored of being empty-nesters. But their new interest is hilarious: my parents have taken up frisbee golf! Haha. Honestly. They bought all of the equiptment last week and they told me that the salesman seemed stoned. My dad said they're going to try to raise the demographic of the frisbee gold course in Ann Arbor. They also enjoy hanging out at Starbucks in the evening. My parents are like teenagers again! It makes me so hopeful- it proves you don't have to become "middle-aged" if you don't want to. And they deserve it, since they only spent 9 months married before they had kids and they've worked so hard for the past 22 years; it's about time they got to do all of the fun stuff they missed out on in their 20's!

Typical disc golf players. My mom and dad might stand out a bit.

Oh, for cute photo-op's sake!

I just saw a commercial for George Bush in which they showed pictures of terrorists and their victims and then said "These people want to kill us." I can't believe that the party has resorted to that! It is the politics of cynicism and fear. They might as well say "You should be very scared. Vote for Bush or you'll probably die." I think it's true: during an election year, the electorate is treated like we're stupid and swayed by our emotions.

What do people have against the French all of the sudden?

It started with the Freedom Fries, but now there seem to be a common belief that the French are elite and weak, which is apparently the opposite of what Americans should be.

Has President Bush been to France? Does he have any French friends? Why does he keep laughing at them and making them the punch line for every campaign joke?

They were so sweet to me when I was broke in Tours, when I offered to wash dishes to pay for a hostel room, when I got on the wrong train twice (twice!) in one day, and when I got on a bus with no money. (I'm sorry, everyone. I probably enforced the French sterotype that Americans are stupid. Oh well). Additionally, have the people who vilify the French as elitist foodies ever had a crepe with ham and gruyere? Well, it's practically a pancake with meat and cheese in it, which sounds like a fatty idea that Americans would have and enjoy at sports games.

So... I support you, Frenchies! Vous etes super!

This morning I did my first door-to-door knocking for Kerry. It was super fun! I got to pass out yard signs and stickers too. The former Governor of New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen, spoke at the instructional meeting about the dirty tactics that the GOP is using to disenfranchize minority voters:

-In Florida, they are mailing Hispanic voters letters saying that they must apply for absentee ballots, but then never sending them those in the mail.
-In southern Ohio, they are sending people letters saying that if John Kerry is elected, their Bibles will be taken away.
-At Universities around the country, they are trying to spread the idea that students will lose scholarship money if they vote.

Since there is so much emphasis on the swing-voters, I didn't feel like there would be very much for us to do in Minnesota, since Kerry still has a lead here. However, the practice of turning African Americans away at polling centers is occuring here too. I met a family today who said that they weren't allowed to vote in the primaries because their middle names apparently didn't match the registration records. That makes me so mad! So everyone, make sure you are registered and that you bring two forms of ID, plus proof of current address to your polling station on November 2nd!! We can't let Bush win by surpressing votes for Kerry!

I have nervous knots in my stomach...I'm like a pretzel.

Here is what Kerry needs to do tonight:
-Bring up the promises that Bush made during the last campaign, like that he would not send any troops into a war unless there were enough troops to win and there an exit plan. He would allow drugs to be imported into the country from Canada.
-Emphasize that Bush has no record to stand on.
-Explain his decision to vote against the $87 billion dollars and why his opinion has changed about Iraq.

It would be so very nice if Bush would make a mispronunciation of something important or have a freudian slip and say that he went into the war because Saddam Hussein tried to kill his father. I had an argument with Eric, from class today, who thinks that Bush will win no matter what because he has the most affective negative strategy...that no matter what, Bush will keep calling Kerry a flip-flopper and use misdirection to confuse people.

Okay. I'm going to cross everything and go eat cookies at the Debate party.
I'm going to do a follow-up tonight!

I was just in line at my new favorite coffee shop, when a man -who saw my Kerry pin- said to me "How can you like John Kerry? He's an awful, horrible man. George Bush is such a nice man." I couldn't think of anything to say...I was just staring at him in disbelief and embarassment, when it dawned on me: that's so stupid. So I said, "Wait, are you kidding?" And he smiled and laughed and said, "Of course!" I heart my neighborhood.

Oh my gosh...has anyone seen Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? It plays on my emotions so much! It's like watching the happiest day of a family's life; they definitely play up every sentimental angle. It makes me cry...and it's a reality show on abc! The designers left the widowed father's bible open on the desk next to the deceased mother's bible and they were both on the same page about eternal love. It's almost maudlin, but it's so compelling. Maybe tv executives will realize that the spontaneous moments of happiness and grief are much more beautiful than greed and betrayal (and a bunch of attention-needy people who are performing for a prize). I loved the moment at the Emmy's when Garry Shandling brought the two "normal" people onstage and unblindfolded their eyes and took off their headphones! And then they both started crying, and the man said that he respected all of the actors there, and the woman said "Hey, Matt LeBlanc." It was so fun!

Last night I slept on my cousin Maria's trundel bed...I made a deal with her that I would spend the night if she went to church with me today. I know that you can't bribe someone into religion- actually it was just because I don't like sitting alone. So we went together and it was fun...we colored the story of the rich man and Lazarus the whole time. I also found a new study spot!

Finally, I dyed (I just saw that typo and edited it. Honestly, how many people read that and thought, "how did Nicole ever get into Wash U?") my hair on Thursday night. It's dark brown with a faint auburn tint. I'm going to be Snow White for Halloween, now, so I just have to find a cute costume (I'm going to be student teaching in a bilingual kindergarten classroom, so that's Blancanieves to them!) Our group of future ESL teachers has started "Board game Thursdays"...we're such a wild and crazy bunch! It was really fun though- we played word games. And now I'm on the lookout for an economist of my own...tweed is hot, when a guy can pull it off.

Okay, watch the debate on Thursday! I'm going to a debate party...you know what Sammy Jo says, "I don't believe in the Republican party or the Democratic party, I just believe in parties." We all get really riled up about No Child Left Behind, though!

When the war with Iraq started last Spring, I listened to the song "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens over and over again. It's so optimistic and idealistic about spreading peace! (It's also super catchy). So I was really suprised yesterday to read that the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens was deported for being on a terrorist watch list.

"Yusuf Islam is perhaps one of the most widely known and respected personalities in the Muslim world. He has a long history of promoting peace and reconciliation and condemning terrorism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR.

Islam was the second high-profile Muslim in recent months to be barred entry to the United States. Swiss-based Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan was prevented from taking up a lecturing post at Notre Dame University in Indiana in August after the U.S. authorities revoked his visa with no explanation.

CAIR said treating mainstream and moderate Muslims as terrorists sent the wrong message. "This does not help the war on terrorism, it just makes it harder," Awad told a news conference.

The incident prompted British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to raise the issue in person with Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) at the United Nations (news - web sites) in New York.

"The foreign secretary raised the Cat Stevens incident with Colin Powell and expressed concern that this action should not have been taken," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters in London.

Muslim groups in Britain also decried the deportation of Islam, who heads a trust that oversees Muslim schools in the country.

"This incident comes only to confirm the farcical and ultimately draconian standards and practices exercised by U.S. immigration authorities," said Anas Altikriti, a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain.

I hope that this will finally make the Patriot Act a point of debate. It's so easy to say "I am willing to give up some of "my" freedom for the sake of safety," but I have never been asked to. It's just so sad that a figurehead for peace in moderate Islam is being treated like a threat.


It's anti-American and I'm scared that it's going to create so many more problems.

Yesterday my brother came to visit. I picked him up at St. Olaf's, where I met his RA. He has Bush posters all around his door, so I was starting to write "Kerry '04" on his message board (as a joke) when he came out! It was really embarrassing- he was really cute (like all Republicans, it seems, except those in the government). Then we ate dinner at Johnny Rocket's Malt Shoppe...it's so sweet! Afterwards, we drove downtown to go to the Keane concert, but when we got to the club, the show had been cancelled. Grr. So we went to see Garden State at 10:10, and then I had to drive him back to school. I didn't get back until 2am. I'm a girl who needs her sleep...I couldn't get much done today because I'm so tired.

So it turns out that my brother is a joiner. I really didn't expect this at all! He called me back this evening and it was just like the phone call that Bridget Jones pretends to have.

Me: Hi, John.
John: Hahahaha. Oh, hi.
Me: What are you laughing about?
John: (Muffled talking. Room erupts in laughter). What?
Nicole: It's me! (yelling) Your sister!
John: Oh...hey! Yeah, I have to go. We're giving a girl pie for her birthday, then we've got to plan our radio show.
Nicole: You're doing a radio show?
John: Yeah. (Muffled talking) Um...yeah, me and two girls. It's like "John and his girls."
Nicole: Are you okay?
John: Yeah, okay, I've got to go...(Room erupts in laughter again).
Nicole: Okay, I love you, but you don't have to say it back (jokingly).
John: Haha. Yeah. Bye.

I can't believe that was my little brother! He's like a puppy off his leash. Apparently the nights of staying home with my parents and watching Masterpiece Theater was all a farce. He's now a ladies' man with a radio show and a dorm room full of people who laugh at everything he says. I was absolutely not prepared for him to be so happy and adjusted after two weeks. I was so worried, apparently for no reason at all.

Oooh, today I discovered that all lectures at the alumni center are catered by a gourmet italian restaurant and everything's free. I may just have to start going to lectures more often. Like every day after class.

There are many evils in this world and our country that I close my eyes to in order to remain happy. I pretend not to know that I'm eating actual animals (which is easy as long as they don't still have eyes), I overlook the fact that my car pollutes the environment, and I reinterate my lack of power as an excuse for not taking more initiative in helping others as much as I can. However, I think that America is becoming too numb to the conditions of war and I wish that would stop. It's one thing to ignore the environment, livestock, and volunteerism, but horrible things are happening in Iraq and the American people are starting to think of them as commonplace. Today in Faluja, our air force bombed a US army jeep by accident. The soldiers were evacuated safetly, but later some Iraquis jumped on the burning vehicle to celebrate. One local reporter was covering the action live nearby by camera, when he was killed by the American troops who decided that they couldn't leave the jeep, however damaged, for the insugents to pillage. His last words- "I'm dying"- were shown live on tv. Isn't there something supremely horrible about that? How can we liberate the Iraquis and destroy them at the same time? Why did the reporter die? There isn't a reason anymore that isn't somehow based on political spin and misdirection. He couldn't have died to remove Saddam from power, because Saddam is currently in prison. It couldn't have been because his government had powerful weapons because Secretary Powell said that none will ever be found. I think that killing in vain is murder and war is not an excuse, especially this one.

Yesterday I went on a shopping blitz through the Mall of America. I love it! There are over 400 stores and they're grouped by type. I bought the best pair of pants in the world at Rampage- they honestly feel like pajamas. Then I bought another at New York and Co. and a floral button-down shirt, a long brown skirt, a pink sweater, a fall jacket, and a gray pair of pants at Old Navy. My credit card is still hot... I must stop this.

After I finished one lap of the mall (which is about a mile), I went to see "Cellular." It's so good! Definitely a must-see popcorn movie...especially the scene in the cell phone store; that is completely something I would do (if, hypothetically, I ever use a gun to hold someone up).

Anyway, I had volunteered to do literature distribution today for Lydia Lee, who's running for school board in Minneapolis. Well, I arrived at the pick-up site at 10am this morning (after spending an hour desperately trying to get to Arthur Ave. NE, which deadends THREE times as you drive north) and they handed me literature about Diane Loeffler, who's running for State Rep. I was like, "hmm...I'm here to help Lydia Lee," and the woman giving me the literature said, "Well, I'm Diane Loeffler, thanks for helping." I was so duped into this and since I'm a pushover (or maybe charitable?), I did it anyway. It was a workout! 10 blocks where all the houses had at least 10 steps leading up to the front door, in the burning sun! I hope Diane Loeffler is actually a good candidate, because I had never heard about her until today. Actually, I don't even know what Lydia Lee supports: Scott Dibble, who I originally wanted to help run for State Senate, told me to volunteer for her. And people wonder why my age group is cynical about politicians! Though, I guess I can understand why politicians assume that their constituents are stupid and not paying attention to issues:)

**Challenge of the Day**
Please post your favorite joke(s)! I can never remember any (except the "na-CHO cheese" one) and I know that some ECM people know some good ones...remember the IHOP fat tuesday dinner? John, will you post some of yours too?

I love my parents so much. They're so kind and funny, and most importantly, we understand each other when we're together in a way that is hard to find outside of my family. First, we're all independent New Englanders. That means that we often either appear shy or arrogant, but it's only because the midwestern hyper-friendliness doesn't feel natural to us. Secondly, we usually do things ourselves instead of waiting for others to join us...it's not because we're shy though, it's just because we don't "need" people around to be happy. We want to make good friends, but we don't necessarily need them, so it's trickier. And, as New Englanders, we also hate mindless chit-chat. (I'm not a cranky old woman, honestly, it's just a state of mind!) We always end up having philosophical discussions about religion or politics. And I love how compassionate and dedicated they are: they're going to plan a mission trip together, since a doctor and a chemist are always needed; and my dad's going to organize a yearly family reunion for just the four of us, since John and I are both out of the house now.

Yesterday I was so confident when I said goodbye to them. I'm a graduate student, after all, and I have my own beautiful apartment and semi-loyal fish. But this day, the first of the fall semester, was so stressful and exhausting and...I miss my parents! I spent two hours this morning waiting in line to get my loan approved (so I can actually enroll in the classes I started today), but my number wasn't called before class, so I had to give up my space. Grr...I'm going to have to do that again all tomorrow morning. Anyway, then I went to class, which is with all the same girls (and one guy), but it was kind of annoying because everyone is so chatty all the time! I'm sorry to be such a downer, but I don't always enjoy the false "Oh my gosh, how were your past two weeks??!!! What didya do?" Everyone in my class is nice, but I grew up in the frigid mountains of New Hampshire where we just don't do that- unless you make sure the person has had their coffee. Then I went to buy my textbooks. Cha-ching! I carried all 50 pounds of them back to my car and then drove to the grocery store. When I have days like this, I should honestly stay out of all stores, since I'm in an altered state of contientiousness and spend wildly. I also eat really bad food. Like friend chicken and pringles for dinner.

I will be fine, though...it's just post-first-day jitters. My schedule is crazy too. When I first saw it, 1:25-4:25 four days a week, I thought it sounded like a breeze and maybe I could work a little. I realized today though, that those are only inclass hours; I also have about four hours of student teaching every day, probably in a distant suburb.

When my dad send me his pictures, I'll post them here- including me on the carny spinning torture ride at the state fair! It's just amazing how many foods can be eaten off a stick: hot dogs (obviously), corn, cheese, candy bars, pickles, jalepeños and cream cheese, and, my favorite, french toast. Maybe food just tastes better on a stick. I'm going to keep investigating.

I love my parents so much. They're so kind and funny, and most importantly, we understand each other when we're together in a way that is hard to find outside of my family. First, we're all independent New Englanders. That means that we often either appear shy or arrogant, but it's only because the midwestern hyper-friendliness doesn't feel natural to us. Secondly, we usually do things ourselves instead of waiting for others to join us...it's not because we're shy though, it's just because we don't "need" people around to be happy. We want to make good friends, but we don't necessarily need them, so it's trickier. And, as New Englanders, we also hate mindless chit-chat. (I'm not a cranky old woman, honestly, it's just a state of mind!) We always end up having philosophical discussions about religion or politics. And I love how compassionate and dedicated they are: they're going to plan a mission trip together, since a doctor and a chemist are always needed; and my dad's going to organize a yearly family reunion for just the four of us, since John and I are both out of the house now.

Yesterday I was so confident when I said goodbye to them. I'm a graduate student, after all, and I have my own beautiful apartment and semi-loyal fish. But this day, the first of the fall semester, was so stressful and exhausting and...I miss my parents! I spent two hours this morning waiting in line to get my loan approved (so I can actually enroll in the classes I started today), but my number wasn't called before class, so I had to give up my space. Grr...I'm going to have to do that again all tomorrow morning. Anyway, then I went to class, which is with all the same girls (and one guy), but it was kind of annoying because everyone is so chatty all the time! I'm sorry to be such a downer, but I don't always enjoy the false "Oh my gosh, how were your past two weeks??!!! What didya do?" Everyone in my class is nice, but I grew up in the frigid mountains of New Hampshire where we just don't do that- unless you make sure the person has had their coffee. Then I went to buy my textbooks. Cha-ching! I carried all 50 pounds of them back to my car and then drove to the grocery store. When I have days like this, I should honestly stay out of all stores, since I'm in an altered state of contientiousness and spend wildly. I also eat really bad food. Like friend chicken and pringles for dinner.

I will be fine, though...it's just post-first-day jitters. My schedule is crazy too. When I first saw it, 1:25-4:25 four days a week, I thought it sounded like a breeze and maybe I could work a little. I realized today though, that those are only inclass hours; I also have about four hours of student teaching every day, probably in a distant suburb.

There are a lot of important stories in the news today:
-The horrible hostage crisis in Russia (Ukraine?)
-Hurricane Frances
-President Clinton having heart surgery
It must be such a crazy day for President Bush...well, I guess only if the White House is actually run exactly like on The West Wing :)

I spent all this morning obsessively cleaning my apartment so that it's clean when my mom arrives (a swiffer wet-jet really is a girl's best friend)! I also continued my annoying streak of having anxiety attacks when I don't know where my family is, since I hadn't heard from my parents since before they left home yesterday afternoon. Car accidents still scare me more than anything, so I prayed all morning (while swiffering)- which now seems silly and paranoid, since my dad just called to tell me they're an hour away- but over the past 7 hours it helped so much.

So now I'm going to pray for the three situations above until my family arrives. I wonder if anything tragic or miraculous will happen today. I think that the British tradition of saying "God save the Queen" should be used in the United States instead of "God bless America." Most people pray that God would bless all nations and people. I think I'm going to pray for our leader for guidance and wisdom instead...God save the President.

"No dejaremos a ningún nino atrás." Hmm, it's been happening for four years!

Education is not a race to the finish line, Mr. President.

Maybe that's way millions of Hispanic high school graduates *in the state you governed* drop out of college before one year, since they have only been taught how to take a test.

(^My message to the President...everyone else can skip it. When he reads my blog, then he'll understand ;) )

My grandpa has almost the same cadence and intonation of President Bush, as well as the same mannerisms (although not the accent). That's why I do like the President...I would like to invite him to a barbeque and hear him tell jokes!
But how can we ignore a generation of public-schooled children?

I also don't think that starting an unending war, like another cold war, is a hopeful campaign for our country. Couldn't we address each terrorist cell individually and case specifically? Why haven't we found the Al Qaeda leaders yet, those who actually caused the largest act of terrorism in our country's history? I'm tired to being told to be afraid of the terrorists and to anticipate future terrorism. How can President Bush be at once so aww-schucks and attacking-without-question?

Are we really "the greatest force for good on this Earth"? Are we doing enough for victims of AIDS in Africa?

OMG! The terrorists don't hate our freedom! I don't think it's sour grapes. They hate our arrogance, our wealth and consumption in comparison to the rest of the world, and our lack of global cultural conscience.

I'm sorry I'm so consumed by the Republican National Convention...but I get knots of fear in my stomach when I think about George Bush winning another term.

I found a way to psych myself up (politically)...Listen to the speech by Barack Obama from the Democratic National Convention! It's just too easy to become apathetic, especially since both candidates are now flip-flopping AND my grandma keeps calling me and telling me that I need to "make up my own mind" and "not just vote the way my parents do." Bottom line: she wants me to vote Republican. Good grief. My parents have never indoctrined me with set ideals. But I bought the speech from itunes and now I can listen to it whenever I need a political boost!

My parents and my brother arrive tomorrow to deliver John to St. Olafs. Some alums who are in my Masters program have explained that "dry campus" actually means "very-very-wet, but-secretive-about-it campus." I have to keep reminding myself that he's no longer the little boy who labeled everything in our house with permenant markers!

ps-Is anyone else watching (or did anyone watch) Zell Miller's speech at the RNC? Wowza..."He's not a slick talker but he's a straight shooter." I hope no one votes based on that trait! I finally looked up John Kerry's voting on the $87 million for troops, and he didn't flip flop at all. The president made last minute changes which Kerry had said he wouldn't support. This all makes me so heated up. It's time for orange sherbet.

So apparently a Hispanic family has my phone number on speed dial and keeps dialing it accidentally. I got a message on my answering machine and there was Latin music in the background and people chatting in Spanish. Then someone called me this afternoon and I heard the same thing. This is all pretty bizarre to me!

I tasted my first cheese curd yesterday! That makes me an official Minnesotan. It's exactly what I thought it would be: deep-fried cheese. Who ever thought of that? What else can be fried, I wonder? Fried pizza would be good.
The people who made this website obviously had way too much fun frying!

I also officially changed my position on Jesus-hair. It was an in-joke with my high school friends because Mara wanted to add it to our list of 100 best male characteristics (which we all made at a sleepover in 10th grade), but I was vehemently against adding it. It felt kind of sacriligious and I also thought it couldn't be possible without looking mullet-ish (not that I think Jesus had a mullet ...or if he did I'm sure he pulled it off:) ). Anyway, I went back to the fair tonight and now I've officially changed my mind. I think the New Hampshire girl in me is attracted to the nuts-and-berries/rugged look.

Kind of on that topic- but from a COMPLETELY different point of view- my little brother is growing out his hair and growing a beard. My little brother! It's so disconcerting.

This past week has been so exhausting! I babysat for my three Hartnett cousins everyday and they all slept over at my apartment last night, and in the process, I unfortunately got to meet the devilish side of each of the sweet children. I think that everyone hides the most irrational side of themselves from their friends and extended family; my aunt and uncle couldn't believe them when I said that my dad was a yeller when I was little- he hides that impatience from them at Christmas and John and I aren't as pesky as we used to be. Anyway, my cousins apparently don't understand that social norm and freely express their irrational anger and frustration in my presence. Every day this week we did something fun: Monday was the science museum, Tuesday- the zoo, Wednesday-the Mall of America, Thursday-sleep over at my house, and today we went to the State Fair. And so everyday I witnessed each of them breakdown at least once (thankfully, never all three at once!). Usually I could pull that child aside and either pleasantly request that he or she stop punching me, or try to distract him or her. Today at the State Fair, Maria became a complete rascal! She's normally the sweetest little 5 year old with cute Shirley Temple curls. I guess she was tired of walking, so she started hanging on my arm whenever I held her hand. Then she started hitting me with her Snoopy fan and then punching me with her fists. Argh. It wasn't even that annoying, except I guess I need to try to establish some control, even though they are my cousins. So I finally reverted to do a fireman carry (I think that's what it's called) so she was over my shoulder and therefore couldn't kick me. On top of her meltdown, the State Fair is outrageously overpriced- $37 for one adult and three children just to enter! Then there were no food items less than $2.50 (a plain hot dog) and each carny ride cost about $4.00. So, in conclusion, my trip to the State Fair was the most frustrating "fun" experience ever, and I felt like such a miser, but honestly! I really don't have any income to speak of.

I took the three of them to a big playground this week and I ended up having a long conversation about my highlights with a 10 year old on the see-saw. Some children have a much more sophisticated understanding of fashion at a really young age then I will ever have. Anyway, she noticed that my highlights were grown out and recommended a stylist who could fix that. I explained that I couldn't afford highlights and she explained that 6 weeks is the maximum life-span of even the most professional job. Oh well. I thought I had my haircare down to a science. I was just thinking though- and this is so random- why can't shampoo companies make a line of hair care products that address all of the problems that one individual might have? I mean, I could buy "frizz-ease" shampoo because my hair is naturally frizzy, or I could buy "springing curls" shampoo which would excentuate my waves. Or, I could use something that would make my hair smell like fruit or flowers; I could buy intensive conditioning shampoo for color-treated hair, or I could buy shampoo specifically engineered for brunettes. Okay, that was long, but this is my actual question: Is it just scientifically impossible to put all of those ingredients in the same bottle (they would combust?) or are the companies just playing upon my desire to meet all of my hair needs and so they know I will eventually buy each of their products?

There are only 10 weeks until the Presidential elections! I think I'm going to volunteer for the Minnesota branch of the DNC, or at least for Kerry's campaign. I'm on a guilt trip: today I added my signature for Nader. It was absolutely not out of support- I think his campaign is a waste of time and young adult passion. It was because the poor woman at the teensy Nader booth at the fair spent five minutes explaining NAFTA to me (as I nodded without understanding anything) and I felt so bad, since he's obviously not going to accomplish very much at all, so I signed it. So there it is: if Bush wins Minnesota, a swing-state, due to Nader's votes, it's all my fault. But, if those Naderites spam by email inbox, they will be sorry!

Tomorrow I'm going to a birthday party for a state senator with my aunt. What do you buy a senator you've never met?

ps- Mike, I think that Starbucks is going to be my only legacy at Wash U. I hope SALT will meet there once to remember me:)

Update: my fish is a survivor! She still looks kind of ragged, but she had a near-death-by-drain experience after all.

This week I've been working on improving my apartment, but it's all been by happenstance. I went for a run around Lake Calhoun two days ago, and on the way back up my street, I saw a cute sewing desk sitting in someone's yard (with a "free" sign). I had such a hard time carrying it the two blocks home! Then today, I stopped at a yard sale and found a beautiful 2 by 3 foot mirror with antique gold trim that matches my chandelier perfectly and it was only $20, so now I have that too! This is the first place I've lived that I really want to decorate- Wash U housing was pretty much hopeless, so I didn't even try. Before school starts, Jake is going to come with his tools and help me paint my bedroom Marigold Orange. He's a pro, doncha know? Hopefully the brightness will prevent seasonal affective disorder, which I guess everyone gets here! I'm really scared for my first Minnesota winter! Eve, if you read my blog, where are you living here? We should meet up for coffee! Well, tonight I'm going to make Newman's Own Bombolina Chicken (an award-winning recipe:) while watching more West Wing. That show is like crack! I love it. It helps so much to start from the beginning too.

I got something really exciting in the mail this week too: a John Kerry '04 sweatshirt hoodie!