hmm

Now... I'm all about women in positions of high power, and to have a woman in the white house would be outstanding. But did John McCain choose a woman for his VP candidate because she's the best woman for the job? Or because it's a political move to pull Hillary Clinton supporters to his side. Are we really seeing women, men, black men, etc as equals if we're voting based on the candidate who is most like ourselves? (ie. women voting for women not because of their stance but their gender, etc.)

Anyway... I was reading news articles online and found this which made me pause and go hmm.

"Elected in 2006 as the youngest and first female governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin has cleaned house in her own state by ridding it of corrupt politicians and taking on big oil interests. She is known to oppose same-sex marriage and abortion and to favour capital punishment." (CTV.ca)

What I want to know is - how can someone oppose abortion but support capital punishment? I get the obvious argument, unborn babies haven't done anything wrong and can't choose for themselves while criminals on death row have committed a crime, like killing another human being, which means they "deserve" to be there. I have a serious problem with that. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. No one deserves that kind of treatment. No one.

history of my blog

yes, two posts in one night. crazy, i know.

sometimes i like looking back through my blog entries to think about where i was in life when i wrote some of those old entries. i realized tonight that i started this blog four years ago august. so much happens in four years....

august 2004 - started this blog... turned 22... kari (my best friend since age 4) moved in with me... started grad school

august 2005 - got stranded in frankfurt, germany... made it home safely from studying in prague... turned 23... asked a lot of questions about what i believe and how to live it...

august 2006 - had my heart broken... turned 24... got my cartilage pierced... finished my graduate thesis... let go...

august 2007 - realized i'd lost 20 pounds... turned 25... watched my one of my best friends get married...

august 2008 - visited my boyfriend's family for the first time... turned 26... and...

i'm still working on 2008. but four years ago, the beginning of grad school, feels like lifetimes ago. college feels even farther! people always tell you that you'll change in college. that you'll become the person you'll be for the rest of your life. that you'll grow into yourself. and in alot of ways, that was true for me. but even more so in the years that followed. learning to fit into the "real world" and learning to really be independent... i traveled halfway around the world by myself to study poetry. i worked hard (and took on a lot of student loans!) to earn a degree that can lead to a lifelong career... i started that career... i teach college students!... i moved to the city (to live by myself) and finally took on all responsibility for myself (own my car, pay my rent, everything i own is in my apartment)... i fell in love... what a road. i am not the same person i was four years ago. i almost feel like... an adult. (yikes!!)

back to school...

once again, i've become a writer who doesn't write. life gets busy and filled with work, and work, and tv, and internet, and books, and friends, and laundry, and dishes, and cleaning, and errands, and... no writing. tomorrow i go back to teaching - three classes this semester. i don't feel at all mentally prepared for this, but i'm just trusting that i'll walk into my first class of the day and feel renewed again. that's how i felt last fall, after a whole summer off i went back to teaching and felt my heart fill up a little more. i like teaching. i think i'm getting good at it. i hope it'll be a good semester.

and with it, i hope i can still somehow find time to read and write in the midst of it. i keep saying i look forward to some day down the road when i have my own office and a full time position and i can write poems and read books for fun and mentor students and focus on all of that and built my life on it. but why does that need to wait? i don't want my other part time work or my need to make money to pay the bills to get in the way of the things i believe in, the things i want to devote my life to. isn't that why i decided to get an mfa? why i decided to start adjunct teaching in the first place? to fill some sort of crazy dream that i can have a career i love and not be a "sell out" just pushing buttons all day trying to make millions?

hopefully more regular blogs can help me keep that writing going. i know i've said that before, but i really am going to try this time. honest.