Brrrrrrrr!

Ack! Two weather posts in a row, but I have to. It's cold. According to Google, the weather is currently 33 degrees. Even in my office my fingers feel like little icicles and I've got goosebumps dotting my arms. My building doesn't understand the term "happy medium" when it comes to temperature.

Speaking of things that leave me cold, the election is on Tuesday next week. I'm honestly running out of things to say. The tea party continues to show their ignorance on a daily basis, resorting now to violence when confronted with reason. But the American people are convinced that the people running our country should be the guys they go have beers with on Friday night, not the educated, experienced, "elitists". If so much wasn't at stake, I would enjoy watching the far right continue our descent into a third world, backwards thinking country.

Our infrastructure is falling apart. Obama wants to inject money into our economy by improving roads, building high speed rail systems, etc. which would easily create millions of jobs. However, some of our politicians are so short sided all they can focus on is the money now. We're so intent on making a fast buck that slow, steady, secure fiscal growth is becoming obsolete. If we keep marching to the same beat, things will only continue to worsen. Let's invest in our future.

But no. Despite the fact that Obama has cut spending, depsite the fact that TARP is now making a profit, despite the fact that health care reform is saving money, the democrats are running this country into the ground. We're already broke, people. We were broke before Obama even began his presidential campaign. Let's do the math here. We had a surplus when Clinton was in office. Bush started two expensive, fruitless wars for oil when we could have invested in renewable engery sources on our own soil, and suddenly we had a multi-trillion dollar deficit. Obama was elected and is working with what he got handed. You don't have to be a political analyst to see the party that caused this mess and the party who has actually managed to stop the hemorraging.

But we don't read facts. We don't look at numbers that have proved the great things Obama has accomplished. We forget the past because it's much easier to point the finger at the present. It makes me sick. If the poor and down trodden want to continue to get kicked by the wealthy, if they don't want to be educated with the Pell Grants and financial aid that Obama has increased to decent levels, then maybe they deserve what they get. It's so much easier to scream bloody murder about taxes then to care about your fellow man dying from a treatable disease or the kid next door being able to afford a decent education. I was hoping it wasn't completely a dog-eat-dog world out there, but I guess that was naive of me.

Stormy Weather

It looks like a hurricane is sweeping through Chicago. I assumed when I left Florida I would be trading train speed winds and pelting rain for temperatures that plummet below zero on a semi regular basis. I felt that was fair, there is no perfect climate. I'll trade one deadly weather system for another. However, it looks like here you get a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

I would love this weather if I could be home, wrapped in blankets, a book on my lap, a cup of tea at my side, a purring Fay curled at my feet. I would crack the window and listen to the rain drench the earth in its final bought of madness before it transforms into snow in a month or two. But, alas, damp and tired I trudged to work in heavy rain boots, a broken umbrella my shield, cursing my inability to find a decent raincoat in this town.

It's unnervingly warm out. I feel like one of these days the rug is going to be jerked out from under our feet and it'll go from a balmy 69 degrees to 10 overnight. Either that or my slightly more irrational fear that it'll never be cold this winter, global warming will take hold in a violent way, and we'll all burn up come next summer. I don't really believe that, but what if it just never snows? What if I bring Florida's taint with me wherever I go?

On a side note, rehearsals are going well for my new show. The script is on my desk right now, beckoning me to memorize it. Boy, I'm just happy that I don't speak literally half the script like Extinction Fantasies. That was fun to learn. We almost have the whole thing blocked, in two weeks we start learning music and need to be off book for scenes as we do them. I can do this. I'm an actor, lines are the least of my worries. Ugh, I'm just the worst at procrastination.

Puritans and the Tea Party

I am reading American Colonies, The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor in my endless quest to educate myself about my country. It's a good read if you don't mind a little dryness to your history. It lacks the passion of A People's History of the United States, but in a way that makes it less biased. Our ancestors are still depicted as land hungry mass murderers, but really, can you justify the Native American genocide?

The Puritans certainly felt they had just cause. Before I continued, let me say I've never laughed out loud at a history book before yesterday. My hearty chuckle was derived from the fact that the Puritans' excuse for killing natives and stealing their land is the same excuse many Tea Partier's are using in their denial of global warming. God put the resources on earth, so he must have meant us to use them.

Are the people we want running our country those who think we should place our lives in the hands of a myth? By that same logic, God gave us a brain and the capacity to think, so he must have meant us to use it! But I guess God gave us intelligence so we could create Hummers and dams and plastic water bottles, not to create systems that use our resources to their greatest potential.

On a side note, are you voting November 2nd? It's your duty to vote. If you don't vote you're giving up your voice, and that's more ignorant than Christine O'Donnell's knowledge of our constitution. So get out there, turn off Fox News, and actually read about candidates, what they've done and what they stand for. Read about what has been accomplished in the White House, don't just listen to Glenn Beck's hate speech. Education, people! Facts! Don't condemn our country to a cesspool of ignorance. Don't murder our middle class. Don't vote GOP for god sake!

Education: If We Insist on Pointing a Finger, Blame the Parents

I relatively recently finished my public school system education, so I feel as if I'm ripe to give a spoonful of insight into the student perspective on education. I'm going to do away with the flowery build up and get right into the thick of things. I went to a C average magnet school. I would say in over half of my classes a large portion of my peers would receive between a C and an F. But I didn't. Friends of mine who had a decent support system at home didn't. My point being, you can't blame teachers for a system that's broken much deeper.

We embrace scapegoats. If teachers are the issue we can ignore the growing problem of broken families and parents so self-consumed that their children have no guidance. It's so easy to assume that if a child fails a class, the teacher must not be teaching.

Teaching is a job. There is no prerequisite that states you must be a martyr, however that's exactly what our society expects. The vast majority of teachers went into the field because they wanted to make a difference. They want to make an impact on the lives of children and spread their love of education. Often they do sacrifice personally and professionally for their students. There certainly are no other incentives besides love and noble aspirations to teaching grade school. But there are only so many times you can bang your head against a wall before becoming disenchanted and jaded.

My generation has been brought up with the idea that we are individually special merely because we were born. Our parents preach it from birth as well as our teachers(incidentally, one of the first things I would change about the education system). This gives us absolutely no incentive to earn our importance. No one is special unless they work at it. With well over 6 billion people on our planet, chances are you're average at best. If we want to be something other than the mundane, we will need to get over our narcissism and work towards it starting at a much earlier age.

If we treat our teachers with the respect they deserve, naturally the poor ones will be weeded out and better one's will be introduced. If we keep abusing them and blaming them for poor student performance, there will be none left. My own thoughts of eventually teaching history are quickly evaporating as our government looks more and more towards privatizing education and punishing teachers for the problems derived at home. I am leery about entering a dying field that is utterly underfunded and under appreciated.

Oh, Rehearsal

As some of you may or may not know, I am in my first full length Chicago production. For the first time in my young life I'm having to find balance between rehearsing until 10 and waking up at 5:45am and I have a suspicion that sometime in the next three months coffee is going to make an appearance in my diet.

I've been careful to avoid caffeine addiction. I don't really like the taste of coffee in the first place, besides French pressed, because apparently I'm fancy like that, and add to the mix the jitters that I get soon after consumption and I lack any sort of desire to drink it unless in a complete fix. But the cold and exhaustion will indubitably lead to, at the very least, my drinking tea.

My next fear for rehearsal is that it is in fact flu season and I'm in a musical. Almost like clockwork, I get a cold at least once a year, occasionally twice. We don't start learning music until November and I can just see the little flu bugs giggling as they plot a way to be most destructive to my vulnerable vocal chords.

Some of your more discerning eyes might catch a bit of pessimism in today's entry. Honestly, I'm cold and I'm taking a bit of a stroll on the grumpy side of the street. It felt like fall this morning, and I don't like to be reminded of the icy brutality in store for the next five or so months. I feel quite unprepared for the task of keeping myself thawed. I don't have the mountain of long underwear and sweaters I so desire. I have summer dresses and whispy shirts.

So yes, grumble, grumble, tired grumble. On the plus side, I'm taking a personal day to study for the GRE tomorrow. On the down side, I'm taking the GRE on Saturday. So I guess you could say tomorrow the glass is half full...with vinegar.

Swamped

Hello Friends,

Sorry it's been a week or so since my last post. Lately at work I've gone from bored receptionist to busy receptionist. I've been given new duties and responsibilities like it's nobodies business, which is, surprisingly, really great. I like to know that I'm contributing to the company. So, FYI, these might be limited to once a week.

There's a lot that has happened these past few weeks in the political realm. Paladino came out as a homophobic bigot, condemning his opponent for marching in a Gay Pride parade, which he deems disgusting. Long story short, despite the copious amounts of youth suicides resulting from gay bashing, a man running to be an integral part of our government is confirming their self loathing. Thanks, Paladino, that's just what our children need, to see how high and deep the roots of homophobia reach.

I don't understand how this hate speech is accepted as valid campaign propaganda. Grant it, campaigns are known for being ruthless, but this is akin to a racist running for office and calling a gathering on MLK day disgusting. We wouldn't stand for that, and neither should we stand for this.

Tolerance and the idea of "live and let live" are being thrown out the window. We are heading towards a social dictatorship ruled by Christian fundamentalists. Wouldn't are founding fathers be so proud?

Record Player

Today, I bought a record player. It isn't my first record player, but it is my first since I've moved to Chicago. I've missed the full bodied music that only vinyl can produce. I don't claim to be a music aficionado. I'm in fact one of the last to know about any new great band, but I hope my purchase will help me to think of my music collection as an extension of myself. What a hipster thing to say, I know. The truth is, I can't make my own music so I will use others' to aid in my own self expression.

I'm a folksy kind of gal. Right now I'm listening to Fleet Foxes, a band that I've known for two years now, and never get sick of. I plan to buy their LP sometime this week and christen my record player with it. I also love Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zero's and Iron and Wine. I like to think I'm a bit earthy. I can picture myself in cabin somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains, autumn, cup of tea, crafting the next great American novel, listening to any number of these artists.

Music engages my mind in such a way that I find it hard to worry about things. I can't hardly concentrate when a song I love plays. It's one of my few oasis'. I think everyone deserves an escape from the violence and anger that seem to be on every street corner. So lets smile and toast music, one of the greatest achievements of mankind.

Double Standard

We have blatant double standards in our country. We cling to archaic laws that don't allow homosexuals to serve openly in our military or marry the people they love. In some states, they can legally be discriminated against when vying for a job. Yet we're shocked, offended and ready to point the finger when children grow up to be homophobic little pricks who bully fellow peers to the point of suicide.

The system is broken. It seemingly has never been not broken. Bullying in its every form has pervaded the school system since its beginnings. The repercussions for the bully's have been trivial. There needs to be a system of punishment. There needs to be programs in our schools set up to educate students. The best place to learn would of course be at home, but let's be real. The kids that are doing this come from parents who either encourage their violence or don't care.

It's sick that this happens. Are we not suppose to have an innate sense of right and wrong instilled in us since birth? What these kids do is sadistic. They get a high off of the emotional distress of others.

By keeping laws in place that indicate that homosexuals are something other than human, our government is doing nothing to change our societies thought pattern. Change like this can start at the grass roots level, but our government has an obligation and a need to ensure equal rights to all of our citizens. Right now they are openly failing at that straightforward task and people are suffering needlessly because of it.