January 13, 2000
First, some Keith news.
Last night it turned out that he WAS sort of upset, but not really with me. Well, actually I think it was with me, but he didn't want to cause a big brouhaha by coming right out and saying so. What he said was that he feels that the most logical thing for us as a family is for him (with the big ol' 1.5 hour commute) to take the car, rather than me (with the puny 15 minute commute) to take the car.
I told him that's fine, but he did realize that I'd asked him if it was OK for him to take the bus like 839403 times and he always said that he preferred it to the car, right? And he said, yes, he did realize that and he wasn't mad at me, but that now he'd changed his mind, and he was allowed to change his mind, right?
I said of course! And we hugged. He also said that he's trying to work out a carpool plan with the people at work so that maybe he would only need the car every third day, so that would be cool.
Also, I took the bus to my hair appointment last night, and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I guess I don't hate the bus as much as I thought I did. It's still not my preferred mode of travel, but I suppose I can put up with it twice a week or whatever.
Keith and I also agreed that we would start thinking about getting a second car VERY soon. And that makes me happy.
In hair-related news. I have an awesome new haircut! It rules! Also, my new stylist is really awesome. Her name is Camille. It says on my salon's web page that they do complimentary scalp massage with every haircut, but my old stylist never did that. Well, Camille did and it ruled. I loved it. She also didn't balk for a second about cutting my hair as short as I wanted it.
The last time I cut my long hair short, I was still in Evanston, and my stylist there basically refused to cut my hair as short as I said I wanted it. She convinced me to compromise and go fairly short, but not as short as I'd originally said. She said that it was such a drastic change that I should go in steps. So, I listened to her and settled for the compromise cut, which WAS much shorter, but not short enough, in retrospect.
Camille had no such hangups. I pointed out a picture of the cut I wanted, she asked me a few questions about length and layers, and we were off and running. I wound up with hair that barely extends past the back of my neck, with cute layers all over the place. It's very pixie-ish. Keith approved. Personally, I adore it. I think it's the best thing I've done for my appearance for a long time.
In non hair related news. I watched West Wing last night again. So far I have not missed a single episode (Keith's Mom taped a few for us that we weren't home for). Have I mentioned lately how much I love this show? It's the best show in the history of television. It's better than sliced bread. Well, probably not better than sliced bread, but at least better than chunky peanut butter. It rules.
For example, in last night's episode they were crafting the President's State of the Union address. They were trying to make it sound good and make it appeal to the largest number of voters. Like, they kept showing one of the President's advisors meeting with groups of people that all had an agenda ("Can you just not mention the NEA please? Just, don't mention it") So, they were going to say in the speech, "The era of big government is over."
That's a pretty un-Democratic thing to say. (Note use of capital letter to distinguish political party from ideological concept.) Democrats are all about big government. They want to use government to help the people with things like social welfare programs. Big government = Democratic party. Saying that the era of big government is over, from a Democratic president, would be pretty amazing, and also a good sign that the President was mostly just pandering to the current polls.
So anyway, the advisor who'd been meeting with all these people (Toby) is explaining to them that the precursor to the National Endowment for the Arts was a similar program that was thought up by FDR as part of the New Deal (which, in case you skipped too many history classes, was the US's most sweeping social reform program to date). So he stops in the middle of a sentence and abruptly closes the meeting and heads off elsewhere.
It turns out that he's heading to the President's office, where he says that he believes that saying that the era of big government is over would be against his principles and the principles of the President and his administration. He says that he knows the polls say that people want to hear it, but that he doesn't care and he wants to say what they believe and not what people want to hear, and the President nods and gives him the go-ahead.
Woo-hoo! Yeah! I wanted to cheer! Man! That's what I want our government to be like! That is how I want to see a President behave!
I've heard some criticisms of the West Wing that argue that it's unrealistic and not the way the government actually works. Well, yeah, duh. It's an idealistic view of how we all wish the presidency actually worked. It's what we wish government would be (not on an issue-by-issue basis, but just in terms of basic principles). That's why I love this show so much.
Things I am Thankful For
- Keith
- Not having to make dinner or clean the house just because I'm the woman (see above "Keith")
- Having the brains to 1) attract and 2) be attracted to, someone like Keith
- My new haircut
- Keith
- the Coca-Cola corporation
- That I now make enough money to be able to join my awesome new gym
- Keith
I'm a big joiner. OK, so now I have a forum too. Don't throw rocks, please.
Forum Topic Number One: Is this forum a good idea, or what?
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