So now that the damn election is over, what to do with myself? I suffer from OCD, which in my case means I clean a lot. A LOT. Since the election, I have cleaned my entire house. The entire house. And purged stuff from the attic and basement. A big cleaning. It is amazing the stuff you find. I was cleaning out my office closet, where I generally store stuff I don't usually use. And I found dresses I bought when I was 21. Really! What horrific reminders of the 90s. I found a dress that was bright green and black striped. Now why the hell would I ever have saved THAT? While going through old clothes, my daughter marvelled at the hideuos stuff, but also marvelled at how skinny I was back then when I fit into this stuff. It wouldn't even fit her. Makes me nostaglic for the days befere I ever got pregnant. The days when I was a size 5 and still thought I was fat. My goodness. Well, I purged half a closet worth of old clothes, and it fells so good to have an extra closet. Although I did save a few goodies from the 80s and 90s just in case my daughter wants something for Halloween.

So, of course I have been absent for a whole goddamn month or so. But my reasons are good! I work in politics, and was running a County Legislative race, so everything gets hectic around the end of August. Let's just say that in this case, hectic wasn't the word. A nightmare is more like it. After running the campaign for months, election day came and I was a wreck. In this case, we were up against the powers of evil (the Mayor and his boys), and things were looking grim. Long story short, on election night, my candidate was down by 4 votes on the machines. Which meant, we had the absentees and paper votes to hope for. After much work, I felt that we were in good shape with the absenttees, so the day came for them to be opened, and whala! My girl won by five votes! So there, to everyone who thinks their vote doesn't count, here is your proof that it does. Five votes.

Wow, my last post didn't even make sense to me. I've been having these weird memory issues lately, that I am convinced are caused by one or more of the many medications I am taking. It mostly goes like this: I have conversations with people, and then later they seem foggy, and I can't usually figure out what the end result was. Was I supposed to do something? Were they? And these episodes feel kind of like two things: sometimes I have dreams that seem incredibly realistic, about mundane stuff, and then the next day I can't really remember if they were a dream or actually happened. Now, I can usually figure these ones out, just by process of elimination: did I actually see that person yesterday? If the answer is no, then it was just a very realist dream, albeit a very boring one. The other thing these little episodes remind me of is being slightly drunk. You know, you go out, have a few drinks, talk a lot, and then next day have vague recollections about what was said to who. At least when that happen, you have the knowledge of having been drunk,so everything makes sense, although you still wonder what the hell else you said. So these little mind slips are really starting to freak me out, especially when someone else is referring to a conversation I have no memory of being involved in. So, I am now trying to get an appointment with the Dr. that does specifically my medication management, so maybe I can figure out what's up.

And, before you ask, I have quit drinking alcohol and smoking for the most part over the past two months or so. This was not a conscious decision, it just kind of happened. I've lost a good amount of weight too, some of which I put off to the lack of sugar filled alcohol.

So, very weird,huh? If I don't fix this soon, people will REALLY think I am a blithering idiot.

There. I have shared my angst for the week.

Well yes, I am the most the most boring if I don't post for six months at a time! Oh yes, my life hs been crazy and all over the place. That does not excuse me not putting pen to paper , as it will.

I have to admit that I do not have much of an online life. I check my email here and there , but mostly I do these posts for the benefit of the other people I work with.

A friend sent me this, and I thought it was very interesting. I hate DST, mainly because I grew up in Arizona where they don't do it. I find the whole thing awfully confusing. What do you think?

As you all probably know by now, a new daylight saving time law goes into effect in 2007 and 2008 that will extend daylight saving time hours. This is supposedly going to save energy, though there's no real science to back up the claim and really it's Wall Street that benefits from DST. Did you know that the U.S. has even forced Canada and Mexico to adopt our standard of daylight saving time as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement? Did you know that in 2005 and 2006 independent studies determined that over the past 20 years energy use during DST actually increased (we use less lights at night but more in the morning hours)?

Some like DST because it means more sunshine, and others like it because it illustrates the arbitrariness of time. But many still complain, including farmers and those who don't like the idea of their children walking to school in the dark. Here's a really brief history of DST:

The idea of DST was the brainchild of William Willett in 1907 as he rode his bicycle in the English country side. Mr. Willett was annoyed that his neighbors seemed to be sleeping late on summer mornings and therefore "wasting the day." He thought that by extending the day he could accommodate their laziness and that people could get more enjoyment out of summer. He persistently lobbied the British government, but to no avail.

In 1916, Germany was the first nation to adopt DST. This was during WWI and their motivation was to save energy. England soon followed later that year.

The US adopted DST in 1918, but repealed it just a year later; the repeal was sparked by protests by farmers, who were among the first, though certainly not the last, to insist on a return to what they viewed as "God's time." How God came to divide the day into twenty-four hours, however, they did not clarify. The influence of farmers, however, could not compete with that of Wall Street, which liked the idea since it meant that there would be a one hour window in the morning when both the New York Exchange and the London Exchange were open simultaneously, permitting exploitation of prices during those sixty minutes.

In fact, the New York Exchange so missed the lucrative hour when DST was repealed that it put itself on DST just for trading hours. Exchanges in Boston and Philadelphia did not want to lose out, so they followed suit, small islands of anomalous time within the nation. The patchwork coverage of DST and the attempted legal patches to make it all sensible resulted in timely confusion. If you drove the 35 miles from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia, and wanted your watch to keep the local time, you would have to change it seven times on the route. In St. Paul, Minnesota, there was an eighteen-story office building with nine floors on DST and nine floors not.

From time to time, like during wars, DST was promoted as the patriotic thing to do, since it saved energy, but this has not conclusively been shown. The biggest force behind why we implement DST, though, is economic. Wall Street likes it, and that's important, but there were significant gains for specific industries. Sales of golf equipment and course fees go up in DST, and so do sales of barbecue equipment, and seeds and gardening supplies. Farmers still don't like it, but there are fewer and fewer of them to complain. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of people (and businesses like movie studios) that don't like it, and although we have relative standardization in its implementation now, there are still attempts to tinker with it.

Hawaii and Arizona still opt out of DST, as do four of the fourteen U.S. Territories. Indiana will opt in for the first time this year. Farmers today have abandoned the "God's time" argument and claim that they just don't like working in the dark in the morning and that cattle and other farm animals seem to have difficulty adjusting to a new schedule. While some claim that crime should decrease with longer daylight hours, parents still fear the hazards of children walking to school in the dark and staying out past curfew when "night" begins later than usual. There are no statistics to demonstrate either a reduction in overall crime due to increased daylight or an increase in child abductions or juvenile crime as a result of DST.

Personally, I just don't like the government telling me what time it is.

So after six months of sitting on my ass, I finally started really looking for a job. And it sucks. But I am casting the net far and wide. Besides the jobs I think I might be actually qualified and want, I send out the random one here and there that sound so bizarre that I think, hey, what the hell. Like Obituary Writer for the local paper. How cool would that be?

How to drive in Phoenix, Arizona

1. You must first learn to pronounce the city name, it is:
"FEE-NICKS".

2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00am to noon. The evening rush
hour is from noon to 7:00pm. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on most freeways is 85 mph. On Loop
101,your speed is expected to match the highway number. Anything less is
considered "Wussy".

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its
own version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest
muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest
tires go second. However, East Valley, SUV-driving, cell phone-talking moms
ALWAYS have the right of way.

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended,
cussed out, and possibly shot.

6. Never honk at anyone. Ever. Seriously. It's another offense that
can get you shot.

7. Road construction is permanent and continuous in Phoenix. Detour
barrels are moved around during the middle of the night to make the next
day's driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, skunks, dogs,
barrels, cones, cows, horses, cats, mattresses, shredded tires,
squirrels, rabbits, crows, vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the
coyotes feeding on any of these items.

9. Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and the "I-10" are the same
road.

10. If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the
shoulder immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally
activated."

11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph
zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off"
accordingly. If you return the flip, you'll be shot.

12. For summer driving, it is advisable to wear potholders on your
hands.

Courtesy of a friend in AZ.

President Bush, First Lady Laura and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy."

Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy."

Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy."

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Shit, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy."

Today we got our first snowstorm of the season. And boy is it a snowstorm! I think we have about 12 inches on the ground, and we are supposed to get 16-18 inches before it is through. Two snow days for the kids in a row. My daughter's boyfriend actually got stuck here tonight because the damn CDTA buses stopped running. I can't remember a time when that ever happened. It's kind of nifty because we haven't had any snow to speak of this entire winter, but I am not looking forward to digging my car out of the huge snowdrift it is currently stuck in. My dog doesn't want to go outside to pee because the snow is higher than he is. We had to dig a little hole out back for him to do his business in. Wheee!

I've been down with the flu for the past few days. Slept for about a day and half, with wild, delusional dreams which seemed to continue into waking times. Fun. So now I'm awake at an inappropriate time. Which gives me time to surf the web. One of my favorite sites is www.moistworks.com . It's a blog site with mp3s. What could be better? The latest post is from one of the authors (?), who writes about how she is easily the most mainstream of her moistworks colleagues. Boy, I relate. I am still in my 30's, and like to think I am hip, but half the music out there, on the talk shows, magazines, internet, I don't seem to have a clue about. For Christmas I got the new Killers CD, which I wanted (and actually think is fairly crappy), and the Raconteurs, which I would highly recommend. Does that make me unccool that I think the Raconteurs are the best thing I've heard in a while? My daughter listens to all kinds of stuff that I have never heard of-- "The Academy Is...", "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus", "Bullet For My Valentine," "Boys Like Girls", etc... I don't think I am supposed to have heard of them. I think they are all "emo". Whatever the fuck that means. She writes a lot of angsty poetry and paints her nails black. But then she likes these mainstream hip-hop people, and I have to admit to liking the new Justin Timberlake CD (I almost wrote album). Does all of this make me completely uncool and unhip? Do I have no indie cred left?

Today I went to a fine establishment named Viva Lark Vegas in order to inquire about bellybutton piercing. No, not for me, silly, for my 14 year old daughter? (Which is worse?) The young lady behind the counter described the necessary paperwork (you have to have a permission form notarized, ID, blah blah). But I was having a hard time focusing, because said young lady had about 20 piercings on or about her face. Oddly, it was not unnatractive, just distracting. There was a kind of symmetry to everything, and all of her facial piercings were tasteful tiny diamonds, and it all went prettily with her fuscia dreadlocks drawn back with jeweled barrettes. We did talk about this was pretty much her only career besides circus freak, and she says she does council the young folks to that effect. And why am I letting my young teen get pierced? Because I am simply sick and tired of listening to her whine about how I said she could last year (you must be 14 do get your belly pierced). I honestly had thought the idea would have gone away by now to be replaced by some other heinous thing I could put off for a year.

Well, I am back! I took a little hiatus from the Journal, due to the holidays, and some other stuff. After Thanksgiving my friend Susannah's mother went in the hospital, never to return to her home. She went from hospital to nursing home to assisted living. Which meant her entire home had to be cleaned out. So I spent the entire month of December helping her three kids remove the entire contents of the house. We filled three entire dumpsters full of junk, donated whole loads of stuff to a homeless shelter, and just got done having an estate sale with the remainder of the good stuff we could salvage. Whew! Their mother was a pack rat, and there were newspapers, junk mail and old bank statement and stuff piled in big mountains everywhere. We had to look at each piece of paper in the off chance there was something important mixed in. We found almost $8,000 in un-cashed checks! It was a huge chore, and quite depressing at times, but I am proud to say we all got it done. And we all managed to get our Christmas shopping done as well. So now that all of that stuff is done, I am back to my old boring life. It was great seeing Susannah, her husband Aashish, and their adorable baby, who all live in the Philippines, and I am sad that they are gone. I suppose now I really should get around to getting a job. Grrr.

Last night I went to an awards dinner for the Senior Services Center of Albany. The one of the political candidates I am working with for next year got an award, so I went with her. Oh boy. There was a cocktail hour first, and I have never seen so many old folks swarm the cheese and veggies. Some of them actually stood over the platters stuffing food into their mouths. And I felt like a giant, since we shrink in our old age. I had heels on, so had to bend over to shake hands with anyone. Then there was dinner. It seemed to last forever, that stuffed chicken breast (so it could be gummed to death). THEN at 8:00 the awards started. I had been there since 5:30. Nine awardees. One old guy gave a 15 minute speech, during which I think most of the room dosed off. Jeez. At least my friend gave a two minute thank you, including pointing out her campaign manager (me), at which I turned bright red.

We didn't get out of there until 9:15, and we desperatly needed a stiff drink, so on we headed to a nice spot with people under the age of 70 for a martini. Bliss.

So this has been a week of joy and happiness for all of us dems. Control of the House and the Senate? And Rumsfeld resigning? Whoo hoo! And here in NY, we had a clean sweep, Spitzer for guv, Cuomo for Attorney General, Hevesi for Comptroller (scandal not withstanding), Hillary. But probably most exciting, Kirsten Gillibrand beat that asshole Sweeney. What a joy. That Congressional District is majority Rep, so that was a big satisfying win against the guy that went down to FL in 2000 to "help" count the votes. I was on cloud nine most of the week.

The weekend before Halloween my daughter and her friends decided they just had to see "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: the Beginning". Since they are all under 17, I had to go buy the tickets. I was going to go see another movie, in fact I was planning on seeing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3D, my favorite movie of all time. Little did I realize that I not only had to buy the damn tickets, but accompany them to the movie as well. So, I went to see the afore mentioned Texas Chainsaw movie. Now, I saw no reason to go see this, as I have seen the original many times, and I own it. So it was with great annoyance that I sat down to watch this one. It wasn't half bad, especially if you like the first one, since it is essentially the same movie, but with gorier special effects. Man, getting killed by chainsaw has got to be the worst thing ever. I covered my eyes several times. As did my 13 year old daughter and her friends, as I found out later. Is it irresponsible parenting to let your kid view this stuff? I don't know, I think I started watching these things around the same age, and it hasn't hurt me any. Ha.

On Halloween night the weather here was spectacular, almost 70 degrees. I sat on my porch all night, dressed as a witch, and handed out candy to all of the little ghosts and goblins and princesses and Supermans. Superman was big this year. I had a little graveyard in my front yard, and lights, and a vampire jack 'o lantern, and scary music coming from a boombox. All the kids said I was the coolest house on the street. Plus I gave out good candy. Kit Kats and Reeses. No skimping from me. Didn't you hate it when you were a kid and you would get home with a million suckers and those orange and black peanut butter deals? The chocolates were always coveted, so few and far between. I had some Smarties and Tootsie Rolls too. Also cool candies. So I sat out there for about three hours, drank wine, and had myself a ball. I love Halloween.

Went to see "the Departed" tonight. Martin Scorsese has not lost his touch. Pretty good flick. Matt Damon & Leo DiCaprio carry much of the movie, and though I am not a fan of either, they did a fair job. Lots of violence throughout, and Jack Nicholson tears up his scenes. Boy does he really look like a crazy old man these days. Great ending, not what you would expect.

I went with my friend Debbie, who was really looking forward to it, which was a plus, since we saw it at the Spectrum theatre, which usually shows only arty flicks. Now, I like an arty film here and there, but I have to say that most of them bore me to tears. Our other choices were "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and "the Science of Sleep". I'm afraid I don't dig documentaries, and the Lennon thing got mixed reviews, and the Science of Sleep promised to put me right to sleep. The last arty flick I saw was a French movie called "Cache", which was utterly pointless and confusing. Those damn French. When it was over everone else in the theater was scratching their heads as was I.

I'll admit I am looking forward to "Running With Scissors" and "Marie Antoinette", which I suppose qualify as arty. But they look more like quirky with storylines as supposed than just arty landscape type crap. I guess I am just an uncultured slob because I prefer B-horror flicks to "true" art. Give me "Motel Hell" any time.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, no holds barred. Tonight I decorated the inside of my house, which is absurdly elaborate. I have more bizarre candle holders and knick-knacks, you wouldn't believe. I actually have to take all of my regular stuff off of shelves and put them away to make room for the gruesome stuff. The best is the spider web candleabra. Mind you, I have much gruesome stuff that stays up all year, but it goes on overload at Halloween time. Tomorrow I will decorate the front yard, complete with headstones, body parts, skeletons, orange and black lights, spider webs, etc. I do this every year, and I am sure my neighbors think I am nuts. I also celebrate by watching schlocky horror flicks all month. I believe tonight's selection might be "Motel Hell". Remember that one? Rory Calhoun as the creepy hotel guy, luring unsuspecting travelers into his trap. Sausages, anyone?

So one of my latest obsessions is downloading free music off the internet. I have found a bunch of sites that make me happy for hours on end. Here are some of my favorites for your listening pleasure.

www.littlehits.com This site mainly posts mp3s from obscure bands from the 80s. Occasionally there will be stuff I remember, but mostly it stuff from some guy's huge record collection, with fond memories. Fun stuff.

www.ampcamp.com Mainly a site that sells music, but they feature an mp3 of the day, which recently included one from Beck's new CD. Not bad.

www.betterpropaganda.com A real find. They have tons of free mp3s, all from indie bands. I found two of my new favorite artist, the Brazilian Girls and Nouvelle Vague here. All kinds of music, from rock to pop to electronica to Noam Chomsky rants. Great stuff, and all free.

www.blow-up-doll.blogspot.com This one is really weird, all posts of girl singers, most of them foreign. The guy who does this is a piece of work, but it is fun to listen to old 60s girlie stuff and French Pop. Good for laughs.

www.bubblegum-machine.com The name says it all. Anything you would find on old K-Tel records and more. Take a trip back in time to stuff that was weird the first time around. Amaze your friends.

www.copycommaright.blogspot.com Consisting entirely of cover songs. Some bad, some good, some just entirely off the wall.

www.insound.com Another spot to buy music, but they have tons of free mp3s from Indie bands.

www.moistworks.com Basically a blog site with mp3s and comments. Lots of divers, interesting stuff.

I generally visit these sites every day, find at least something I want, or just download for the hell of it.

Enjoy.

So what I wanted for my birthday from my daughter was tickets to the Strokes concert held this last Friday, and I wanted her to go with me. I know, kind of twisted. But I like the Strokes, the 28$ ticket price isn't the usual rape, and I figured it would be a nice bonding experience with the 13 year old. Like, hey, I'm the cool mom that takes you to rock concerts. Well, she really didn't want to go, and since it was on a Friday, she was kind of tired. But we soldiered on. We made our way up toward the front of the large auditorium like space, off to the right of the stage. Good view of the stage. We had a great view of the stage, but unfortunately also had a good view of this young couple completly making out, hot and heavy. They were right up by the rail, unlikely to leave a prime spot, and boy they kept going at it. We left a couple of times for the bathroom and beer (for me), and came back, and they were still at it. By the time the second band was on, I had a couple beers in me, and I was getting more and more disgusted the longer I stood there. My daughter begged off to sit at a seat near by, but I kept standing there, stubbornly, watching the band, and the couple. They were completely distracting, grabbing each others crotches and making me want to throw up. And no, I couldn't control myself. In a fit of pique I tapped on the young man's shoulder, and yelled at him and his paramour that they were grossing the rest of us out, and that I had my 13 year old to consider. As I screamed this, the girl screamed at me "I'm 13!" while the boy screamed "I'm 17!" Needless to say, I was floored, and immmediately promised a call to the authorities to report their probable statory rape. They yelled a lot, tried to get the bouncer involved to no avail, but I gotta tell you, there were no more lip locks from them the rest of the night, thank God. My daughter, by the way, thought I was crazy.

So, my birthday was last Sunday. It has taken me a week, but I believe I am over the mourning stage. As I felt this horrible day creeping up on me, I started to think back to when I was a kid, back to my mother's birthdays. My sister and I always celebrated every birthday my mom had, and she always seemed to be happy, and then we finally realized why. Every year, for god knows how many years, my mother turned 29. Every year we would have a little party, and every year we would ask mom how old she was, and the answer was always the same. I'm 29, girls. After a few years, we began to be suspicious, and we got hold of her driver's license and confronted her with the fact that she was not 29 anymore. Not even close. The beginning of the end for my mom. Youth had fled. So as I reflected on this, as I began to fear the approaching birthday, I decided, bravely, that I would now take the family tradition one step further. I am now aging backwards. I figure I can do this for a while, until my daughter starts paying attention, or I begin to look and sound incredibly ridiculous. So I just turned 37.