Business Travel

it seems like it should be easier to maintain a blog while staying in nice hotels in strange cities. it also seems like it should be easier to sleep in a comfy hotel bed, eat great food in cosmopolitan cities, see friends you haven't seen in awhile....yeah, right. business travel sucks. i mean, it has a purpose and i appreciate it. i'm very excited to work in multiple offices with multiple personalities. I love the freedom, independence and autonomy that comes along with it. but i miss home. i miss my hottie and my pooch. i miss home cooked meals and i miss my own bed.

i still love my job though. i got invited to the chicago office's holiday party. whoo hoo! and now i have to figure out what one wears to a holiday party in chicago with a bunch of people i don't know well, who seem to wear suits sometimes, but not always. i'm like a sociologist, a historian and a futurist all at the same time. and they call that marketing. ha!

i'll try to write more. i promise! and in fact, i'm working on a story on the road. it's difficult, but writing is always difficult, so why should writing while traveling be any worse?

superman vs. bush

it's ironic (and tragic and sad) that superman died sometime in the last four days. i don't really know when it happened. i just heard about it today. i've been in another universe, specifically, rural kansas: the land of analog roam and dial-up internet connections. i spent the last four days with my mother-in-law who is suffering from alzheimers. and i've got to tell you, it is one of the most horrid and vile diseases i've witnessed.

horrid and vile because it takes away the basics: the ability to communicate, care for yourself and be cognitively engaged in the world. she knows who we are. but she doesn't understand how to brush her teeth. and i ask you, if millions more will be affected by this disease, why aren't we doing everything we can to find a cure?

and i come back to superman and stem cells. my husband's step-dad is a conservative fellow who takes to watching bill o'reilly and listening to rush limbaugh. but the pain of watching this disease has caused even him to wonder why george bush thinks that stem cell research is killing life. when stem cell research could possibly save lives. we're more willing to conduct painful experiments on monkeys (when the results may not even be parallel for humans) and the president will legislate against using discarded stem cells? stem cells that will either remain frozen or be destroyed? is he out of his mind?

and i say, no he is not out of his mind. but he is so focused on steering the country in an anti-choice direction that he will forfeit the lives of those suffering from alzheimers, parkinsons, diabetes, and paralysis. and so the spokespersons will continue to try: michael j. fox, nancy reagan and the late christopher reeve. and i just ask how many more will have to suffer before we actually put resources to it? how many mr. president?

it's not all about the new job

okay, i just need to allocate a few words. the new job rocks. really, it does. my office is larger than hottie's and while i'm not into competing about office size, it still just shocks me. what the hell am i doing with my own office that looks out over the city and has enough room for a couch? i'm just not sure.

but this post is about so much more than my silly new job. here's the deal people. it's time for all of us to get up off our asses and motivate everyone we know to vote. and the challenge that most of us have, is that some of the people we know may have similar views to ours, so we assume that they will vote. and in fact, that could be true. but every single one of us should feel responsible to motivate at least 10 people to vote.

and if that means going down to your local campaign office, than so be it. here are some suggestions. do it dammit. and like ani says, vote dammit.

Here are some options:
Teresa Daly
Patty Wetterling
Deborah Watts

And as I hope you all know, my favorite (whom I picked a whopping year and a half ago): John Kerry. Or you can look at his local campaign office: Minnesotans for Kerry

I don't care what you do, just do something and make it count. This is not a year to fuck around people.