Mindy Kaling’s Book (or “Why Mindy Kaling Should Be My BFF Right Now”)
January 3rd, 2012 § 1 Comment
Have you read Mindy Kaling‘s book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, yet? If you haven’t, I can’t even express to you the extent to which you’re missing out – on life, happiness, meaning, joy, everything. Seriously. You can get it from the iBook store right now. Go do it. I’ll wait.
…
Clearly you’ve bought the book, and are now wondering how you ever made it this far in life without it (well, since it came out, anyway), right? And you tore yourself away long enough to finish my post, eh? Good.
Mindy’s (we’re clearly on a first name basis here, people) book reads like a one-sided telephone conversation with the most fun, quirky, and hilarious best friend you’ve never had. She’s refreshingly random and doesn’t come off as just another untouchable celebrity who has written a book. She’s real and doesn’t try to hide it. In fact, I’m entirely certain that she couldn’t hide it if she wanted to. Which means we, the Reader, win.
She talks about growing up the model daughter to her immigrant professional parents, the making and breaking of friendships and romance, all the comedy you could possibly want to read about, and how she apparently isn’t Mindy Kaling enough to play Mindy Kaling in a series about Mindy Kaling. She’s also overly fond of saying that she “killed” at things. Which I’m now immediately going to start saying, too. And I will totally kill at it.
Go. Read her book. But she can’t be your BFF, so don’t ask. I call dibs.
Yo, 2012. What’s the haps?
January 1st, 2012 § Leave a Comment
2011 was a good year. I’m guessing that 2012 is going to be outstanding.
I’m not going to create a laundry list of things I wish to accomplish in 2012. Instead, I’m just going to say that I would like to live more in the present moment because, really, isn’t the present moment all we can really live in, anyway? Maybe I’ll sound like an addict, but I’m really keen on simplifying and taking the next year one day at a time. (I’m immediately reminded of Sandra Bullock’s character in 28 Days, “What is that? I mean, like two, three days at a time is an option?”)
Anyway. The point is, is that I’m going to focus more on the only thing that I have any control over – myself and my behavior. I’m going to do things that make me happy and be the best me I possibly can.
Maybe I’ll do some other awesome things along the way, too.
“Poor”? Or “poor poor”?
October 14th, 2011 § 1 Comment
I don’t know what’s wrong with Michigan. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
The War on Poverty is said to be the war that former president Lyndon B. Johnson actually wanted to fight. On March 16, 1964, in an address to Congress, Johnson delivered his proposal for what he called “A Nationwide War on the Sources of Poverty”. His lofty goal was not just to put a bandaid over the consequences of poverty, but to attack it at its very core; he wanted to eliminate the causes of poverty. Johnson believed in opportunity, not handouts. He believed, as I do, that nearly every person in the United States would work for their living, and work hard, if only the opportunity to do so were there. People don’t want to be poor. People don’t want to rely on strangers or the state for their own well-being. People want to earn their own way to a better life. Sometimes, they just need a little help getting there.
We’ve lost sight of the value of humanity; lost sight of what it means to live in “the greatest country on Earth”. Somewhere along the way, we’ve decided that “it’s not my job” to reach out to my fellow man. It’s not my job to help create opportunities. It’s not my job to help build a better world. It’s not my job to work with other humans to increase the standard of living for us all. But it is my job to watch you, and judge you, and make sure that you don’t end up with a better life than mine.
We play a dangerous game of reactionary politics where rules are built around the small number of assholes who take advantage of the goodness in others and of the opportunities created by a government that has the welfare of all of its citizens in mind through programs designed to help people start businesses, to pick them up if those businesses fail, to keep education and innovation thriving so that the world benefits from great minds that, without a social safety net, may never produce. We use a small number of people who take advantage and hold them up as the norm.
They are not the norm. I am. You probably are, too.
The truest measure of a great nation is not in how it treats the most successful, but in the opportunities it presents to the least successful within it. We are not a great nation.
And Michigan is not a great state. As of October 1, 2011, people are being kicked off of cash assistance if they’ve been on it for 48 months or more. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That seems like an awful long time to be receiving cash assistance from the state. But who are these people that are coming off of assistance? And instead of just taking them off of assistance, we should be asking why they still need assistance in the first place. Why, after four years, has this family not found a better life? Is it their fault, or is it that the state provides a bandaid when stitches are needed? Was job training provided? Budgeting classes? Are there any jobs that this person is qualified to do? Are they working full-time and still qualifying for assistance because their job doesn’t pay them enough to actually live on?
Are we asking any questions at all?
Michigan is also rolling out a new requirement to receive assistance – asset testing. If you own your home, but lost your job and need food assistance in order to survive while looking for a new job, well, it sucks to be you because you’ll have to get rid of your home first. Don’t you have relatives or friends you can move in with? Have a decent car because you saved money for a few years and bought it with cash before your company outsourced your job? If it’s worth more than $15,000 you’re going to have to get rid of it before we can help you. No, we don’t care that it’s your only way to get to work at the company paying you minimum wage that doesn’t cover your bills which is why you need assistance in the first place.
Assets are a big part of what helps to break the cycle of poverty. So, why are we trying to take these assets away? The term “cutting your nose off to spite your face” comes to mind.
Remembering.
September 11th, 2011 § 3 Comments
I was nowhere near New York on September 11, 2001. I was safe. My family and friends were safe. I was at work, going about my business. My boss was in his office, doing boss-y things. Our salesperson came in.
“Did you hear what happened? A couple of planes hit the World Trade Center. They’re saying it’s a terrorist attack.”
And then he went into his office. Like it was just a normal day.
Maybe I’m too sensitive, but I could barely move. I kept thinking of all the people who were undoubtedly dead, wondering how the terrorists managed to get ahold of planes. Wondering how anybody could be so angry that this was the only answer. I started trying to get to news websites, hoping that the sales guy was wrong, or that he was joking (he was quite an asshole).
The internet was broken. It turns I wasn’t the only one trying to find out what was happening.
I left for lunch early that day because I had to – had to – see what was going on. I kind of wish I hadn’t. News channels were showing footage over and over and over of the planes hitting, the towers coming down, people jumping to their deaths because that was a better ending for them than burning to death.
The image of our president, George W. Bush, sitting with a group of children, and the look on his face when he was told that a second plane hit was enough to make even me, someone who had staunchly opposed him, feel sorry for him and the job that was ahead of him.
That night, I was outside with my dog. She was, of course, blissfully unaware that anything had happened hundreds of miles away in a place she didn’t even know existed to people that were not even on her radar. I was staring up at the sky. There were no planes. The skies were quiet. For the first time, I cried.
I was so hopeful in the first weeks following the attack. The country was coming together with the entire world behind us.
Over the next ten years, something happened. We shifted focus from fighting in Afghanistan and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden to fighting in Iraq. The people were lied to. Lines were drawn in the sand. Perhaps we were pulled together, united, so quickly that we had to come apart spectacularly. And we did.
We’re to a place where we agree on nothing. If the Republicans want something and the Democrats agree, then Republicans don’t want that something anymore; they want something else. Democrats are just as bad. We make our fellow Americans feel like they don’t belong, they have no right to be here, they have no right to grieve over the happenings of September 11, 2001 because they are Muslim. A person in Iowa, who knows nobody in New York, and has never been to New York, will claim that they have more right to be upset than a Muslim person who lost friends and family and had to evacuate on 9/11/01. We have moved so far away from the country that came together ten years ago.
“You are either with us or against us.” I naïvely thought President Bush meant that statement as a warning to those who would harbor people connected with the September 11, 2001 attack. Sadly, it’s come to mean something entirely different. If you don’t fall in line with status quo, you’re unAmerican. If you don’t embrace religion, you’re unAmerican. If you don’t believe “Socialism” is a four-letter word, you’re unAmerican.
If you have the audacity to question your elected leaders, you’re unAmerican.
I love this country. And I love it, not because I was told to love it or taught to love it, but because I’ve read and learned about it. This country was not built on morality, but rather the idea of a social contract among its citizens. It was not built on doctrine, but on the idea that a country’s citizenry should be what shapes that country’s model. This country was not built on dogma, but on freedom.
Never forget what our country was founded on. Never forget the blood that was shed to give us the opportunity to live our own lives. Never forget to lift up and honor the people we, in the name of forming a free nation, have pushed around. Never forget that the Earth doesn’t need us, but we do need her. Never forget the way you felt ten years ago and how you promised to be a better person. Never forget the people who died so you wouldn’t have to.
And now, for your viewing pleasure…
Playing “catch up”.
July 3rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’m currently sitting in a comfy chair on the back patio of the home I share with Dennis, playing on the interwebs. It’s warm and humid. The sun is shining. Birds are chirping. And if I use my imagination, I can almost fool myself into hearing ocean waves rolling in instead of cars driving by.
I haven’t written since February.
So. This is me. Catching up.
Forbidden Broadway‘s Greatest Hits went up the first weekend in March. It was so very cool and fun and I miss everyone. I miss the stage. I can’t wait for the next one! If you weren’t in the audience for one of the four performances, shame on you.
Once the play was over, I returned to derby practice. In April, we scrimmaged against Jack Town and in May, the day before my birthday, I had my first official bout. Against Blue Water. And they killed us. But it was SO much fun!
In May I turned 32. Wow.
May also brought SCUBA lessons. I’m still not certified, but I only have two things left to complete. I will get that done.
We played our first renegade bout against Skee Town. Renegade is the most derby fun, ever. I think WFTDA‘s “no minors” rules set is going to be a great comparison to renegade, and I really hope they implement the “no minors” rules. It will really open the game up and people won’t be getting penalties because their elbow moved, never mind that the motion had no impact at all on game play.
I jacked my should up in May. Playing derby, of course. It still hurts.
The first week of June, Dennis and I went on a surfcation to Costa Rica. Yep. Central America. Spanish-speaking country. Costa Rica. It was beautiful. Witch’s Rock Surf Camp deserves more detail than I’m giving right now. It was the BEST place on the planet. And filled with the best people. I want to go back right now. And just live there. My surfing skills leave much to be desired and are in no way an indication of the talent and experience of the instructors. Those instructors are gold. I just couldn’t get it together.
June brought another renegade bout against Skee Town. This one was a bit more, um, brutal. I didn’t know it at the bout (okay, I did, but I wouldn’t admit it), but I broke my right thumb. Two weeks after the bout I very nearly ended up with a cast for the stupid thing. I’m in a splint that I, per doctor’s orders, must treat as a cast – never take it off. It was the only way I could convince him to NOT GIVE ME A DAMN CAST. He didn’t want to give in, though, until the very end. He even made me pick the color of my cast (Maidens purple, natch!) before relenting and giving me a splint instead. The splint is a glorified wrist guard that isolates my thumb. Seriously. It’s *just* like a wrist guard.
We also bouted Flint in June. That was fun, but WOW! You could tell that we had just come from playing two renegade bouts in a row. We were in the box more than on the track, I think. It was madness.
And Oh-My-Darlin’-Lizzietine got married! Her wedding – ceremony through reception – was so very perfect and unconventional and the best thing, ever. She was beautiful, Bruce looked so handsome, everything was just magic. She and Bruce asked me to come up and read a poem. I was so honored and happy to do it. Of course I’d already been tearing up before it was even my turn to speak, but when I got up there, and they just looked so happy to be together and I was just so happy for them. I really wasn’t sure my throat would open up enough for me to get through the reading. It was shaky, but I hope Lizzie knows that the shakiness was directly related to how much she means to me.
And now it’s July.
