A Minority of One

Am I the only one who found Jeremiah Wright's speech to the NAACP fascinating, brilliant, and hilarious? My dad, Johan, I watched the whole thing, and were absolutely enthralled. The way he spoke about linguistics, etymology, ethnomusicology made me understand why Obama would sit in the church pew listening to this guy for 20 years- the dude is enthralling.

In sum, the NAACP speech made me 1) like Barack Obama more; 2) wish I was still in college; and 3) wish that I was studying ethnomusicology or some other liberal arts junk.

Maybe when Barack Obama is President, we can all talk about etymology, ethnomusicology, and hegemony all day long without having to dole out 40K a year to do so. A girl can dream.

Weekend Highlight

2 brothers at a birthday party. One liberal, one conservative. Both like to drink and argue about politics. Loudly. The following ensues:

Conservative Brother: What's all this shit about reparations. I didn't do anything to the blacks or the Indians!

Liberal Brother: But, it's not really about you. It's about what the U.S. government did to these people for centuries.

Conservative Brother: But I wasn't even alive! I didn't vote for any of those politicians who did those things!

Liberal Brother: Yeah, but you probably would have.

It's hard work caring about the environment.

While at Target a couple days ago, Eduardo and I finally broke down and bought a bunch of energy smart, swirly-go-round light bulbs. Cheap as I am, it broke my heart to shell out $26 for 8 light bulbs. But, the deed is done. I felt proud of us. We got home and Eduardo started replacing the light bulbs in our house with the new, green ones.

To my disappointment, the light that comes from these bulbs is a dingy, unpleasant yellow. I broke down and removed the energy-efficient bulbs from the bathroom, my bedroom and Johan's room. Who wants to wake up in the morning and look in the bathroom mirror in a horribly unflattering light? Or turn on the bedroom light to get dressed and be jolted awake by a harsh and unforgiving interrogation light?

The other problem is that our house has dimmer switches which are great when one has a baby (like built in night lights), but these don't work with the energy-efficient bulbs.

I'm not trying to be an earth-hater, but I feel slightly duped by the greenies. They finally convince me to spend grocery money on light bulbs without fully disclosing the weaknesses of these lights.

Any suggestions for how to be environmentally and energy responsible and still be able to enjoy soft lighting?

OTC

I used to never understand why it was such a big deal when medications previously available only with an Rx became over-the-counter. I mean, so what? A co-pay for a prescription is about the same as the price of name brand medications OTC. Yet, there were major advertising campaigns when Claritin and Prilosec became available without a prescription.

Let me tell you why it's a big deal. For those of us with high-deductible medical insurance, it's the difference between $20 at Target for the Zyrtec versus $300 for a visit to an allergist + $20 at the Target pharmacy for Zyrtec. Allergy season has begun and today I will march proudly into Target and purchase ZyrtecOTC for the first time. I even have a $2 coupon.

This is probably only the first of many rants about health insurance that will be coming your way in the next few months. The health care industry, the fact that it is even an "industry" at all, and the fact that my family's medical bills are making it impossible for me to save any money have got me all worked up.

But at least I can get my allergy medicine for less than a tank of gas. Or is that instead of a tank of gas? Damn, the economy sucks.

Personal Appearances

I am no Carrie Bradshaw, fashion-wise. While I can sometimes clean up nice, my natural inclination is to be pretty sloppy.

Example 1: I am getting my haircut this morning for the first time since October. I would like to blame this on being a busy new mom but I usually go at least 4-6 months between haircuts.

Example 2: The other day at work, some folks were laughing about some other attorney wearing pants with the bottoms frayed because they were so old. I took a mental inventory of my pants (work, jeans, and leisure pants) and realized that at least half of them are frayed.

Example 3: Both of my good suit coats are currently covered in vomit. This one I can blame on Johan but it should be noted that I said "both" of my good suit coats. I'm a lawyer and am pretty much supposed to wear suits every day I go to work. You do the math.

For today, though, I am so excited to get my hair cut.

Question:

Do people study abroad in Uruguay? I met some people from Uruguay yesterday (I asked if they were Argentine due to all that pronouncing "y" like "zh", but turns out that's not unique to Argentina) and got to thinking that I have never heard of anyone studying abroad in Uruguay. No U of Montevideo?

Tofu!

Despite living in California for 3 years with mainly folks from the west coast, I was never a fan of tofu. I even spent 2000-2001 living in a dorm/apartment with a group of girls who were, unbeknownst to us, dubbed the Granola Girls. You cannot imagine the amount of tofu that was consumed by all of them. I never had any interest in the stuff. The texture grossed me out; it had no flavor. I resisted all the forces around me and did not give in to tofu.

While I was pregnant, my step mom, dad, and I were out for Thai food and we ordered a fried tofu appetizer with sweet and sour sauce. It was good. It was fried; how could it not be good? But, after that experience, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Tofu? Me? In the months that followed, I ordered pad thai with tofu a couple of times.

Then came today. I had bought a block of firm tofu. It sat in my fridge for a couple days. Upon Moira's return from vacay, she (as tofu's biggest champion) sent me a recipe for baked tofu. I followed it. I ate it. I liked, nay loved it.

This is the story of tofu triumphing against all odds. When I was a granola-girl college student living on the west coast surrounded by vegetarians and hippies, tofu could not break me. Now that I am now sort-of yuppified wife, mom, lawyer living in the midwest, tofu and I have found each other.

It took a long time, but we have made our peace, tofu and me. Today, it was baked tofu over salad greens and tomatoes with balsamic vinegar. Whow knows about tomorrow? The future is beckoning, and tofu and I are hand in hand, ready to take on the world.

Are you two going to the park too?

Clearly the events of the past few days have me reeling since I just noticed that I wrote "affects" as a noun, rather than "effects." While my punctuation is a victim of Microsoft Word, I pride myself on knowing the difference between

-affect & effect
-to, too, & two
-their, there,& they're
-bear & bare.

In fact, in first grade I was the only one in my class to already know the 3 different uses of to, too, & two when that lesson began. That was before I learned Spanish and figured out there was also "tu."

Anyway, I am totally irritated when people don't know the differences between such words. Thus, while I had decided to not apologize for my writing, I do apologize for the grammatical error.

Happy April. It snowed a fucking mountain here last night. The effects of winter are affecting me.