Inspiration?

Bristol Palin had her baby. Check it out.

I don't know this for sure, but here's my bet for the inspiration for the baby's name:

Tripp Darling of Dirty Sexy Money. Who's with me?

Christmas Marathon

Jim and I had five straight days of Christmas this year. Between my two families, Jim's family, and our own private family Christmas, we celebrated all week long. And it WAS long. It was great, but it was a lot--a lot of family, of gift opening, of food. I'm usually very sad when Christmas is over, but this year, it stayed so long, I was nearly ready to let it go.

Two other small pieces of news:

1. I'm on the third book of the Twilight series, and I must admit, I can't put the damn things down. I saw the movie today and felt like a fourteen year old girl. I loved it. Thought it was great. Am anxiously awaiting movie number two. I should be embarrassed, right? Or just embrace it? I can't decide. But there it is. I can't get enough of them.
2. Anya declared over break that she has two mommies--a rich one and a poor one. "Really?" I asked, "which one am I?" "You're the rich one, silly!" she declared proudly. I don't know where she's getting her information, but I've never been one to shy away from embracing a delusion as reality. More power to you, kid.

Will write more soon--

Love,

The Rich One.

Avoidance. On a Whole. New. Level.

We got home from Wichita late last night. Jim and I figured that out of the 40 hour trip, we were driving for 20 of them. Ugh.

This morning...er, afternoon...when we got up, I thought about the 92 papers I have to grade for the sophs. And then we decided to prepare the house for Christmas.

This is grading avoidance on a whole new level, people. Check this out:

Note the WRAPPED presents beneath the tree. Impressive, I know.

I touched her hand and she smelled like cherries

The sophs are back to their usual tricks. Yesterday, they were to bring in three typed copies of their literary analysis essay on The Odyssey so they could attempt peer editing. (Kace, this is where you're overcome with nostalgia and start planning your return to teaching.)

Any day a paper is due, I'm regaled by story upon story of computers suddenly breaking down, printers running out of ink, and internet connections instantaneously and incomprehensibly "going down."

Usually, the stories are annoying, predictable, and annoyingly predictable.

But my favorite one from yesterday reminded me of the girl who, last year, told me she didn't know we had homework because I hadn't told her to look at the board where the assignment was written. Here's the same story; a variation on a theme:

"Michael, do you have your paper?"

"Uh, no. I didn't bring it."

"Okay," I said, moving on.

"Well, I have it done, " he said, trying to keep me from gleefully marking a big, fat zero in the gradebook. "I mean, it's totally done, it's just on my computer at home."

"Uh-huh, and it's not here because..."

"Well...I didn't know I had to bring it. I mean, you didn't tell me to print it out and bring it in."

Rapid blinking.

"I mean, if you would have told me to print it, I would have."

My friend Kristin had some funnier, smarter responses to offer the kid than I could think of at the time...something along the lines of having to tell the kid to put his pants on in the morning, and to inhale...then exhale...then inhale...but all I could do was say, "Are you kidding?" and walk away.

I'm losing my edge, people. The fights don't even interest me anymore.

In other news, I read a story in the NY Times this morning about what beautiful, private school the Obama girls will attend this coming year. My favorite part was when a star-struck second grader recalled her brief meeting with the future first-lady when Mrs. Obama visited her school. She said, "I touched her hand and she smelled like cherries."

Aw. I like that. And I bet she does smell like cherries.

Parent/teacher conference

I read that this morning, Barack and Michelle Obama went to parent/teacher conferences at their daughters' school in Chicago.

Can you imagine being THAT teacher?

A frightening resemblance

A couple of smart people that I know mentioned that they're worried about having to stop blogging Barack and go back to writing about everyday life.

I must admit, I'm a bit worried about this myself. I mean, until I started blogging Barack, my posts were few and far between, and frankly, not that interesting.

I'll do my best, though, to leave the Sarah Palin hating (did you hear that she didn't know Africa was a continent and not a country?), and the Obama worshipping behind, and return to complaining about...I mean...telling you funny stories about...my high school students.

While clicking around on another smart person's blog, I found a link to this funny video. I didn't like the "empty rhetoric" line at the end, but the video struck a chord with me. You'll see why.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Yes We Can

Believe. Hope. Change.

This afternoon on my way into my polling place, a young mom with her baby in a sling asked me if I'd take her picture with her cell phone next to the "Vote Today" sign. She told me she wanted her son to always know that he was with her when she voted for the first African-American President.

When I told her I was voting for Obama, too, she said, smiling, "Of course. Isn't everybody?"

Here's hoping.

Here's believing.

Madia one day, Klobuchar the next

Today Amy Klobuchar called me at my house to ask me to vote for Al Franken.

It wasn't quite as cool as meeting Madia...but I think I'll save the voicemail from her for awhile anyway.

Free Coffee

All my ranting about Sarah Palin

...has distracted me from my other favorite type of posts: pics of the niece.

These were too good to pass up:

Typical form

This morning I met Ashwin Madia. He and David Dillon (Paulson was unavailable) were participating in a debate at school (don't ask how, I don't know) and I brought my third hour public speaking class to watch and listen.

Madia was standing by the door as we walked in and it would have been awkward for me to take the easy way out and not say anything to him, so I smiled, walked right up to him and started strong:

"Hi. I'm Rachel Tholen and you have my vote."

Then, in typical form, as I've done time and time again when meeting people for the first time who I deem significantly more important than me (that's pretty much everyone), I started talking. Talking nonsensically. Talking quickly. Talking too much. Saying things about how I appreciated his "service to the country" and how I really was hopeful for the election, etc, etc, etc, and painfully, etc.

To his credit, he was very nice to me. Just lots of nodding and smiling and thank yous.

It would have been easier to play it off if one of my seniors hadn't been standing next to me the whole time witnessing this embarrassing habit of mine. As I turned to tell him that we should never speak of this encounter again, he said, "Real smooth, Tholen. Real smooth."

Ugh. Thanks, kid.

But what you really should know is that I was impressed with both Madia and Dillon. I thought they did a nice job of accommodating for their audience--they didn't patronize the kids, but they didn't speak over their heads either. They both talked about the importance of getting involved, in paying attention, in caring about what happens to the country, about youth bearing the brunt tomorrow of the decisions made today. I thought they were smart. I thought they were good. I thought, again, that the world might feel like a different place after Tuesday, and how great that would be.

The Ad

This afternoon when I got home from school, I watched Obama's 30 minute infomerical that ran in primetime last night. The only thing I'd heard about it was Dan Rather's comment that it was exceptionally well made, and I was curious to see what Obama would do with 30 minutes.

My brother-in-law jokingly asked if it swayed my vote, as though I was watching it to assure myself that yes, I would vote for Obama, and eschew McCain and Bible Spice (thank you Alec Baldwin for that gem).

It obviously didn't sway my vote. For God's sake, Obama had me at the waving wheat fields.

But that wasn't really the point.

The point is that I (no joke) cried through the last seven minutes of the thing. I don't remember a time when I felt so (sorry for the cliche) hopeful about someone and something. It feels good to actually believe in the power of change. It feels good to see millions of people all over the nation stand behind this man and hold him up with their hopes and their beliefs that tomorrow can be a greater day than today has been.

If you haven't seen it, I really do think it's worth watching.

When the Berlin Wall came down, my mom told Cyndy and me that we should remember the moment, try to hold on to it in our minds because it was monumental, because it was significant, because it would change the way we saw the world.

If nothing else, it sure feels good to be on the precipice of another moment like that.

For the love of God, people. Vote Obama/Biden on November 4th.

Cabbage Patch Candidates

You should spend some time here.

http://www.palinaspresident.us/
Click on everything you can and make sure your sound is on. Very, very funny.

Someone to look up to

KC wrote about these photos of Obama and his campain by Callie Shell, and I must say, they are pretty awesome.

Hope

The Counting

There are a lot of things that I really hate about paper grading, but the thing I hate most is my compulsion to count, recount, and count again the number of papers that I have yet to grade.

I can't stop doing it.

I'll count. And then I'll grade two papers. And then, I'm not kidding, I'll count AGAIN. I won't even just subtract two from the last time I counted. I will re-fricking-count, as though somehow, some way, the pile has magically gotten smaller by leaps and bounds in the last ten minutes.

Maybe I would feel better about grading papers and not have to constantly count if Barack Obama were my president.

Hmm...

Let's be real. I probably would.

Obama loves Christmas, too

Today one of my seniors informed me quite matter-of-factly that she was supporting John McCain because she didn't want to lose Christmas.

???????

"Lose Christmas?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yeah. I love Christmas and I don't want to lose it."

"Uh-huh. Did someone tell you that Obama was trying to get rid of Christmas?" I asked, expecting her to spout off something crazy about Obama being a Muslim, an Arab, or a general hater of all things red, green, and Christmasy.

"Yeah. My grandma said that if Obama's president and her taxes go up, we just can't have Christmas anymore."

Right. I mean, it IS hard to have Christmas on SUCH a small budget.

I wish I could have come up with something witty, smart, and equally absurd to throw back at this girl, but all I could think to do was ask if she'd be old enough to vote in two weeks.

Rest assured, people. She's still only 17. And while I'm at it, I might as well admit to not being able to stop myself from saying, "Well thank God for small mercies" as I walked away. To which she turned to her friend sitting next to her and said, "I don't get it...what does that mean?"

This is what I'm dealing with, friends.

Oh, sorry, "my friends." This is what I'm dealing with, my friends.

Powell for Obama

In case you missed it:

Ellen supports Obama. Just FYI.

She also crawls:

At first I was nervous. Then I was like, "whatever."

Did you see today that the AP interviewed Levi, father-to-be of Bristol Palin's baby?

Levi speaks, people! He speaks! Not well, but then, that's okay. He'll fit right in.

Vote

No, ma'am

I used to prefer David Letterman to Jay Leno

...but then at some point, I switched to Leno so I wouldn't miss any Conan.

I may have to start watching Letterman again, though, if he's going to continue doing stuff like this. I am so, so the target audience for this.

Blogging Obama

KC told me tonight that I should just go ahead and acknowledge the fact that I'm blogging Obama until the election.

I'm fine with that.

However, in my ongoing attempt to at least mention something besides the election on my blog, here's a nice photo of Jim and me at our friends Maggie and Shana's wedding:

And, here's a photo of us a couple of hours later, well into the open bar and the dancing. A stark difference, no?

Thanks John. I'm proud to say I'm going with "that one."

Two of my favorite things:

Poetry and Palin.

Classic.

Wasn't it obvious?

I'm sorry. I can't help it.

KC forwarded me this great blog written by Tom Wise, a prominent anti-racist writer and activist, regarding white privilege and the Presidential election.

You should read it.

And then you should read his follow up.

And for the record, I tried to post something tonight that wasn't about the election. I really did. I just can't.

Maybe tomorrow, but with the VP debate, I see that as highly unlikely.

Even the conservatives are concerned about her.

Yesterday I was chatting with a coworker after school for nearly 45 minutes about the upcoming Presidential debate.

I can't count the number of times I said, "They just can't really think she can do it, can they?" in regard to Sarah Palin.

Kathleen Parker, at least, is one conservative who agrees with me.

Fair Weather

Here's to the Twins for thoroughly entertaining me tonight (and for being interesting enough to attract me to their game instead of watching the premiere of Grey's Anatomy).

p.s. For a more thoughtful analysis of the Twins and their push for the playoffs, you can read Jim's blog at http://twinsbullpen.blogspot.com/

p.p.s. Tonight, Mom and I took Ellen to kindermusic where a nice lady named Miss Melanie led us through songs, sashays, sways, and other musical delights. Whatever you're imagining about this experience is true, no matter how wild you think your imagination is running. At one point, there were colored scarves floating through the air.

I think I'm becoming consumed by my disgust with Sarah Palin

I spent awhile on this blog tonight. Check it out, and if you're moved to, send an email to womensaynopalin@gmail.com to add your thoughts.

Watch this. Please.

Hold up, Jesse Ventura just made a great point

I've been pretty much disgusted with John McCain and his VP choice in Sarah Palin since he announced her as his choice last Friday. Initially, I was insulted by the clear assumption that women voters will vote for a woman--any woman--regardless of her politics, but the issues since then just keep compounding. I have a hard time championing a white, married, upper-middle class mother of four for not aborting her baby with Down Syndrome, as though she's the only woman in America (pro-life or not) to do so, and as though any pro-choice woman, in contrast, would have immediately run off to the abortion clinic upon learning of their child's condition in the same situation.

Please.

I'm also growing tired of the "She's just like me" and the "She's just a regular soccer mom" and "She is Everywoman" talk. Am I really the only person in the world who thinks that the office of the presidency and the vice presidency demand more than "regular" and "normal"? I don't want a normal vice-president. I want an exceptional vice-president. I want someone who really is beyond reproach. I want the person, as the Obama campaign so aptly put it, who is a heartbeat away from the highest office in the country to be better than a regular old soccer mom. I want her to kick ass. Palin just doesn't. The only thing I've agreed with the Republican delegates about are their comments about her normalcy and her relatability. Yep, she's pretty average. Yep, she's a mom. So let's make her Vice President? Let's not.

And while I find it lovely that the Obama campaign is taking the high road on their "children are off limits" rhetoric with regard to the "Oh yeah, and by the way, my unwed 17 year old daughter is five months pregnant" story, I've been lapping up news coverage on that any chance I get.

In that light, when I heard Larry King announce that he was having Jesse Ventura on as a guest, I immediately thought, "YES! If there's a person in the world who will spout off about Palin, it'll be Jesse."

The thing about Jesse Ventura is this: if Jesse Ventura weren't so crazy, he'd be pretty great. He also took the high road on the 17 year old pregnancy story and talked about what a difficult situation it is for the Palin family, though also pointed out that it's certainly not a situation that's unique to them--that lots of American families deal with that sort of situation every day.

But that wasn't Ventura's good point.

Larry King, like me, wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer.

When pressed a bit further, Jesse made the winning point that perhaps what we should learn most from the Palin teenage pregnancy is that the abstinence only sex education that the GOP loves to endorse doesn't seem to be very effective, particularly so close to home.

Um, yeah. Good point Jesse. And why hasn't anyone else thrown that in the ring?

So, this one's for you Jesse. Somehow, amazingly, you made a point that nobody else had yet, and dammit, I liked it.

Oh, and school started today

My feelings on this, I think, go without saying.

The Good Stuff

Abby makes a good point

Abby makes a good point in her comment on my last post:

abigail emerson said...
Sorry, can't believe I forgot to comment on the title. "If you had to," as if marrying a TV star would be a real chore. And of all of the TV stars (a group, mind you, that includes Michael Vartan and Bradley Whitford) you would choose Bill Cosby. Clueless dad wearing frumpy sweaters sitting on the couch watching chaos unfold, occasionally contributing somewhat witty comments.
August 19, 2008 10:21 PM

Okay, she makes two good points. One, marrying a TV star probably wouldn't suck. And two, how could I have so quickly forgotten my first true TV love in favor of Bill Cosby?

(photo credit ESPN (?!?))

The only point of clarification here, of course, is that I didn't ever particularly care for the real-life Jason Priestley, but I was head over heels in love with the fictional Brandon Walsh.

As a side note, when I was in elementary school, I wrote a "short story" with a character I created named Todd Winters. Here's a shout out to him, as my first fictional crush.

If I had to marry a TV star, I would choose Bill Cosby.

It's been a busy week, and it's not slowing down anytime soon.


Last Thursday, we drove down to Omaha for the kid brother's white coat ceremony at Creighton. The ceremony was nice and we were all proud of Michael for being able to walk across a stage and put on a white doctor's coat in front of a large audience without tripping, stumbling, or getting his shirt sleeves caught awkwardly in the coat like so many others. There was lots of celebrating and toasting and general merriment in getting him off on the right foot:





Cyndy and Dave:



Cyndy and me at the tobacco shop...in old barber chairs...which were in the tobacco shop:

I was sad to come home Saturday night.

Today I took the girls to the beach while Jim golfed with Dad:

I would say that this would have been an excellent activity had it not ended in a citation from the Deephaven police for "failure to display parking permit" (which I don't have) and expired license tabs (which I received a ticket for about three weeks ago also).

Ugh.

This Wednesday morning, Jim and I are headed out on our first serious road trip. We're driving Dad's car down to his house in Phoenix and flying back late on Sunday night. We're hoping to be in Hays, America Wednesday night, Albuquerque Thursday night, and Dad's house sometime Friday afternoon. Talk about eking out one more trip this summer.

Superfluous photo of rainbow out my back window at my house:

I'm thinking I could market this kid.

Anya: When I go to the 'Lympics, I want to be the American.

Me: But Anya, you already are an American.

Anya: I am??

Me: Yeah. You're an American. You live in America.

Anya: Wow! I really LIKE being 'merican!! They get to wear the blue shirts and I REALLY LOVE BLUE!! [jumping up and down and waving arms.]

Slavedriver

Even though tomorrow is only August 1st, Teaching Pal Jackie is making me work tomorrow.

She is a better teacher than I am.

Works harder than I do.

Becoming increasingly worried that there's a direct correlation there.

Today we played golf at Conviction Creek. Sounds nice, no?

There's something so funny and unnatural about people falling:

My Uncle Dave is in National Geographic. No, really. He's in National Geographic.

The actual story in the August 2008 magazine is more interesting to look at because of the pictures, but this is still damn cool.

Check it out.

Operation Forget About the Dog

Tonight Jim and I took the girls to see Wall-E.

At first, I was very suspicious of the film. I mean, come on, a squeaky robot is the only "living" thing left on Earth and has been compacting trash for the last 700 years until another robot falls out of the sky in search of plant life?

How good could it be?

Pretty damn good, friends. I'm not ashamed at all to say that I out and out really liked the movie, fell in love with little robotic Wall-E a bit, and found the message endearing, thoughtful, and frankly, pretty significant for all the little children pixar lovers out there.

And while I'm on the record, I'd also like to add that it was WAY better than Kung-Fu Panda.

Temporary Insanity

Jim called me tonight from the parking lot of a pet store, right after texting me this:

There are a million good reasons NOT to purchase this painfully cute female half cocker spaniel, half bichon puppy, right?

I mean, RIGHT?

Because otherwise, I'm considering pleading temporary insanity and becoming the proud mother of this little thing.

God help me, right? RIGHT?

The Pictures