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.