walking

mom woke me up by accident this morning and once she had me awake, she filled me in on the rain forecast for richmond (a tropical storm is currently passing through), and on the terrorist attacks in london. the rain report didnt really wake me up (although i am excited that all our new plants are finally getting some rain), but the london news made me open my eyes wide to look at mom.

although i must admit i closed them again and fell back asleep b/c i was exhausted. when i woke up around 10 30 i turned on the news and got the details. i watched the british press conference and saw a little of tony blair. when i went to work, i talked to one of mark warner's assistants about it all, along with one of my coffee shop coworkers (btw, mark warner is VA's governor right now…one of his assistants is a regular at the coffee shop). talking to these people kind of made me feel smart. i have been listening to a lot of NPR since ive been home and ive been reading a lot of the news. i read the nyt most every day even when im at school and also catch the morning and evening news a lot while at school and pretty religiously watch meet the press and the chris matthews show, but i still dont really feel all that educated. but i kind of realized tonight that maybe i know a little bit about what is going on in the world and why. and that makes me feel good. i like foreign policy and i like knowing why our government makes the decisions it does (even if that's simply b/c bush is a fucking idiot).

i feel particularly bad for tony blair right now. poor guy. he got scammed into fighting a war that didnt really involve him, the people of his own country hate him for it, he wants bush's support for his goals at the G8 summit but knows bush has no plans to help him since bush told him to fuck himself a couple weeks ago when blair visited him in the US at crawford, and now that blair has another chance to convince bush to help africa and to have better environmental policies, the terrorists fuck it up and get revenge on him for fighting a war he never needed to support. so now blair has personal guilt about the war. all because george bush is fucking him up the ass and just wont quit. policy-wise, this was stupid of the terrorists. but as personal retribution to blair, it was probably pretty good.

and of course i feel terribly for people in the UK. other than biological or chemical threats, i think mass transit bombings are the most scary types of terrorists incidents. mainly b/c buses are in most every city, big and small, in america. bus bombings also seem pretty easy to accomplish and if i were living somewhere that had bombings like those that occur in the gaza strip, id be fucking terrified every day of my life. so i cant imagine how the brits are feeling b/c bus bombings seem so difficult to prevent.

this morning i listened to soledad obrien say 'you know, when bush says "be vigilant" when taking mass transit this morning, it made me, as a commuter, feel a little nervous' and i threw up my hands at the tv and said 'lady, you work for cnn and live in fucking atlanta…you barely even have a mass transit system and you probably drove to work this morning'. that might be really bitchy of me but i fucking hate it when people try to co-opt the pain of people who are actually involved in tragic events. this mornings news made me really sad. and after september 11, i cried for weeks when i watched tv. it was awful. i didnt even really know anyone who died (or at least not closely). but it was awful. but it just feels so wrong to think 'o, i had just left nyc a month before the attacks…that couldve been me' or whatever. david cross has a good segment about co-opting the pain/distress. i think it's fine for people to feel sadness and empathy for those actually affected. but if you live in richmond, VA, or in the middle of nowhere, USA, PLEASE DO NOT SPEND YOUR TIME BEING AFRAID. the terrorists arent going to come and get you. the cruel joke on the terrorists, however, is that democrats are the ones who usually congregate in big cities and densely populated areas, and bombing those areas will only farm more votes for bush and bush-lovers. which means war in iraq forevah-evah!

enough about london. terrorism is scary for everyone but everyone should not be scared.

i am liking my job. i know it's been awhile since i posted but ive been busy busy busy. the 4th was great. i got to spend some time on alex's jet skis and we had a party at his river house. the music was great as was the food and the friends. the whole pig dog crew was there and that was a blast. the last time we were all together was the last fourth of july, so this is becoming a good tradition.

the coffee shop is going well. i like most of the people i work with and i like making drinks and i like the area and i dont mind doing most of the grunt work. it's been a good experience so far and i am making a little money. not much, but a little.

i suppose that's about it. we're having a good rainstorm at the moment and im going to crack my windows so i can listen to it as i fall asleep. goodness i adore rain….