Always Anna

After learning about Chuck Norris’s reasons for supporting Mike Huckabee (which you can read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-radosh/chuck-norris-never-cries_b_78617.html), one of my bestest friends, Sneaky McTrickyPants*, announced, “Christian righties are so uptight. Let the sin in, I say!”

This was a few weeks ago and it’s still making me laugh.

 * Surprisingly, this is not her real name.  But it does define her pretty well.

It’s amazing what a difference a haircut can make.

I got about four inches cut off of my hair yesterday, and I feel lighter and happier than I have a long time.  And since all the dead ends and layers are now gone, it only took me 10 minutes to blow dry my hair this morning (as opposed to the 20 minutes it had been taking)! 

Anything that manages to get me out the door faster in the morning has to be a good thing.

Super Tuesday, the day that most of us get to vote in the primary elections, is only a week away.  Do you know who you’ll be voting for?

If not, may I suggest looking at any or all of these sites?   They’re all fun and informative – a double whammy!

• Glassbooth.org: Lets you rank issues in order of importance to you and take a quiz to identify your feelings/beliefs, then tells you which candidates are most closely in line with your opinions.
• Electoral Compass: Answer some questions on various issues, and see where you stand on a graph
• Washington Post Profiles: Pretty in-depth coverage of candidates’ backgrounds.
• MSNBC Candidates + Issues Matrix: Summary of the candidates’ stances on a range of issues, in a matrix format.  Also provides links to video clips and other information sources on each topic.
• Grist: Focused coverage on the candidates’ stances on the environment, including a cool chart that compares everyone.
• League of Conservation Voters: More environmental profiles for each candidate, including interviews and a rating on their environmental voting record.

If you don’t have time to hit up all six sites (and there are a TON more out there), try to visit the first two sites to take the quizzes.  Then you’ll at least know the two or three candidates you are most in line with, and you can just research them.

Good luck!  And please, remember to vote!

Mere words can’t describe how much I want this:

I’ve had a thing for elephants for most of my life.  My first stuffed animal – the one that my parents put in the crib with me - was an elephant.  Ellie (not the most original name, I know, but I couldn’t say “elephant” for a long time) still sits on my bed.  Then, when I was eight, my dad gave me a silver bracelet made up of tiny elephant charms that linked by a curved upwards trunk and a curved downwards tail.  It doesn’t fit anymore, but I can’t get rid of it.

My obsession continued through adolescence.  Right after high school, my best friend went on a trip to Europe… and brought me back a small clay elephant that she’d picked up in Italy.  It’s only about an inch and a half tall, and it sits on my desk at work, watching me work.  Then, in college, my other best friend gave me an elephant carved out of wood.  The six-inch ‘phant has a grin on its face, and sits on a shelf in my living room.    

Now I’m in love love LOVE with this blue elephant bank from Jonathan Adler.  I want to add it to my small collection – it could be the elephant in my bedroom!  Anyone want to buy it for me?  Anyone?

I recently came across a new-since-the-last-time-I-visited-the-site section on Kate Spade’s Behind the Curtain site (which is always amazing and inspiring).  Called I’ve Always Wanted To…, the new section encourages people to go out and learn to do something that they’ve always yearned to do.

And now I’m inspired to revisit my desire to learn to knit!  Watch out, friends o’ mine.  You’ll all be getting hats, scarves, or – if I get really good – a coin purse shaped like an egg.

P.S. Thanks to Marta for pointing me towards the site!  I am forever grateful.

Ways to make my job actually fit within an 8-hour work day:

* Being able to freeze time like Evie… of course, that would probably just end up with me getting to work at 8 AM, freezing time while I worked for 4 hours, then unfreezing it to work for 8 hours.  Hmmm… that’s actually a 12-hour day for me – the same thing I do now.  Not ideal.

* Having magical powers, like Samantha’s in Bewitched?  She could freeze time too, and snap her fingers to get things organized.  Maybe if I could get my desk and papers organized, that would help.  I wonder if Samantha could snap her fingers and have a full paper written or report done.  That would definitely help.  But… in the Harry Potter books, magic doesn’t give you the ability to just snap your fingers and have work that requires thought done.  So maybe not that helpful for work, although would be awesome at home for cleaning purposes.  And for teleporting myself to work and back.

* Having some way to fast forward my own actions while the rest of the world around me moves normally.  I think if I could move twice as fast (and think twice as fast), that should work – I could fit 16 hours of action into 8 hours of work.  Hmmm… still might not be enough time.  But would help.

So… how can I gain the ability to move and think at twice my normal speed?  Maybe I need to find some radioactive material…. 

For girls that came of age in the 80s, John Cusack in Say Anything was THE guy that everyone wanted.

For girls that came of age in the 90s? Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You.

Heath, we’ll miss you.

Apparently Monopoly is creating a new version of the board game, which will highlight world cities… and we can vote on which cities we want on the board!  You can vote once a day until February 28th, then vote for the “wild-card” cities starting February 29th. 

I am a huge nerd for being excited by this, but I don’t care.  Go to http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/en_US/world if you want to be as dorky as me.

They say: “Sorry about yesterday, Anna.”

I think: “AH!  I don’t want to talk about it!  I’m still on the verge of tears!”

I say: “Thanks.”

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They say: “It must have been rough to watch, huh?”

I think: “Well, duh.  Are you seriously trying to make me relive my heartbreak again?”

I say: “Yeah, it wasn’t my idea of a perfect game.”

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They say: “Well, at least you had a good season.  I mean, who even thought the Packers would get that far?”

I think: “Oh, thanks for the insult. I knew we could get this far… and know that we’re a better team than the freaking Giants.  ARGH!”

I say: Nothing, just stare at them.

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They say: “So, do you think Brett will come back?”

I think: “Ohmigod, don’t start crying, don’t start crying.”

I say: “I guess we’ll see…” 

 

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.

- Josh Billings

(“Playing Cards 001″ taken by Image-monkey)