At last!

Sooo overdue for a new post...

My apologies! From the feasting and the gifting and the fretting, I have been otherwise overwhelmed and entirely negligent in posting. Here's what I've been up to:

• Eating three Thanksgiving meals (my mom's house, my dad's house, Alex's house), each of which brought incredible creativity and tradition to the table. We won't talk about how my pants didn't fit for weeks after...
• Hosting our housewarming party (where both the PB buckeyes and the Double Chocolate cookies made featured appearances).
• Celebrating several cozy Christmases and Hanukkahs at home in the snow with all my loved ones.
• Toasting the new year with a house full of friends and yummy pizzas (and too many open bottles of champagne to finish after 12:00 had passed).
• And finally, applying to law school.

In the words of Prince Humperdink, "I'm swamped!" But thankfully, aside from the arduous doing of taxes and submitting of financial aid applications, I am mostly done with the hard part of that process. Mostly done, but not all done. (Another PB reference). This means that, once I find my camera, charge it, and locate the connector cable, I will once again resume posting recipes and thoughts on the culinary mishaps in my kitchen. Until then, my apologies for the severe lack of both posts and pictures!

Happy New Year!

Dictionary lessons

Definitions

• School pride: rooting for a team that can't win a rigged homecoming football game to save itself; also, diligently draining your bank account monthly to finance the prized education while working strange campus jobs to buy your books.
• Financial Aid: A tear-jerking, nightmare of the past seven years.
• Payoff Amount: The total amount required for the loan account to be paid-in-full.
• Elation: The knowledge that I have now fully paid for my undergraduate education!

That's right, as of 9:00 am tomorrow, I will have ZERO remaining financial obligation to the Federal government for my education! This freedom will last all of about eight months, before I am thrown into potentially gallons of debt for graduate school, but I will savor this now, in the midst of the recession. This feels so good, I may have to celebrate (in a totally budget way!) Hello Salvation Armani!

Thoughts on Prop 8

When I read of Prop 8's passage in California, I was devastated to think that millions of people turned out to interfere with the romantic lives of complete strangers. As you can tell, I'm still having trouble articulating my feelings on this because I feel so passionately about it. This morning, Alex sent me this video of Keith Olbermann which captures both the intellectual and the emotional issues wound up in this devastating show of democracy. If you have 6 minutes, it's pretty interesting and heartfelt.

Talk about it at Videocracy

On this Veterans Day

Last night, Alex and I watched War, Inc., a satire about the US-led wars in the Middle East. While a somewhat farcical cross between Thank You for Smoking and Tank Girl, the movie's message was painfully serious: the corporate and political interests in these wars are inextricably linked, often to tragic and unneccessary ends for millions of innocent people. I recommend it for those willing to take a critical look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and to fans of John Cusack or Hillary Duff).
With the movie on my mind as I opened my browser this morning, I found an incredible story about the many and varied ailments Iraq War vets are facing, and the amazing courage and hope they are finding with the assistance of service dogs. These loving Laborador/Golden Retriever mixes are trained to help sense out seizures for those with brain trauma, fetch things for soldiers missing limbs, and generally calm the stress and anxiety of PTSD, a disorder vets are facing in record numbers.The article is just a step away from the important issues of veterans' benefits, insufficient medical care, and the needless injuries thousands are suffering. Reading the veterans' stories of devastating physical and emotional injuries leaves me wondering: for what gain?
While Bush is atop the USS Intrepid receiving the Freedom Award for "embodying the ideals of world freedom," it's important we take a moment to consider those veterans who are too traumatized to leave their houses for such a ceremony, and who lack the medical care they require to be able to celebrate today. We must remember them too, and the many thousands still deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan who may return broken or wounded and in need of support. On this Veterans Day, I am grateful for both the soldiers who have risked everything for their country, and for their families and friends who are working tirelessly to help make their lives more livable.