February 27, 2004 - 1:57 p.m.

The Only Kind Of Junkie I Am Likely To Be

I got the link from my friend, NJ's, blog. I did better than she did, but, then again, I am a few years older than she. Despite the length of the quiz, I enjoyed it. I kicked myself over not getting some of the answers right (I missed Peter Gabriel's "Big Time"?!?!?), but was also surprised by how many of them I remembered. Almost every one that I got correct was because the snippet of lyrics triggered the tune in my head and helped me to remember the missing words. A few, though, I got wrong even though I remembered the song, because I don't think I ever knew the particular word they were looking for. You all know the kind I am talking about - the bits of songs you'd mumble under your breath when you were singing along with the radio or belting out on the dance floor, because you didn't know what the heck they were singing. Needless to say, now I have a jumble of 80's songs stuck in my head.

I am feeling all better today. The nearly twelve hours of sleep I got certainly helped. It's really nice when I can sleep in on Fridays - the kids tend not to be as noisy on Friday mornings as they are on Saturdays and Sundays, perhaps because they are busy getting ready for school, making Friday morning my best chance to sleep in. Since I got up I have been reading my latest book, The Emperor of Ocean Park, which has had me utterly engrossed for the past week. I had to force myself to put it down about an hour ago and check my email and do my daily reading of journals and such. It's a mystery novel with political, legal, interpersonal, and academic angles, which makes it pretty complex, but still a great read. It's also one of those books in which there is a good balance between the hidden bits of plot I pick up on, and therefore get to congratulate myself for, and those that have me guessing still, even though I am about 7/8 of the way through the book.

At the same time, there are parts of the book that remind me of the gritty, grey areas of politics (on both the small scale of, in the book's case, a university, and the larger national scale), and I hate such reminders. It's not that I am in denial about the machinations that go on in any political arena, but they are usually distant enough from my life that I am able to at least ignore them for the most part. I haven't quite been able to come to grips with the fact that every politician, in order to achieve an iota of success, must be adept at semiotics, deflection, and manipulation. These are not qualities I admire, which is why I cannot see myself ever getting very excited about a politcal candidate. For me, every election is a case of choosing the candidate whose policies, I think, are best for the country (though there are certain to be many policies with which I disagree), not the person I most admire. I think I am pretty much incapable of admiring a politician, or at least one who has any shot at winning anything. That's why I find election season somewhat depressing. I know that the candidates must hedge, spin, and backtrack, since it is part of their job to please as many people as possible, so I do not entirely blame the politicians themselves, but I still find such tactics distasteful. It also makes me feel that the entire process is, to some degree, futile, since there never seems any guarantee that the hopeful I finally choose to vote for, will, once in office if he/she wins, stick to the platform items on which I based my vote. Argh. Still, I am one of those people that feels an obligation to vote. And the optimist in me is still able to hope that, if my chosen candidate wins, some policies may change for the better, but the realist in me can't help piping up with the reminder that others will probably be changed for the worse.

Ah well, depressing political tirade over. :) It's getting late, and I haven's even showered yet, much less figured out what to do for lunch.

�

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