WASHINGTON — In another unnerving day for Wall Street, investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001, and government officials raced to prevent the financial crisis from spreading.

Lehman Brothers tanked on Sunday night with employees scrambling throughout the building to gather their belongings in fear that, come Monday, the doors would be shut. They were.

Merrill Lynch was purchased by Bank of America at pennies on the dollar (approx $50bil which, if you know Merrill Lynch, was an act of desperation at best).

Yesterday, AIGs stock dropped nearly 60%. AIG is one of the largest investment firms in the United States. Rather, it WAS. Unless they can come up wtih $75BILLION IN BAIL OUT MONEY BY TOMORROW. And the White House is saying “thanks but no thanks” to a federal bail out. The government is broke. Aaaahhhh…weapons of mass destruction. I’m so glad we found them.

This recession brought to you by Conservative Ideology...and the letter “W”.

I have never in my life been so glad to have a job. It makes me work harder, more efficiently and frankly, with a great deal more fear.

Colorado is a swing state this year. First time in many many elections that has been the case. We have traditionally been RED. And God, I hope we go BLUE this year. I think we stand a fair chance at that, but it’s going to take some good hard work on the part of Obama/Biden supporters. It’s going to take more-than-adequate research from all of us to be able to back up Obama and refute McCain (and that jokester, Palin).

So far, it’s incredibly difficult though. I’m trying my hardest to convince a couple specific people to re-consider their McCain support. I’m just asking for people to look simply at the facts. What’s hard is that people’s emotions get invovled…and I really don’t know why. FEELING like something is right almost never actually MAKES it right. You have got to remove emotions from the equation.

What I’m really getting tired of is people playing the Experience Card. You just can’t do that with this election. You really can’t. Because if you look at it that way, Biden is the only person really EXPERIENCED enough to run the country. And with that not being an option (because he’s not “a heartbeat away from the presidency”), you have to remove that card from the deck.

But just for kicks, let’s look at the various credentials surrounding our candidates:

BARACK OBAMA: Graduated from Columbia University (after transferring from Occidental College) with a degree in political science (emphasis in international relations). After working in Chicago as a community organizer, he studied law at Harvard University where he was the first black man (or man of color for that matter) to be president of the Harvard Law Review. He then taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law for twelve years while working at a law firm specializing in civil rights. From 1997 to 2004, Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate. In 2004, he was elected to the US Senate.

JOE BIDEN – Graduated from University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science. Continued to Syracuse Law School and graduated in 1969. Biden has been a US Senator since 1973 and has consistenly been named one of the least wealthy members of the Senate.

JOHN McCAIN – Graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1958 and went on to serve in the Vietnam War. First elected to the US Senate in January 1987. McCain was later on a list of potential running mates for Bush, Sr. in 1988.

SARAH PALIN – Enrolledat Hawaii Pacific College in 1982 (for one semester). Transferred to North Idaho College in 1983, then to University of Idaho, then to Matanuska-Sustina College (for one semester), then back to University of Idaho to complete her degree in communications-journalism in 1987. Won the Miss Wasilla pageant in 1984 and was 3rd place in Miss Alaska pageant where she won a college scholarship. In 1988, Palin was a sports reporter in Alaska. She was elected to Wasilla city council in 1992 and 1995. Was mayor of Wasilla from 1996-2002 and was elected Governor of AK in 2006.

Notice that neither of the Republican candidates every studied law or political science (something that, in my estimation, is crucial learning for a role in national politics).

Again, all I really ask is that you really weigh what is important to you in this election. Is it abortion rights? Gun control policies? Foreign affairs? Education? Equal pay for equal work? Raising minimum wage? The war in Iraq? Terrorism in general? Taxes? Universal health care? Immigration (legal or otherwise)?

Consider what you hold important to you. Consider which candidate falls in line the BEST with what you believe will be the best choices for the country.

But please….don’t just blindly choose a candidate for the reason of “BECAUSE” or “I’ve ALWAYS been with this party!” Consider that maybe, this time around, the unexpected might be just what we need. Consider the possibility of NOT having another old white guy in the Oval Office. Consider that maybe, just MAYBE, the country can be better, be more, than what we’ve come to expect.

Simply, consider.

Our Bible study has begun again. This time ’round, we’re studying the Corinthian letters and so far, it’s proving interesting.

I think the big lesson from last night was summed up in one word: RESPECT.

With the election coming up quickly, it’s funny to watch how people often try to tie both politics and religion together when, to me, they’re mutually exclusive (for more on this, ask Todd about his thoughts regarding a country that is a democracy vs. one that is a theocracy).

Gabe brought up an interesting comparison after we briefly discussed the validity of religions worldwide and even the varying sects of Christianity itself. In all of us, we have the desire, nay, compulsion, to believe in something, anything. And when we find that something, we hold it very dear to ourselves and it becomes part of who we are, part of our very fiber. But I wonder if maybe there aren’t some laurels that we hold too tightly to sometimes?

The best example I can think of, for myself, is that of creation. Genesis 1 uses the terms “day and night” to separate out what was created and when. Some people interpret that to mean “7 literal days” while others think it means “7 time periods”.

Then there are those, like myself, who simply don’t care. I believe that God created the universe, but I don’t know how (though science is ready and willing to try to figure it out), I don’t know when and I don’t know how long it took. It’s a big place, the universe. To steal a line from a movie, “Begging your pardon, sir, but that’s a big ass sky.”

It’s true. It’s huge. But I really just don’t care how long it took. I don’t. It’s not something I care to discuss and it’s not a hill I’m going to die on. Because at the end of the day, that one talking point is not something that I call up as part of my spiritual fiber.

I just think that sometimes, all these varying sects of Christianity get so caught up in the insignificant details that we forget what the point is. I think one of my new favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 1:10-12.

Here’s what I took from that. I love love love the Broncos. I’m a Denver native and have always been a Broncos fan. I was born into that. It’s almost default. But I also really like Peyton and Eli Manning. Sometimes I like Tom Brady (mostly just when he’s on SNL though) and I most assuredly will keep up with John Lynch (sadly, no longer a Bronco). Everything that those four guys do impacts my team in some way, at some point.

I’m a Christian. Always have been. I was born into that. It’s almost default. Don’t get me wrong…I made that very important decision many many years ago, but it was also how I was raised. But in the recent past (maybe the last 6 or 7 years), I’m coming to realize that religions the world over are valuable and important. I wish I could be as peaceful and centered as the Buddhists. I wish that I had the dedication and fervor of the Muslims. I wish that more families held true the family values of the Mormons. I wish that I could commune with God the ways the Hindus can. I love and admire the longevity of the Jewish faith (it is where mine spawned from, after all).

All of these things are valuable. All these things are important.

And so I choose to learn about them. Not so that I can BECOME one of any of the multitudinous religions worldwide, but so that I can learn to respect them more.

There’s a sign on my campus that says “If we all spoke another language, the world would be less divided.”

I say, if we all understood and respected other religions and faiths, the world would be more peaceful, more constructive, more….shalom….

I’ve gotten the urge to travel again. Ergh. I have to wait until next March at the earliest to go somewhere uber-exotic.
So to quench my thirst for travel, I’m making a list of all the places that I want to go…again.

United States
Alaska (we’ll be heading there next August)
California
San Diego
San Fransisco
Colorado (yes I know I live here)
Vail
Telluride
back to the western slope
Flordia
Orlando (Disney)
Miami & the Keys
Hawaii
Illinois
Chicago
Kentucky
for the derby (Todd says we’ll go some year for my bday since it’s around that time)
Maine
Montana
isn’t that where Yellowstone is?
New Mexico for some skiing
New York
North & South Carolina
Hilton Head, specifically
Oregon
Seaside
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh to see grandma
Philadelphia
Texas
I’ve heard Austin is pretty nuts
Vermont for the skiing
Washington
Seattle
D.C.

Elsewhere in the world
Vancouver
Toronto
Banff/Lake Louise
Montreal
Cancun
Much of South America
England
France
Space
Italy
Germany
Ireland
Scotland
Switzerland
China
Japan (woot!)
Thailand
Singapore
Australia / New Zealand
Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls)
India
Morocco
Egypt
Russia

I need a freaking 12-step program.

I’m trying really hard to understand the RNC right now.

I’m watching all the speeches with as much fervor as I did the DNC. In order to make educated, informed decisions, I feel it’s more than necessary that I do.

But all the speeches have been about McCain’s military trauma and I’m trying to understand why they’re only telling me about THAT and not about any of his policies or ideas.

I also would love to know why there’s such grand and glorious hypocrisy regarding Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. Isn’t it funny that Bill O’Reilly took Jamie Lynn Spears and ran her through the ringer, tearing her (and her family) up one side and down the other, and yet with Bristol Palin (equally as young and irresponsible) is “off limits”? Why?

And then there’s the whole “we never did this to Chelsea Clinton” line, which is a load of crap.

Frankly, I’m with Obama on this one (and on many other things)….let’s go ahead and leave the kids out of this whole politics thing. It’s not fair. They’re easy targets. And really…name me one family that doesn’t have something really jacked up going on…

Let’s focus instead on the real issues….policies, procedures and political history….Sarah Palin’s is one to be reconned with. And not in the best ways.

Oh man.
I bought a new vacuum at lunch today and it. is. a. ma. zing.
It’s *almost* as good as the Dyson that I really want, but was only $75 rather than $400. I’ll take it!

I got it home, put it together and used the crap out of it! Gross as it may be, you’d be SHOCKED at how much dog hair and miscellaneous nasty that sucker…sucked. It’s the greatest vacuum I’ve ever had.

I mostly hate, abhor and loathe housework (which should be shocking to none and disappointing to Todd haha)*, but having this wonderful new vacuum makes me want to clean clean clean! If only I had more carpet in the house!!

I also managed to pack up one entire set of dishes, two-thirds of our glasses and most of our service-ware this evening and it was glorious! I think the Suk-ster was a little confused when I was packing up the kitchen…she kept pacing about around me and looking at me like I was totally nuts. Poor puppy! Oh well…at least I can rest assured that she will love her new house a whole bunch!…as soon as we can get her up 3 flights of stairs. She hates stairs…but she loves TREATS! This is going to be so easy. She’s a smart one, but man is she a sucker for treats.

Anyway, I love my new vacuum.

Now back to watching the RNC.

*The truth is, if I had more time in my day, I’d clean like a crazy-head.

Two days of being downtown for all the DNC madness has caught up with me.

I have a political hangover.

Monday, Todd and I went downtown to see what all the talk was about and it was surprisingly uneventful. The only pictures we took we of the multitudes of cops in riot gear. Cops on bikes. Cops on motorcycles. Klingon cops. Cops cops cops! With all the money and time spent on security, it would almost be a shame if something DIDN’T happen. Not that I want something to happen. There have been plenty of protestor arrests so whatever.

The most exciting thing to come of Monday night happened while sitting at Chili’s at 16th & Champa. Just enjoying our two-for-one margs and beers and chowing on chips and salsa and along comes James Carville! No security, no entourage, no briefcase, not even DNC lanyards. Just Carville in his sport coat and shiny red Asics. Woo hoo! HE cemented himself in my mind as “coolest old guy alive” when someone yelled “Oh my god! James Carville!” and he responded with a fist in the air and a solid “YEAH!” and kept on walkin’. He was on a mission to get somewhere, which I found amusing.

Monday was supposed to be the only day we went downtown, but with public transit so cheap and accessible and history being made 2 miles from our house, we couldn’t keep ourselves away.

So we went again last night. There were substantially more crazies out than on Monday, but last night was also Bill Clinton’s speech and Joe Biden’s (woo hoo!) acceptance speech, so crazies in droves was to be expected. Right when we stepped off the bus, we saw a band of people walking down 16th Street Mall shouting “Jesus is my gay friend! He can be yours too!” complete with signage. The statement made no sense to me and wasn’t protesting anything so we were all kind of curious what their point was. I dunno.

Then there was the chick selling Obama action figures (which Kelly went back to buy later) whom our friend, Steph, took a photo of earlier this week. We gave her Steph’s blog address so she could check herself out…she was pretty excited that someone blogged her haha!

There was a TON of Obama / DNC schwag to be had last night, but all of it was wickedly overpriced. $15 for an Obama/Biden car magnet?!? Sure I want one, but I don’t really want to drop that much on a friggin’ magnet. Oh well. I do still have my BARACK THE VOTE t-shirt which will be fun to wear to work, I’m sure. :o) Gabe saw some dudes selling light-up DNC t-shirts that he so wanted to buy, but they were $30. No way!

We made our way to Chili’s for 2-for-1 margs and beers and some chips and queso while we watched Biden’s acceptance speech, which was very very good and inspiring. We were all clapping and hootin’ and hollerin’ during the speech, which was just fun! At one point, Heather started chanting “Hillary! Hillary!” and a guy sitting next to our table leaned over and kindly said, “Get over it, honey.” to which we all fell apart laughing. I think the end of Biden’s speech was my favorite when his wife, Jill, came up on stage to congratulate him and tell him she had a surprise for him. He said, “What?” and that’s when Obama walked out on stage and all of Denver erupted in cheers and “woo!”-ing and Biden had a look of glorious shock on his face…we were all dying laughing!

Oh and by the way, Obama was (is?) staying at the Westin downtown so we marched over there and actually got pictures of his motorcade! It was so cool! There were a bazillion demostrators outside the hotel with bullhorns and what not so we stayed pretty far away from that, lest we get arrested when Obama came out the hotel (just kidding…it was all pretty chill), but oh my damn it was so cool seeing a motorcade like that! There were at least a dozen vehicles hauling it over to the Pepsi Center so who knows which car he was in, but it was rad nonetheless.

Heather and I watched “roll call” on TV yesterday and both got shivery and teary when Hillary suggested that the entirety of the democratic votes go to Obama and to stop wasting time, nominate their candidate and get going on this! It was so exciting! Obama’s mother was in the audience and she was a mess of tears. I guess until I saw that, I never put in perspective the fact that Barack Obama is somebody’s KID…I mean, how many people’s kids get to run for and/or BE President?! Not many. I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s feeling.

So now I have political hangover and am a bit sad that the Pepsi Center is all de-DNC’d. I’m jealous that some of our friends are going to be at the speech tonight. Megan and I are having “girls night” while we watch her husband be at the speech so that should be a good time.

History in the making, folks!

I hate computers. We actually have a love/hate relationship. I love having a computer. I hate working with them. Something always goes wrong or blows up or stops working or works w-a-y to slowly or runs out of space or a myriad of other shit. I hate dealing with computers.

My current computer is a lovely little Dell laptop that I bought with my own money about 3 years ago. I needed one when I went back to school so I jumped on Dell’s website and found one that was about $600 and had all the things I (thought I) needed…CD drive, wireless card (I was stealing wireless at that point), internal modem and USB ports. That’s all I thought I needed. It seemed like a great deal and I paid for it outright rather than in installments (I try to pay in full whenever I can which, other than my car, I have done every time).

But over time, my poor little Dell started giving out. It started running kind of slowly or the modem didn’t work when I needed it to (hard to search for jobs or register for classes online when the online portion of your computer starts crapping out). I would get frustrated and slam the book shut and try to walk away without freaking out more. Then I started running low on memory so I transferred all my photos to online storage sites and to CD (which really isn’t a bad thing to do anyway if you’re a photo freak like me). More recently, it’s just proving to not be the laptop I need anymore. It’s great and works fine and if you want to buy it from me for dirt cheap and do little more than word processing, surfing the ‘net, and fiddling with photos, then let’s chat. haha!

The other week, Todd came home and told me he’d almost bought me a “prize” (see previous Cracker Jack post) and that it was going to be a new laptop. Megan just got Paul a new one as he is in dire need of one for his job. She got a screaming deal on it so Todd took a look at it and nearly bought it. But with careful consideration, he figured that a “prize” of that nature (and price) should be discussed with me first. So we talked and I was probably more flippant about it than he was. My computer seems to be fine for now, but Todd is a computer geek so he’s been pretty adamant about getting me a computer that I will “luuuuuuuuuurve” and have for always and will be eveyrthing that I’m dreaming of and more. I mostly couldn’t care less.

Today, he sent me the link to this rad Toshiba (the one that Megan got for Paul) and I looked at it and saw that it was good. But I’m a Dell girl so I went to their site and found one that was comparable to the Toshiba but was PINK!! Gads! Could it be true? Was I going to have my cake and eat it too?

No.

That laptop apparently had less memory so it wouldn’t be worth it. And did I really just like it better because it was pink?

Yes. So I told Todd that he’d be the final call on the laptop selection. Boring Toshiba with more memory or rad pink Dell with less memory.

“Wait a second!” he exclaimed!
Dell Outlet has a Flamingo Pink Inspiron with even MORE memory than the Toshiba (250GB, y’all!) for less money than the Toshiba.

OMG! It’s true! I was going to have my cake, in the color and flavor I wanted, and get to eat it too!

So purchase my new “lappy” Todd did.
Holy wads. I have a pink laptop.
250GB
CD+DVD writer
6lbs (gads! that’s the weight of a Zack Morris Phone!)
and all kinds of other specs that make it awesome enough for Todd to approve of the pink lapster.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

So we’re essentially approved for the new rad pad (that is what I’ll be calling it from now on) so it’s time to get packin’!

Yes, it’s SIX WEEKS from our move date, but because I hate packing that much, I have to be very systematic with how I do this stuff. So we have one week for each room of the house, which will hopefully help with the insanity. We’re making every attempt to get rid of any misc. crap that we possibly can via donations, recycling, throwing away or selling. So far on the auction block are a futon (that my parents may or may not want), Todd’s desktop computer and our office desk. I have at least 7 bags/purses that I’m giving away and I may give away some misc. luggage. The funniest part of all of this, so far, is that there is at least $150 we have to spend in order to get all this crap squared away. We need a new vacuum and some more storage bins to tidy up all the crap that we have and are keeping.

When we first got married, we bought a dinky little vacuum because a) we have a small house with mostly hardwood floors and b) we had no pets. Now that we’ll have all carpet and we have two puppies, a decent vacuum is in order. If Gabe reads this, we will gladly baby sit your Dyson after you move until we move hahaha! And we also need a vacuum with hoses on it so that we can effectively use our “space bags” which are going to come in wicked handy during the move for all our clothings and beddings. Awesome! I can’t wait to use those things! I frickin’ LOVE space bags and Hercules Hooks! hahaha! I’m such a dork for “as seen on TV” crap!

In other news, I’m fairly certain that my in-laws were hoping we wouldn’t be able to take the dogs with us to the new house so that they could adopt Suki from us hahaha! Just kidding! I just know that they love love love that little weirdo!

So if you’re in the mood to pack someone else’s crap, you feel free to come on over at any time haha! just kidding…sort of.

My newest professor at Metro is kind of a moron. I’m in a journalism class this fall, which is quickly turning into a hybrid of editing and 10th-grade spelling/grammar. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I’m going to start writing down all the dippity-do-head things I hear in class so that I can share them. Here are last night’s selections:

1. The prof kept saying CONSTANANT instead of CONSONANT. Are you f-ing kidding me?!

2. When asked by a student about how to notate time in journalism, professor said that everything is notated numerically except “noon” and “midnight” rather than 12am or 12pm. One of my classmates said, “Haha! That’s because no one knows which is which!” WHAT?!?!

3. During out “spelling class” section of the evening, we had to choose which of the following words was correct: paniced / panicked. Obviously it’s the second one. Prof says, “I’m not sure why the “k”…it probably just came over from England.” Umm actually it’s because of a VERY basic spelling & pronunciation rule: When “c” is followed by ANY vowel, it gives the “c” a soft “s” sound. In order to get the hard “c” sound you have to follow the “c” with a “k”. Good Lord.

4. Finally, she said that something in the newspaper “stook” out to her. That’s not a word, just FYI.

This class is going to be fuuuuuun!!!

That’s right, folks.

Todd and I have HAD IT with our current house so we’re moving. Woo hoo! We looked at moving into another house with a yard, but after all the drama with our yard right now, we’re just not interested in it. And we’re also not interested in dealing with a private landlord again. We’d much rather deal with a company whose business is that of managing property. If something breaks, I want it fixed stat. I don’t ever want to have to wait 5-6 days to have my heat fixed in the winter. Absolutely not. I don’t want to be bitched at when the lawn looks like crap even though we’ve called time and time again re: the lawnmower being broken. Todd doesn’t want to shovel that much snow again. Ever. If you’ve seen our house and its lot, you’ll understand why. He was responsible for shoveling nearly an entire block worth of sidewalk. Totally nuts.

So upon approval of our application, we’ll be moving into Jefferson at Arvada Ridge.
This place is absolutely smashing and has all the amenities we want and even some we weren’t expecting (like a 24hour pool in the summer and a 24hour hot tub year-round…and they’ll be putting in a fire pit soon-ish). Yeah, the rent is higher, but like I told my mom, I’d too old and too professional to be having to deal with BS. I want what I want and I’m willing (and able) to pay for it.

We’re even probably going to hire movers since we’ll be living on the top floor (woo hoo!) and I have no desire to haul furniture up that many flights and I really don’t want to have to ask our friends to do that for us. No no. This time, we get movers.

I think this is quite possibly the ONLY time I’ve ever been excited about moving. Okay, yes, I was excited to move into our current place, but that’s because I was moving in with the Todd-meister and that in itself was exciting! But never in my life have I not dreaded having to pack and move. Blechth. I hate it. Fire-of-a-thousand-suns hate it. Most of you know that.

This is going to be awesome.
Awesome to have a kitchen island.
Even more awesome to have a dishwasher.
Awesome to not have to pay $200+ for heat in the winter.
Awesome to not have to shovel snow or mow the lawn.
Awesome to have a view of the mountains and THE perfect spot for fireworks.
Awesome to have a pool and gym thrown in for free.
Awesome to have a “big kid” bathroom that won’t drive Todd nutso-bonkers.
Awesome to have TWO walk-in closets.
Awesome to have a linen closet and a real pantry.
Awesome to have same-floor laundry.
Awesome to have a fireplace.
Awesome.