Now I am Many

The dog refuses to sleep. I'm so fucking tired, but I fear going to bed because it might wake David up who has to be up in 3.5 hours. Fuck this and the dog's vocal chords.

David and I have Peace Corps interviews on Thursday.  This will probably be the longest process we ever go through.  I just want to be sent somewhere, like 2 months from now would be good.

It's been a while since updates have happened, and I'm in the mood to not do work at the moment.  So I thought I would write down why I'm now married.  David Ramsey has been someone I've adored and admired for a long time.  He's kind, patient, and knows how to hold his tongue when doing so is appropriate.  I've known him for several years in the context of acquaintance, fling, friend, and my love.  We have only been officially dating for 8 months, and lived together for just 2 months, but I can't imagine having a better partner.  The elopement came about do to a conversation, and a means to fulfill a goal of mine.  No marriage was not the goal I had, but the Peace Corps.  I never thought I could both have love and companion whom would allow this goal to happen.  I had always assumed that I would either have to choose, or naturally be single at the time.  Then David told me he was interested in the Peace Corps to learn how other people in the world live, and to learn a new language.  He knows he has skills to give back to the world, as do I.  I told him in order to be deployed together we would have to be married, and asked him to marry me.  We chose to just go to a judge and wed without telling many people (I broke down and told some people). 

I am someone who loves to explore the communities that exist.  I would say I love to help, but it is far more selfish than that because every time I get involved in a service project I end up receiving more benefits from it than I could ever hope to give back.  I never experienced a community better than in my volunteer experiences.  I know the good that exists in the poverty of the United States along with the negativity.  I know the joy, chaos, wisdom, and destruction that poverty brings to people in America's ghetto's and slums.  People face different challenges depending on what they have and do not have, but emotions and personal interaction vary very little.  Everyone seeks out human comfort, manipulates, gives, and takes.  When money is hard to come by and education is lacking in the U.S.  this can lead to petty crime, addiction and despair, but for those that hope, love, and give, their lives can be richer than the wealthiest of those in the United States.  It is true for anyone of any social class, or background.  Those that give as much as they take from the world tend to feel more fulfilled and content.  I see this every day.  I am not rich, and in fact some people would call me poor at the moment, but this is merely a comparison of who has more stuff.  If I was to do a comparison of how rich my life is in friendship, experience, and love I might be one of the richest people in the world.  David Ramsey adds so much to the richness of my life, and if we do not get accepted to the Peace Corps, I am sure that my life will still be filled with service, love, hardships, and joy.  I can not imagine that David will detract from the experiences of my life.  If we do get accepted to the Peace Corps it can only strengthen our relationship further.  Experiencing something together that none of our peers have experienced will create a stronger bond.  We may find, just like in all of my service experiences, we end up receiving just as much out of the service as those that we are serving.

I apologize if any of this is sappy.

Genevieve

Hey.  I just wanted to tell everyone that I am married, and totally stoked and excite about it.  David Ramsey is my most favorite human on earth, and now he is my husband.  I'll probably post more about why we eloped later, but I'm too tired for all that.

David will be in Ohio on Tuesday.  I will see him Wednesday.  This excites me.  My old/roommate does not move back into the apartment until next Sunday.  I thought spending the weekend with my family would be good, but all anyone can talk about is the assets they have lost.  Now I feel bad for my Aunt and Uncle who have educations and can not find work, but I do not feel bad about my grandma's lost assets.  Now maybe I should feel bad about this, and it is affecting me to a degree.  My grandma is dropping me from the phone plan, and getting financial assistance from them, but I never received much in the first place. 

I'm nervous.  The apartment I really want is only 350 dollars a month and I'm sure that I can pay for it fine even on my own if I had too.    Wish me luck on that apartment....I really want it.

Christmas is going to be non-existent this year and the days of extreme celebration will be over.  I guess this is just the way life is going to be from now on.  I need a hug!

I do think my life is going to be awesome here real soon though.  My family just bums me out sometimes.

There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal about Sarah Palin and the movement of populism in the republican party.  It was very well written and for those of you who include yourself in the educated elite I highly recommend reading it.  The man kind of wrote it with disdain for the populists which I don't really like, but I do think it's interesting because it reflects the current divide between Democrats and Republicans.  I think to truly have 2 parties that we do need to concentrate on the differences between the parties ideologies not the rhetoric being spun by either side.  The truth is Bill Clinton was a NAFTA supporter and welfare reformer both follow Republican ideals, one for fare trade the other to move away from "redistribution of wealth", and Reagan changed the tax code to give the poor more money (although as the trickle down man I still don't like him).  The reason that the educated elite are fans of the Democratic party now is because they still pay attention to what the educated elite has to say about the world. 

Republicans did well with the shift to the "everyman's party" but it unraveled this past election.  Democrats have similar ideals as republicans did at the height of the Democrat rule when Nixon was running for office.  Democrats now have to play to the fact that most people want what Republican's offer in low taxes and controlling excess government spending (because no one can disagree with excess, just about what is excess).  The two parties still differ greatly in how they wage wars, and in social issues.  Our campaigns for poitical offices have become more about how a candidate feels about abortion, gun rights, and same sex marriage rather than if they believe in more or less federal power, free trade issues, and if they would be an effective commander in cheif.  That is until this past election when suddenly the big issues that really matter  which a president has influence over became the main discussion, and a Democrat won.  Had this been a year when everything was going well in government the anti-choice (pro-life) NRA card carrying rural Christians may have won the election.  Thank goodness they didn't!

For the first time in 8 years I am proud to be born in the United States of America.  I am proud of my country and how excited the citizens of this country became to cast ballot's for president and for congressional and senate leaders.  I am proud. 

Except one sticky issue in California....

Proposition Eight!

I can't figure out what is going on with it.

Alright I'm done

OHIO DIDN'T FUCK UP

Sometimes my ability to get facts wrong about cultural references is astounding.  Part of the problem is that I don't remember titles to things so sometimes I get things mixed up.....realizing you mixed two things up months after getting it wrong and getting titles mixed up multiple times of completely unrelated movies is so embarrassing.  No I won't tell you what I mixed up and if you figure out don't tell anyone.  I will never speak of this again.

Hey everyone.  I just discovered http://www.fivethirtyeight.com and according to stats guru Nate Silver, Obama has a 96.7% chance to win this election.  Now the distribution of this information is not in a perfect bell curve, but lets assume it is.  That means that within two standard deviations that Obama is likely to win the election.  I would be vary vary weary and look closely at the states he loses in if he loses this election.  It isn't impossible for McCain to win at this point, but if he does I will suspect voter fraud on a large scale.  I'm just saying 96.7% that's a freaking big EDIT: Deal not lead he's only leading by around a 7.84% popular vote.  I'm not so silly to think he has that kind of lead, but with a histogram of all of the polls recorded Obama has that much of a chance to win the electorate vote END EDIT.  Oh yeah and Obama has an 87% chance at winning Ohio, he only has a 57% chance at winning Missouri.  These two states historically always go with the winner.  Missouri even more so than Ohio.  McCain is likely to take Indiana and West Virginia, but for the first time since 12 years ago voters might actually make a wise decision.  What is most amazing about this is that the white people are being polled to support McCain 53% of the time.  That means that this election is actually being decided by minorities.  That is so cool.  Maybe we actually do have a democracy where everyone matters.   May this election be the end of white male supremacy.  Let us move towards equality, and let us hope that if Obama is elected that he does a good job with the awful situation that currently exists.

Genevieve