I got tears in my eyes as I watched the news tonight, announcing that Barack Obama has officially won the 2008 Presidential Election. With the state our country has been in, I can’t help but feel a giant wash of relief over the outcome.

I was absolutely terrified of what could have been if McCain/Palin had won the election. I wasn’t as against McCain as I was Palin-I shudder to think of what that woman would have done being that close to being Commander in Chief. I think it would have made the last 8 years look mellow and carefree by comparison. But thankfully we can rest easy, knowing that we don’t have to worry about that crazy evangelist getting any more power than she already has.

And now, it is time to celebrate. Crack open the bubbly, uncork the wine, because we finally have a true leader!!

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Technorati Tags: 2008 election, election results, obama

The Presidential Election has been a big topic of conversation lately, and probably the first election I’ve been following in the news regularly. Part of that is my age, and the fact that I’m realizing that politics do affect me on a personal level. Also, I’m sick of our current administration, and more than ready for a change.
I watched the Vice Presidential Debate on Thursday night, and my ears perked up when Biden discussed healthcare. Daniel Neumeister, a fellow blogger, and a healthcare professional, talks about the long waits in the ER, and how bad healthcare has become.

Republican ticket McCain/Palin are proposing a healthcare plan that calls for dregulation. Deregulation is one of the main reasons for all the problems we’ve been having on wall street. I cringed when this idea was brought up, and it cemented my belief that McCain and Palin are not out for the middle class worker. They’re all about tax cuts for the wealthy, and taxes for the middle/lower class. And if McCain/Palin get into office, I’m going to have a heart attack…and be waiting in the long lines at the ER. Dan Quayle has a great quote that i think really speaks to Palin:

“People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.”

Technorati Tags: deregulation, health care, mccain, obama, palin

It is no secret that the economy has been in turmoil lately. Before this big bailout mess, I will confess I was pretty ignorant about most thing stock market related. I don’t have stocks, so I thought, ok how does this affect me? Then I thought about my 401K, and yes, of course it affects me. Maybe not as immediately as some but it does. Then when well known banks started failing, I got worried.

Luckily for me, my job is intact. I don’t have to worry about my company being bought out by a larger company. I stumbled across a blog by Dennis Carey that got me thinking. Mr Carey on the human capital of a deal, talks about when companies merge to make a big profit, forgetting how it will affect employees. Sometimes I think big investors forget that the their employees are what make a company. If they feel neglected, like Carey said, they’re going to take their stocks, and jump ship.

Technorati Tags: bailout, capital, economy, jobs

As some of you may know, in the last few months I have literally become obsessed with the Twilight books. I bought the first three, and I pre-ordered the fourth and last of the series. For those of you who don’t know, the Twilight Series is about a young girl who falls in love with a vampire. It sounds kind of cheesy but these books are beautifully written. The way Stephanie Meyer describes Edward makes you fall in love with him. Each book has left me hanging, and I’m anxiously awaiting the final book in the series. I can’t tell you what the cliffhanger is, but I’m just hoping it happens, that’s all I’m gonna say. My good friend Crystal knows what I’m talking about. She got me hooked on this series and from opposite ends of the country we’ve been reading the books together and talking about them. They’re making a movie this December about the first book, and I can’t wait to see it! I think they did a great job of capturing the characters the way they were described in the books. Poor Pickle is going to get dragged to the theatre. He’s a lot like Edward in the fact that he says romantic things and he’s sweet to me. He teases me all the time about my vampire obsession but I don’t care. Check out this series and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Humina. That’s all I’m gonna say. Humminahhhh.

The fires here in California are slowly killing me. It has put a huge snag in my workouts too. As some of you know, I’m training for my marathon with team in training and running has become a big problem. They’ve even canceled some of our training sessions and have told us all to stay indoors. And let me tell you, staying inside all day and all night is making me crazy. I’m not an inside person and it’s summer! I should be out using my pool floats and sunbathing instead of holing up inside trying to take in clean air. I want to go hiking and play outside on the beach. When I look outside it looks like the sky is overcast but it’s a thick layer of smoke. I don’t know how people live in polluted cities but I’m guessing its similar to this. Thank god the boy and I are going on a road trip to Oregon soon. Nothing like going home for some clean sea breeze to get the lungs right. Hopefully this smoke will clear out or Mom and Pops just might have a couple of temporary residents for the summer!

So they say right now it’s a buyer’s market for houses. I’ve been looking at houses like a 12 year old boy looks at his first playboy. I scan through the listings hungrily, and I daydream about what my first house is going to be like. I think what excites me the most is the chance to fix it up. I’ve always wanted to go on one of those home improvement shows they have on the Discovery Channel. Have you seen those crazy new sinks they have? They have farmhouse sinks and vessel sinks that look pretty snazzy. I don’t know if I’d be able to afford those kinds of improvements right away, but even being able to paint would be nice. I can’t wait to get out of apartment living and into something I can call my own!

Finally the primaries are done and the democratic party has a candidate. I was jumping around my living room for joy when I heard the news. GO OBAMA!!! I am so so so ready for a change. I am not going to preach, all I am going to say is I can’t wait for change. I can feel it in the air. “It is our time to offer a new direction for this country that we love. This was the moment, this was the time that we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.” Whenever he speaks I get goosebumps, I get PUMPED. I just hope that America is ready for change because I know I am.

My best friend and I have decided its time to get into shape. We wanted to sign up for the Nike Women’s Marathon but it’s sold out to the public. Then we heard about Team in Training. It’s basically a fund raising program that helps raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research. In exchange for us helping to raise funds, TNT basically whoops our butts into shape. We’re going to be working out six days a week, a few days on our own, and then the rest of the time with team members and coaches. I am really excited to get in shape, but at the same time I’m excited to support a good cause. Check out the website they gave me to help raise funds. Team in Training is all over the US so check them out! I will be running the Nike Half Marathon in October, and I’m stoked to get started.

I have always been an advocate for drinking tap water. My reasoning is because tap water has to be tested all the time, whereas bottled water doesn’t have to go through as much testing. This is my belief anyways. So I have a brita filter to help with the chlorine taste and I figure I’m good. Well, I got my bubble burst today when I read this article in the New York Times. There are drugs in the drinking water? You’ve gotta be kidding me! And my brita filter doesn’t protect against it. Worse yet, it’s in the bottled water too. The drugs are in small doses, but it makes me wonder: are our kids going to suffer some crazy developmental effects from all of these drugs? Or are we going to have weird mutant cancer when we’re in our 80s? It explains some of the wacky people I see when I’m out and about town. It’s something in the water…