Thursday, November 18, 2004

Do I look like a chimp?!

I just came back from a dental cleaning. My dentist's office is pretty schmancy, and their newest update is a computer screen in front of each patient's chair, on which they show videos, movies and the like. While my hygenist was getting ready, she decided to show me a short video about proper brushing techniques, starring Kirby the Chimpanzee. Kirby (decked out in overalls and a checkered shirt) is very concerned about his dental health, so much so that he tours the land showing other chimpanzees how to brush properly.

Unfortunately, the chimp actor playing Kirby was just not that convincing. At one point he squirted toothpaste all over the counter instead of onto his toothbrush; at another, he drooled on the floor. I'm sure his trainer, clearly visible in the corner of the screen, was a bit disappointed with his performance.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004

There are only more questions

It's so frustrating to know that I'll never know everything about everything I see or hear. This morning I passed a car crash, and I'll never know how the crash happened, whose fault it was or who, if anyone, was hurt. This weekend there was a drive-by shooting a block away from the party I was at, and I'll never know who instigated the shooting or why.

And then there was this car that I drove alongside a little while back. It was an old, rusted blue Chevy filled to the brim with the driver's possessions -- clearly he was moving. New Jersey license plates, a yellow ribbon "Support Our Troops" sticker, and bullet holes all along the driver's side. And then, in the back.... a kitten. Just this tiny gray thing walking back and forth across the top of the back seat.

It absolutely kills me that I'll never know why there were bullet holes in the side of the car or how that kitten fared.

I sit here

...copy-editing the text appearing at the bottom of the "Monday Night Football" broadcast ("Why on earth did they capitalize the word 'sack' just then?"). Is this the very definition of anomie? No, because I haven't yet become alienated from my professional ideals so much as I've transferred them onto a new, hapless target. But it is the definition of a very, very small existence.
Thursday, November 11, 2004

Double chin, hold the cheekbones

Today I'm off to get my passport photo taken. I'd rather be getting a pap smear. A brief rundown of my three previous passport photo installments:

1. Meaghan circa 1975. The post-cute toddler era. I'm sporting a "two hours ago I had gum in my hair" haircut and am wearing some sort of Russian peasant baby garb -- drab, one piece, with drool all over the front.

2. Meaghan circa 1985. The tomboy era. I'm wearing an oversized Red Sox T-shirt and my hair is straight, flat and tangled. My eyebrows are huge and my skin looks green for some reason. I'm not smiling, but rather staring slack-jawed at some faraway spot above the camera.

3. Meaghan circa 1993. The post-freshman year, post-freshman fifteen era. Here I'm wearing big hoop earrings and the remnants of a perm (and yes, I was in college then; some hairdresser talked me into a disastrous "soft perm."). My face is a shiny, bloated oval. Again, my mouth is hanging open in something short of a smile. My eyes are rolled right and up. (My sister collapsed on the floor in laughter when she saw this one.)

And what do I have going for me this time around? Well, for starters, I'm still showing the strains of my jaw surgery, which today has caused my face to puff up into the shape of a pie tin. I also have four visible rubber bands holding my mouth shut, which makes my chin strain. My forehead, apparently going through some sort of high school nostalgia, boasts a nice little breakout right now. My hair, also nostalgic, is flat and tangled.

Oh well. At least a passport photo only hangs around for 10 years.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Fallujah in my stomach

I'm not feeling very well today.
Friday, November 05, 2004

Diffused effort

For the past few days I've been spewing out my vitriol, sadness, disbelief, bemusement, righteousness and reason over the phone, in emails, in one-on-one conversations and in the comments section of other people's blogs. But I've neglected my own blog, and now I have nothing left to give. I'm spent.

That's okay. The intent of this blog is not to have any particular intent, nor is it meant to be a comprehensive record of my thoughts and happenings. So though my silence may come across as some kind of post-election indifference, all it really means is that I turned off the TV and went outside to play for a little while.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Obama in 2008

Thoughts from the seething cauldron that is my brain:

You can't just get out the vote; you have to EDUCATE the voters. You can't say "Vote or Die" and not explain what you mean. New voters turned out en masse, but I firmly believe a huge number of them didn't know what they believed in or had any clue why this election was so important. And so they bet on the house.

Attendant with that, I think this election proved that you can no longer equate a young vote with a liberal vote.

I keep thinking of this 20-something white Southern male I saw interviewed for a news segment a little while back who proclaimed that it was "not his place to overthrow our leader." Bush actually convinced the masses that a vote for Kerry was an act of heresy. Well, people, you know what that leaves us with? A dictatorship. Bush is now beholden to nothing and no one. His treacherous agenda will proceed unchecked.

The exit polls gave new meaning to the word "debacle."

The myth of the liberal media is officially dead. For four years the major media outlets have refused to touch Bush and his administration, EVEN when the had the information on Florida voter disenfranchisment and Supreme Court tampering, EVEN when they had the information on Iraq, EVEN when they had the information on Halliburton, EVEN when they saw Bush soundly lose three debates. But no, go ahead and pat yourselves on the back for refusing to call Ohio prematurely last night. How fair and balanced of you, people.

Where's our Ken Starr? Why has no one been building the case for Bush's impeachment?

None of this is particularly intelligent or even cogent. But I'm at a loss. It says everything that I've heard almost nothing from my fellow liberals/progessives. At the moment, I think we don't know what to say or where to go from here. It will come. But now is a time for mourning.

Double fuck

Kerry conceded.

Fuck

What else is there to say. Pray for the provisional vote.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Vote 'n' Hope

It's probably best that I didn't have a lot of time to blog today -- unlike some folks, I had no means of taking today off to comtemplate the country's future, and my mind's a jumble anyhow. But I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Slate has given Kerry a super-early edge in several key states. Turnout is way up. Voter disenfranchisement is down. And the Red Sox won the World Series, which I still believe to be a portent of good things to come.

All you swingers out there who have yet to hit the polls: Vote, for goodness sake! As for the rest of you, you still have a few hours to assure high voter turnout in some key states:

http://partyforamerica.org/phone/
http://action.moveonpac.org/gotv/

May the night fade into the dawn of a new day.