Sarah Unabridged

2002-05-07T15:22:00.000-04:00

I seem to have fallen out of the blogging groove. After a little prodding from my husband, I've decided to share my wisdom with the world once again. Things have been a little crazy, lately. After recovering from the agony of having my wisdom teeth removed, I was lucky enough to catch Michael's cold. So, now I am trying to recover from that. Sandwiched in between the two, fortunately, was Derby weekend. We went to the Derby with some of Michael's law school buddies and we had a wonderful time. It was a perfect day for lounging in the sun and catching up with old friends, well, new friends for me. After the Derby we dined at the Bristol, one of my favorite Louisville eateries, and introduced our east coast friends to derby pie. On the way out we ran into Dodd and, I must admit, seeing his blogging highness (he was my inspiration) was the catalyst for this entry.

2002-04-16T13:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the weather was beautiful. Michael and I decided to eat our dinner and read the paper on the porch when we got home from work and, despite some repercussions from the world of allergies, the evening was wonderful. Later we headed to Sears to purchase some new khakis for me and were fortunate enough to find a pair on sale. All and all it was a pretty good day.

This morning was a little bungled, but I've decided to be in a good mood anyway. The weather today is beautiful and I am married to a wonderful man. I have no reason to be unhappy, so I won't be.

2002-04-15T13:41:00.000-04:00

I'm sure that by most standards my weekend would appear blasé, but for me, it was just what the doctor ordered. After two consecutive weekends out-of-town, Michael and I settled in for two days of pampering ourselves. On Friday, we had a chance to catch up on the new docu-sitcom that everyone seems to be talking about, The Osbournes, which was hilarious (if a bit profane) by any objective standard. Michael mentioned to me that G. W. was also a fan of the show. While chuckling over the family disputes, I wondered if at any time I was sharing a magical moment with the President of the United States. Saturday, Michael cooked a scrumptious dinner for Caleb and me of salmon steaks and asparagus. I, being new to the wonderful world of seafood, managed to swallow several bones. After dinner, Caleb and Michael regaled me with political tales and stories about the Probe(?), who appears at midnight, Saturday nights on the public access channel, over a pint of Chunky Monkey.

This morning, unfortunately, was a little less wonderful. Last week I spilled a little bit of spaghetti sauce on my new khaki pants. I pulled out Scott's spray and wash (which was a stick, incidentally), rubbed it over the stain as the directions indicated, and washed them. Well, this morning, while ironing my pants I noticed that yes, indeed, the stain had been removed, but so had a large portion of the fabric. The Spray and Wash seems to have eaten through the fabric of my khakis. So, this evening Michael and I will head to Lazarus to find a replacement pair.

2002-04-11T17:08:00.000-04:00

I haven't had the opportunity to post anything substantial on this 'blog recently. One of the temps quit and I moved into a new cubicle. Although the new cube is roomier, and I have a cube-mate that I've become friends with, it is right smack in the line of traffic, which means that blogging on company time has become a bit more challenging. Right now I'm just punching the clock, waiting for classes to begin, and spending time with my hubby.

Today it is absolutely marvelous outside. Michael took me out for Chinese food for lunch and we got to take a brief stroll in the sunshine. When we get home we'll probably grab a couple of magazines, sit on the deck, and relax.

I read some interesting articles in Time Magazine last night that I just couldn't resist posting below. The topic concerns women who want both a career and a family. The first article points out just how much a woman's career actually suffers as a result of family obligations. The second article discusses the 'biological clock', and it sounds like it is ticking a lot faster than most women realize. It is ticking so fast, in fact, that getting a professional degree, establishing a career, and then having a family is an impossibiltiy for most women. It's a must read for any woman who is thinking about attempting both. Here is a telling factoid from the article: "Recent Census data support Hewlett's research: childlessness has doubled in the past 20 years, so that 1 in 5 women between ages 40 and 44 is childless. For women that age and younger with graduate and professional degrees, the figure is 47%." Now, everyone out there who has been pressuring Michael and me to have children please notice that part about women with professional degrees. I am not alone in thinking that having a successful career and children rarely go hand in hand.

Check out the articles:

The Cost of Starting Families

Making Time for Babies

2002-04-10T16:35:00.000-04:00

Wealthy? Give me a (Tax) Break!

"A new study by the Tax Foundation casts some light on the absurdities of the concept of "wealthy." During the fight over President Bush's tax plan last year, Democrats, you may remember, harangued the president as a man too sympathetic to the wealthy. As it turns out, wealthy is a fairly relative term, and the reason why the wealthy get the brunt of most Republican-sponsored tax breaks is because — get ready for this — the wealthy pay the brunt of the taxes."

2002-04-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

Brazil has a Cow Over "Simpsons"

2002-03-29T14:27:00.000-05:00

Rumsfeld Ribs Myers for 'Even My Wife' Slip

2002-03-28T10:41:00.000-05:00

State Educators Ask Not to Be Left Behind: "The rule could impact up to 3,500 teachers in Illinois today who could be disqualified from teaching because they are in classrooms under emergency waivers or may not be teaching in the area of study for which they received their degrees."

Isn't that the point of this legislation? How does one effectively 'teach' in a subject area where one has no formal education? This is especially true when confronting the subjects of science and mathematics in junior high. Having an educator who is excited about their subject area aids the learning process in college students. Why would that not hold true for younger students? Kids need to be excited, or at least tolerant, of what they are studying. They will have more respect for a professional who enjoys their subject and can effectively answer inquiries about it than they will have for a teacher who gives them busy-work and teaches directly out of the manual without any added insight.

2002-03-27T14:44:00.000-05:00

This is for everyone who raised their eyebrows when I mentioned attending a 'cow plop' in Northern Kentucky. Finally, 'cow plopping' has been verified by a second source, and it is apparently newsworthy.

2002-03-27T11:22:00.000-05:00

So long, Speedy. I hope Pepe LePew isn't next to be axed. Things are getting just a little too PC for me. What ever happened to the art of parody?

2002-03-27T09:36:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy Birthday, T.J.!

2002-03-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

Drug czar accused of supporting terror: Libertarian Party ad parodies feds' Super Bowl commercials
"The LP ad features a full-length photo of Bush administration drug czar John Walters, with the following caption: "This week, I had lunch with the president, testified before Congress and helped funnel $40 million in illegal drug money to groups like the Taliban. … The war on drugs boosts the price of illegal drugs by as much as 17,000 percent – funneling huge profits to terrorist organizations. If you support the war on drugs or vote for the politicians who wage it, you're helping support terrorism." '

I fully support the Libertarians' crusade against the so called drug war. (Though, if you read this site regularly, that probably doesn't surprise you.)

Click here for more information.

2002-03-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

Happy Anniversary, honey!

2002-03-20T17:11:00.000-05:00

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with this. The fact that people lied about love to get sex before the sexual revolution does not excuse people from doing it now. True, Alanis Morissette went a little overboard in her lyrics at times, but that doesn't discredit her feelings or excuse them away. The fact that her 3rd album was so popular reflects that she is speaking for a frustrated generation. If one finds difficulty in taking the "traditional values crowd seriously", then perhaps one should not be involved in a relationship, or one-night-stand, with someone who lives their life according to traditional values.

The recently exposed pitfalls of the Catholic Church (I should point out that I'm not a big fan of that institution.) should not overshadow other societal problems. When the United States was attacked by terrorists we did not forget about the problems of starvation and homelessness. I'm certainly not suggesting that any institution (namely the government) should step in to abate them, merely that refusing to acknowledge their existence does not make them cease to exist.

2002-03-20T16:46:00.000-05:00

Online Rants Not Always Free Speech

2002-03-18T15:59:00.000-05:00

When you work in a cubicle, or in my case a pseudo-cubicle, eavesdropping becomes very easy. Everyone just assumes that since they can’t actually see anybody without standing up, people must not be able to hear them either. I liken it to the driver who picks his nose while in the shelter of his car, completely oblivious to the onlookers in the cars beside him. In such an environment you learn much more than you really needed, or wanted, to know about your neighbors. In a job as boring as mine, eavesdropping becomes sort of a hobby. I haven’t spoken to anyone on my side of the floor (most of the temps are on the other side), but I know which people have dysfunctional family lives, which people have health problems, who is buying a new car, who just broke up with their boyfriend, etc.

Here are two of my favorite eavesdropping anecdotes:

1) I just listened to two women have a half-hour conversation about their hatred of bugs. Here is a direct quote from one of the girls: “When I see any kind of bug, I like to get the can of Raid and just give them a little tiny spray. It takes a lot longer to kill them that way. I like to watch them roll on their back and squirm, watch them struggle for their last breaths. I like to torture them. They’re so ugly, they deserve to be tortured.”

I wanted to turn around and tell her that she was mighty ugly, too. Maybe we should throw her on the rack. Just in case she enjoys torturing other things, though, I'll stay out of her way.

2) The girl behind me listens to pretty awful music. It’s always the same artist. I noticed that she has the inside of a CD case posted on her cubicle wall. I waited until she took her break and then surreptitiously stuck my head in to get a closer look; yes, indeed, the picture was of her. What I’ve figured out is that she plays the music all day waiting for someone to comment on it. When the unsuspecting person asks about the music, she blushes and says that she is the vocalist. If that’s not fishing for compliments, I don’t know what is. It makes me want to vomit. It turns out she’s quite the entrepreneur. She runs a little Avon business out of her cubicle that must take up at least half of her scheduled work hours.

2002-03-18T15:33:00.000-05:00

Cannabis is given health all clear

2002-03-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it’s Friday. It has been a very long week. I started a new position at Humana on Monday. If I weren't being paid, I would be sure that I was enslaved in some kind of forced labor camp. They insisted that the 15 temps they hired for a 6-month project all have college degrees, so naturally I thought that I was about to embark on some sort of challenging and intriguing assignment. Silly me. At 8:30 AM I begin typing mismatched names in the computer. The computer pulls up an address and a ss#, I write it down. Then I type in another name, write down the address, etc. this continues until 5:00 PM with two scheduled 15 minute breaks and a half-hour lunch. Tell me again why I needed a college degree for this? What the heck, if they're foolish enough to pay me $14.00 an hour to do this, then I'll humor them and accept the money.

I don’t think they were ready for 15 new temps. I am stuck in a corner with two glued together pieces of plywood as a makeshift desk. I pushed some filing cabinets together and have created what resembles a cubicle for myself. I also managed to confiscate a lamp. If I add a picture of Michael it will probably be downright charming. I think I’ll do that Monday. The technology also leaves a little to be desired. Right now, as I type, the letters appear on the screen about three words after I’ve typed them. If you try to open two windows at the same time, the computer freezes and you have to reboot. They are so afraid of pornography that if I attempt to access the Onion website a giant red box pops up to tell me it’s prohibited. Sheesh, I can’t access the Onion, but I can access any random schmuck’s blog. (If you’ve ever visited random blogs like those suggested when you log into blogger, you realize that blogs are filled with suggestive language and links.)

Despite the job, I am very happy to be in Louisville with Michael. The joy I get from waking up beside him in the morning makes the agony of the work week seem worthwhile. Thankfully, in a few months I will begin law school and escape this drudgery.

2002-03-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Dodd!

2002-03-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

My Brothers and Sisters:A report from New York, six months on.

"They have been lucky so long they don't even know they're lucky anymore. That's the bad thing that can happen to you when you've been lucky too long: You start to think it's not luck, it's what you deserve. And instead of being grateful you get a bitter-tinged sense of entitlement. You start to think you deserve it, you made the right choices. You're smarter than the dumb people, or more accomplished than the lazy people.

When the truth is you're lucky and blessed and should be on your knees saying thank you for your good fortune, and giving out 20s on the subway."

2002-03-07T13:41:00.000-05:00

Guy on the Street: “Hey man, I’ve got a flat tire. Could you give me a coupla bucks?”
Michael: “Sure” (Hands him a fist full of change)
Guy on the Street: “Aw, C’mon man, you can’t give me more than that?”
Michael: “Well if that’s not enough for you, give me my money back.”
(Shocked panhandler returns Michael's money.)

He he he, If only the welfare system worked like that.

2002-03-07T08:26:00.000-05:00

I don’t understand why there is so much ugliness in the world. I’ve always been one to find the humor in every situation. No matter what the problem, I think that something good will come out of it. I believe in divine intervention, and, yes, I believe that when my shoes are missing in the morning God helps me find them.

Apparently, this attribute in my personality makes other people feel they can’t take me seriously. They think that their words don’t hurt and their pettiness doesn’t drive me insane. I wonder if they realize how their hurtful words eat away at other relationships like acid, because that acid has permeated my soul. I wonder if they go to sleep at night without a care in the world, without the realization that they are damning themselves and others that have the misfortune of coming into contact with them.

I try hard to find a glimmer of hope in everything. I know that there are people reading this who should know me very well and think that that isn’t true. Well, perhaps they bring out the worst in me, but people that have true affection for me know who I am, how to make me laugh and how to help me up when I fall. The others just put stumbling blocks in my path. All that I can say is thanks a lot. You can injure my pride and my feelings, but not my spirit. It was born of God and I intend to return it to him intact. So I’ll keep smiling at the sunshine, the smell of chocolate chip cookies, and things that other people can only see the negative in, and, if you choose, you can see the ugliness in the world, because if you can only see the darkness, than there will only be darkness.

2002-03-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

Hooray, It’s finally Friday. For some reason, this has seemed like an incredibly long week.

Michael and I picked up the invitations for the reception yesterday. The experience of ordering the invitations was not quite as nice as the end result. The gentleman assisting us was just a little too into ordering the invitations, if you know what I mean. What we had anticipated as being just a quick errand ended up being an hour-long experience. We found ourselves bickering with a man over whether customary wording was more important than grammatically correct wording. We won, so the invitations should be error free. He also underestimated the cost by about 1/3 which, being the disputatious chaps that we are, we could not let slide. He won that argument, though, because our only alternative was to order the invitations somewhere else, and we have neither the time nor the money to do that. This experience coupled with the recent ‘blogs (Thanks Chris!) of Aaron and Aaron have reminded us of why we chose not to have a wedding in the first place.

2002-02-28T12:02:00.000-05:00

Michael and I received some pleasant news yesterday: Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville has awarded me the Dean’s Scholars Award, which should cover about half of my law school tuition for the next 3 years.

That’s one less strain on the ol’ pocketbook.

2002-02-27T08:58:00.000-05:00

It is really cold out there today. Last night, while eating chocolate chip cookies and reading by the fire, the ethereal snowfall made for a cozy backdrop. This morning, however, when we woke up to freezing temperatures and icy windshields, we didn’t burst into a refrain of “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”. Our true mutterings were not meant for public consumption.

I’ve learned that people are the same everywhere. Cincinnatians can’t drive in the snow and neither can Louisvillians.

Nonetheless, taking a stroll in ubiquitous snowfall is an enchanting feeling, even if the walk is only from the car to the building you work in.