Chillibeer

Well, the Chillibeer fest was a rousing success! Adam and I went early, of course, so we got our free commemorative sampling glasses. Now, let me let you in on a little secret. A ticket for a sample of beer costs 50 cents. If you DON'T have a special tasting glass, you get your 50 cent sample in a 2 ounce plastic cup. If you DO have a special tasting glass, you get 4 ounces for your 50 cents. Twice as much bang for you buck! In addition to drinking lots of exotic beer, we watched a fat guy eat 8 hot peppers in about 45 seconds. I thought his entire head was going to pop. And just in case you were wondering, the Champaign County Democrats won the Chilli cook-off--Democrats are the best at everything.

Well, the debates are over, and although neither candidate seemed to hit a home run, I thought Kerry did more than a good job. I was happy when, in the second debate, Bush came out firmly against Supreme Court justices who support slavery. It's good to know where he stands on that issue. Last night was domestic issues--while talking about gay marriage, Kerry of course brought up Dick Cheney's daughter. Now Lynne Cheney's all offended. I'm sorry, but if you are part of an administration that is doing its damnedest to take rights away from gay people, and you have a gay daughter, don't be surprised if someone brings it up. If you live by "family values," you die by "family values."

Great Debate

Well, I thought John Kerry did REALLY well in the debate on Thursday night. Adam and I want to do a study to see how many more total words Kerry spoke than Bush, and what percentage of the words spoken by each were new (i.e., words they hadn't yet spoken in the debate). It seemed to me that Bush was just saying the same things over and over, while Kerry, although he hit his main points hard, was also able to come up with new ideas. Plus, I thought the note-taking thing was GENIUS--Kerry didn't have to stand there and stare at Bush (who'd want to?), but he still looked intellingent and engaged. Bush, on the other hand, couldn't seem to control his (mostly petulent or annoyed) reactions to Kerry's points, and the cameras caught every minute. Poor George W., war is so hard--he knows because he's seen it on TV.

I got lots of work done this weekend, but I still have so much to do. Grading was less painful than I'd anticipated, but I still have a presentation, book review, and, oh yeah, Stage II deadline looming in the near future. Plus, of course, more grading.

My little sister is going to go as Bender from Futurama for Halloween. On the show, Bender (who is a robot, for those of you who don't know), has a door in his chest that he sometimes opens and takes things out of. Ellen is going to be sure to have a door in her costume, so that she can have people place Halloween treats inside her, um, compartment. I can't remember if I was as cool as she is when I was 11, but somehow I doubt it.

Remember everybody, the Urbana Chili/Beer Extravaganza (not its real title) is this Saturday. Be there or be square--Adam and I will probably be trying to coordinate people to go later this week.

Raid

The other night our garbage can was pillaged by an unknown creature. The only item that was removed and consumed was a bag with a few slices of stale bread in it. The remaining contents of the garbage can were untouched. Hannah, I know this will come as a shock, but I think Elijah is sneaking out.

For everything there is a season

The best way to monitor the change of seasons is through weekly visits to the farmers market. The last few weeks, although the weather has been very warm and sunny, I've thought I sensed a change in the air--a different scent, a different kind of coolness in the morning. But I wasn't sure. This week at the farmers market, I was sure. The sweet corn was no longer piled up high on the big wagon; there was much less, and the ears were skinny, the kernels small. Instead, there were heaps of pumpkins and squash, peppers and broccoli in place of snow peas, pears instead of blueberries. The honey man was selling jars of fruit butters and preserves. The change from summer to fall always makes me feel melancholy, although I do look forward to getting out my sweaters, carving pumpkins, making soup, and being warm in a snug house when the weather gets cold. But then again, I love summer's relaxed pace, the easy langour of long days outside with a book and a cold drink, afternoons at the pool, silly day trips, barbecue. It's a big change to go from that to the accelerated pace of the school year, to the constant time demands, deadlines, and stress. I always adjust to it, but it always makes me wistful, too.

One super-fun thing about fall, though, is that it brings the Urbana Chili Cook-off/Beer-tasting. This year it's on October 9 so mark your calendars--last year it was a blast!

Because it's ladies' night

Wednesday was ladies' night with the girls, and we had fuuuuun! At OU, even though I lived with most of my close friends, we always tried to get together one day every week for "girl lunch" or "girl dinner" or even just for a "girl beer." It was good to be in a fun atmosphere, all sitting around one table, relaxing and catching up. It gets harder and harder to coordinate everyone's schedules, but it would be great if the U of I girl squad could hook up regularly. Wednesday we dined at The Great Impasta, who probably win the award for most fattening sauces in C-U, and then some of us headed over to Boltinis. Now, when you have girl night, you have to drink girl drinks. And that means fruity shots and/or any drink that ends with "tini." In addition to the communal lemon drop shot, I had an appletini and a cosmopolitin(i)--yum! We also "Lyndied" many things--mostly our drinks, but at one point E. Lyndied existence, which I thought was pretty cool. All in all, lots of drinks, food, gossip, and secrets--everything a girl night should be!

RNC

After the last presidential primaries/campaign/election, which I voted in but didn't really follow too closely until the chads hit the fan, I've tried to keep more abreast of what's going on in the world of politics. Adam and I watched a LOT of the coverage for the Democratic convention, and we watched the REAL coverage on CSPAN, not the chopped up, pundit-heavy coverage that a lot of the news networks were doing. However, I just couldn't bring myself to watch any of the Republican convention coverage. Not even George Bush's speech last night. I felt sort of guilty about that, since right now there's a 50/50 chance he'll be our president again, and that fact alone should make me want to hear about his plans for the future of our country. But I couldn't bring myself to do it--that man just turns my stomach. I used to be able to very reasonably argue for why Bush was not the best person to be running the country. Now, though, my distaste for him is so visceral that every time I see him on TV, all I want to do is smack his face over and over until that shit-eating grin of his falls right off. I don't know how John Kerry is going to be able to restrain himself--if I had to stand on the same stage with that creature in a debate, it would be all I could do not to leap across my podium and sink my teeth into his neck. I don't want to see a debate between those two so much as a cage match. Two tours in 'Nam could kick Texas Air National Guard's ass any day of the week.

I have picked up a few fun tidbits from my limited exposure to RNC proceedings over the last few days:
1. The front of the podium/pulpit at the convention has an inlaid design that looks unmistakably like a crucifix. I'm serious. Don't take my word for it, find a picture--you'll immediately see what I mean.
2. Keynote speaker "Democrat" Zell Miller wanted to challenge Chris Matthews to a duel, after Matthews gave him shit about his speech in an interview following the keynote. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.
3. Bush's convention speech was interrupted not once but twice by protesters. Some uniter.
4. The hats worn by Republican conventioneers are even dumber than those worn by their Democratic counterparts. And that's saying a lot.

Rubber Band Man

So it was the first week of class, except since Wednesday was "Monday" and I have all my classes on Wednesday, I haven't been to any class. I did go to the lecture class I T.A. for, but that hardly counts. It did get me sort of wishing that I could trade in one of my seminars for English 245: The Short Story, because I'm pretty sure I could get an A. Although we aren't reading some of my all-time favorite short stories from middle school, such as "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Lady and the Tiger" and "The Gift of the Magi." Those are awesome but, unfortunately, not on the syllabus.

So instead of going to class I went to Staples and fulfilled my quest for the ultimate planner. Every year it is an epic search, but every year I prevail. Is it Staples that does the Rubber Band Man commercials, with the guy in bermuda shorts doing funky dance moves and passing out school supplies? I can never remember what store that commercial is for, because I always get so caught up with that guy's awesomeness that I forget to pay attention to the end.

We also went and saw "Garden State," with which I was pretty underwhelmed. I couldn't figure out why at first, because it seemed like the kind of movie I would like, and it reminded me a lot of "Eternal Sunshine," which I really did like. I think what I liked about ESSM was that all the characters were really gritty and messed up--they seemed pretty real, even though the plot was fantastic. In GS, however, the protagonist's biggest problem was that he was overmedicated, and once he went off his meds he was a really super guy. Natalie Portman's character's biggest flaw was that she was a compulsive liar, but after she lied she felt so bad that she ended up telling the truth. Isn't that just throw-up-in-your-own-mouth adorable? Neither of them had any drive or direction to their lives, but it was ok because their 4-day-old relationship was going to fill their pointless existences with meaning, so YAAAAY! Remember kids, if you just cling hard enough to another person, all your problems will be solved. Or if not, at least you'll have someone to blame it on besides yourself. I really liked the character of the druggy best friend, even though at the end of the movie we were supposed to despise him a little for not doing anything with his life, conveniently forgetting that throughout the entire rest of the movie he was the only one with any get-up-and-go to speak of. So, I was disappointed with this particular film, but I was cheered by the previews, which indicate that approximately 99.9% of the movies coming out this fall and winter will star the delicious Jude Law. Good thing he's so good lookin' or we might get sick of him.