blogger frogger

Raise your hand if Fox News makes you want to throw up.
It’s more nauseating than chemotherapy. There’s this big hubbub about them attempting to reveal that Senator Barack Obama (Oxy alumnus) was trained as an America-hating Islamic radical when he lived as a child in Indonesia. Gag. Finally, we have a presidential hopeful who has actually traveled abroad and they want to defame his experiences by playing upon the flyover’s fears. Jamie, I know we’re both reading Dreams From My Father. Can you believe the fear-mongering, speculating, fact-checkless excuse for journalism of everyone’s favorite conservative network? If I knew anyone who thought Fox News wasn’t completely scripted by their moneyed interests, I’d be more afraid than angry. Now here’s the twisty twist: apparently Clinton’s camp supplied this bogus story to Fox News. Yikes! The democratic primaries are gonna be bloody, I fear. But, I can’t really remember when we’ve gotten to choose from a palette of exceptional candidates for national office instead of settling for the lesser of evil knievels. (What about New Mexico’s Bill Richardson (Fletcher alumnus)? Then there’s Kucinich, Nader, Gore, Edwards. All yummy. My political fantasy… Clinton/Richardson in 08, Obama/Pelosi in 16. Dude, did I just day dream about the year 2016? Does that count as hopeful projection or science fiction?)

So, what did ya’ll think of the State of the Union tonight? I liked Bush’s sober tone and his attention to energy issues. I didn’t like his usual affiliation of Al Qaida with Iraq (where does he get this shit?) nor the statistics skewed to make No Child Left Behind look like good policy. Jim Webb did a fantastic job with the democratic response (I think). As Moore pointed out in Fahrenheit 911, it’s all too rare seeing the top echelons of our society with children on the military front lines. I look forward to my commute tomorrow to hear npr’s commentaries on the speeches.


On the home front. My doctor is full of infinitives (is that the right term?). He says that he has

• Never seen anyone present with such a high white blood cell count. Boo.
• Never seen anyone have such an emotionally rough time during the 30 weeks of Intensification. Boo II.
• Never seen anyone do so well physically during the 30 weeks of Intensification. Yay!
• Never seen anyone doing so well entering the Maintenance phase. Yay II!

Cool. So I should get at least four awards for being a freak.
Here’s the rub. I am trying to decide what to do with my newly incarnate desire for movin’ and shakin’. (And I don’t mean dancing, although Jaci’s discovery of Regina Spektor’s tunes have me hopping around our condo practicing body rolls.) In other words, time is taking on an entirely new dimension for me and sitting around is, well, now a bit boring. I guess it’s always been boring, but I used to not have any choice. How did a year go by without working? Now, I would like to take three courses and get some kind of part-time work/internship. My family and med staff urge me to chill out, remind me that I am still in chemotherapy and that I need time to heal. They think that two courses is plenty. Ugh…
I don’t think that a healthy response to a near-death experience is to remain holed up, freaking out over every possible sign of recurrent illness. I have energy, so I wanna use it. My brain- praise Vishnu!- works again (more or less), so I want to use it. It’s almost an act of gratitude to be actively engaged in the world if you can, don’t you think? Also, not that life is a race- FAR from it- but I really do not want to be in grad school forever. School is great, but I really like the professional life: sans homework, academic impracticality, and poverty. And, finally, I am tired of depending on the gracious generosity of others; cancer-smansher, i need to start helping out financially. Anyway, we’ll see how goes this battle...


Lastly, (juxtaposed with the bikini-clad pictures below) Boston is BEAUTIFUL with her dusting of white powder. Everything looks different and bright under this vanilla frosting. Perhaps because it’s novel, perhaps because it’s not that cold or inconvenient yet, we’re loving it.