went to cali almost two months ago (!) on vacation.  pics for you to wish you had gone, too. 

walking on water.

for all your cleaning needs.

some goood frikin chicken.

lonely trailer.

lonely lighthouse.

BLUE.

BLUE-ER.

getty center!

dappled sun.

so for those of you who don't know yet, i'm going to be an auntie again!  only this time, i'm getting a niece! :D

i make it sound like christmas.. in october!  w00t!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I was listening to the news the other morning on the way to the airport.  The reporter on the 6am news program reported the sad and unfortunate loss for our country as four US troops were killed by shelling in Baghdad.  What she failed to mention, in mournful tones or otherwise, was that fifty-eight Iraqis also happened to die in that same attack.  No less human, no less equal, but simply because they’re not of this country, they are not worth the mention in our news services.  And let’s face it; it’s also because Americans are racist.  Despite our pride in being the ‘land of equality’ and touting ‘freedom for all,’ Americans are just as racist as any other country, ethnic group, or religious faction in the rest of the world.  It is, unfortunately, human nature to have a bias toward ones home and family before neighbors and friends.  Yet if we have any hope, expectation, or slightest intention of once again gaining the global respect that we have enjoyed (for entirely much too long) in the previous century, then the American people need to recognize that we are held just as accountable, if not more so, than our neighbors, friends, and foes.  Every single time an American, whether a prominent government official or an evening janitor, commits an action, says a statement, silently turns a blind eye to anything that is less than our supposed American standard of the Golden Rule, we are justifying every single word that our alleged enemies have ever said against us, every violent action that they have ever taken against us.  Individually, we can say that it’s not our problem, the government officials messed things up, I didn’t vote for him, I’m not supporting the war, I didn’t want us to be there, I don’t have a problem with Iraqis or Afghanis or Muslims or any of those people on the other side of the world who have been on this earth dozens of times over the meager two hundred years our piddling of a country has been in existence, no, I don’t have a problem with them  so I don’t need to get involved. 

Seriously?  Is that really what you think?  Have you completely lost your marbles?  I think I can safely say that our American people have collectively lost our dignity on the global stage and yet are deluded enough to scam ourselves into believing that we still have every right as this awesome global power to tell other people what to do, how to live, how to govern, and when to die.  I would have to say that it is because of this shameless and unjustified, unwarranted belief in American pride, self-confidence, arrogance, and dominance that I am embarrassed to call myself an American.