Meg Speak

Because it's easy not to know what's going on, here's a small summary of the issues.

Issue	Thoughts/ Facts	Obama	McCain
Capital Gains Tax = the profit you make on your investment	Bush lowered Capital Gains tax from 25% to 15%	Obama wants to raise it back up to 25%	Leave it the same
Corporate Tax	Current rate: 34% Some conservatives believe that taxing the oil companies will not lower the price of gas, but increase it as the oil companies will reflect the extra tax they pay in the price of gas. Fun Fact: Oil companies make $.07/ dollar while Pharmaceuticals make $.17/dollar.	Wants windfall profits tax on oil companies. The general belief is that oil companies make so ridiculous amounts of money, so they should pay extra taxes, which would benefit all.	Wants to reduce to 25%. General view is that would = more money for the companies, so they could hire more people and pay higher wages to employees and that an increase of tax would cause people to lose their jobs or lead to economic outsourcing.
School Vouchers	Each parent would receive x amount of money to use towards any school they choose. Whichever school their child attends gets the money.	Opposes. The Liberal view typically is that vouchers = inequality because public schools have to take everyone, but private schools can be selective about who they accept. Fear is that public schools will be ghetto-ized as all limited English speakers, trouble makers and special ED children will be forced to attend public school.	Supports. Republican view is that vouchers would create economic liberty for parents. If you would not be able to afford the $10k tuition for that private school, a voucher would help ease your financial burden. Also, vouchers would create competition among the schools so they would all strive to be better.
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)	Free trade among US, Mexico and Canada	While most Liberals oppose NAFTA, Obama is in favor of it… after minor tweaking.	In support of Free Trade.
Immigration: Bush Plan	Tighter border security and a pathway towards legalization for illegal immigrants.	Support	Support
Estate Tax	The tax on the items or money that you inherit. Bush eliminated estate tax. In 2010, $625k inherited could be taxed up to 55% unless congress extends Bush’s tax cut.	Most liberals believe that there should be an estate tax. Without tax there is economic instability.	Conservatives argue that people should be able to pass on the fruits of their labor without punishment. Also, the money was taxed while the person was alive, so why is it being taxed again once they are dead?
Single payer healthcare	Where everyone is covered equally under the same insurance.	Opposes. Believes that healthcare should be employer mandated.	Opposes. Sees single payer systems as terrible as most don’t receive the care they need.

My thoughts exactly


<3

There was a huge hairy spider on my wall last night. I turned my back for 10 minutes and he was gone. I'll pretend my first thought wasn't that he was in my bed. Icky.

Don't forget your bluetooth California! It's now illegal to drive while talking on your cell phone... unless you're talking hands free. You're still permitted to text though, which makes absolutely no sense at all.

Adios

In the past week I’ve…

Gotten a parking ticket

Stepped on glass (it’s still in my toe)

Burnt my thumb

Burnt the roof of my mouth to the point that it blistered

Hit my head on free weights

Gotten locked out of my house

Been pooped on by a bird

Exposed myself to a professor

Royally hacked off my eyebrows when the light went out as I applied the wax

Spilled hot tea on myself

Cut my hand on my screen door

After class I popped on my backpack, bent down to pick up my pen, and then turned to my professor when he called my name. We talked for a moment or two about my paper, and then I left. When I got out to the hall I looked down to see that half my boob (in my bra) was showing. What the hell?!? My shirt was not very low, but it was square shaped and slightly loose, so somehow I managed to expose myself to my teacher. Why couldn't I have been wearing a cute bra? Only the ugly ones like to make an appearance.

People have always had problems remembering my name, which is fine and all seeing as how I am just as terrible with names as they appear to be, but when someone called me the wrong name today I was pissed. It isn’t that they forgot my name, it is who forgot my name.

            Last Tuesday I got an email from a former professor saying that his colleague needed a graded ASAP as the one she had lined up was “Un-American” and could not grade for her. I guess by that they mean she had problems with her visa, but I have no idea. Anyway, I decide that even though I am already talking a pretty hefty schedule, this person needed help (and I need money) so I said I would grade for her. Let me tell you, that was one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made so far this semester. When I went to meet with her she seemed totally normal, well, at least until she told me what she expected.

            She wants all of the homework for her math class graded not by accuracy, but by process. Great and all, but there is no key, so she wants me to go through and do each problem myself, count how many steps it took me to do each problem, add up the total and then that’s what I would be basing the grades off of (my total divided by their total x 10, as she only wants it out of 10 points. Also, I am to take a full point off if they do not use graph paper). Ok, this seems doable, but she didn’t want it to end there. She handed me the homework and each packet was huge. Each student had a minimum of 12 sheets of paper used for the 13 sections that she assigned. Ok, so that’s a lot of paper, and there are 20-something students in the class, so this should only take me a couple of days (when combined with the 10 chapters I have to read for History and Political Science and the two papers that I have to write) as I have to first do the entire math assignment before I can start grading. I grab the papers and start heading out when she tells me that she wants it by 8 a.m. the next day. Ummm… this bugs me for several reasons. 1) It’s already 4 and I have a shit load of work to do in preparation for my tests the next day. 2) Her class isn’t until 11, but she wants me to drop off the papers at 8 a.m. (even though I don’t have to be on campus until 10) because she doesn’t want to have to walk back to her office in between classes. 3) That’s a lot of homework problems that she would like me to do before grading for her. I mean, the kids got several days and I get a couple of hours… on top of going through each and every one of their problems step by step.

            Now, if I was in “dire need” of a grader I don’t think I would be extremely demanding about what I want. I wouldn’t make the grader come in at 7:30 just so I didn’t have to walk back to my office, and I definitely wouldn’t make it as complex as possible. You know what else I wouldn’t do? Forget her name. I went in to drop off the papers and saw she was with a student, so I waited outside her door (out of sight) so as to not disturb them. After a minute or so I hear “Amanda!” coming from her office. I know she’s in there with a guy, so perhaps she could be talking to me? She calls out the name once more and I peak my head around the corner and look at her quizzically. She then informs me that she has no reason to talk to me if I am just dropping off the assignments and that I can be on my way. Ummm… okay. Oh, and also, there will be another assignment for me to pick up, but she may go home after her classes, so she’ll just leave it outside the door for me. Whatever.

            I’m just pissy in general, really. In the past week I’ve burned myself (on accident), been pooped on by a bird (while at school), and stepped on broken glass, which is still lodged into my toe. I’m taking two 4 unit classes that were designed to be taught in 6 months, that my professors have condensed into 6 weeks for summer session. The problem is that they still want us to do the reading and coursework for the regular session, so I have several chapters to read nightly along with constant tests and papers. The professor I am grading for knows my schedule. I kind of figured she would be a little considerate of my schedule when it comes to grading, but clearly I am wrong. Seriously though, I am thinking her previous grader may have made up the whole ‘problems with her visa’ thing just to get out of grading for this woman.

            Bleh. I am off to have a chat with my counselor to see what the hell I am going to do about classes if I end up going back to Sacramento . It messes up my transferring plan as each school has their own requirements. God I hope I can still transfer to Sac State … I just want to be done with all of this.

            Also, Matt is in Sacramento for 6 weeks doing an internship for a marketing company that he wants to work for. I am super excited for him, but at the same time not. I’m trying to be loving and supportive while secretly stewing over the fact that his project manager happens to be a girl he and I used to fight about all the time (he was an idiot and let me know he was attracted to her, and then would lie about hanging out with her. This is HELL) and hoping that perhaps she drops off the face of the earth. I tried having the “talk” with Matt last night to see what our plan was (we’ve been together for 3 ½ years and lived together for two) and basically he wants to live together, but doesn’t want to discuss anything else. Dude, I’m not asking you to propose to me this moment, I just want to know it’s in the cards. AND I don’t even want to get married at this time, which he knows, as I would want a two year engagement. Whatever. His whole answer was vague and that was obnoxious. So, I’m currently living alone, which I hate, and working my ass off for school and grading. This is the best summer ever! I’m over it. I really think once it cools off (it’s been 90+ here, and I don’t have AC) I will be in a much better mood. I hate the heat, though to be fair, at this moment I hate everything.

Most of my friends are guys… this is one of the reasons why:

Guy Friend: I would do you.

me: awww!

thanks

if I wasn't totally involved, I would probably let you

because, really, that's what friends are for

Guy Friend: I like how you think.

After that we resumed our regular conversation. Then, later in the convo…

 

Guy Friend: I would not do that.

me: may as well

I'm not very good at not doing the things I shouldn’t

Guy Friend: You shouldnt fly to seattle and be my whore for a night.

me: LOL

Anytime I feel bad about myself I look back to the guy friends I’ve had for 8 years and realize that there will always be someone out there who would be willing to have sex with me. And you know what? That’s nice to know.

I am indeed the worst blog owner EVER!

I’ve gotten emails asking me to describe what I was like before I became boring, so I thought I would share a story with you. Gathering around kiddies, it’s story time!

            When I was 19 I worked at a bank with a really cool woman, Alyssa. She was a few years older than me and married, so I would periodically hang out with her and her extremely hot husband. Well, one night they invited me out with them and the three of us went to this Podunk bar in the middle of nowhere. When we showed up, Alyssa and I were looking hot, and seemed to be the only women, so naturally all the men started hitting on us. Alyssa’s husband was with us, so most of them left her alone and came after me. I swear, I never once had an empty glass. As soon as one got halfway down, someone would buy me another drink. I have absolutely no clue what I was drinking, or how much, but it was enough to make the toothless men turn into Brad Pitt’s unattractive brother, which, let me tell you, was a step up. Anyway, about five drinks in (from what I am told there was at least one rum and coke, a long island iced tea and something called cosmo shooter in that mix), a couple of other women show up and immediately begin asking me to go home with them.

            Now, most of what I am about to tell you was told to me at a later time, as I recall very little about this night, so I’ve had to rely upon second hand testimony. Apparently in between singing songs on the Karaoke machine that I had no idea I knew, I was being hit on by these two women. After about half an hour of both of them playing with my hair and feeding me compliments, one of them leaned in and kissed me. Naturally, I kissed back. At that time I was a kissing whore, so if any mouth got within a few feet of mine, it was a potential kissing mate. Anyway, I’m making out with this woman when Alyssa’s husband came by and scared away the ladies. I asked him why he told them to get lost and he replied, “Megan, you were kissing that woman very passionately, which is great, but she’s like 300lbs and older than your mom.” Ick. So that was interesting. From what I am told I had a blast… that is until I became violently ill.

            On the car ride home I started feeling super sick and knew vomiting was imminent, which I told Alyssa. We pulled up to the house and she told me to go ahead and puke in the bushes, but I refused to do so until her husband was inside the house because I was too embarrassed to throw up in front of him. The moment I heard the screen door close I let out a vat of vomit on their bushes. I had never felt so good as I did when I had finished. After that I went inside I slept on their couch… or their trampoline, I’m not sure. The next morning I was beyond sick, too sick in fact to leave as I puked every few minutes and lived half an hour away. They were nice enough to let me stay while they both went to work (I felt terrible for staying) as we had no other options. After several hours of puking and praying I would die, I was ready to go home.

            When I walked outside to my car I saw the most amazing thing. The bushes were dead. No joke. A three feet radius around where I had vomited was all dead. I have no idea how that is even possible, but it was an incredible sight to see. Luckily, they had plans to remove the bushes, so I didn’t feel like too much of a shit for killing them.

Poor Bushes. They never saw it coming.

Well tonight was interesting. In my quest to get into shape, I adopted a workout buddy. He and I work out at the gym three days a week and in addition to that, we get together whenever the mood strikes us. Around 8 pm I decided that I was hot (It’s high 90s, no AC) and bored, so I asked workout buddy (WB) if he wanted to go to the gym. He said he did, but that he wasn’t available until 9:30, and seeing as how our gym is stupid and closes Fridays at 9, we would have to go for a walk. I didn’t really feel like carrying around my gargantuan key ring, so I left my front door unlocked. So, after our 2 mile walk (it was still 80-something out) WB and I decided we would like to put our feet in the pool. When we got there we encountered two really sweet, really drunk adults who assured us that they would be leaving soon so that the two of us could get “intimate”. WB and I were a little freaked out about this as we had just met on Monday, but whatever.

 

The couple, Jan and Darcie, were super sweet and the four of us talked for a half hour or so before the pool lights shut off. Apparently, the lights turn off at 11, so the four of us were left scrambling in the dark for our things. Jan and Darcie couldn’t find their keys, so WB and I stayed behind to scour the area for them. After locating them, J&D (Jan and Darcie) invited us to their place for a drink. They seemed like a totally sweet couple, so we went. After about an hour or so of socializing and being fed rum and cokes, WB and I decided that it was time to leave, so we all exchanged numbers and said goodbye. WB and I went our separate ways and when I got to my apartment I saw that the porch light was off, which was a bad sign as I had left it on. I started to panic because I lived on the second floor, had no keys, no phone and no idea how to break in. 

I opened the screen door and tried the doorknob; sure enough it was locked. Shit. So I began knocking and ringing the door bell. A few minutes pass and I hear nothing from inside the apartment other than the echo of my futile attempts. Shit. What in the hell am I going to do?!? After a few more minutes of more and more aggressive attempts, I decided it was time for plan B. I tried to remove the screen from the front, but it turns out it was quite sturdy and I couldn’t see any way of removing it without breaking it, and honestly, I don’t have enough money to replace it. That and I really don’t want to have to deal with my landlords. So, I moved on to plan C.

The landlords have friends that live on the other side of the complex, probably less than a quarter mile away. At this point I have absolutely no idea what time it is, and the only hope I have is that these people are awake and/or open the door and have a key to my apartment. On the way there I spotted a naked woman briskly walking to her car. I wonder if she was having the same kind of night that I was. Anyway, I get to their apartment and all the lights are out. Shit. I am out of options, so I ring the door and someone I’ve never seen before answers the door. After explaining my predicament, he told me I had one of two options. 1) I could stay there (which was sweet, but every sleepable surface was taken and I really don’t know these people that well… and could you imagine trying to explain that to your boyfriend? Oh, well, I got locked out, so I just spent the night with the guys… no) 2) The guy would wake up someone who knew me. I asked him to wake one of them up and promised that I would buy everyone in the house a beer. Luckily, one of the people had a key to my place, so I was able to get in… and only a little after 1 a.m. I feel bad because I had promised to call Matt (he’s away for 6 weeks for an internship) but clearly that all got a bit sidetracked. I called anyway because I don’t like to break promises and unsurprisingly, he did not pick up.

All this just added to my growing frustration with life as it seems that at every turn something goes wrong. Whatever. I am over it and I am sweaty and I am in need of a shower!! I’ll write later about what has been going on in my every day life, but I figured I would fill ya’ll in on what went on tonight. Hasta homies.