A Room with a View

Reason # 2359232 why I'm glad I went to school in DC: Seasons! Yes, some trees in California do have leaves that change color. But it still doesn't feel like fall when you see just as many palm trees and it is 80 degrees outside. A lot of people here think I'm crazy to leave this tropical paradise I paint, but I've always had this romantic notion of seasons. And with views like this, what's not to love? (you can ask me this question again in another 3 months when I'm freezing cold on my balcony trying to take a picture of snow dusted trees).

View from my balcony photographed the day I moved in August 12

View from my balcony photographed today, 3 months later

Long Distance TLC

After spending a long afternoon reviewing contracts, nothing could make me feel better than having familiar faces and voices remind me that I have great people in my life, even if I don't get to see them everyday.

Two of my good friends from my first year at UCLA visited me on campus today. Since one of them is thinking about applying to law schools in DC, I had fun showing both of them around and answering questions. More than anything though, I just really appreciated seeing old familiar faces of great friends. Although I really like a lot of people here, they are my "law school friends," and they are new so we mostly talk about school. Sometimes it's nice to break out of the bubble so you can talk about something other than the work.

After my friends left, I got a call from an unfamiliar number. The call ended up being from one of my former USAC advisors, the lovable Dr. Tuttle. Dr. Tuttle was like the hilarious grandpa at the council table, who would try to feed you his food during the meeting and went off on grandiose speeches about the topic du jour. So there was no mistaking his voice over the phone, nor could I help but smile. Being the former controller of LA and big in the CA democratic spheres, Dr. Tuttle and I had a nice chat about Tuesday's election and other things DC. I feel really fortunate to have a former advisor just call to say hi, and that's why everyone loves Tuttle.

Finally, when I got home from spending all day on campus, I was surprised to find out that there was a package waiting for me. Who else, but Alex, to send me a "princess package"-- fully equipped with a plastic tiara, matching clip-on earrings, and other fun random things. It's easy to take yourself too seriously in law school, so it's nice to have someone to send you silly packages to remind you to have fun. I guess Alex was always the one in the relationship who brought a more laid back and enjoy life attituted. I feel like nowadays I need that even more.

When moving to DC, I knew that I was going to be in a long-distance relationship with Alex. I just don't think I was also going to be in a long-distance relationship with my family and most of my friends. And while I do admit that I am not the best at keeping in touch with my friends, I am really trying because with technology nowadays, I really have no excuse (though my new favorite thing is to send out cards). I think today I really remembered the importance of having friends new and old, near and far.

The Curse of the Successful Woman?

Like Wolf Blitzer, I am going to interrupt my election coverage to talk about the other news story of the week: Britney and K-Fed. Honestly, I am not big on celebrity gossip person and am usually oblivious to Hollywood happenings even though I used live down the street from Tinseltown. However, there was an CNN article about how Britney's divorce follows the trend of marital problems when there is the more successful wife. It caught my eye because this trend is unsettling to me.

When Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe announced their divorce (and I was very upset because I love Reese and thought her marriage would work out), all the media outlets were fixated on this theme of a husband and more successful wife divorcing. Statistics were thrown out, "In the past 10 years, six of the nine Academy Award winners for best actress ended up splitting from the husbands or boyfriends they thanked on Oscar night: Witherspoon, Swank, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Helen Hunt. (The exceptions are Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, who was unattached when she won, and Frances McDormand.)"

Curious about this trend, I started Wikipedia'ing some other prominent women. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, divorced. Newly elected Senator Claire MacKaskill, divorced. Re-elected Senator Dianne Feinstein, divorced but now remarried. Barbara Walters, divorced. Martha Stewart, divorced. Hillary Clinton, we won't go there.

Is it true? While women are trying to break through the glass ceiling, are they now confronted with a choice between a successful career or a successful marriage?

Maybe I just really want to believe that this isn't true, but I think that a more successful woman (at least by fame and fortune) is not an automatic marriage breaker. While a lot of news stories simply focus on the many divorces, they often don't look at other potential causes like the CNN article I linked above did. A lot of people seem to forget that famous divorces (whether the male is more successful or they're equal) aren't all that unusual because the travel-heavy, ego-driven professions don't lend themselves well to marriages. Nor does all the attention and pressure when you're trying to fix things. Need we count how many male actors or politicians are divorced?

I do feel like there are adjustments to be made in this new era where women can be making as much or more than their husbands. But all marriages are about making adjustments. And to focus on a group of high profile celebrities is a very inaccurate sampling of successful women. 1) Because like I said famous people do not represent the general population and 2) Famous marriages that last don't make the news. Some examples:

Cindy Crawford, married 8 years. Oprah, committed for 20 years. Ebay CEO (I searched the first female CEO I saw on Forbes list) Meg Whitman, married 20+ years. Speaker Elect Nancy Pelosi, married 43 years. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, married 52 years. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, married 54 years.

Yes there are probably some marriages where it is an issue, but I do not think it is insurmountable. My short list shows that. And along with my short list, I feel like there are probably thousands of other relationships where it doesn't matter who makes more money. But Wolf Blitzer does not interrupt the election coverage to tell us that.

I Voted: Part Trois
The Grand Finale

I woke up this morning on our living room futon to see our Christmas tree and the tv still on CNN from last night. I rubbed my eyes and realized that I wasn't dreaming, the Democrats really did take back the House and maybe even the Senate too. It may be November but it certainly feels like Christmas.

Last night I didn't go to bed until after 2am because I was so excited about the way things were turning out and I kept wanting to see more coverage. Pretty much all of today I was giddy with a huge smile on my face. My USAC election aside, this whole winning thing is a very foreign concept to me. For six years, I've been used to hearing concession speeches, seeing red on the map, and feeling down the day after the election.

Although it wasn't a perfect night, it was pretty darn close. Here are some highlights, in no particular order:

-Capitol Hill Hopping. Going down to the Hill with my roommate and two of our friends. All the bars were packed, like Super Bowl packed. Although we didn't end up staying at any of those bars, it was really entertaining to see all the TVs tuned in to CNN & MSNBC, pitchers of Blue and Red beer, and of course everyone sporting their "I voted" stickers on their suits.

-Speaker Pelosi. This just makes me really happy, especially as a female and a Californian. I can't believe that Nancy Pelosi, someone I've met and really like, is the highest ranking female in United States history. Although I think that we are leaps and bounds farther than most countries in terms of gender equality, we still have a long way to go and I feel like this is a great step in that direction.

-Seeing familiar names and faces win races. Since my job summer 2005 was to write analysis on competitive seats, convince people that they should donate money to those races, and actually hold fundraisers for many of those candidates, I feel a strong attachment with a lot of the pick-ups. I did help raise tons of money for Harold Ford Jr., and while it was really sad he lost, I was proud he put up a really good fight.

-A big tent once again. Although a large part of that tent's unity may come from being unified against Bush and/or pragmatic to win the majority, I like seeing that we have politicians wearing the democratic badge from all regions of the country and with all types of ideology. Who knew that Howard Dean, the man I thought might be polarizing and too liberal, would really follow through on his 50 state plan. Thank you Dr. Dean for not only helping us win in places like Kansas, Missouri, Montana and Kentucky, but also making us a national party once again.

-House Cleaning. Admittedly, there were probably some Republicans who weren't that bad and just were up for re-election at the wrong time. Yet on the whole, I feel like there was a grand cleansing in Congress. I feel like some of the people who gave Republicans the worst names were finally give the boot: Senator Rick Santorum (I've disliked him for as long as I've known him), Senator Conrad Burns (ask me about his Vodka incident in Russia), Representative Richard Pombo (I wrote about his environmental problems last summer), and hopefully Senator George Allen (I already disliked him and that despise grew as I had to watch his ads out here). Let's not forget that Tom Delay and Mark Foley's seats have also been picked up by Dems. Speaking of which...

-Rummy's Resignation. Need I say more? While I have to read more about CIA Director Gates being Rumsfield replacement, I do like the fact that he was on the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group looking at new plans for the war.

-Restoration of Checks and Balances. I might be in the vast minority with this belief, but I actually don't think that gridlock is a bad thing. If our founding fathers wanted an efficient federal government, they wouldn't have devised our system the way they did. There's plenty of other levels of government to deal with our day to day lives, no need to make a huge rush on the national level.

-A Fresh Start. I honestly believe that this is a good start for both parties. We've broadened our scope and the Republicans have lost a lot of people dragging them down or in the wrong direction. While this was a nasty election and there needs to be a lot of mending, I'm hopeful. I may just be completely dellusional from lack of sleep, but I do pray that both sides work together. Drastic changes won't be coming any time soon, but I'm in this for the long haul.

Happy Election Day!

As I sit and wait for a few people to go down to the Hill and watch election results, I've had time to reflect on how we could improve election day. Here are some of my election suggestions:

Make Election Day of a Federal Holiday. I won't go as far as suggesting compulsory voting like Australia, but seriously, if we get Columbus Day off, why not election day? People ideally would have some more time to review issues and candidates, more people have the chance to be poll workers (its actually really fun), and there wouldn't be problems about people not having time to vote. I think it also symbollically sends a good message that we value civic engagement.

Stickers for everyone, including absentee voters. I heard shocking news from Alex that in Syracuse, they don't give out the "I Voted" stickers. Now I don't want people going out and making uninformed votes just to get a sticker, but I think that they're a fun little reward for rocking the vote. I like the fact that people can proudly display that they voted, and it even helps remind other people to do so. Furthermore, people who actually take the extra step to request an absentee ballot and pay the postage to send it in deserve a sticker. I was sadly stickerless today for the first time.

Get rid of ballot initiatives. I could write a really a long blog entry on this because I have indeed written long papers on this. In summary: direct democracy nice in theory, absolutely horrible in practice. California had 13 ballot initiatives this time, absurd.

More federal rules and oversight. It's cute that we let counties run elections their own way because they know the locals better, etc, etc but we need better standards for fairness. Did Jim Crowe laws and Grandfather clauses teach us nothing? Between bad ballot layouts (think butterfly ballots) to faulty electronic voting, to polls closing at different times (as early as 6pm, that's just silly).

Flog the Liars. The commercials, automatated phone calls, the campaign literature, and so much general shadiness. Ok, so there's that first amendment thing and difficulty in proving that people are really lying/misleading, but it's just sad to see. A girl can dream.

I really could go on with real gripes and suggestions but I don't want to sound bitter (nor do I actually have time to list everything). Despite all my grievances about our system, I actually do like democracy.

I Voted, Part Deux:
The Day I Voted for a Republican

For years, I've told people to vote for the person with the (d) behind their name. So I have to admit that it was even a little weird for me voting for a Republican, outside of USAC elections of course. But I realized what seemed like a big deal to me, really isn't nor should be.

As a true blue Democrat, I voted for nearly every Democrat on my California ballot because I sincerely believe they are better and they matched up with my ideology. Usually these two factors go hand in hand but occassionally there are exceptions. This election, that exception was for Insurance Commissioner. Do I vote for Lt. Gov Cruz Bustamante, a man who's ineffective, incompetent, and questionably corrupt but a Democrat? Or do I vote for Steve Poizner, a man who has received most newspaper endoresements because they believe he'll be much more better for the consumers instead of insurance companies, but a Republican who could eventually climb up the state office ladder?

Ok, so my analysis of the two guys was a little biased, but I think now that I have written it out, I am much more confident in my decision to vote for Poizner. If this were a Congressional seat, where the candidate's party affiliation would have national reprocussions, I might be a little more hesitant But this is insurance commissioner, where individual performance is everything and party affiliation is pretty much just the way you get elected.

And frankly, I question whether Cruz actually wants this position or it's just his next step in the game of state official musical chairs. Can you really take a guy seriously when he has campaign ads that basically say "I was once fat, but now I'm not. Vote for me." (click here to watch) And I think out of all people, party loyalists should know that he hasn't served us or the state all that greatly. If anything, Dems should give him the boot because he embodies that sleazy politician, and we certainly don't need that.

Finally, I almost feel like it would be hypocritical for me to vote for the less qualified and probably corrupt politician just because of a party affiliation. Tomorrow, I expect thousands of Republicans to look beyond their traditional party affiliations for the betterment of the country, certainly I should do the same. I sure don't think I'll make it a habit to vote for Republicans, even if my friends think I'm secretly one, but I do like handing in my ballot where I'm confident with all of my choices. Let's just hope I'm as confident with the results. We'll find out tomorrow!

I Voted (Even if I don't have the sticker to prove it)

This is the first election since I could vote that I haven't done any campaigning (well, at least nothing since the primary election). And because of that fact, I almost forgot to mail in the absentee ballot. Fortunately I remembered, spent Thursday night watching Grey's anatomy and reading through pages of proposition stuff, and mailed in my vote. Although it felt a little anti-climactic voting absentee, I'm sure being able to watch election returns in DC will well make up for it.

Not being embedded in the election this time as a volunteer, I got a totally different perpsective of everything. I can see why people don't care, don't vote, or make uninformed decisions. Although I don't think that this is a good thing at all, taking a step back as a political junkie, I can at least understand where they're coming from. After the non-partisan analysis of the first few propositions, I was sick of reading the material. If I probably hadn't attended many CA Democratic conventions, I probably wouldn't know nor care about a lot of the statewide offices. And we won't get me started on being bombarded with misleading commercials that have overtaken the little tv time I do get in the week. It's easy to see how people can be turned off.

Even though my vote isn't going into any hotly contested races, I'm still glad that I read up on as much as I could and let my voice be heard in California. And I don't think that there's anything wrong with voting because you like it's your civic duty, just as long as they're somewhat informed decisions. What were mine? Nothing really surprising, pretty much down the party line for offices with one exception: insurance commissioner. I think I'll save that for it's own entry tomorrow.

PS: Even if he is predicted to get creamed, I still heart Phil.