Hooker boots.

I saw four women wearing hooker boots at the Capitol today. They're really not that bad. A lot of women wear them (you know, the black leather boots that come up to your knees). Maybe I should stop referring to them as "hooker boots." I don't have a pair. But I've heard they're warm. They're probably a good idea for out here since it's so freakin' cold!

Grammy's. Stories.

I'm disappointed Kanye didn't win best record. Come on, Boulevard of Broken Dreams has been out forever, right? Wasn't that song in last year's list? I guess not, but whatever.

Oh yeah, I've had some more stories published. None of them got the play my first story did (I think I was just luckly on that one,) but if you want to read them, here are some links:
UW license plates
State Rodeo
Governor
Legislator who blogs

Rock Chalk!!!

KU beat Oklahoma today! It was an awesome game. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!

Pics.

I promised some pics! I couldn't quite get them up on this blog (my connection is too slow). I did make a "Wyoming" album here.

Creepy People.

This hotel is full of some pretty creepy people. Around the corner is a room full of Indian guys who always have their door open when I walk by. Usually there’s one of them smoking outside, putting his ashes into a plastic cup. It’s kind of weird.

The other night someone started blasting Metallica at 2 a.m. I thought about getting up but decided to just fall back asleep. I haven't had this much fun since the dorms. My room's kind of ghetto. The thermostat doesn’t work so I have to manually turn the heat on and off. The shower curtain WILL NOT stay in the right place when I take a shower. Oh, it’s annoying.

OK, enough ranting. Things are really not too bad. And when I get really pissed, I just think “it’s only three months, it’s only three months…”

In other news, Smallville was really good tonight. I had to call my Smallville-buddy (you know who you are!) and discuss. I was really sad Jonathan Kent died, but it was kind of predicatable. We knew he was having heart problems. There were all kinds of foreshadowing hints lately. I wasn’t really surprised Lana died at the beginning, considering Clark told here everything about him. But I didn’t think she’d stay dead long…she’s too big of a character. OK, I’m a dork who has parasocial relationships. But I’m in Wyoming people!!! TV is all I have!!!!

Military.

I’m guessing on this, but I think nearly half of all the people in Cheyenne are somehow connected to the military. I see Department of Defense stickers everywhere. Camouflage, uniforms and “support the troops” signs are everywhere. There is a large Air Force base, which explains this presence. But I don’t think I’ve lived anywhere with such a large military presence before. If the base left, this town would come close to dying, I think.

The girl at the bank who helped me set up a checking account—her husband is in the military. The girl who helped me at Wal-Mart (more on that later)—her husband is in Iraq. The girl at the gym—yep, husband is military. Most of these women are younger than me. Meeting these people really makes the Iraq war seem more real. I’ve been in a bubble most of my life with very little contact with people in the military. They’re all nice and I almost feel sorry for them. Many of them are far away from home and would not be here if it weren’t for the military.

Oh yes, Wal-Mart. It’s weird living in a town with a SuperCenter again. It’s basically the only place to shop. After living in Lawrence for 2 1/2 years I became accustomed to SuperTarget and shopping at many non-chain stores. SuperCenters are in a class by themselves. They’re just simply HUGE! And there’s stuff everywhere. The new thing (compared to when I used to go them in Springfield) is that you can order McDonald’s at the checkout line. Hello, obesity! There are some pluses to SuperCenters. The main one is that you can get everything you possibly could ever want for a cheap price. But the amount of stuff also makes them severely annoying. I walked up and down a million aisles this evening trying to find forks. And the people with “the May I help you” on the back of their jackets really aren’t that helpful. Maybe it’s because they’re not getting their healthcare paid, being sexually harassed and being forced to stay after their shifts are over. I guess that’s the “liberal” coming out in me.

I’ve been listening to Fox News. I don’t really know why. I guess it's because I think it’s important to listen to what everyone has to say. Oh, yeah, also because I'm in a REALLY red state and it's on a bunch of the radio stations and always on TV when I'm going around and about. Bill O’Reilly was talking about journalism schools this morning. He basically called them places for liberal indoctrination. His main argument was that when you ask a journalism student what they want to do, they answer, “I want to change the world.” Well, that’s not your job, Mr. O’Reilly says. I don’t think journalists can necessarily change the world, but you definitely have to have some kind of drive. It’s not an easy profession. You’re going to get yelled at from a variety of different angles. You’ve got to have tough skin. Oh, and you don’t get paid very much. So something’s go to motivate you. I think at first it is that desire to really be involved in what’s going on in the world. Is that really such a bad thing? Should journalists just be completely apathetic? If Mr. O’Reilly considers himself a journalist, isn’t what he’s doing is “trying to change the world”? He would never admit to that. Just say that he’s being “fair and balanced” and telling the truth. But anyone with half a brain can tell O’Reilly is also trying to change the world.

In other news, I think I may have pink eye. It’s that or my allergies are severely acting up. My left eye feels like it has glass in it. I keep picking at it, which is just making it more red and puffy. I went and got some eye drops tonight (found those relatively easy at Wally World), so hopefully they’ll help.

10 minutes or less

The nicest thing about Cheyenne is that you can get pretty much everywhere in 10 minutes or less. The roads are good and I haven't been stuck in a traffic jam once! This least-populated state in the country thing definitely has some advantages.

Trucks

This town is full of trucks. A lot of big, loud trucks. I thought there were a lot of trucks in Springfield, but it doesn't really compare. It's especially annoying when they drive up and down the street outside my hotel. Jeez...shut up people!!!

Made it!!!

After a nice snowstorm and eight hours of driving (at least) I finally made it to Wyoming. I took off from Topeka at 7:45 a.m. and arrived around 5 p.m. (CST). As soon as I made it to Colorado the weather cleared, which made the drive much easier. As I approached the Rockies, the scenery was beautiful. There was a light dusting of snow and I kind of felt like I was in one of those Coors beer commercials. I just kept imagining Pete Coors sitting in a rocking chair on the side of the road.

The toll road around Denver was weird. I had to stop three times to pay $2 (definitely higher tolls than Kansas). Couldn't they just ask for $6 at the end? Oh well. Above is a picture of the semi-seedy hotel I'm staying at. Really, it's not too bad. The wireless Internet, cable and heat work--so I'm happy. Plus, the bed is comfy. I haven't taken a shower yet though...

Everyone has been (in the words of Sam Alito) "super-duper" nice so far. I'm excited to look around some more tomorrow and Sunday before starting work Monday. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Happy 2006!!!

2005 hasn't been a great year. It started with a devastating tsunami, several people died in the London bombings, hurricanes killed hundreds and shamed the entire nation. Problems in Iraq worsened. On a personal level, I left Washington D.C.--a place I love--at the end of 2004 and have spent 2005 mainly in Kansas. I ran into several problems trying to finish up grad school and had a couple mental break downs. But I'm confident 2006 is going to be better. As I sit surrounded by boxes in my apartment, all I can think of are all the great people I've met in the past 2 1/2 years. I'm going to miss my friends in Kansas (I'm getting ready to move to Wyoming.) And I've come to this grand life conclusion: No matter where you are or what you're doing, it's the people who matter. I'm so grateful for everyone in my life. No matter how bad or good things get, we (as human beings) have to remember to always look out for each other. Kindness is what matters.

I love puppies

Aren't these little guys cute? They're from a NYTimes story about dog products.

Kansas is not crazy...

...But these people are.

They'll be voted out soon and then we'll go back to the old standards. It's just this stupid back-and-forth that makes the state look moronic.

People in Lawrence don't seem to be like the rest of Kansas. At least the educated crowd are pissed off by this. That's good.

I love when this happens.

Thesis in!

I turned the final draft of my thesis in on Friday! I still have to go through the defense and I'm sure I'll have to make some changes, but it's still a great feeling. I think it turned out OK. I've lost a lot of the excitement I first had for the project, but hopefully I did well enough to get the heck out of here!!

Yeah!!!!

Scalito

I haven't had a chance to read everything about Alito, but I am really disappointed Bush nominated another white man. How disappointing. And, of course, he's Princeton/Yale. What an old boys club. How annoying it is to us who are "out of the club."

I think I would have been happier with a more conservative woman or minority. Maybe that's superficial and wrong, but that's the way I feel.

"We have lost hope"

I'm watching C-SPAN and David Gergen is chairing a panel on "Leadership in America." It's based on research done by U.S. News and World Reports. Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, just said the "chasm" between the haves and have-nots is so large in this country that most of the have nots "have lost hope." Jeff Canada mentioned that the government is spending $29,000 (I think a year, I could be wrong though...) to keep people in jail. But if he went and asked for $29,000 a year to help poor children, people looked at him like he's crazy. He cited a studying about how scientists used to drop rats in water to study their resiliency. Wanting to find what characteristics the rats that fought to survive had. His reaction was, "why are we dropping rats in water." That's the same thing we're doing with poor children. Dropping them in water and making it very hard for them to survive.

A lot of this panel echoed a lot of what Richard Harwood is looking at. The panel started by giving results of a survey that said most Americans do not trust leaders in general. It's scary. I don't think things are hopeless, but things need to change. But I guess this is what democracy is all about--discussing things and trying to make the world better.

Howard Schultz in interesting. He grew up very poor and is new chairman of one of the largest companies in the world. Read more about him here.

Naples Web site

Rob Curley left the Lawrence Journal-World and has taken over at the Naples (Fla.) newspaper. I think the Hurricane Wilma coverage shows the willingness of the newspaper to move to convergence. I think this is the future of journalism. But, more importantly, it is just pretty cool to look at. I love well put together news Web sites. They make me happy.

This makes me furious

According to this article, the only abortion clinic in my hometown, Springfield (Mo.), has shut down. This makes me very, very angry. I don't "endorse" abortions, but a woman should be able to get one if she so chooses. I just don't like people imposing their opinions on others this way. The doctors who perform them in Springfield are scared. And scaring doctors is just plain stupid.

The Right to Life guy said, "demand obviously is not enough for them to weather the storm." But the clinic did 1,500 procedures a year. I'd call that demand.

This type of thing is making it really easy for me to make the decision to never move home. I basically want to move as far from the Bible Belt as I possibly can. I can't believe it. What's wrong with these people? The last time I checked, abortion was still legal in this country.

You know, with education and birth control we probably wouldn't even need abortions. But these religious people are so nutty they don't support either of those options either. People are going to have sex. If they don't use birth control, the woman may get pregnant. The woman may not want to be pregnant. Nobody should decide what happens with that woman's body other than that woman. I don't like abortions. I would probably never have one. But they need to be an option. Now, the crazies in SW Missouri are going to require scared, young women to drive at least four hours to do something that is every bit their right. This is a bad topic. I don't usually like to write or talk about it. But this story made me mad.

DeLay's mug shot

Is it just me, or does Tom DeLay look way too happy in this mug shot?

I guess he's trying to look defiant and confident in his innocence, but do you really want to flash a 100-watt smile at a booking?

Harriet Miers Take 2

OK, last week I wrote that it was "intellectual snobbery" that was bashing Harriet Miers. I may have to take that back. She's not been very forthright. And this 'she'll vote the way the President wants her to' is really annoying.

She needs to talk a little bit more I think.