what if their story were my story?

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Matthew 25:42-45

still not my president

My anger has subsided to a slow burn that mostly only flares up whenever I read Donald Trump's Twitter feed. I have unfollowed him so as not to ruin my life. Here are some other things I've done that have made me feel, if not better, at least a little more in control:

I subscribed to the New York Times and have been basking in the luxury of reading as many articles as I want instead of counting down my 10 free ones per month (their student rate is only $4/month-so worth it).

I called the Justice Department's comment line and left a message expressing my concern about Russia's interference in the election. You can too: 202-353-1555.

I also called my senators and expressed my concerns about the incomplete vetting of cabinet nominees that are supposed to have hearings this week. Why is this even controversial, guys?

I officially changed my party affiliation to Democrat, something I never thought I would do, but here we are! Welcome to the hellscape that is a Trump presidency! I have been utterly disgusted by the lack of moral backbone or any semblance of putting country before party/personal gain from the majority of Republican leadership (exception: Mitt Romney, whom I will probably always love) and couldn't stand being a registered Republican anymore. I do like voting in primary elections, though, so if I can't be a Republican, I might as well get to vote in Democratic primaries. So hi, here I am, definitely on the conservative side of the political spectrum, and yet now a Democrat. THIS IS FUN.

The best feeling I've had since November 10th, though, was Christmas shopping for kids whose parents can't afford it for this program. There is not a lot I can do about Trump rapidly dismantling America. There is not a lot I can do about children dying every day in Aleppo. But I can buy a dang Barbie for a little girl's Christmas in the Philly area and that feels pretty good.

Any more ideas on how to resist the Trump ugliness? I'd love to hear them.

"if you try to break a glass ceiling, you'd better be prepared to get cut"

I keep forgetting for a half second and then I remember and feel my stomach drop all over again because we elected Donald Trump president of the United States.

My visceral reaction to the news has surprised me. It feels personal, because I relate to Hillary Clinton, in that she's worked for a long time to try and succeed in a male-dominated field and has often been held to a different standard because she's a woman. I think a lot of my ambitious female friends feel the same, and therefore this defeat feels like a personal rejection of the "nasty" women we aspire to be.

Part of the depth of my reaction is probably from the shock. I really expected America to resoundingly renounce That Monster with his groping and sexual assault bragging but we didn't. Instead, we implicitly endorsed his misogynist, hateful views and propelled him straight to the Oval Office. You can grab em by whatever you want because they're women [not people] and we just don't care. His deplorable treatment of women wasn't enough for us to get over Hillary's emails or Hillary's potential Supreme Court nominees or whatever it was that you thought was so important that we elect an accused rapist instead.

You can keep all your unity and acceptance and blah blah blah to yourself for now because I'm livid. And I'm allowing myself to indulge in that for a little bit until I figure out how to shape this rage into something more productive than this blog post and a bunch of retweets.

If you have ideas, I'm all ears.

(title quote from this article)

better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt

REPUBLICANS. Let's just stop talking about rape, okay?

ummm...

hiding beet sugar or cane sugar? also, everglades.

Right now I wish I had four roommates so we could get some great discussion going about tonight's Republican debate and the fact that Harrison Ford is slated to play Colonel Graff in the Ender's Game movie coming out next year! Since Aaron is buried in study materials, all I've done is posted a couple lame tweets, texted my mom, and contemplated sharing a link on facebook. I haven't felt this socially deprived since I lived in France and no one could understand me.

Tell me how excited you are for this movie/how weird Newt's hair is/how lame the questions were at the debate/why did Romney use the word self-deportation/the girl from "True Grit" is also in "Ender's Game"/the director of "Ender's Game" is also responsible for its screenplay and that X-men Wolverine movie which is a little concerning/I am soooo needy.

Or maybe I just don't feel like reading a paper for bioinorganic that's not due until Thursday anyway.

white

It is the first day of December, and it has yet to snow and stick.

Perhaps I will convert to global warming after all.*

Happy Tuesday (oops, it's now past midnight, make that Wednesday) everyone!

*I still think Al Gore is ridiculous, and so is all of the political hype surrounding global warming.

Oh, and with that footnote, I just reminded myself of a thought.

Anyone else share my disbelief and anger that Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize?

Ridiculous.

Especially when people like Greg Mortenson were nominated.

Grrrr.

On the Polanski controversy and the far left in general...

"And that’s the main reason I am grateful for this controversy. It is a dye marker, “lighting up” a whole archipelago of morally wretched people. With their time, their money, and their craft, these very people routinely lecture America about what is right and wrong. It’s good to know that at the most fundamental level, they have no idea what they’re talking about."

Way to sum it up, Jonah Goldberg.

Read whole column

Rock the Vote

Check yes Juliet

“You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may conflict with your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life … Your safety and ours depends upon whether or not we follow … Let’s keep our eye on the President of the Church.”

-President Harold B. Lee

"Sometimes there are those who feel their earthly knowledge on a certain subject is superior to the heavenly knowledge which God gives to his prophet on the same subject. They feel the prophet must have the same earthly credentials or training which they have had before they will accept anything the prophet has to say that might contradict their earthly schooling. How much earthly schooling did Joseph Smith have? Yet he gave revelations on all kinds of subjects. We haven’t yet had a prophet who earned a doctorate degree in any subject. We encourage earthly knowledge in many areas, but remember if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet and you’ll be blessed and time will show you have done the right thing."

-President Ezra Taft Benson

“I say to Israel, the Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as president of the Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program. It is not in the mind of God.”

-President Wilford Woodruff

Good thoughts, n'est-ce pas?
So when a prophet of God tells us to do all we can to get Proposition 8 to pass in California, it'd probably be a good idea to comply. I really think it's ridiculous that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints would make a petition and send it to the first presidency informing them of their opposition to Proposition 8. Did you or did you not sustain President Thomas S. Monson as a prophet, seer, and revelator a few weeks ago? So why are you blatantly disregarding his council? I'm not saying that we should blindly follow our church leaders, but it really says something to me when the church gets this heavily involved in political matters. It's because this isn't about politics anymore. Should Proposition 8 be defeated the decline of the family as we know it will greatly increase.

There's less than a week left until election day. With whom will you side?

This afternoon I had nothing that ABSOLUTELY needed to get done. It was the most delicious feeling.

Every month, I write an average of 14 or 15 posts.
It is October 27th, and I only have 7 (soon to be 8 as soon as I publish this) posts. Something is wrong with the world! How did my blogging drop off?

Oh yeah...I jettied (isn't that a great word? it just came to me) off to Washington and Oregon for 10 days and spent the week before and after that in complete academic freak out. Now I'm in academic relief/dulled freak out that will probably resurrect as soon as I get all my tests back.
Except for my D&C test which I already know my score and is the best I've done on a test all semester: 153/155.

Amazingly enough, studying until 1 AM does seem to help! At least this time around...wouldn't recommend it and will hopefully not be resorting to it in the future...and ok, it probably wasn't so much the last minute cramming as the many, many desperate prayers offered up in hopes of that result.
You do all you can and God will take care of the rest.
I can't tell you how many times that principle has popped up in my life. Thank goodness, because I could never do this chem major/French minor/ballroom dance tour team/attempt to have friends/boyfriend thing alone.

Let's see...I had something else to say...oh yeah! Election day is in a week and a day! You had all better vote, even...gah...ok, I guess I'll say this...even if you're voting for Obama. Voting is our civic duty as American citizens and we should feel privileged to have that opportunity. Now, go take advantage of it! I'll be partying it up with Fox News and some sort of red, white, and blue dessert all night. Go McCain/Palin!

Errr...(I'm feeling British today)

Hmmm.
You know, I'm almost constantly writing blog posts in my head (anyone else do that?), but I really can't think of anything to say. I've been really lazy politically lately....have been deleting all of my Washington Post emails without even reading them, barely skimming my Glenn Beck newsletter, and I've got 6 (maybe 8? can't remember) Bill O'Reilly podcasts to which I have yet to listen.
Pretty much I've been doing exactly what I wished for some four months ago. My time is equally split between practice at the RB and working in the lab (although it's been a little tipped to the RB side lately...).
And now I have to go back to practice.
This post really didn't have any point, it's just been a few days since I've written anything publishable...I wrote a couple of things earlier this week, but they were definitely only meant for my eyes.

Vegas comp is in: 1 day
Embassy is in: 14 days
I move into my apartment in: 14 days
Classes start in: 19 days

I'm going back to the start.

Hmmm, what to say, what to say....here's a few unrelated thoughts (posted under an unrelated title. It's a line from a Coldplay song):
I'm going running tomorrow for the first time in weeks. I can't wait.
Do you ever just get that antsy feeling in your body where your muscles just want to be used? I get that sometimes, where I just feel like running or flinging myself around dancing. Maybe I'm just a weirdo...but I've been feeling like that a lot lately. I crave movement. I guess it comes with the territory of being a dancer.

Today I went through and did the "assignment" we got from mission prep last Sunday. We had to come up with five questions of the soul and then find answers for them in the Book of Mormon. So I came up with five questions and then starting flipping through the topical guide and sure enough, I found answers for all of them in more than one place. It was a nice reminder that if you have questions, you really can search through the scriptures and find answers. I love it. The church is true guys, the church is true. :)

I'm really annoyed with the Obama glorifying in the press. It's not helping him out at all in the polls. It's still a dead heat between him and McCain. And if he cozies up with the Europeans it's not going to make him any more popular back at home. And that was really ugly and boring syntax for this paragraph. Just think about the ideas behind the words, not the sentence structure itself...

I need to go to bed.

Bon Voyage!

In 48 minutes, more or less, I'll be departing for the harbor for my cruise! I've never been on one before, so I'm very excited, even if it is just a small one along the coast of California and Baja Mexico. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll get tan...the tanner I get naturally, the less fake stuff I have to put on next month before my Vegas comp.
Anyway, I went to Urban Outfitters this morning. It is quite the cute little shop. It sort of reminds me of an edgier Anthropologie with guys' clothing too. They had really cute home furnishings and kitchen accessories and things. I noticed these Obama and Hillary mugs, so I went over to see if they had a McCain one, and yep, I found one. Too bad it was an ANTI McCain mug. What the heck? Democrats aren't the only ones who like quirky, funky stores. Young Republicans can like that kind of stuff too! So why are you only catering to them? That annoyed me a bit, but I put it aside to enjoy the really cute lampshade with black velvet birds all over it (sounds retarded, but it was cute, trust me), and the mouse cheese grater. Maybe I'll write them a letter, just to see if I'd get any sort of response back. I'll look into that when I get home.
36 minutes left now. This may my last post for the next week, so au revoir, mes amis! I'll be seeing you! Check out Urban Outfitters if you can (even if they are totally politically biased). Loves!

God Bless America.

I am an American.

I think we've all heard that line way too many times as a result of that lame commercial on Channel One all through junior high and high school. I finally feel like I appreciate the sentiment of it, though.

I went and heard Glenn Beck speak as part of all the Freedom Festival festivities. At the beginning of the fireside (hmm, not quite the right word for it, but it'll do), the band played all of the theme songs for the different branches of the military. As each was played, people who had served in that branch stood. The center was completely packed, and there were the people standing who had given so much to our country. I was fighting to hold back tears. That's never happened to me before! I've never gotten emotional about anything military, but there I was rapidly blinking, being fully overwhelmed by gratitude for their service. How lucky we are that we don't have to physically be on the battlefield fighting for our freedoms. How grateful we should be to those that are.
I think though, that we do have a responsibility to fight for our freedoms back at home. I think that it is our job to ensure that the constitution doesn't get twisted into whatever people in power think it should mean. I think it is our job to fight for the values that we hold most dear-families, faith, virtue, hard work, service, love of God and of man, etc etc. We can't just sit by and let this country turn into a politically correct, socialist society. Get out and vote guys! Do your homework, research the candidates, figure out what positions they have on issues. Don't let the left-wing media feed you an opinion. We cannot afford to become politically apathetic, something of which I have definitely been guilty...but no longer :)

I can't believe it took me nineteen years to come to this, but I love America. Of course, I've always "loved" my country, I think everyone does (except for liberals who hate America and everything for which it stands, but that is another topic for another day), but I finally realized today that I love America in a very concrete and real way. I love this country. It is my home. I love the western mountains, the east coast trees, the southern rivers, the west coast beaches, the midwest corn fields, I love it all (don't peg me for an environmentalist though). I love the good people here who are trying their best to make this a better place. For all of my complaints about liberals, taxes, and the government in general, I'm not immigrating to Canada anytime soon. This is home. "I pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor." I want to spend the rest of my life serving my God and my country in whatever capacity I can. I am so very proud to be an American!
(ah, so cheesy, but at least I'm sincere.)

Happy Fourth of July, guys. For once I'm going to try to remember why we celebrate in the first place.

God bless America, my home, sweet home.

I couldn't think of how to end this post, but I really think the government should've provided a conclusion for me.

"Quit allowing jobs to be sent overseas," said one. "It's been way too easy to get into debt. We need stricter laws on credit companies and finanacial institutions because almost everyone is struggling finanacially," added another.

This was a quote from some college students from an article talking about how politically involved my generation is. They asked the students what they thought about different issues, and this was two people's responses.
This is what is wrong with the world today! People expect the government to solve all their problems! It's been way too easy to get into debt because people buy things for which they don't have money, not because they government hasn't done enough to prevent that. It's not the government's job to regulate how you manage your money (ok, well sort of...you have to pay taxes and all, but still).
Feminists think that all women should be in the work force (they are insane, but I'll write a post about that later), but this makes raising kids awful hard. Their solution: government funded daycare!! Yeah! Instead of letting moms actually raise their children, let's have the government do it for them! Unemployment's way up? The government should make more jobs. You don't have healthcare? The government should provide it. College tuition's too expensive? The government should make it free!
It's ridiculous. Take responsibility for your own lives already.

Not much to say, but a whole lot to think

This is getting to be ridiculous. Gas just keeps going up and it's never going to come down. People cannot keep paying $4+ a gallon. Something's gotta give. And to anyone who says, "Well people in Europe pay $6+ a gallon!" this is my response: Europe actually has public transportation. There are trains, buses, subway stations, etc. They don't need to drive cars! People in Utah can't live like that! There are no trains or metros here! The sad truth is you need a car to get places. And yet we still can't drill in Alaska. We're heading toward a crisis, but oh no, we need to save the lemmings or whatever the heck lives there. Gah, stupid environmentalists.
Honestly though, with all the technology we have nowadays, you'd think we could come up with a solution to this problem. Here's your conspiracy theory for the day: I bet someone's paying off the scientists who've already discovered it. Ok, not really, but it is a little frustrating. The best thing we can come up with is fuel from corn, which apparently creates another problem in and of itself? There's got to be something better out there.
Think about it, think, think about it. :)