my love affair with the triceratops will never end

A colossal misunderstanding with my student loan providers has left me profoundly broke. I'm optimistic I'll be able to weather this storm, but it took me by surprise and scrambling to find ways to curb my spending. Remember the other night you mentioned (jokingly) that you obviously show your love by spending money on me? Feel free. Feel. free. Thankfully, I'm entirely too busy to really have time to go out carousing until the wee hours of the morning spending money on alcoholic beverages and pinball anway. A trip to the barn yesterday made me realize just how much work still needs to be done before I can move in. So tomorrow afternoon will be spent painting the walls of my reading/writing nook. I can't seem to find an easy link to show the disgustingly pretty color I chose, but it's pale blue. And manages to make the hideous blue carpet look less hideous. I also packed up 5 boxes of books last night as well allowing me to come to the realization that packing doesn't take that long. It's just boring.

Josh Ritter is going to be in Detroit in April! And as if that weren't enough, Hem is going to be there too! Despite my poverty, I'm fairly certain I can muster the..wait for it....$10.00 rumored ticket price. Check the dates, Ms. Minnesota. As my Hem-mentor, methinks you should consider a trip east April 20th.

I did watch some of the Opening Ceremonies last night. Yawn. Underwhelming. And what was with the choice to use 70s and 80s music for the Parade of Nations? It was bizarre to watch Iran walk into the stadium to something akin to "Funkytown." I'm not gonna lie: I'm a fan of the Olympic Games. I usually end up with grandiose dreams of learning a new sport (during Athens, I got hooked on swimming) which promptly dies down the minute the Games are finished. This year, it'll be snowboarding again.

Everybody's talkin' 'bout Michael Brown's Senate testimony from yesterday. It's interesting to note how his story changed from when he was on the federal payroll, but that's to be expected.
The politicalization of Senate hearings makes them virtually ineffective as we saw from the Gonzales hearings the other day. What's the point of "getting to the truth" if the hearings are really only going to be a pulpit for either party to spout the agreed upon position? Hurricane Katrina was an example of a bureaucratic monster--FEMA--and an administration (who was too busy looking for terrorists) crumbling under it's own weight. Pointing the finger solely at Brown gives him too much power. Who was the idiot who appointed someone who was woefully unqualified in the first place?

Another story that didn't get the press it deserved was this little gem about the administration distorting intelligence information to justify the invasion of Iraq. Is this news? Only because it's an ex-C.I.A official who oversaw intelligence in the Middle East from 2000-2005. He's the first insider to speak out against the administration's claims that it was justified in going to war. Whenever this type of story comes out, I'm left with a profound sense of RAGE. How do they continue to get away with everything?! Their tactics and motivations are so transparent. Is it that the American people are that stupid? That easily hoodwinked? That easily manipulated? Or have we finally reached the apex of apathy? We're so concerned with our immediate environment--be it how much we're paying for gas today or who the next American Idol is going to be--that we.just.don't.care. And that, my friends, is sad. I have been under the assumption virtually my entire life that it is my responsibility to make the world a better place. And I was blessed with parents who believed (and still do!) that I am capable of such a thing. Perhaps I'm the fool because I'll continue to care. Fine. I'd rather be a fool who believes in something than a fool who doesn't even know to care.

And speaking of people who believe: Michael, this one's for you.

People who don't believe in dinosaurs live a joyless existence.
And a pathetically uninformed one.