Whoa, that was some drama, huh? Anonymous comments, offense, defense, and even NOT Jeff Gannon joined the mix! This must be what it feels like to write on Jezebel or something.

But it’s interesting, because that little interaction helped me in a couple of ways. First of all, it was a bit cathartic to write out some of my political philosophies, because generally I avoid politics as a topic of conversation. It’s too rife with tension; people become offended too easily. For example, I totally and out of character did become offended by that anonymous comment – not the politics of it so much; I had already stated that women who vote Republican just simply don’t fit into a logic I am capable of understanding (see post Things I Don’t Understand), but if I was offended by every Republican woman I have met/know then I’d be in a constant state of offense. I took issue with that statement “If you are truly liberal…”. And who knows? Maybe she wasn’t saying ME directly. Maybe she meant “If ONE is truly”, you know? It would have lost the personal tone it seemed to take if that word was different. And I think people do that a lot. I guess it all comes down to UNCLEAR GRAMMAR. HA!

Second, it helped me realize that I have to stop it with the American politics stuff. I mean, the kind of system and life I want just does not and will not exist here. So I have to stop worrying about it, take some damn Dutch lessons, and move back to the Netherlands, where I DID have the kind of life I want. Or at least just the “stop worrying” part. The problems we face here are deep and systematic, and while I think a McCain-Palin win would be devastating for this country, I’m not sure an Obama-Biden win is going to solve much either. So I’m ordering myself to step back, maybe even take a week off reading/listening to campaign coverage. The hard part of this is that, honestly, NPR is the only decent radio station in Dallas. I’ll have to figure something else out, I guess, because the car only has a tape deck and seriously, I threw out all the tapes I ever owned.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

So, back to shoes, Dallas life, my husband, and my cats.

You may notice I have been sending photos of my shoes to Flickr from my desk. I don’t know why I am doing this. Humor me.

Dallas life is getting better all the time. I can’t believe I just said that. Anyway, we are packing the house, so there are boxes everywhere. I really love this part. I know a lot of people don’t like moving, and I totally agree with the actual grunt work part sucking, but I LOVE packing and re-evaulating everything, and organizing, and labeling, and stacking neatly, and compartmentalizing, and finally leaving a room totally bare. And then starting brand new elsewhere. It’s maybe another reason I just can’t imagine owning a home. I get bored with my surroundings after two or three years. So it is going well. And also – I got a promotion. A rather decent one. I am really chuffed. I seem to finally have a job I like, that makes decent money. I feel suddenly grown up, with a big girl job, and two teenagers, and moving into a new house, and married, and so on and so forth. Of course, David & I have decided we’ll celebrate our new income bracket with a definite Queen’s Day trip to Amsterdam, and possibly a trip there also in November for the big birthday week (David on November 13, Tom on the 15th, Pal on the 21st, and Joey on the 30th – there is going to be a repeat of the great Catacombs party of last year we enjoyed a little TOO much) so perhaps that’s not so grown up.

Ah. The only sad thing is we have to cancel our Marfa/Terlingua trip in October. Booo. But we’ll reschedule. Yaaay.

We haven’t made any progress on the honeymoon since we’ve been so busy. Booo. But things are settling, and we’ll try to confirm by the end of the month. Yaaay.

David is great. He’s SO great. He is very happy these days. He has better shifts at the bar and is making better money, which makes him feel like he is contributing more and is therefore happier. He looks sexier every day. He’s been a great ‘dad’ to the girls, picking them up from school and taking them to the supermarket. We both love being married. To each other, that is.

This morning, when I was leaving, I leaned over the bed and kissed his temple. He opened his eyes.
A: Bye lover. I’ll see you later.
D: I got the best one!

And lastly, the cats. They are so happy right now because our house is a box farm. Ernie is the cutest kitten in the whole world (sorry, Winston). I want to call him Nermal. David and I have been trying to pinpoint what it is that makes him so adorable. First of all he has those HUGE front paws, but the rest of him is so small, so that’s just cute to start. But then we’ve decided he’s really not very smart. He has a blank look about him all the time, like he’s seeing everything for the very first time. It’s very endearing. Ronnie the Bear finally went to the vet for some lingering allergies. He was given a mighty antibiotic, and swear to god he has not been the same cat since he got back. Not in a bad way. He’s just so… docile. We were really getting used to him being an asshole. I guess his allergies were just making him miserable. Now he’s less of a Bear than he was before. Tugboat has been demanding more attention recently. Gus is fat.

And that’s the run-down. Have a good weekend, yo. Anyone want to go to Lee Harvey’s tonight? The weather is so perfect. David’s working. Then again, I guess I should pack. Oh well.