My hero

When I was younger and flirting with the idea of going into the Foreign Service, my idol was Colin Powell. Although Republican, he always seemed to me to be diplomatic and he stood up for what he believed was the right thing, not just the 'popular' thing. Of course, like everyone, there were some things he did/said that I did not agree with, but overall, he impressed me and made me believe that party politics could be overcome.
Once, and I remember this very very well, when i was a junior in high school and my dad still worked at the Boston Globe, he took me as his 'date' to the White House Press Corps Conference. Essentially its where all the big media groups invite a 'celebrity' to sit at their table and watch a speech/performer and look at the president and his wife sit on stage. The Globe had John Kerry and his wife at the table which was pretty cool at the time. However, the most memorably moment of the night, and definitely in the top 10 of my life, was as i was walking through one of the hallways (by myself) i noticed a few large men in suits coming towards me and as they got closer, COLIN POWELL was right behind them and brushed shoulders with me and said, 'Excuse me.'!!!!! I nearly died or jumped into his arms or something. Instead, I teared up and vowed never to wash my shoulder- which I havent.
In any case, this makes me respect him even more.. lordy, is he eloquent!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27265490#27265490

For those that haven't seen the recent speeches from Obama and McCain at the benefit dinner, they are actually pretty funny. Kind of nice to see them able to laugh at their criticisms for once and to put the boxing gloves aside. I particularly LOVED it when Obama said 'Perhaps my greatest weakness is that I'm a little too awesome.' AWESOME.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/mccain-and-obama-palling-around-must-be-the-al-smith-dinner/?hp


And on another note, simply furthering my proof that the Red Sox are the greatest sports team in the history of the world, they pretty much created some miracles last night that even Moses would be impressed with. Even if they manage to lose this weekend, this still makes their season a win.. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/10/that_just_happe.html

Wedding Bells heard literally everynight

As most of you know, I've never really been one of those 'gotta get married now' girls. When I was younger, i would have dreams of me with 3 kids in front of a big house with a big yard. There was never a husband watering the lawn in the dream- I don't think that was ever intentional, but just that my priorities were/are more to be successful/stable and to adopt kids because I love kids. It was never that i DIDNT want a husband in that dream, just more that that was less of a priority.
Here, getting married is THE most important thing for 98% of the population- maybe higher. I have not met a SINGLE person here that does not worry about or have as their number 1-3 goal to get married- even my relationship challenged, super liberal friend Sarra. I've always kind of hated this aspect of the culture here because of what it represents. Fine, family is super important and its wonderful to see big families get together for dinners etc, but a lot of the couples barely knew each other before the 'big date' and to be honest (i know to expect some backlash on this), a lot of the men are sweet/romantic/respectful and then oooops, day after the marriage, they can't be bothered to get their own glass of water or wipe their own asses (slight exageration, but not really.) My close friend and her husband are extremely liberal and they typically have an affectionate and cute (despite his ridiculous jealousy) relationship with each other, but whew, when they are at the house, he does not think about lifting a finger and she lets him get away with that! While at their house the other night, their youngest daughter knocked over the pot of hot coffee onto their son's leg and all over the couch/floor and as my friend took the son to the bathroom to clean him off, the husband just says "oh great, now the couch is gonna get stained." Didnt even cross his mind that if he got off the sofa and cleaned up the coffee, the couch would not stain (i happily did it while glaring at and lecturing him for his stupid comment- yes he is a good friend of mine so i can do that). I am not saying this is all couples and of course there are different degrees of this 'wife does everything even if she works a super long day, is sick and pregnant', but it definitely makes me angry to see.
That all being said, I am super super super happy that a very very good friend of mine and former colleague, Mohamed, recently got engaged. He is probably the nicest, most genuine guy i've ever met and has done a LOT for me here and has really been a great great friend. He is also usually very shy about talking about girls, but wow I am so happy for him. The joy radiating (yes, radiating) from his face when he was showing me pictures from his 'family engagement party' was so sincere and so wonderful. It gives me the warm and fuzzies to see someone THAT happy and has made me pause and think, ok maybe there are SOME people out here that really value marriage for the person they are marrying. I seriously hope a few years of marriage won't change how he treats/looks at his fiancee, but for once, I have faith that this guy won't disappoint. Now if everyone would stop telling me that it is time for me to get married... i think pigs will fly first. That would be pretty awesome though if pigs started to fly.

I realized today how pretty much all of the blogs that I used to/still check on a regular basis have slowed down enormously over the past 2 years. In college it seemed like if I wasnt putting up a post a day (which almost never happened), i was the 'slacker' and immediately reminded of that by either Brokeback or Williams. Those were the days when after sitting across from Mike or Adam at the library for a good hour or more only to realize that at 2 am, they were busy spending an hour writing and revising blog posts. That always baffled/shocked me. I too am certainly a part of the crowd that have neglected the blog, especially considering my multi-month hiatus. Just a weird observation that I don't really have any good analyses for.

Already thinking about coming home for Christmas. Hoping for a Barn reunion maybe in NYC the weekend right after Christmas. Might not be alone for the trip. Weird.

Barcelona=heaven

Wow. I think I am in love. What a fabulous, fun, chill, big (!!) city! A long weekend there was wonderful, but a bit of a tease. I'm ready to move there! (might actually be considering that as my next stopping point.) Great food, amazing shopping (damn lack of money), cheapest booze in Europe and a vibe that just made me feel at home right away. Felt a bit like NYC in terms of the size and amount of different things to do/see/eat, but with a more laid back, walk at your own pace aura. Ahhh sigh. When can i go back!!?? I think it also helped that we had 2 fabulous night tour guides (friends of my travelling companion) that brought us to an incredible incredible restaurant the first night followed by a few bars- one of which we all danced for hours. Then took us to a fondue (!) restaurant the next night followed by a bar with 'the best Mojitos' in Barcelona. Maybe it was the gorgeous weather, maybe it was the company i was with or maybe i just need a change from Tunis, but what a breath of fresh air!

Sweet nostalgia

Got a link to The Badger Herald and succumbed to my temptations to read the Shout Outs. It was awesome. Except made me really miss Madison and all the memories- we had some good ones. Even got nostalgic at all the shout outs from HC White at all hours of the night- ah good times. Haven't been to Madison in over a year, not sure when i'll make it back. Sad.

Random dreams

I don't typically remember dreams, but I havent been sleeping well this past week and have been having some SUPER weird dreams. Whenever I did happen to remember my dreams in the past, they usually were like one of 5 different ones that I must keep in my dream box- one with an alice in wonderland meets cross country skiing theme, James Bond theme (only when we would play that incessantly last year), one with the big giant rat like creature from Princess Bride that attacks me in my living room (NJ house) and one with a sweet Goonies theme (although whenever we would 'fly' out the shoot into the big lagoon, I would jerk awake). Always involved people I knew or had known and usually movie or recent event theme.
Well, yesterday i had THE weirdest dream. I swear there were no drugs or alcohol in my system which would have been a much easier explanation.
So in this dream, I had to save Nicole Kidman (i dont even like her) who had been drugged and kidnapped by her mother and forced to join a cult of some sort although it was Nicole Kidman who came to me herself saying she wanted me to save her and the others from her mother. Okay, bizarre. So then my 'challenge' to save people from this random cult was that i had to jump from one part of a bridge to another without falling in the water. And I was driving around with some guy actor who i'm not positive but i think it was the guy from Sweet Home Alabama. And I also think that cult had something to do with aliens althought might be distorted.

Yeah, weird. I hope that one doesnt get stored in my 'dream box'- it was pretty lame. Not nearly as sweet as the Goonies dream.