I am so so so glad it is the weekend.

I have decided that, if I can't be independently wealthy, I'm looking forward to the day that I can have a career where I don't count the days, hours, minutes, seconds to the weekend.

Hopefully, after satisfactorily completing the GRE, I am well on my way.

Pregnant sister and brother-in-law coming in this weekend for the Easter holiday (or, really, an excuse to go to Sunday brunch at the Clinton library. Yum.)

Otherwise, no big plans.

But it looks like the weather is going to cooperate and be quite lovely. Perhaps my car will finally dry out after this week's deluge.

Interesting quote from Barak Obama that is worth-your-while:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know (pause) there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."

Um....what?!? I thought Obama was all about bringing us together, building us up and all that crap. Well, this "typical" white person isn't buying it.

It reminds me of how I felt upon entering college in New York after growing up in the South. Some people, upon finding out I was from Arkansas, just assumed I had my white hood hanging in the closet back in the dorm room.

Sorry to disappoint, but not all Southerners are racist. On the contrary, I have noticed more mixed-race friendships/marriages/etc in the South than I ever saw in New York.

Or Oregon for that matter.

And maybe I am naive and somewhat out-of-touch with the racist people in this country, having met only a few in my lifetime. But, I would argue that for Obama to make a statement such as this, he is out-of-touch as well.

And he's running for President.

I am GRE'd

The GRE is over!

Aaand, I surpassed my goal by 10 whole points!

Probably the most difficult obstacle I faced on the morning of the test was figuring out what to wear. The GRE material said to wear something comfortable but to also wear layers in case the room was cold or hot.

Comfortable and layers. To me, those terms are mutually exclusive.

I've never figured out the whole layering thing. The spring and fall seasons wreck havoc on my sense of style and my body temperature.

If you try to wear an outer lay that will fit over other layers, the outer layer is too big.

If you try to wear non-bulky inner layers so that the outer layer fits without being too big, then the inner layers are too small.

It's too confusing!

So, I ended up going to the GRE looking like a bag lady with pajamas. But that's okay since I wasn't there to win any fashion awards. I was simply there to take a test, survive that test, and pass that test.

And I accomplished all three of those goals.

And then I celebrated with Mexican food and sangria.

Double Standards

Obama is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

On the one hand, he says this election is not about race. Oh and he didn't "vote" for the war in Iraq. And the election is not about race. It's about the fact that he was against the Iraq war "from the beginning." Oh, and, the election isn't about race.

But then he makes it about race.

First the whole Geraldine Ferraro hoopla. I read the article in which that quote was given. She wasn't being racist. She was comparing her role as "The First Female Vice-Presidential Candidate" to Obama's run as "The First Black Presidential Candidate."

And while she should have known better than to say a few forceful words that, invariably, can be taken out of context and used against her, she wasn't saying anything that hasn't already been said.

Obama is black. He is running for President. Many people are attracted to his candidacy. Some may be attracted to it because he is black. (Just as some may be attracted to Clinton because she is a woman.)

Why has Obama's campaign decided we can't talk about these issues? Anytime anyone wants to bring it up, air it out, what-have-you, the Obama camp says the election "should not be about race."

Effectively cutting off the discourse.

UNLESS, of course, you happen to be Obama.

Which brings me to my second point.

Today, he holds a press conference to talk about race and how it is an issue in many people's lives.

Basically repeating things that Ferraro said. Saying things that, until just-before-the-press-conference, were off-limits because that isn't what the election "should be about."

But that doesn't make him racist. It makes him....revolutionary (?!)

And he tries to excuse the hateful, bigoted message of his pastor by saying that the anger is wrong but "very real."

Interesting.

I wonder if homophobes or anti-Semites or religious zealots or...racists have ever used the argument that their hatred is based on fake anger.

Don't think so.

Now I have to go back to my studying.

I finally made the reservation for my GRE.

So next Wednesday at approximately 11:45am Central Time I will begin to bang my head against a desk somewhere in Little Rock.

I feel ambivalent about this test. One the one hand, I feel good about my prospects because I've actually been studying for it. I did not study for the SAT or ACT (well, not really anyway) but I managed to do okay on those tests.

I also feel not-so-good about my prospects because I have not been in school for FIVE years! No tests, no studying, no evaluations for FIVE years.

And I haven't been in a math class in about eight years.

That does not bode well.

I think the math section of any test should consist of the following question:

1. You are here to spend 4 hours taking a test in order to go to grad school so that you can get a job in your chosen career. Assuming you have carefully researched said chosen career (and why would you be taking a 4-hour test if you hadn't?), how often do you think your job (or your life) will require you to do math in your head when you could, instead, use a calculator?

A. All the time - I'm a masochist!
B. Sometimes - Just to feel the burn.
C. Almost Never - except for when I'm counting cards in Vegas
D. Why would I do math in my head when I could use a calculator?

If you answer A to that question, you have to take the math test. If you answer B, C or D....you don't.

Because honestly (honestly) when am I ever going to use algebra?

Or geometry?

Or even long division?

Never.

Not so for the verbal section. Everyone uses words. And people will fault you for your lack of vocabulary.

But who will fault you for not knowing the answer to this?

If x/3 - x/6 + x/9 - x/12 =1 - 1/2 + 1/3 - 1/4 then x=

No one worth knowing, that's for sure.

Snow Snow Snow

I woke up this morning and peered out the window to see snow.

On the ground.

On the street.

On the cars.

Falling from the sky.

Since this is Little Rock and I work for the government, I somewhat smugly (and quite happily) turned on the TV to verify my assumption that work would be canceled.

Well, we all know what happens when we assume.

Not one Little Rock school was closed. Ditto for the State Government.

No worries...it was just 6am. Surely in about 30 minutes or so they will come to their senses and cancel everything.

And so my morning went in 20-30 minute increments.

1. Fall asleep.

2. Wake up and turn on the TV.

3. Frown (scream / pound my pillow / weep) and go back to sleep.

Until finally, at 7:15ish, I had to face the fact that the city would remain open.

I was shocked!

When I was in school, everything would be canceled at the drop of one flake. One time in high school, classes were canceled because of a chance (a chance!) of freezing rain.

Needless to say, it didn't freezing rain that day....it just rained. And it was awesome.

But no. We all had to schlep to work like a bunch of idiots.

And was I in my nice, comfortable, all-wheel-drive Subaru? No. I was in my finicky, wet / cold, slide-on-dry-pavement Volkswagen.

And you want to know who I blame for this sudden shift in thinking?

Yankees. Northerners. Westerners. Not-Southerners.

They move here for jobs, retirement or what-have-you and they bring their studded tires, their tire chain thingies and their shovels. And, before you know it, everyone starts to think that it is okay to go to work when the whole sky is cascading down in snow flakes.

But we're Southerners! We don't drive in snow. We play in it.

We don't shovel sidewalks. We wait a day or two until the sun comes out, the temperature jumps to 70 and it melts on its own.

If we have to contend with tornadoes, Redneck jokes, earthquakes and Bible-Belters....the least we can get is one sweet snow day!

So my message is this: if you move to the South, leave your crazy "I'll drive in a blizzard and like it" attitude at home.

(Note: Luckily, the Yankee I married was just as appalled at the thought of going to work today. It could be on account of the fact that he stayed up till 3am playing the Wii last night. But I'd like to think it was the snow.)

Penelope and Vocabulary

We saw Penelope last night and it was so good. Probably the best movie I've seen in a while. Perhaps I liked it so much because I, too, have the nose of a pig and a huge forehead like Christina Ricci.

And I'm in love with a McEvoy (or McAvoy...whatever).

Plus, the music was really good. I'm not sure of any of the artists...as Adam can attest to since I kept leaning over to him and asking, "Who sings this?" or "I like this song...who is it?"

Adam, who is usually my music encyclopedia, unfortunately did not know any of the artists either.

And since neither one of us could stay until the end of the credits due to the large amounts of liquid consumed during the movie, I will have to remain in the dark for the foreseeable future.

Today is kind of cloudy and gross which actually works to my advantage since I'm supposed to be studying for the GRE.

The GRE that I'm taking this coming Saturday.

The GRE that doesn't allow calculators.

The GRE that could make or break my graduate school application process.

But, I'm not suffering from a neurasthenia or anything.

(neura=nerves / asthenia=loss of strength / neurasthenia=loss of strength of nerves= loss of nerves)

So, I took Ellen's advice and went to the websites of the 2 candidates I care about (Clinton and Obama) to see what their stance is on the issue.

Unfortunately, neither candidate has anything about gay rights in the "issue" section of their websites.

But after some Googling, I discovered that both candidates want to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. Yea!

Both are against hate crimes and workplace discrimination. Yea!

Both are pro-civil unions instead of gay marriage. Booo.

However, there is one BIG difference in their stance on gay marriage.

Obama is against gay marriage because...well, here's just a direct quote he gave to the Chicago Tribune:

"I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."

Clinton isn't so much anti-gay marriage as she is pro-civil unions.

She has said that she believes civil unions have a greater likelihood of passing into law and providing equal rights than do gay marriages.

However, she has also said she would not stand in the way of gay marriages, which makes me think she isn't against them morally.

It's interesting that Obama's stance is so conservative. Indeed, as far as gay marriage is concerned, there isn't much difference between him and Mike Huckabee.

Granted, Obama does believe in civil unions and gay rights (which Huckabee, obviously, doesn't) but the underlying feeling is the same.

In both of their minds, God doesn't condone same sex relationships. The Bible doesn't condone same sex relationships.

I wonder in what other areas Obama allows his religious ideas to permeate into his civil actions.

It brings to mind all of his "not-present" votes he gave on abortion issues while in the Illinois Senate...