The GirlAlive Blog

Thanksgiving

Things I’m thankful for today (in no particular order):

* Tesco Cold Relief Capsules. My cold is back with a vengeance. I think I tried to do too much when I was still sick before, and now this virus is totally kicking my ass.

* My job. I was not made for office work. I hate sitting in a cubicle. I hate the random rules that serve no purpose but to make middle managers feel important. The whole atmosphere makes my skin crawl. But for a cubicle job, my current job isn’t too bad. My co-workers are awesome. I have lower pay, but I did the math and the amount I’m making less than my last job is almost compensated by the amount I’m not having to spend on bottled water and coffee because they are now supplied for free.

* My brother, and his taste in music. When my computer was stolen I was able to get back a good deal of my lost music from my brother, without having to dig through two dizen dusty boxes to find cd’s and re-rip all of them onto MP3. He saved me hours and hours of work. Including most of the Christmas music I really like. Plus, he gave me an Over the Rhine Christmas cd for an early Christmas present. :) (Also, tomorrow is his birthday, so happy birthday Matthew!)

* My trip to Minnesota in September. We had a Thanksgiving dinner with my family when I was there, so I don’t feel so bad about the half-assed thanksgiving dinner I’m going to be throwing together on Sunday because I’m too sick (and too busy working) on Thanksgiving.

* My husband. He is very tolerant. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why he insists on staying married to me.

And they say Americans don’t understand irony…

Okay, so I’ve had this blog for a good many years, and I have occasionally used it to vent my frustrations with the country I live in. My main complaint has been that the people are rude and nasty. In my experience, I’ve been mocked and picked taunted by complete strangers on the bus, who treat the whole world like their own little junior high school. My former co-workers treated me like crap just because I was American. (The alpha female in the office had a son who was marrying an American, and no one is good enough for her little boy, so she turned the whole office against all Americans.) My house has been broken into. I’ve seen more public puddles of vomit here in three years than I did in over 20 years in the US. I’ve seen people fly into violent rages against strangers for virtually no reason. In short, I’ve seen a lot of assholes.

Unfortunately, some of these assholes have figured out how to use a computer and have found this blog. What I find interesting is that the initial gut reaction from these people is to email me or post in the comments about what a horrible stupid bitch I am, and how I should go f*** myself, and basically dump streams of profanity and insults on me. So to refute my claim that British people are nasty racist assholes, they email and comment, with nasty racist asshole remarks. How does this do anything but prove my point?

It reminds me of those cartoons from Denmark a few years ago. They made a political statement about the Muslims being violent and reactionary. In response, the Islamic community had violent riots and burning of effigies. They basically said to the world, “If you call me violent, I’ll kill you!”

I don’t have a good summary or punchline for this post. I’ve got a nasty cold involving a waterfall of snot. I can’t say I hate the British. Cause I don’t. I just hate assholes, and a lot of them seem to live here.

Alana

Confession

I didn’t vote. There are reasons that make sense and reasons that don’t.

First of all, up until the very last minute I was undecided on the presidential election. I could have gotten an absentee ballot and just waited to see and I could have even left that space blank if I couldn’t decide. But I didn’t. And if I had, I’m still not sure which box I would have ticked.

On the smaller state-level elections, I don’t know anything. It’s not like they cover Minnesota House District 8 elections on the BBC. I did some internet research on the issues and things, but then I ran into another problem. I was reading up on the issue up for the vote in Minnesota, to raise the state sales tax to invest more in conservation. It struck me: I don’t have any logical right to vote on that. Legally, I can cast my vote and no one can stop me, but logically it bothers me. If I vote in favor of higher taxes, it’s a tax I never have to pay. And if I vote against it and the wildlife all dies, that doesn’t affect me either. It would be so easy to tick that box and raise Minnesota sales tax, knowing that in the next ten years, I might spend up to a month there actually paying that tax.

I don’t live in Minnesota. I don’t pay taxes in Minnesota. I don’t feel like I have a right to dictate how Minnesota is run. The same goes for the national level elections. I’m an American citizen, but is it fair for me to decide the politics of a country I only visit every few years? Frankly, I don’t feel right about it. My relationship with America right now is that it’s a place where some of my family lives and a place I visit once in a while. I might have family in Sweden too. And it’s a lot easier for me to visit Sweden. But that doesn’t mean I should vote in Swedish elections.

I’m planning to apply for British citizenship because this is where I pay my taxes and where I live. I won’t be renouncing my American citizenship or anything, but I also don’t know if I’ll ever feel right about voting in a country I will probably never live in again.

Alana

Election Day

Here is my obligatory election day posting.

1992: The world’s gonna end if Clinton gets elected! He’s Satan and we’re all doomed!
1996: If Clinton gets re-elected we’re doubly doomed! There will be fire and brimstone and babies bursting into flame!
2000: If Bush gets elected, the whole world will collapse! We’re all doomed!
2004: If Bush gets re-elected, we’re so screwed! Everything will fall apart and we will all die horribly! The French will invade and we will all be drafted into the army.

Today: I’m totally not falling for that again. No matter which festering pile gets elected, the sun will still rise tomorrow. You’ll still have to go to work and feed your kids, just like yesterday. It doesn’t matter.

Alana