Anxiety

Why Russ Feingold is my political boyfriend...

Feingold has gathered various legal and other experts to testify, but the result is a foregone conclusion. "I am going to lay out the reality that Congress does have this power," Feingold said. "The president does not have the unilateral power to (continue the war) without our consent."

Feingold said a cutoff of funding six months after the law is enacted "makes sense, it is constitutional, and our troops will not be left in the lurch."

Under Feingold's plan, the administration would have to safely redeploy troops from Iraq except for those needed to target counter-terrorism operations and provide security for U.S "infrastructure and civilian personnel" there, and a "limited number" to train Iraqi security services.

Feingold Ups The Ante On Iraq Funding

posted by Rachel at 10:55 AM | 2 comment(s)

Many Mini Blogs

I have too much to say and can’t narrow it down to one thought. But, this will probably have to hold you over for a week or two, so read slowly.

23 is the new 22…

…only better. After mourning my old glory days, I realized that I didn’t have any. I have always been fundamentally uncool, and as such, can have no old glory days to mourn. The good news is, my glory days must still be ahead.

Despite being uncool, I was lucky enough to have some good friends and we had fun in our own uncool ways. And now, being 23 and older and wiser, I have realized that us uncool folk are in the majority, and since most of the cool people from our past are now divorced and working at Denny’s, we become cool by default. So that’s cool.

I think I’m done using the word cool for about a year now.


The best part of being married...

…besides all the being in love with Steve stuff is being an aunt. With the arrival of Zoe a week ago today, I have five nieces and nephews in all. (It bothers me that they don’t have a word that combines nieces and nephews like siblings does for sisters and brothers.) What’s interesting is how they can all be so different, even though they’re from the same family. Although, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since Becca and I are related. Anyway, it’s completely amazing and I feel very lucky to be a part of all of their lives.


That being said…

…here are some of Steve’s and my (and Nate’s) possible pre-child(ren) travel plans:

2007 – California Disneyland & surf trip; Nebraska/Montana family trips
2008 – Fiji, New Zealand and Southeast Asia
2009 – New York – opening of the new Citi stadium
2010 – Mediterranean – Spain, Italy, Greece and other southern European countries
2011 – Vancouver, after it has been all spruced up for the 2010 winter Olympics
2012 – Costa Rica

For those of you keeping track at home, this would bring me to the ripe old age of 29. I think that sounds like a good age for someone to start calling me Mom.

posted by Rachel at 4:42 PM | 1 comment(s)

Quarter-Life Crisis

Have I already claimed to have had one of these? Maybe this is my second. Not second quarter. Second crisis. Anyway… I’m having some issues with the prospect of turning 23. (At this point I’m happy I’m blogging so that the 24+ crowd can’t knock my teeth in.) It’s not that that 23 seems ridiculously old, it just definitely feels like a chapter in my life has ended. I’m no longer a student, I have a husband, I have car payments, I’m drinking coffee every morning and sometimes the music these darn kids are listening to today just sounds like noise to me.

Knowing how final it feels to have this chapter end has made me consider the prospect of all of the future chapters ending. There’s just something about it that feels so final. I think about having kids, and how my Not-Being-A-Mom chapter will abruptly come to a close. And I’m sure being a mom will be amazing and wonderful, but then I will never not be a mom again. And even being alive. Someday that chapter (or maybe it’s the whole book) will end. And even if the afterlife is perfect, I will never be living this life again.

It’s such a strange dichotomy, how things must end in order for things to begin. Right now I’m mourning the part of my life that has already passed. I guess the fact that I’m missing all the wonderful experiences I had is a statement to having lived well. Hopefully by my actual birthday, I will be over it and able to celebrate all of the good things that are just beginning.

Quote for the day: “I had a stick of CareFree gum, but it didn't work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality.” – Mitch Hedberg

For a completely different perspective, check out my Being a Grown Up entry from when I turned 21.

And no, this wasn’t just a completely cheap attempt to remind everyone that my birthday is coming up.

posted by Rachel at 11:28 AM | 2 comment(s)