New year's resolution

Yesterday I posted this really negative post about how my wedding is off and then abruptly deleted it. So there you have it, the wedding is postponed indefinitely. Happy new year. My resolution is to not get married.

Too much fun

David is home! We went to a fabulous party at Leah's house. Everyone had a little too much fun, if you know what I mean. I am finished with school, and it's wonderful. Rocky created a Christmas miracle today and opened some presents while I was asleep, all by himself. This prompted me to buy him a "super-tough" toy that ended up being a piece. Click here to see how crappy this toy was

Everything I need to know about saving the world I learned from Buffy

So, lately I've been doing A LOT of school work. We are learning about leadership and social change paired with ethics and law. My parents also gave me an elliptical machine for Christmas. I've been working out in our garage and watching an episode of Buffy every day. I just realized something, Buffy might be where I get this whole powerful woman, fight evil, save the world complex. I know it's risky to put this on the Internet for everyone to see, but it's true. Just look at all this:

Higher calling and self-sacrifice: She is chosen, she doesn't really want to be, but she has to.
Morality: She fights evil, and evil exists
Sense of humor: you have to laugh while saving the world from the apocalypse.
Feminist power: She's a cute blond girl that kicks big bad butt
Resilience: She keeps getting beat up, but she keeps doing it anyway.
Delegation and human resources: Where would Buffy be without her gang?
Her emotions giver her power.
She saved the world a lot, she puts other people's needs ahead of her own
Courage is not the absence of fear, it is doing the right thing in the face of fear (remember when she had to kill Angel, or when she had to jump off that tower to save Dawn? sob, tear)
Victory is complicated- just when you think you've figured it all out and solved every problem your best friend becomes a scary, deadly witch, someone turns into a giant snake, or your friends brings you back from the dead against your will.

Basically, Buffy is awesome. I think we should incorporate her into our leadership class. They said they couldn't find any good examples of girls in leadership anyway :)

Happy Birthversarygiving

So I had a really great time this week. I went home and celebrated Jed's 1st birthday, Ashur's 5th birthday, Thanksgiving, and my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. I even managed to survive my dad killing a very large deer and Sebastian and Rocky eating it's guts after escaping the yard. I also managed to write 2 papers and revise a third. Horray for work ethic. I'm supposed to write a paper assessing my leadership shortcomings. Please send me your comments (or don't). I hope everyone was thankful for many things. I am thankful for only 8 more papers and 11 more days of school. After that I have my life back and we can hang out. David is coming home on December 13th or 14th. He had to postpone his trip to work more. The good news is he should be in Little Rock until the wedding.

My Homework Ate My Life

I am officially a slacker at blogging. Nothing very exciting has happened to me lately. I kinda stay up all night (literally) writing papers and reading. Eleven days until Thanksgiving and 9 until Thanksgiving break! I need some time to finish up all the papers I have due at the end of the year. This weekend is the Slate 60 conference and famous people are supposed to be there. Maybe I'll actually meet some of them. I'm going tonight and tomorrow. A lot of you have been getting on to me for my poor blogging skills, but if you actually enjoyed any of that post you have a higher threshold for boring than I.

OH YEAH!!!!! BEST WEEKEND EVER!

I had the best weekend. Friday a bunch of us went to see Lucero at the Village. I really like the new album, and I never get tired of hearing them. I really felt like I was home.
Yesterday we all went to Julie's Halloween party. Everyone had great costumes. I was very impressed. Now that I had too much fun, I need to get to work. Hope your weekend was as fabulous as mine.

Scary dirt devil

When thinking of dressing up scarily for Halloween, you might think of a devil, but not a dirt devil. Rocky seems to have an unhealthy fear of this contraption. Click here to see him run in terror.

Rocky is having the BEST WEEK EVER!

I adopted a two-year old pure mutt yesterday. His name is Rocky and he's been at the shelter since he was a baby. He knows his name and I can't change it so to make it cooler, he's Little Rock Carpenter for long and Rocky for short. He's sweet and loves Gator. Unfortunately, I left both the boys in the spare room because it was raining, and they ate some mineral oil. This could end very badly. David is really excited to take him to Baton Rouge. Here's his sweet face.

Duluth, Minesnowta

David and I had a really great weekend. I won't get to see him again until December, so it was much needed. We ate ribs at a cookoff at the park, we drove up and spent the night at Lake Superior, and we watched two mediocre movies. It was really nice to get to see eachother. It was definitly the most relaxing weekend I had had in awhile. Minnesota is having a really beautiful fall. The leaves were spectacular. Spectacular, spectacular. I'm officially moved into the new house. If you are in Hillcrest, come on over.

Here I am with Madeline Albright

I look really old. I need to start dressing younger. Maybe it's the massive amount of work they keep assigning me. I also basically finished my speech, group project, and paper. I AM AMAZING! I can now waste time making photo collages, blogging, and watching Grey's Anatomy.

Day in the life....

Some of you may be wondering what I've been up to, since I am the worst blogger ever. Some of you may not, but here goes anyway.
This weekend I worked on a paper that was a mock addendum to a Hope VI grant application that Little Rock recieved. They are tearing down 100 deteriorating units of public housing and replacing them with accesible, affordable, single-family homes. It's a really great idea. I got to write a paper about the renewed mission and vision of the Little Rock Housing Authority as a result of recieveing the Hope VI grant. Here is my fabulous mission statement

The Little Rock Housing Authority is committed to replacing deteriorating public housing with affordable, accessible, safe, energy-efficient, desirable housing in Little Rock, AR, and providing residents with the tools needed to succeed in becoming economically self-sufficient. (Purpose) Through physically tearing down unwanted public housing units, and replacing them with ideal ones, and metaphorically tearing down skill, education, and support barriers, and building up programs that foster self-betterment and community contribution (business), the LRHA provides a new hope and support system for residents who deserve a better life (values).

It's not their real statement or anything. It's just what I think it should be. I get to pretend to be a person that writes mission statements. So fun, it's like Halloween.

Last night Katie and I began painting her new house. We finished both bedrooms, after 4 hours, 2 arby's meals ( I know, gross) and a few Lucero albums later. Elizabeth stopped by after her volleyball game. If you haven't talked to her lately, pat her on the back, she is busting her butt at that school. I am officially the most lousy painter, maybe it was the arbys, maybe it was how late it was, but I managed to spill paint all over myself, butter yellow paint. Anyway, I came home and read a chapter from a book entitled moral philosophy, and two more articles about ethics. My favorite part was when one of the articles mentioned that President Bush said the American people were sacrificing after 9/11 by waiting in longer airport lines. Poor us.
This morning I tried to move some stuff while wearing heels, this is a very bad idea. I attended a lecture given by John Hofmeister, President of the Shell Oil Company's leadership team. It was disheartening. I told him that the crisis in the Middle East and global warming will never be resolved if we keep using oil for fuel, and asked how funding for research for alternative fuel compared to funding for finding more oil. He said they spend 250 million a year on alternative fuel research, that gets a big BOO from me. Tonight Katie and I are painting again. If you want to come over, we will have pizza and PBR. The perfect dinner combination.
Tomorrow I am volunteering at Francis Allen with the most perfect preschoolers ever. Thursday I have a lecture from Robert Goodwin, head of the Points of Light Foundation. Friday I have a lecture from Susan Rice from the Brookings Institution. Then I get on an airplane to go visit David, the only time I'll get to see him in 4 months. I am missing dinner with Senator David Pryor, but it's okay, because I get to have dinner with David Carpenter. I have class in an hour, I haven't eaten anything, and I still need to read like 100 pages. Then we have a student government meeting. I think most of you know how I feel about that. So if you got through this boring post, then you probably know what my life is like. Sorry I'm so bad about updating and keeping in touch. I have a pictures of Katie painting, but I forgot my cord, so I'll post them later.

For your amusement

So my new, cool friend Jamie says that my blog has been ceasing to amuse her. So here are some things that I find very amusing:

Gator pooped on the floor last week and I took a couple pictures in an effort to embarrass him out of doing it again, as if dogs can be embarrassed, if they could, they probably wouldn't poop right in front of you. Anyway, if you want to see these monstrosities (which you probably do) click HERE FOR POOP, and Here for Gator feeling bad about it.

Last weekend the Clinton School students headed up to Fayetteville to do some really good work, like make a cheerleader pyramid and learn that Jason has a hidden talent better than any talent I could ever imagine. Watch the video

Katie and her eclectic magnets, esspecially the one with the baby orangutans in medical scrubs are hilarious.

Paul Hill and his super lunch box.

The terror level sign at the Flying J in Russelville.

A picture of Ashur holding Jed which is very similar to the Britney Spears almost dropping Sean Preston picture.

How do you stop injustice?

Hello all. I've been a total slacker when it comes to updating this thing, but I'll give it a quick go. This week I was priviledged to see the famous Dr. Cornel West speak at Philander Smith College in Little Rock. Cornel West has written several books on race in America and is a professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton. He spoke for several hours on a Friday night and I wasn't bored once. It was a profound experience to be surrounded by a group of educated people recognizing that race does indeed matter. The inequalities we experience in this country are inexcusable. Dr. West said that after 9/11 all Americans experienced what it felt like to be violated, subject to random violence, and hated for who they were, but African Americans had been experiencing that all along. Through all this injustice, there was never a black Alkadea, but instead the production of some of the greatest lovers of humanity. In the words of Dr. West himself, “Who wants to be well-adjusted to injustice? What kind of human being do you want to be?” This school is so wonderful, because it provides me with opportunities to question what I know, to open my eyes and look around at the "whole world" and not just what is easy to see. If any of you get a chance, come to some of the lecture series at the school, you might see something new.

Here I am with my friend Bill

I have been so busy. I barely have time to write this between class and listening to James Joseph the former ambassador to South Africa. I went to St Francis county yesterday. It was a 14 hour bus drive: TOO LONG. It was nice. I'm glad we went. The delta is a completely different world, and I really haven't spent any time there. I worked at Francis Allen today and had a blast. I have a huge paper due Friday, but after that I need a drink, so we should go out. Please forgive my inadequate blogging. Gator popped in the floor 3 times, that was the pinnacle of my week, that and talking to the head parks and rec guy in Little Rock about the Big Dam bridge, that's the real name.

I just don't know what to do with myself

Hey everyone. I’ve been a bad blogger, and I apologize. Things have been very busy around here. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but Friday alone, I attended a talk on HIV/AIDS in India, Charlie Cook came by to talk about political polls and the 2008 election, and I received a step by step timeline of what happened during Hurricane Katrina by the captain of the TAC police squad there. By the way, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is on the 29^th. I think most of you remember how it still is down there. Boo! Boo! Boo! (and I’m not referring to an affectionate rapper term!)

In other news, Ashur apparently speaks Spanish.

So, one of my new friends from school, Julie, noted that she has seen a picture of me in 3 different Halloween Costumes and she doesn’t really know me, which brings me to a good point. HALLOWEEN IS CLOSE! I DON’T HAVE A COSTUME YET!!! Since everyone keeps teasing me about saving the world, maybe I should be Mother Teresa or something. Personally I think that’s a little too politically incorrect, so I could always wear a red sweatsuit, draw a smiley face on it and be Mr. Koolaid, only saying “OhYeah!,” the entire night. What a weird thing to say.

So now it’s time for a list

Things I love (I wish I were Oprah, because then people would care about what I love, and I would be god to millions of stay-at-home moms:

David Sedaris on NPR

The movie “All the Real Girls”

Grey’s Anatomy is about to start

My Analysis class (I know, it’s weird to like statistics)

Katie’s dog Gator, who is crazy and jumps on and off the couch in a fast, rabid manner…. which makes me laugh

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

A cougar named Karen (you know who I’m talking about)

This bird thing I made at the iron pour, picture will follow

Chandle has left her social life

Remember those days where I could blog 2 sometimes 3 times a week. I'm afraid those might be over. I've been exceedingly busy with school, and I haven't even officially started yet. Working out is the only thing that seems to keep me sane and that takes up the other hour I have in the day. The school is wonderful and I really enjoy my classmates. I'm going to be spoiled rotten with seminars and education. I will not be spoiled with free-time. It's probably a good thing David is gone, I might drive him nuts. Soon enough, things will settle down and I'll get moved and figure out how to manage this workload. I wish I had some pictures. My parents are coming down to help me move this weekend, so maybe I can catch up. Hope your lives are as exciting (and not as insane) as mine!

Petit Jean

I'm back in Little Rock and have already started Camp Clinton. The fish fry went great Friday and everyone in my class is nice and amazing. It's going to be so wonderful to bounce ideas off each other. We are staying at the Winthrop Rockefeller Center at Petit Jean. It is so beautiful up here. I think it would be a perfect place for the wedding. It would be a great place to come and stay for a weekend too. I have a room all to myself, and new laptop, and people keep providing me with massive amounts of food, beer and wine. It's pretty much the best orientation EVER! We are heading over to the Heifer Ranch tomorrow to do a ropes course. That should be interesting. I know this post is particularly boring, so I'll tell you something cool. One of my classmates, Dustin, was struck, in the face, by lighting which then also struck his dad in the face, and both of them were totally fine, besides the obvious shock of being struck in the face with lightning. On that note, here are some pictures of my fabulous room and new school-computer Which I must say could never be even close to as amazing as the computer my parents got me for Christmas. I love you Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!:

Using molten iron to light a barrel fire hanging in a tepee is more fun than a regular barrel fire

Fun at franconia

Here is the church and here is the steeple, we sure are cute for 2 ugly people

Things are pretty easy-going here. David and I have been spending a lot of time together, which is something we don't get to do too often. I am having a great time. He works all day and I make cookies, clean and look at dishes and things to register for on the internet. I am a domestic goddess. I'll be home on Friday and moving in with Katie soon. We are staying in the basement of the new house, and the windows have holes dug around them so you can see the sunshine. Unfortunately, animals sometimes fall into them and can't get out, so they starve to death. There were approximately 40 frogs and one starving crazy prairie dog in these window-holes. I felt bad for them, so I proceeded to catch them in a cup, put them in a trashcan and set them free in the swamp. The stressfulness of this project was unbeknownst to me, until they started jumping towards my face with killer speed. I would scream about every 2 seconds. I managed to catch all of them and put the lid on the trash can. I picked it up, the lid slipped off and the trashcan crashed to the floor. The scream I let out was probably heard for 3 miles. I pointed and made indistinguishable noised until I finally yelled "DAAAAVIIIIID, get it get it get it get it. Thank god he was right there too, paralyzed by the fear of 40 crazy frogs being let loose in the new house rendered me incapable of resolving the issue and David picked it up just in time. Next was the prairie dog. David put on full leathers, scooped it up in a shovel, dumped in the trashcan and threw the trashcan out. We ran up stairs and had to dump the poor thing out it was so weak. It ran into the bushes and we through a spoon of peanut butter at it. That's the most exciting thing that happened all week. P.S. Go see Talladega Nights and Little Miss Sunshine, funniest movies since movies were funny.

Leah is Martha Stewart

I went to the wonderful welcome home me/ Leah and Blue housewarming party Saturday. The food was amazing and talking to everyone again was so fun. It's like I never left, except now I have 10 rolls of film for everyone to look at. We were all sitting around talking about houses and weddings, and I aged 10 years, right there on the patio. Wedding plans are still at a halt. I'm going to look at petit jean mountain when I go camping with school. I go see David on Thursday, and I'm sure I'll take lots of pictures of crazy art people. Staying with David's parents is great. I'll post again soon.

Back in Little rock

What do you do when your boyfriend is waaaaaay cooler than you? David is rockin' the mohawk and those ridiculous glasses. I don't like the glasses, but he says they are cool. He bought a brand new truck, pictured above. It's really nice and clean and shiny and has a 3 year warranty! I'm going to be staying with his parents through August, and then moving in with Katie. I'm a little apprehensive about grad school, but I'm used to trying new things by now. Hope everything is good with everyone. It's kinda been a whirlwind of seeing people. Tonight we are having a potluck with his family. See ya.