Joe betrays Arkansas, heads for New Zealand

Hey everyone,
I went home this weekend and had a really great time. Ashur and I drew a lot of pictures. He drew one of me where I'm giant, and yellow, and look like a pregnant alien. I guess I need to try harder to lose weight. I listened to 6 hours of a book on tape. I ate a lot of my mom's homemade pizza, and I got all my reading done for school. Jed is starting to talk. He can say papa, nana, mama, ball, bite, bottle, ashur, and uh-oh. He also is a regular bull-in-a-china closet. He currently has 4 knots on his forehead from running into walls, falling off chairs, bumping into table tops, and tripping straight into the floor.
David got me a nightstand for Valentines Day. This is good, because I was actually using a cardboard box labeled "books" for the past 5 months. Joe is heading to New Zealand tomorrow. I had a great time at his going away party on Friday. We'll miss you, Joe!

Funny thing of the day

click here to laugh really hard

Snow Day.......I guess

This is how it looks outside my house on the "snow day"


Well it snowed less than 1 inch in Little Rock last night, but for some reason school is cancelled. I'm not complaining, it's just that I didn't have class today anyway, so all the work I was supposed to be doing today, I'm still supposed to be doing. It's also funny that all of the snow has already disappeared. It did free up my teacher friends for fun at Jamie's house, which was well worth the cold.

You know that Allstate commercial about multitasking? Mr. puts on his pants while driving? I'm miss flosses her teeth in the car. It's my worst habit, by far.

Ben Nichols and Cory Brannan are delighting not-so-snowbound Little Rock with their presence this evening. Hallelujah. It's also supposed to snow more tomorrow. Maybe I'll break a piece of furniture and use it as a sled. My dad used to tie a car hood to the back of his truck and pull us on it. It was the most fun thing on earth. I really wish I could be doing that right now.

My niece is trying to come into the world a little too soon. PJ is due April 1st, but she's already having contractions. It's not that great out here, stay in as long as you can, although I will definitely spoil the crap out of you.

I now have to get back to reading financial management and listening to Bonnie Raitt's "I can't make you love me" on repeat. Peace

What's New?

When did I become the kind of girl that likes to wear heels? I think I'm being molded to become some non-profit public service mogul. I have also become the kind of girl who doesn't mind white dog hair all over every coat she owns because it means Rocky has jumped all over her in loving adoration every time she comes home. I've been thinking about college lately, and I miss it. I know that we've grown up now, and we can't go lay on the grass at toadsuck and talk about boys, or run into the Donaghey house with pantyhose on our heads and steal Blue's chess game, or go to a safari/rockstar/halloween/Elvis has left the building party every week and once again proclaim that "THAT was the best party we've ever had." Even though those times are over, I did see 6 retired women do a cheerleading dance to Little John as the Nets' senior dance team on Good Morning America today, so...good times can be in our future.

Slacker

I have officially decided to be a slacker this semester. Last semester I earned a 3.92 and I've decided that this semester, I need not aim so high. I was so busy and tired. I could have been much happier with a 3.00. Anyway, school started last week and I'm taking Financial management for non-profits (boring boring boring, the book is almost 800 pages long, and yes, I need to read ALL of it: unfortunately, I need it), foundations of rehabilitation counseling (laws, rules, theories, and strategies for improving the lives of individuals with disabilities) and practicum. For practicum my group is headed to Forrest City at least once a week to develop a census of all organizations serving youth, and where they are on this obscure youth organizing scale. We have to develop surveys and run analysis. The weird thing is, I actually like that statistics stuff. Thank you Ms. Susie Booher for turning my hatred of math into a love for statistical data analysis. I like research; I'm a total dork. I'm sure I'll be busy; I'm sure I'll be tired, but I won't be trying so hard, so hold me to posting on this blog, hanging out with you, and attending various activities where having fun is the goal, not saving the world. Goodbye Debbie Downer Chandle, hello fantastico. Here is a picture of fantastico and beth from a happier time.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH AND KRISTEN! I LOVE YOU LADIES.

A little bit of 80's childhood nostalgia

So, I'm out of school until Tuesday and I've kinda run out of things to do to keep myself busy, since I'm done sulking about my broken engagement. For some reason or another I began thinking about this 80's movie I'd seen as a kid. All I could remember was that it was scary, and had a little baby unicorn and he saved a girl from an evil baron-type guy. Well, thank god for internet. After I searched this a little, I found that several other people were on a quest for said movie. It turns out that it is one of the first anime dubbed movies released in the US and for some weird reason the Disney channel picked it up and showed it a few times between 81 and 85. The fact that I remember this movie and could have been no more than 4 years old is quite astounding. It's called Unico, and after so many people looked for it for so long, some kind soul posted it on Youtube to bring a little tear to my eye.

Unico is a young unicorn who has the ability to make people around him happy. Whether it's because of his personality or the power in his horn, it angers the gods, who think only they should decide whether people are happy. They tell the West Wind to take Unico and abandon him on the Hill of Oblivion, but instead she tries to hide him from the gods. Realizing the betrayal, they send the Night Wind to finish the job, forcing the West Wind to continually hide him.

She hides him in places where he comes into contact with a child-devil, a cat that wants to become a girl so she can become a witch, and an evil baron guy that rules the forest and tries to kill the ex-cat-girl-wanna-be-witch by getting her drunk and tying her to a rooftop. Unico tries to stop him but the baron turns into a giant evil jackal skeleton after Unico knocks him off to roof only to be impaled on another roof. It's a thrilling bit of the creepy cinematic experience I know all of us had growing up in the 80's. If you would like to watch the entirety of the Fantastic Adventures of Unico click here

Now that you all know my favorite childhood movie, Please list your most memorable creepy movie so I can attempt to find it and watch it on Youtube.

P.S. If you like movies about disturbing fairytales, you should all go see Pan's Labyrinth. It is a foreign film about a strange little girl. It's playing at Marketstreet on the 26th. Here's the website.

Speakers for 2007

Here is the list for Clinton School speakers in the spring. I do not have the dates yet, but they are in order from January to May. You can email publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or call 501-683-5232 if you want to go.

Brian Atwood, dean of Humphrey School at University of Minnesota and former director of USAID

Tyra Banks, model, actress and host of The Tyra Banks Show

Helaine Barnett, President of the Legal Services Corporation, a federal nonprofit equal justice organization

Mary Berry, University of Pennsylvania professor and former chair of the United States Civil Rights Commission

Myles Brand, president of the NCAA and past president of Indiana University

President Fernando Cardoso, former President of Brazil

Senator Saxby Chambliss (R, Ga.)

Patrick Cook-Deegan, senior at Brown University and co-founder of the Cycle for Schools project.

Richard Dawkins, Oxford University Professor and best-selling author of The God Delusion

Mauro DeLorenzo, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank

Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor (video conference)

Roger Dow, CEO of Travel Industry Association

Alan Eastham, US ambassador to Malawi

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D, Ill.), Chair of the 2006 Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Sharon Farmer, former White House photographer

Deborah Fiser, dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Lori Gates-Schuyler, University of Virginia professor and women’s rights expert

Dan Gediman, NPR’s This I Believe senior producer

Dan Glickman, President and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America

and former secretary of Agriculture

Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation and past president of Brown University

Senator Chuck Hagel (R, Neb.)

Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the United Nations

Sandra Hubbard, filmmaker of The Lost Year of 1958-59, a documentary on the closing of the Little Rock public high schools following the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School

Betsy Jacoway, author of Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis that Shocked a Nation

Chris Johns, editor of National Geographic magazine

Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Public School System

Nick Kotz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D, Ark.)

Matt Miller, Fortune Magazine columnist

Cynthia Nance, dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law

John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress and former White House chief of staff

John Prendergast, head of the International Crisis Group currently co-authoring a book with actor Don Cheadle, star of Hotel Rwanda

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, 26-year-old Mayor of Pittsburgh

Wendell Rawls, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and director of the National Center for Public Integrity

Karl Rove, top advisor to President George W. Bush

The Most Rev. Katherine Schori, first female bishop of the United States Episcopal Church

Steve Scully, senior executive producer and political editor for C-Span

Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami and former secretary of Health and Human Services

Will Shortz, crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times

Jeff Smith, Missouri state senator and subject of the documentary, Can Mr. Smith Still Go to Washington?

Gene Sparling, “In Search of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker”

David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management

Thomas Stewart, editor of the Harvard Business Review

Renee Sotile and Mary Jo Godges, filmmakers of Christa McAuliffe – Reach for the Stars, a film about the teacher who died on the Space Shuttle Challenger

Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and past president of Harvard University

David Wilhelm, president of Woodland Venture Management and past chairman of the Democratic National Committee

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 :)