The change we need

Lets get the inevitable out of the way first:

I’m so happy, so, so happy that Obama (or Obie as Jessica lovingly refers to him) is the next president of the United States. I didn’t think it was possible, I thought they would let me down again.

Hooray!

I spent a lot of the last week watching the few English-language news programs we get. Those include CNN worldwide, BBC News, MSNBC (which is mainly economy news) and the ever-reliable “unbiased” FoxNews… seriously? Unbiased? Those guys have their head so far up McCains ass and despise Obama so much, that you’d think McCain was running their programming. It’s like a car wreck, I can’t stop watching because I have to see what other “impartial” election coverage they spew out.

And I also came to a conclusion why I dislike McCain so much. It’s not the fact that he puts air quotes around the words women’s rights, as if they’re something to be laughed about. It’s not even the fact that he has voted against women’s health issues over 100 times, so not only would he have been a president that made abortion illegal, but he would drive women’s health issues into the ground. I can even overlook the whole Palin thing (only because I’m in love, love, love with what Tina Fey has done with it, without Palin, we’d never have seen the Fey impression)… although if I hear her call herself a Maverick one more time I may scream, the least she could do is quote Top Gun while doing so (“you can be my wingman anyday”). I can almost forgive him for inflicting Joe the plumber on us, but only because it looks like Joe smartened up in the final hours and left him (in his final campaign hours… or weeks actually, he relied too much on Joe, way too much on Joe).

No, all that is nothing compared to McCain and the way the man acts like a teenager when faced in an argument, and buddy is not a teenager. After watching the final debate I started watching the way he reacts when asked about his competitor or about anyone that happened to be against him. Instead of answering in a mature and thoughtful way, he instead tried to make insults that struck as low-blows. He constantly had to get the last word in and usually made them slight, underhanded comments that were meant to insult, they came off not only as if he sounded immature, but also petty and stupid. To be quite honest, they reminded me of the comments my brother and I would fire at each other when we fought when we were younger (who am I kidding? we still do). But this man is running for President of the United States, grow up and learn to debate like a mature adult.

Other random updates from my world not concerned with anything political:

-I’m still a 75-year old woman when it comes to my obsession with weather. Maybe it’s the Canadian/Vancouverite in me (I can’t remember is everyone in the country obsessed with weather or only the Vancouver people), but I constantly feel the need to update everyone on weather around the world. While I momentarily missed the rain, I can say my longing for wet stuff falling from the sky is over. I had never gone so long without rain, as all Vancouver-ites know, rain is a part of life, especially from late September until May-Junish. So when it didn’t rain all October, I got worried. Mother nature has more than made up for it and I swear on Tuesday night alone it rained as much as it would in one month in Vancouver. Thunderstorms… well last Sunday we probably experience more than a year in Vancouver. Don’t even get me started on the frizz all this is causing in my hair. In other weather news, it was 30 degrees in Southern Italy last weekend.

-I need everyone to go out and buy an egg nogg latte from starbucks, drink it in, savor that first sip and then report back how delightful it was. I’m seriously missing my ‘bucks lately, especially since I know that right about now the egg nogg is out (even if they’re not advertising it, they probably do have it already, just ask). How will I even know it’s Christmas without the red cup? But, as I sit in the cold stealing my free internet I wish I had a cup of coffee in that familiar cup. I don’t think it’s the coffee I miss, because believe me, I’m drinking enough espresso here, but the idea of having hot coffee with me to sip and enjoy over a period of time. Here it’s bought and drunk very fast, taking coffee with you is out of the question. I have my travel mug here, but it hasn’t been used yet, I fear the faces of those on the train when I step on with my mug of coffee and sip it throughout the 40 minute train ride.

-One thing I’m not going to have to miss anymore… hockey! Last week our satellite provider offered the sports channels for free (until March, then it will be charged, that is if they’re kept), meaning that we get about 50 different channels, mostly offering soccer and all soccer related news, but some do show hockey games. Most of them are taped the night before and shown the next day, but on the weekends they’re shown live, at 4am of course (this Sunday will be the Canucks, I think they re-show it at 9 the next night, so I’ll wait for that version). I came home from work today to the sweet sounds of the announcers (in English of course) giving a play-by-play to Anaheim vs. Detroit. Neither team I like, but I bounced in the room high as a kite in the anticipation of watching my ‘nucks.