small.town.girl

Happy holidays everyone! I was too busy stressing about the impending holiday festivities to give you a ton of news this week, but I’m going to do my best. How about I start off with everybody’s favorite holiday present? Paparazzi shots of President-Elect Obama have been a hit on the ‘net. No one ever took shots like this of Bill Clinton, did they? (Yes, I realize that’s a good thing.)  But here we go: Recounts, pardons, and scumbags, oh my!  And how ’bout some Jesus, since it’s Christmastime and all?

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Family get-togethers at the holidays usually include at least three cousins asking me, “How did you go from Marilyn Manson to Britney Spears?” or, in reference to the general time period where I caught shit for listening to Manson, “Remember when you used to wear those boots?” Well, the simple answers, my dear family, is that I still listen to Marilyn Manson even with my newfound love for Britney. And my platform boots from Hot Topic broke in 2003, or I’d probably still wear them.

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It’s Winter Break.  The problem here is that I’m no longer in college, so I should no longer be celebrating with bar trips and catching up with old friends.  I’m doing just that, though, out of a desperate desire to become a more social creature after an approximate year of hibernation.  Nevermind that I’m incredibly depressed that I will be having drinks with a friend who has relocated to NYC and will only be reminded that I am stuck here.  I do want to chat with her, but I also want to lock her in a closet and assume her life in the city.  She’s thin and half Chinese, though, so I’m guessing that wouldn’t work too well.

The real inspiration for this post is not to talk about impending hang-outs, but one that has already taken place.  A little background for you?  From sixth grade through high school I adored this boy (we shall call him R).  I never dated R, and with the exception of one drunken make out session, nothing productive came out of my nearly-a-decade-long crush.  He graduated high school with me in 2003 and bounced around to several colleges before he found one that “stuck.”  He’s slated to graduate in 2010.  We haven’t been tight since we went to Bonnaroo–a group trip where I was Susie Sober and spoiled everyone’s fun by being slightly annoyed at the rampant drug use among the 80,000 people who were not nearly as dedicated to Radiohead as me.  So anyway, R is home from Utah State right now, and I wanted to “catch up.”

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I’ve been MIA from politics in an effort to get into the holiday spirit, but since that has failed pretty miserably (bah humbug!) I’m back, and I bring with me some highlights of this past week in politics: from “Yes, Virginia, Obama will be president” to the wars in Iraq and your uterus.

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I am a product of 90s post-grunge, and this is one of my many anthems. Though The Verve Pipe is best known for “The Freshman” also known as the song that makes me want to claw my eyes out because I’m still troubled by how much it was overplayed a decade ago, “Photograph” was their first single off their album Villains. It peaked in Billboard’s Modern Rock Top 10 but obviously didn’t get that played-at-every-middle-school-dance success that “The Freshman” did. Whatever, it rocks way harder.

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Can I scream?

The first time I ever heard this song, it was the middle of the night. I was in high school, I think, watching MTV when I should have been sleeping. These rabbits started to run around on my screen as the music builds culminating, fades and bursts into that simple question: Can I scream?

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Today, Barack Obama officially announced that Hillary Clinton is his pick for Secretary of State. While it’s not really a surprise, it is a great way to start off the holiday season (read: Obama gave Lindsay a Christmas present!).

Some argue that the Cabinet is not full of “change” as promised in Obama’s campaign speeches. I’m fuzzy on what these folks expected the President-elect to do. Was he supposed to pick cabinet members using a dart board? Ask Sarah Palin how she picks baby names and modify the method for political purposes? What? It’s not like Clinton is Strom Thurmond or–dare I say–John McCain when it comes to years in the Senate.

As Obama says on CNN: “What we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking. But understand … the vision for change comes first and foremost … from me. That’s my job.”