Get your ass to the polls on Tuesday: there are no unimportant elections

I actually didn't fully realize until this year that some people have no idea when elections are if they are not voting for president, which happens every four years. Elections happen every damn year! Twice - a primary and an actual election in November. This is a stab in my heart, as I have said one zillion times in my life that voting for your local judge/state rep/mayor is more important than voting for president. Why?

1. The decisions of local government will directly affect your life. Local government is responsible for the quality of schools, the judiciary, rental costs/affordable housing, recycling options and trash collection, public transportation, policing and public safety, public health measures in schools, environmental ordinances, alcohol and drug ordinances, welfare, amenities, infrastructure, job training programs, taxes, and on and on. Everything about the delivery of essential public services (that we often don't even think about and take for granted) and the quality of life we have as communities is managed by local government. Local government has a lot of money and they decide the community's priorities.

2. Your vote actually does count there. Since voter turnout is so low in local elections, they are decided by a very slim margin in a lot of cases. Every vote counts. Get your ass out there, and bring your friends.

3. Even though it seems like the reverse, state and local governments lead the way. Policies on environmental protection, women's suffrage, minimum wage, and marriage equality all began at the local and state level. They were the impetus for landmark fed policies.

4. These people you're electing work for you. Why the fuck wouldn't you want to have a say in who you're hiring? I know it's en vogue right now for government representatives to act like you are their peasants and they are doing you a great favor to grant you an audience, but it's the other way around. The sooner we take back the power, the better off the entire country is. If you are not in tune with what's going on around you, how will you make sure you have an impact on how your community is run?

5. Not voting does not make politics go away. I know. You're sick of politics. But not voting won't make them go away. It will just make you feel like a peasant under the rule of a moody lord.

Know your voting rights
-If you are asked for identification at a polling place and do not have any acceptable ID, you must be allowed to vote by provisional ballot.
-If your right to vote is challenged at your polling place and it cannot be resolved there, the judge of elections at the polling place should call the county Board of Elections. If it cannot be resolved via phone, you can show up at the county Board of Elections where a judge will be on duty to resolve election problems.
-Regardless of any issue, you must be allowed to vote by provisional ballot at the time and the eligibility of your vote must be pursued - by YOU - after.

Reminder to PA Voters to vote NO on this ballot question:

More about this from Education Voters PA
More about this - and an entire voting guide - from the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizen Education Fund

PA friends, please also check out Judge Ellen Ceisler.

I hope you're voting on Tuesday. How life goes in your community DOES depend on it.

Happy weekend!

Thursday Thoughts - on the double, ralphie!

1. Remember when MFD was sitting around in a Ralphie bunny costume on Halloween? This will be the first Halloween in 12 years that my dogs will not be wearing a costume. Geege was my Halloween dog who endured the dressing up with silent dignity while the other two raged against the machine. I just can't do it this year.

2. Mae is exercising demons out of her asshole, from prednisone maybe? I have a call in to the vet. But she seems much better overall, which is weird to say after that first sentence. We're all still assimilating to Bruce Springsteen, of course. He is tiring himself and us out every day.

3. Today is my last day off of the year aside from a holiday. I'm hanging out with Lola Jean. I picked this vest up for her at Old Navy. New nephew coming soon! I got him some things too.

4. Last night we had dinner at the Continental with Melissa and Blane then went to see Trae Crowder/ the Liberal Rednecks WellRED tour at Helium. Not too shabby for a Wednesday night, am I right?


5. Every day is a good day to have a BFF sunglasses designer who sends you free glasses you like because she has them laying around since she worked on the design. Thanks KVSR for the shades. I got my plaid Toms too. Boom. And my Christmas gifts have started arriving. I'm about halfway done with the shopping.

6. I finally got my lazy ass over to see the Octavius Catto statue that was installed at the end of September here in Philadelphia. An educator, scholar, writer, pioneering baseball player, and fearless civil rights activist,  Catto fought unflaggingly for an equitable society in the wake of the Civil War. He successfully protested to desegregate Philadelphia’s trolleys, he fought to pass constitutional amendments enfranchising black citizens, and then he worked to bring those new black voters to the polls. He was shot and killed on his way to vote in 1871. It's the first public monument honoring one specific black person erected in the city of Philadelphia.

7. I walked all the way around City Hall first because I love the building and second because I was looking for the trump rat that was up near the Rizzo statue the day before. Alas it was nowhere to be found. Such a gorgeous building though and there's always something going on. This is Flores de Libertad, the installation of 1,600 hand dyed flowers, a creative action against family detention by artist Michelle Angela Ortiz. She's led several free paper flower workshops. Flowers from participants join the flowers made by undocumented mothers detained at the Berks County Family Detention Center, a prison for immigrant families in PA. Think of how fucked up that description is...a prison for immigrant families. The flowers of the mothers carry messages of freedom.

8. This week in NOT NORMAL: Amy Siskind's authoritarian list, week 49 where she points out we spent most of our time talking about the imposter's actions towards a fallen soldier instead of the scary shit on this list; the two-person company Whitefish Energy with small town neighbor ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke got the $300 million contract to fix the electrical grid in Puerto Rico (80% of the island is still without power as of Monday) in a no-bid process - swampy as fuck, you guys; and mothers who defend sons who sexually assault women. This week in everyone read this: I'm giving you the BoredPanda link to a tweet thread by @stealthygeek because it's hard to find the thread wading through the insane people who responded to his commentary on the assertion life begins at conception.

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: 

TWTW - the first one home in a month

I almost forgot what it was like not doing a gaht damn thing Friday night, but my dogs helped me remember. Wings for dinner, frozen berries and some reading for dessert, and four episodes of Season 3 of Bosch.

We were equally lazy Saturday morning until it was time to go to the March for Science in Doylestown. We were originally going to the Philly March, but the Doylestown March was organized by high school students and helped by Rise Up Doylestown and many local sponsors and we felt the need to support them in that huge undertaking. Kids, you rock! And you give me hope for the future. It was a great day despite the damp cold and rain and I was really happy to see large turnouts in the 600+ science marches around the world even though media coverage of the marches sucked. Climate change has us all in the soup together. I made sure to rep Mother Earth in my choice of attire.

After that there was almost a massacre because I got hangry and I think we all know how that goes. We settled in at Andale Latino Grill in Feasterville for really freaking good food. It looks a little hole in the wall-ish but damn. It was delicious. I picked up a few things at the grocery store including $5 flowers and spent the night doing a face mask, purging dressers, and reorganizing for the spring/summer seasons.

Sunday morning I took care of the weekly food prep: breakfast is an egg bake with ham, cheese, and broccoli; lunch is pork chops over sweet potatoes and broccoli;  snacks are celery and PB, cucumbers, and yogurt; dinners are baked buffalo chicken pasta and salmon with steamed broccoli and rice. I also made the egg part I need for breakfast burritos to freeze. I'll finish making them this week.

Then we picked up our friend Bob and headed up to the Nakashima House to hear Regina Brave, Charles Whalen, and Loren Bagola speak. I met them along with the men's significant others and Regina's granddaughter the day before and had a total wow, I'm meeting fucking Regina Brave moment. She is a warrior for the sovereignty of the indigenous people and the energy coming off of her is tremendous. As a reader and a writer, I love to hear people tell their stories. It was wonderful to hear her tell the stories of her people. Not so wonderful are the stories themselves of what the US government has done to the native people. All three were an emotional listen - Regina with her stories of all the things she's seen in her 80+ years, Loren with his stories of violence he saw inflicted on the water protectors on the front lines at Standing Rock, and Charles with a mix of both of those things along with his thoughts on water and the environment and passive resistance. Standing Rock is not over. There are people still standing for the water, and they are out now speaking to spread their stories. There is a treaty. We are in violation. We need to listen. Here's Grandma Regina at Stanford last week. Not to mention that the water from the Missouri feeds the greenbelt. If that gets poisoned, we're all fucked. 

Charles at the Doylestown March Saturday / Regina Brave here and there / Charles & Regina at Nakishima Sunday

The Nakashima Complex is really beautiful and is open to the public on Saturday afternoons. If you're in the New Hope area, check it out. George Nakashima's story is pretty incredible too. It is fucking crazy to think one of the preeminent furniture designer-craftsmen in the U.S. was interned in a Japanese relocation center. The grounds and buildings are gorgeous and my fat ass sat in a Nakashima chair.

Other Sunday things: purging of the closets, reading, nail painting, Sunday night blues.

The only thing I needed to do this weekend was go to Target. The only thing I didn't do? Go to Target. You know how that goes. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

Thursday Thoughts da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron

1. I should not be laughing so much at this stuff because it's insane that this shitshow is real life, but I can't help it. Thanks to Michelle for sending me this one yesterday morning.

2. I don't understand why people think you support police OR the black lives matter movement. It's not an either/or thing. A few bad acts by minorities don't make all minorities bad. A few bad acts by cops don't make all cops bad. I support the hell out of good cops and people of any and all colors standing up for social inequity. I've seen people make "defriend me" declarations over this, and man...I just don't know how we continue like that. When have we ever solved a problem by slamming the door in the face of others? I also don't know how people can't see what black lives matter means versus all lives matter. I don't know what else to say but I know I don't want to stay silent. I don't think that helps. I don't want to stop talking to people who think differently than me either. I do want the violence to stop, even though I am aware that grand change doesn't often come about without it. Hopefully we can move forward by talking and listening and stopping the violence as all it does is perpetuate stereotypes on both sides of the line. Maybe we can move forward like this, or by reading and embracing the words of Montrell Jackson, murdered Baton Rouge police officer. I'll help heal you if you help heal me. Deal?

3. My happy smiley precious genius niece Lola Jean is back from her two week vacation. I was so happy to see her on Tuesday night. It's amazing to watch her figure things out and see how proud she is to do things on her own and how much she loves her own reflection. My dream is that she is always proud of herself, independent, and loves who she is. I think that dream will come true -  she has encouraging, loving, patient parents and a full family of people on both sides who absolutely delight in her. Love is so powerful and a tough as nails binder of people as they're being formed. 

4. I've been getting into bed relatively early but not falling asleep. Tuesday night I made myself a mug of go the fuck to sleep tea (AKA Yogi Honey Lavender Stress Relief tea, mug from Lola, book I finished Tuesday) and I think I've got myself back in a good rhythm. 

5. MFD was at the shore yesterday to have a new dishwasher installed. I'm still in the trenches battling it out with Samsung to get a refund for their shitbox dishwasher. Between the dryer at home, the double window air conditioner shitshow at the shore last weekend, and this dishwasher, I'm hoping that's three appliance things and done for us.

6. Midweek trip to Marshalls? Don't mind if I do. It felt nice to stroll the aisles in an empty store even though they didn't have the thing for which I was searching.

7. Excuse the weird contortion. I had to get a pedicure yesterday and I said fuck it and got my nails done too. I tried that new OPI Infinite Shine on the nails, it's supposed to be shiny for 10 days but doesn't require any lights or special removal. I'll report back on how it does. Toes: OPI I Manicure for Beads. Nails: OPI Pretty Pink Perseveres.

8. I love fake dinosaurs. Video from a walk past the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is going all out dinosaur this summer. Local parents, your kids might like to make a visit if they're into dinos. 

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week. Asking for tomorrow...