Explanation of some of these pictures:
The little girl I'm holding is my Goddaughter, Raeanna.
The little girl in front of the capitol and with the chickens are both me at age five. Little bit City, Little bit Country.
The girl by the river with me is my cousin, Lindsay. (Sorry guys, she's taken!)
The girl at the baseball stadium is one of my political partners in crime, K.D. She is also taken.
Music
With some of the stuff I listen to, it's best not to ask. (My brother is out to destroy about half my CDs so he is never in danger of hearing them ever again.)
But my taste is getting far more eclectic in recent years. Current stuff running through the ole iTunes is Pink, Green Day, Weezer, Fleetwood Mac, Big and Rich, Barenaked Ladies, Everclear, Kanye West (saw him in Portland opening for U2), U2 (if only Bono had a church, I might take my religion more seriously), Madonna, Natasha Bedingfield, Rihanna, Rob Thomas, The Veronicas, Wheatus, Bowling for Soup, Billy Joel, Elton John, Black Eyed Peas, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Gorillaz, The Killers, The Darkness, Gwen Stephani, OutKast, Simple Plan, The Police (thanks to Derek for tickets to the Seattle reunion concert), George Michael... No, I'm not a child of the 80s. I have no idea what you're talking about (Willis).
Lots of those are only a couple of songs, not full albums; largely because I hate paying for whole albums when I rarely like the selection. (U2 stuff being one of the rare exceptions.)
Movies
See the superhero line under the tv column and you can bet that you'll probably be able to guess at a lot of the movies I watch. I like action stuff, comedies, and even a smattering of romantic comedies. And just about anything Jim Henson touched. Please, for the love of God, don't drag me to a drama unless it's Shakespeare or I've got a major interest in it. Who wants to pay for something that is going to make you cry? There's enough to cry about in the real world to do it for entertainment.
Oh, you want real examples? Ok... Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Clue, willow, The Breakfast Club, Better off Dead, Adventures in Babysitting, The Ref, Love Actually, How's Moving Castle, Nausicaa, Mean Girls, She's the Man, 10 Things I hate about You, Heaters, Bring It On, Saved, Legally Blonde, Indiana Jones (but not the Temple of the Doom - the heart thing is just too much for me), Pirates of the Carribean, Fast & the Furious, Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, Superman, Spirited Away, Goonies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This list could be way longer... after all, when the Legislature is in session going to the movies in Olympia is a primary source of entertainment.
Television
Almost 3 years ago now, I brought down and got a TiVo so that I would stop organizing my Friday Nights around being able to watch BattleStar Galaticia.
The friend who pushed the TiVo is right. TiVo changes your life. I have a personal relationship with the damn thing and you're only going to be able to take it from me by prying it out of my cold, dead hands.
Things the TiVo captures for me or that I've had to buy on DVD since stupid television execs murdered it: Battlestar Galactica (Yay Katee Sackhoff!) Heroes. Numb3rs. StarGate. StarGate Atlantis. Veronica Mars (I'm so upset about this it's not even funny). How I Met Your Mother. Who Wants to Be a SuperHero (oh, so entertaining in its sheer awfulness - but as considering my favorite shows a little kid were WonderWoman, 70s Adam West Batman, Spiderman, The Great American Hero, The Bionic Woman, the 60 Million Dollar Man, SuperFriends, Spiderman and his Amazing Friends... See a theme here? I like superheros.) The Colbert Report. The Daily Show. Smallville. Las Vegas (I used to work for the Senator from Nevada - so this is a guilty pleasure). Supernatural. House (Hugh Laurie rules). Pysch. The Closer. Eureka. Avatar, the Last Airbender.
And someday soon I will catch up on Lost since it no longer has to fight with Veronica Mars.
Books
You don't want to get me started. Seriously, I'd probably go into shock if I ever had to exist without a book within 10 feet of me. There's probably 500 books in my home library right now - most of which trends toward sci-fi and fantasy, but there's smatterings of political policy and some classic authors like Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc.
Authors currently taking up massive amounts of space on my shelves: George RR Martin, Anne Bishop, Neil Gaiman, Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, Orson Scott Card, Terry Brooks, Terry Pratchett, L. Frank Baum, L.M. Montgomery, J.K. Rowling, Janet Evanovich, Susan Cooper, and many more.
Heroes
FDR - for The New Deal and the Bonneville Power Administration that powers my state!
Senator Warren Maguson - for getting my father started in politics and all the amazing things he did for my state.
Harriett Tubman - One of the few women in history books when I was growing up who is there because of what she did, how successfully she did it - and not because of whom she married. If we all had half her gumption and courage to stand up for what's right and take action, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in!
Jon Stewart - For making politics almost cool to follow in the U.S.!
Bill Clinton - I'm never going to be able to entirely forgive him for the Monica thing; but he was the first Democratic Presidential campaign I worked on that we won! And since I'd been helping on stuff since Gary Hart, this was a huge faith boost!
About me: Ever wonder about those crazy people who get involved in politics?
I do.
Moreso than most, since I am involved in politics. And in case you're wondering; most of them are crazy. I, however, argue that they are crazy in awesome ways. Who else is going to get up with you at 3:00 am and Plant yardsigns so the Vice President (yah, I do mean the VP of the United States!) will see them when he flies in?
Currently I'm serving as President of the Thurston County (WA) Young Democrats and Organizing Director of the Young Democrats of Washington.
As a matter of fact - No, I don't sleep much!
It's not quite as nerdy as it sounds - though we do spend a good deal of time volunteering on campaigns during election season, and most of our gatherings will involved a lot of 'insider baseball' on Washington state politics - we do have a large number of social events as well.
As a result of all this activity, I spend a lot of time running up and down the I-5 corridor. It's matched by my Vice Chair, KD, who lives in Clark County and comes to Thurston to help out on the weekends. Since I used to live in Clark as well - we have earned the moniker "Southwest Washington Girls" - and since we keep wearing out the Seattleites when we go visit, our motto is "Southwest Washington Girls Have More Fun."
Because of my political activities I travel A LOT. We don't want to discuss the mileage on my car. But in the last year I have been to Salt Lake City, San Francisco (twice), Philadelphia, and Detroit. Vegas is next on the list!
But lest you think it's the only thing going on in my life - I do hold down a full time job in Tacoma (commuting to a whole other county is fun!) while living in Lacey with one of my best friends and her three year old daughter nicknamed "Squeaken."
When hanging out with my non-political friends, some of my favorite things include field trips to Seattle to visit Pike Place Market and Owajimiya/Kinokuniya. I also read an incredible amount of fiction and have a penchant for movies - particularly those with large explosions in them (I really should have been a chem major and gone to work in Hollywood!).
I graduated from North Thurston High School in Lacey and Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. I've lived in D.C. for a number of years and also in Vancouver, WA (and here's my shout-out to my friends in Clark County!).
Who I'd like to meet: Jon Stewart. Stephen Colbert. Aaron McGruder.
Laughter is seriously underrated; and folks who can make you laugh while calling B*!!$..*^ on the establishment are in short supply.
People I've meet who are awesome: Lupe Valdez, the Sheriff of Dallas County, TX. Seriously, a Latina, Lesbian, Democrat in Dallas got elected sheriff - which means people said please, have a gun and tell us what to do. Awesome as hell.
just sayin wussup & i loooove that u love harriet tubman like i do ... AND ... keep me posted on the fri/sun thang ... AND ... i may be stayin home for the summer to work on some music stuff up there, so we can have more catch up time. is jenn a myspacer?
