Joe The Plumber

I think that Joe The Plumber is destined to become a euphemism that I will use to describe anyone who is talking out of their ass about things they don't know about and I'll refer to my kids teachers as a Joe The Plumber kind of lady and my kid will repeat that to the teacher who is actually a Democrat but just kind of young and conservative looking and she will be really offended and my kid will be really confused as to why and I'll have to explain who he is and even though it will be 15 to 20 years after this election has been written into the history books as I explain who he is I will feel a little sick to my stomach that the motherfucker is still living on in conversations around the country at any given point in any given day and I'll vow to myself never to bring his name up again but then a few weeks later I'll be in the grocery store flipping through a magazine and happen upon a Where Are They Now and a big picture of Joe the fucking Plumber staring up with me.

This time next week

We will have a new President. The waiting will be over. I will have cast my ballot and sat on my couch with all my friends watching as the 44th president is named. The only thing that's remained constant during this entire year is the election. And this time next week, it will finally be over.

I am addicted to CNN, MSNBC, and yes, even Fox News. I am constantly pressing reload on the Huffington Post. I listen to NPR every morning. My coworkers and I talk bitch about and make fun of Sarah Palin, my friends and I bitch about and make fun of Sarah Palin. But this time next week, I can hopefully put her out of my mind until she rears her ignorant head again in 2012. I talk about John McCain and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin and Joe Biden more than anything else.

And finally, FINALLY, it's ALMOST OVER.

I think that I will miss watching CNN 24/7 but it will be nice to watch Bridezillas and Chelsea Lately and not feel like I'm going to miss a bombshell.

But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I just watched the Barack Obama 30 Minute Ad and because I cry at ANYTHING, of course I got all emotional. I try not to think that Obama has it in the bag. That's why I watch Fox News--to remind myself that there are a lot of people who don't see this thing like I do. But you guys. If Barack Obama wins next week I WILL LOSE MY SHIT BECAUSE I WILL BE SO HAPPY.

I've been voting since the 2000 election and have yet to experience the thrill of the voting for the winning ticket. I never pray unless I REALLY need something (sorry God!!) but I have actually been PRAYING for Obama to take this thing.

These girls right here? They are MY HEART.

I don't want their futures as strong black women compromised by a Palin/McCain administration.

Also this is kind of on topic and kind of not, but I watched this episode of Frontline last night about what's going down over in Pakistan and Afghanistan and everyone reading this right now should check it out when you have time. I was scared last night watching this and it made me so nervous for Obama. He has his work cut out for him--20 months of a grueling election season and what is he possibly winning? The chance to be the leader of a country that's on the verge of completely melting down. The economy is for shit and I heard Paul Krugman say today that's HE'S scared. The winner of the Nobel Prize for economics said on NPR's Fresh Air that he is scared about this financial crisis. Ben Bernake is his former boss and Krugman said he's scared because Bernake is a REALLY smart guy and his solutions aren't working. So Obama has to lead us out of a financial crisis that the smart guys think is abysmal. And if things are bad enough at here in America, he is going to have to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan. And the situation in Afghanistan is not looking good.

I'm so nervous for him but also so ready for him get this thing started. I need Obama to win because I honestly believe that he is the one who is going to try to lead us in the right direction. I need him to win because America NEEDS hope right now and we NEED someone we can believe in. I know I sound like such an ObamaGirl but the shoe fits and I am wearing it.

Goodbye RCA

Last weekend, I said goodbye to an old friend.

I have had this RCA TV since the summer of 1997. It has traveled with me from my room on Greenway Park Drive in McDonough to Creswell Hall and O-House at UGA and then to Jamestown North and the Vine Street house. It went with me to Cobb Hill during that last leg of my senior year and the only time I've ever lived alone. And then it was packed into a U-Haul to follow me to my new life in NYC. I watched this TV on those cold nights of my first few months in the city, living in an unheated room in a duplex above a lobster shipping company, jobless and with only a handful of aquaintances. Then I got my first job and I moved and carried the RCA an avenue and 5 blocks from the Whitwell Place Brooklyn's Gowanus Rehabilitation neighborhood to my next home at 5th and 5th in Park Slope. And finally a year later I finally made it to Manhattan and I carried that TV up 6 flights of stairs to it's final home here in the East Village.



It was a good 11 years. But alas, all things come to an end and it was time for the new hotness.


The transformation of my apartment from college kid chic to Grown Lady Sophisticate is almost complete. I realize that investing in a big TV is probably not the BEST choice I could have made considering the state of the economy today but I look at it like this--when the going gets tough--I NEED a Learning Channel documentary or Travel Channel special.

PS: The election and the state of the world are stressing me out so much that I think I developing back problems.

We're models now

A couple of weekends ago my boyfriend and I were wandering around Union Square trying to find a place to eat where neither of us had been before. We made a right down 18th Street and out of nowhere these two student-looking kids appear in front of us, a boy and a girl. They were each carrying notebooks and a pen. I immediately assumed they were from one of those Save The Children With Recycling and Giving Us Money groups that are always hanging out on 23rd Street. I tried not to make eye contact but they were too fast.

"Hi, excuse me....are you guys on a date?" the girl asks.

Justin and I look at each other and back at them. "Yeah kind of," I say. "We've actually been dating for awhile now," he says.

"Oh great!" The boy opened up his notebook and the girl starts talking a mile a minute.

"We work for a photographer and she's doing this project on people on dates and her studio is right around the corner can you guys come there now so she can take you picture?"

"Right now?" I ask as the boy thrusts release forms at me.

"Yeah it's just right around corner and will take 10 minutes."

Justin and I exchanged a glance and then started filling out our releases.

We follow the kids to this random building on 17th Street near Park Ave and as we trail them, Justin and I have a whispered conversation about how this could possibly be something really sketch and what if this photographer asks us to get naked.

Our fears proved to be unfounded when we entered the studio and saw this fat little Asian lady with a camera slung around her neck puttering around in an actual legit photo studio. She came over, shook our hands and explained her project--she was taking pics of couple on dates from all kind of relationships. She would email us a copy of one of the photos in the coming weeks and she couldn't guarantee that we would make it into her project and yada yada yada.

So our pic may or may not make it into her exhibition but it was nice to feel like a model for a minute. I received my promised untouched jpeg a couple of days ago and here it is for your viewing pleasure. PS--that awesome blue half poncho was Made With Love By Rose Crawford.

Brandy and Justin on a date.

This seems so sketch.

Right?

Watch out.

Just heard about this:

AMAZING--first African American owned Hollywood studio.

And come November 5th:

Hopefully the first African American president.

I read an article about on-the-fence Ohio voters in the most recent New Yorker. One person interviewed said that he was nervous about a black president. His reasoning was that since blacks have been so historically wronged by the establishment in this country, Obama would win the presidency and with his newfound power to avenge his people. This same person said that he also felt that Obama would put more black people in prominent government jobs.

You know what I say?

IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME.

I was talking to my little niece the other night and she said to me, "Bran, do you know about Barack OBAMA? Do you know that he's The Man?"

I almost cried. To know that the children in my family could grow up with a black president is absolutely amazing. I know--he's mixed race but welcome to America bitches--one drop of black is all you need here to have your race put on you by the public. To know that this calm cool and collected man who is so well educated and versed is going to be a symbol of my country to the rest of the world--I don't think white people realize how incredible awesome that is. I didn't grow up during segragation. But I did grow up being the only black girl in all my classes. The only black person in my group of friends. I've felt the sting of discrimination in my hometown in Georgia and even here in New York. That shit hurts. And electing Obama president won't make it go away.

But it will sure as hell help out the cause to have a black man with his shit together getting the United States in order.

I love new Macbooks

Because they come with a built in camera and people are more easily able to produce things like:

Shut the fuck up Sarah Palin

If I ever get the chance to meet Sarah Palin I think I'd say a little something like,

Hey Sarah,

You are a piece of shit and I wish you had a aborted your down baby because you only had the poor kid to be your political pawn. You say you're pro-life but that's a choice too you dumb bitch. So please, shut the FUCK up with your "mavericks" and "Joe Six-pack" and your "betchas" and "gotchas." If you really wanted what was best for this country you would have said "thanks but no thanks John," when he asked you to be his running mate. The country is spiraling into a depression but government regulation isn't the answer? Get an education and an actual informed opinion and then you can come tell me what's best for the country. I don't WANT someone like me running the nation. I WANT someone who is incredibly smart and well-versed and who is capable of speaking ides in completely coherent sentences. Sarah Palin, I think you are a terrible role model for women. I never want my daughter to strive to be you. If she did, I would consider myself a terrible mother and an abject failure at parenting. You represent everything that is wrong with America--this country loves to have its bullshit dressed up with a pretty face. I, however, do not like to be to be lied to. And I don't care how pretty the package is--you're full of shit Sarah Palin--no thank you, McCain. So please stop lying and please talk to your running mate and tell him that Barack is going to KICK HIS ASS in the debate tonight.


Oh, and Sarah, I hope your gay friend talks shit about you to your face.



Thanks,

Brandy

PS: You suck.

*

I think it's obvious that I'm an Obama girl. I know that all politicians are crafty sneaky little bastards. Barack Obama is the sneaky little bastard we need in the White House.

After the debates

I have a little bit of a crush on Joe Biden. And I totally choked up when he talked about the awful tragedy with his late wife and daughter.

Sarah Palin didn't dig herself into a huge hole, but I wasn't really very impressed. I feel like she didn't really answer any questions. I thought he handled himself very well. I was nervous that he would totally go after her jugular and I was surprised that she was the one with the totally condescending tone.

Overall, it didn't really live up to the hype. Sarah Palin didn't make a complete idiot of herself and that's what people were tuning in for. I can't say that I'm glad she didn't fall on her face because that would make me a terrible liar.