In the Valley

We leave tomorrow morning for our long-awaited vacation to Sonoma Valley. We're joining our friends Abby and Nathan out west: two days in San Fran and then the rest of the week in Sonoma. I'm really excited about our adventure...we even have a hot air balloon ride planned!

Have a wonderful week and I'll be back soon!

Evangelize Me!

Driving to work today, I saw this license plate on the car in front of me:

LUV GSOS

It took me a moment. I even had to say it out loud to figure it out. But when I did, I had to chuckle.

I'm not a big fan of people evangelizing on license plates, bumper stickers, cars or billboards. In fact, I detest it. Somehow, I don't quite think God is looking down, proud of the fact that he is plastered on such things. That's not what religion and beliefs are all about. And does putting a fish icon on your car or a bible verse on a billboard really convert the masses? I can't quite imagine a non-Christian driving down I-40 and seeing this license plate and thinking, "You know, I wasn't sure before, but now I'm convinced. I love Gsos, too."

But I do have to give this guy points for creativity. Sadly, LUV JESUS was probably already taken. So he did the next best thing. I'm sure God is quite pleased.

It's a girl!

Meet my new baby. She's a girl and her name is Weber. Isn't she beautiful?
Ever since our yard was landscaped, complete with a real live back patio, I've been wanting a grill. The debate was between a gas and a charcoal grill. I have a few reasons against gas grills:

• Back in high school, I had a scary encounter with a gas grill that landed me in the emergency room. My tip to all gas grill owners: always open the cover of the grill when you turn on the gas and attempt to ignite it. Fortunately, that encounter left me with no permanent scars, except for a general skittishness around gas.


• I have a problem leaving a gas tank outside of my house. Granted, this is a very safe neighborhood, but there's something unsettling about harbouring a large tank of fuel that could burn down your house.

But I think the biggest reason of all - and, ultimately, the reason that I prevailed in my campaign for Weber - is the taste. What you gain in the convenience of gas you lose in flavor. No matter what you do, you just can't replicate the charcoal taste. Food is just so much better on a charcoal grill.

Tonight Weber got her first test run - turkey burgers, corn on the cob and roasted tomatoes. Man, that girl can cook! I'm in love with my new baby.

Let the mud-slinging begin

Now that there are unofficially two candidates running for president, I'm a much happier person. I haven't decided for whom I'm voting - that's what the next several months of debates and speeches are for. But knowing that there is plenty of time for candidates to make their case is a good thing - we, as a nation, will have the ability and time to research and make up our own minds.

Every morning, I go to CNN to check out the goings-on in the world. And, as much as I'm sick of the presidential campaign, I will occassionally click on the Politics page to get a quick synopsis. This morning, I did just that and found this page:

Now, I understand that the ad on this page is paid for by Obama. And I also understand that Obama is all up in the news right now because of the recent primaries. (Every link on the page is about Obama, along with the ad about Obama. Only one link mentions McCain...in respect to Obama). However, I also believe it is the responsibility of a new organization to watch its content and ensure that no wrong perceptions are made. When I was business manager of the student newspaper at Wake Forest, we constantly checked to make sure ads were placed correctly and that the overall look of the page didn't portray an unintended message.

When I clicked on this page, the unintended message was the CNN had placed its vote - for Obama. Of course, being who CNN is, I'm absolutely sure who they want to win this election. But as a reputable news organization, they need to make sure that their content, advertising and layout doesn't give away their intentions - explicity or implicitly. This isn't the first time I've found some biased reporting on this site, but the first time it struck me enough to get upset about it.

I don't know who I'm voting for in November, and I want to make an informed and educated decision based on my values and where I'd like to see this country go in the next four, eight, twenty years. I get especially stubborn and upset when I feel someone else is trying to make that decision for me.

Sweet Land of Liberty

I believe I saw my first plateau today. It’s strange to use the word plateau outside of a business setting - in recent history, I have used it to describe an area of a graph, a condition or state of being of particular business matters. But it’s been quite a long time since I visualized an actual plateau outside of the business setting.

Flying to California today, I looked out of my airplane window and marveled at the land below. I’m always in awe whenever I fly over the western part of our country. The land takes on different shapes and colors and few highways and cities mar its beauty. In a world of overpopulation and pollution, it’s refreshing to know that land exists that is still – somewhat – untouched by human hands.

Among the wrinkled mountains, snaking rivers and isolated lakes, I saw the first plateau. It looked as if a knife had horizontally cut off its peak, its sides rising from the dusty ground, only to be abruptly sliced flat. The last time I truly thought of a plateau in its most essence form was middle school social studies, learning about different land forms along with Native Americans and cloud formation. But it wasn’t until today when I really saw one in person – or maybe took the time to really notice.

And then I saw another one. And another. Each one took on a slightly different form, one was small and contained, another much larger. And then the mack-daddy of all plateaus – one whose sides rose from the ground, but the flat top extended for as far as I could see from 35,000 miles in the air.

On these western trips, I am constantly amazed by the vastness of our country. And while there are politics in this country that enrage us, war that fractions us, racism that divides us, and miles that separate us, we should all be united in that we are Americans, in that we live on and share this beautiful land. This land is our country and knowing that should bring us solidarity as a common people, as Americans. That no matter how different we are or how much we disagree or how many mistakes we sometimes make, we share this journey, this culture and this land together. Maybe if we embraced that solidarity more, embraced the pride in our patriotism, we would feel more like a family that argues and less like a garment that is ripping apart at its seams.