"Give me strength, Reserve control"

I'm not much for politics. In fact, during my brief stint as a "reporter" in Washington, D.C., I found myself blind to the actual work done in the Capitol as I wandered aimlessly admiring all the pretty buildings. So when I start to smell something fishy in a political campaign, something must be hopelessly wrong. Fortunately, I'm dating a savvy political scientist who can answer any questions I have about said fishiness.

It seems as of late the committees backing the candidates for our regional congressional representative think smear ads are a sure-fire way to get their candidate elected. Both sides of the ballot (for an election which I don't think happens until November) have been televising shady attacks on their respective opponent's character. One ad attacks current congressman John Hostettler (R), saying he voted three times to raise his own salary while voting down a bill that would raise the minimum wage.

Wait a minute, I thought. This doesn't sound like the Hostettler I know. Sure enough, Cliff informed me that Hostettler has actually voted against congressional pay raises on numerous occaisions. Besides, he said, raising the minimum wage is probably not a very good idea.

I'm inclined to agree with him. I'm currently halfway through Nickle & Dimed: On [Not] Getting By in America. This book details one journalist's quest to make ends meet working for minimum wage. It's supposed to be a shocking expose of the horrors imposed upon blue collar America by white collar America. Unfortunatlely, I'm not buying it. I haven't finished the book, so this isn't a review (yet), but it seems to me that the struggles of the lower-class are not entirely the government's fault, nor is it the government's responsibility to fix everyone's problems. What can they honestly do? Raising the minimum wage would only cause the cost of all other necessities to become more expensive. Those working at the newly-hiked minimum wage will still not be able to pay their also newly-hiked rent/ grocery bill/ laundry bill/ utility bill/ etc. The problem will not go away.

Life is not typically fair, but more often than not, I've seen individuals receive eventual rewards by good-old-fashioned hard work. That's the beauty of this capitalist system: those who work hard can reap enormous benefits. Sometimes they get screwed over, but that's not the government's fault. People in general need to take responsibility for their own circumstances and choose the best course of action from their own particular starting point.

That said, I know very little about government and I slept through high school econ. What I do know is that America's system, while not perfect, allows people to reach their own potential better than most other government systems. So now I shall dismount my political soapbox before I start sounding like Bill O'Reilly. That, my friends, would be ridiculous.

Know your audience

Interesting/sick happening of the day:

Went to work out this morning at the gym. Showered prior to heading into work. Whilst drying hair, noticed poster on locker room mirror advertising a blood drive with the catchy factoid, "Donate a pint, Lose a pound!" At least the Red Cross knows their audience. :/

The rains came down and the floods came up...

Word to the wise: when coming through the Starbucks drive-thru during a downpour, turn off your windshield wipers when you get to the window. If you don't, the person working DT that day will get soaked.

Cliff has a rain gauge. I think that's how "gauge" is spelled. Too lazy to look it up. Anyway, we've gotten an inch and a half of rain since yesterday... and that was before it started pouring this afternoon.

My car windows leak. :(

I'm thinking of building an ark. Who's with me?

If it gets too familiar, I'll be gone

This weekend (and by weekend, I mean Friday through Tuesday) I...

-Ate Giordano's Pizza
-Saw a friend I thought had died get married
-Went to the top of the tallest building in North America
-Walked to Navy Pier from Union Station on the highway
-Freaked out on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel (I always forget that I'm afraid of heights)
-Drank Jamba Juice (!!!YAY!!!)
-Slept in a basement belonging to the mother of NASCAR driver Carl Edwards
-Watched Revenge of the Sith in said basement
-Apartment hunted in Missouri (not for me)
-Conquered my fear of driving over the Wabash River

... At the old ball game

[This post is about 6 days late as life has not permitted me much computer time in the last week]

God bless David Eckstein.

His RBI base hit (albeit scored on an error) ended the Cardinal's longest losing streak in 8 years last Wednesday at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. And I was there to see it all go down.

Nothing spells summer to me like an evening at the ballpark. There's something electric that happens while soaking in live the best game ever invented. Make it a Cardinals game and I can't possibly think of a better way to spend my evening.

Last week Cliff took me to St. Louis to take in a game at the new Busch Stadium. We went to the old one last year right before it was torn down and we promised each other we'd return when the new one was built. Keeping our word, we arrived last Wednesday to stand-still traffic over the Mississippi River. Alas, we finally made it.

The game was incredible. We got off to an early lead, but let's face it, our pitching staff is crap. The minute our bull pen opened up in the eighth, our lead immediately deteriorated to being down by a run. By the end of the eighth inning, it looked like the Cleveland Indians would be handing us our 9th straight loss. Many Cardinals fans had had enough and made their way to the exits.

But Cliff and I had come too far to give up. Although an early morning shift at Starbucks awaited me the next day, I couldn't leave. We stayed planted in our seats through the top of the 9th as Isringhausen bumbled his way to a saved inning. With no runs scored, it was time for the Cardinals to take one last shot.

In times like this I see each baseball game as something like an epic battle. It doesn't matter how well or how bad a team has been doing in the past. The only thing that matters is this moment, this strike, this hit, this out. Some see the game crawling along at a snail's pace, but you can't watch it like that. You have to see the intricacy, the strategy, the human drama as each player puts aside the past to make the play. They truly are warriors with knee socks and billed caps, slinging that little white ball like a projectile missile.

So Taguchi stepped up to bat. He just happens to be my favorite Cardinal because it seems like when the Cards are in a tough spot and everyone starts sucking, he steps up his game. However, it looked like the inning was over when he tipped the ball straight up over home plate. The ball went sky high... there's no way the Indians wouldn't catch it. But So ran anyway, and as the pitcher brought the ball down with his glove, it dropped to the ground. Suddenly, hope! The crowd went wild as Taguchi doubled on the error. Molina squeezed him to third, Miles brought him home with a base hit. The Cards and Indians were tied with one out in the 9th.

The next out went to Spezio, who still managed to put Miles in scoring position for the game-winning run. Up came Eckstein who hadn't been playing his best that night. Eckstein has a reputation of always getting on base one way or another, however he hadn't been living up to his rep that Wednesday night. Now he had the opportunity to bring in the game-winning run. He grounded to short. Everyone held their breaths as he ran hard for first although it looked like we'd be going into extra innings. But as the short stop threw the ball to first for the third out, something happened and he missed the glove of the waiting first baseman. Eckstein was safe at first and Miles was in at home. The Cardinals won!

I'll never forget that moment as long as I live. Even my boyfriend, who tends to take plays like that sitting down, was up on his feet right along side of me clapping and cheering.

Did I mention I love baseball?