Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill

So the nation's first openly gay mayor, Portland's Sam Adams, is being called to resign because he dated someone 25 years younger and lied about it. Yeah, I understand that if he did the guy when he was still only 17, then it was illegal, but supposedly they waited until the guy turned 18--a matter of months. Either way, who cares, seriously?
No, Adams shouldn't have lied about it, obviously that is the real issue here, and definitely made everything so much worse and harder for himself than if he had just been open about it. But if it was just a personal indiscretion, and Adams didn't misuse his city council position for Breedlove's benefit, then what's the big deal? Yes, his lying about the relationship and nature thereof causes a lack of trust in him, but is Adams' dating history the public's business in the first place? I don't think so. He initially characterized the relationship as a mentor and protege' type situation, then backtracked and admitted that they were dating and slept together. I don't necessarily find the two to be mutually exclusive. Remember all those Platonic dialogues? They were frickin' dirty: Socrates debating with all his young proteges, teaching them, and then doing them in the meantime. Yet Platonic dialogues are in the literary and historical canon. This teaching method (minus the sex) is used in all law schools, and is called the "Socratic Method."

So Adams lied. He was probably embarrassed that he dated someone so ridiculously young. But almost everyone has dated someone that they wished they hadn't. People not in the public eye can just call it a mistake and/or a learning experience. But woe to those in the public eye, they're apparently not allowed to make the same mistakes everyone else has.

Get over it, people. Most likely, it's so NOT a big deal.

New Day

So we finally, thank god, have a new president, one I'm actually excited about for the first time in my life. I wasn't able to watch the inauguration as I was at work and in the middle of RFP purgatory (still am, as a matter of fact). But it doesn't matter. Anything I say will probably be redundant anyway. So I have to wait until--no, not when I get home from work--I get home from school at 9 p.m. to watch everything. Everything that everyone else has already seen. It's still exciting though.

Odds and Ends

Lots of little unconnected things have been going on lately. Here's the rundown:

• The tree is still on top of my parents' house, but that will be ending today, thanks to NWC Contracting and a crane. Yes, a CRANE. And, the tree will be turned into wood chips that I'm going to use to line my driveway, because it's gotten too muddy to park there as of late. Nothing wasted.

• Bifur, who has been undergoing seemingly never-ending misery that all began with him peeing on blankets now has a new problem to add to the list: a cold. First, he had to spend the night at the vet to determine WHY he was peeing on things, then it was discovered that he had a urinary tract infection and worms. So because of that, he's been subjected to antibiotics being squirted in his mouth twice a day. But yesterday the poor kitty started coughing and sneezing, and this morning I saw him breathing through his mouth instead of his nose, i.e. he has a stuffy nose. He sat on the chair looking uncomfortable with his mouth hanging open. Liz said that last night he kept on doing that, combined with snuffling and sneezing. There's nothing so sad as a cat with a cold. Now my nose is a bit snuffly today. If it turns out I'm catching a cold, I'll know who to blame.

• I have dancing friends! They're awesome! Friday night I met up with John for dinner, and then we met up with his friend Will at the Goodfoot, and we danced the night away. It was so much fun! I had never taken advantage of my old dancing friends before they moved away, and felt like I had missed out on a great opportunity. But I have new dancing friends now. Yay!

• Saturday was Will's birthday, so there was more dancing at his party. And therefore, more fun.
• A trend I noticed Saturday in my neighborhood: people going barefoot in the cold. Why? Not sure. It was only around 40 degrees that day. First, while walking both to and from Trader Joe's, I saw a woman wearing a tri-cornered hat like a revolutionary soldier marching down the street at a rapid pace barefoot, long wild hair trailing behind her beneath the hat. I think it's likely that she was crazy. A few minutes later, also on my way home from Trader Joe's, I saw a hippie riding a bicycle barefoot. Maybe he was trying to be one with the weather. I don't know. It was strange.

• School is back in session, and I'm proud of myself for getting all my homework done for today last night. Yes, I didn't finish until midnight, so I only got 6 hours of sleep, but I feel really good that it's done.
  

Tree in My Parents' House, to Put it Mildly

Last night was extremely windy and stormy here in Portland. Around 9:30, the huge tree in my parents' front yard crashed into their house. Windows shattered, the chimney crumbled, the gutter collapsed, the police arrived, and their little kitten Lulu got frightened (see photo above). Fortunately, my parents are fine, just a bit shaken up, and a bunch of their neighbors, even ones they've never met before, showed up with a chain saw to help them clear the driveway of branches, so that they could drive out and take care of business.

My dad showing me the disaster.

Branches and pines cones all over the backyard.

They had to board the back window because it was completely broken, and the window repairman had a two-week backlog.

Oh, excitement.

Love It or Hate It, No In-Between (Except Maybe Me)

I saw "Synecdoche New York" last night, the new Charlie Kaufman movie. I have to confess, that despite his lofty cinematic stature, I don't really know much about him.

***

So I just wikied him. He has the same birthday as me(!), and had a hand in "Being John Malkovich," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Adaptation," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Much of his work, including plays he's written, are extremely explicitly self-referential, so if that kind of thing bothers you, then you're going to hate his work. I happen to enjoy that kind of thing, because I think it's interesting trying to piece together what it is an artist is trying to work out through recurring themes in his work. Judging from this latest movie, maybe Kaufman's a little too heavy-handed about it. Whatever.

Anyway, people are VERY divided about this movie. I thought it kept going a bit too long, but overall, I enjoyed it. I thought it was clever, particularly the structure. Yes, there WAS a structure. Some people, however, HATED it. And that's putting it lightly. My roommate Joe hated it, saying that because Kaufman has now become established, he can make something completely confusing, incoherent, and self-indulgent, and everyone will love it and call it genius because, hey, Kaufman made it. My other roommate Liz liked it, saying that one sees Charlie Kaufman movies with the expectation that they're going to be self-indulgent, as in, duh.
I liked it specifically because of the structure. I feel like the meaning was in the structure. And, I'm a sucker for the post-modern.
In "Synecdoche," playwright Caden Cotard gets a MacArthur Grant, and writes a never-ending play about his life, and all the people in it. But it's only slightly delayed from real-time, everything that happens in real life happens in the play, and all real characters including himself have faux characters of themselves. And, as all the real characters have twin faux characters, then those faux character must have faux characters of themselves. So it expands exponentially, like the universe, which I loved. Those types of things make my head hurt, but in an enjoyable way. Sometimes though, the faux characters would end up interacting with the real characters, instead of the their faux counterparts, just to throw a wrench in the works.
I think the idea of being able to step outside yourself and watch yourself would be awesome, very enlightening. If I could watch the "Laura" tv show and see from an outside perspective how I behave, I think or at least hope, that I would learn something about myself. In this film, though, none of the characters end up growing or evolving despite having this ability. That's a little sad, and definitely nihilistic, but I think that's his point.
Final Tally
Liked it: 3
Hated it: 3
End Result: Tie

Happy New Year!

It's raining cats and...cats today. Very very heavy, but warm--52 degrees. But tomorrow and Saturday snow is back in the forecast. Very unusual. It's a new year, and I think (knock on wood!) that it's going to be good, finally.