P.S.

I should mention that I am flying to Europe for November. Carlos used his worldly airplane ticket skills to find round-trip tickets for 275 dollars to London. Expedia tricked us, but thanks to my dad's suggestion, Cheaptickets.com made it work for us. I have nothing but good things to say about Cheaptickets.com! So from London, to Paris, and then starvation because I have no money. Anything to get out of the limbo between farmland and suburban stagnation that is Gainesville, VA. I don't think I have any readers outside the U.S., but I bet if I did they would want me and Carlos on their couch for sure.

For me, it has been five years since I have been over there, which is a long time for me. Before eighteen, I would visit family there every two to three years in the summer. For this and other reasons I believe it is an overly idealized place in my mind. Or maybe I'm right. I'll find out one way or the other.

Back in Hibernation

As you can see by my failure to post lately, it seems like I have gone back into "hibernation." Even my last post was lame; anti-Bush protest, what? Obviously the anti-war protest went pretty well, even if the media predictably robbed it of all its power. I may have been rationalizing because I knew I would not be able to go because of my paranoia with regard to arrests and other trouble with the law. Speaking of which, I had a nightmare earlier today because I took a nap instead of eating lunch.

In the dream, I am out partying with two random women (people are always generalized and indistinct in my dreams). They kiss each other, which bores me because I know they're not interested in me anyway, and I look for food in the house we end up in. After some time, one of their boyfriends returns home, and apparently lives in the house. I explain that I wasn't the one to direct anger at, and that the kissing involved the other woman, not me. Nevertheless, he denies me any more food implying that I overstayed my welcome already. So I exit, apparently into a department store of some sort. Since the guy's house seems to be attached to this store, he must have inherited his family's wealth from owning it, so I make the dream-logical move of screaming out "Fuck yeah! This store rocks!" at the top of my lungs. My last-ditch effort to get back at my rival scares the customers, but also brings immediate police presence, which of course is where the dream turns into a nightmare. I'm no better with police in dreams than in real life, and as I try to run away they tranquilize me (think Metal Gear Solid). It takes a long time to fall asleep, and they even resort to more darts, and the general feeling is one of hopelessness and failure.

Operation Cease-something

http://www.opceasefire.org

So, I'm going to this, but mostly to see what happens and listen to Le Tigre. Isn't it a little late? Not to mention the impossibility of any clean exit at this point, both ethically and practically. I have a proposal for a shift in the direction of this protest, inspired by Bill Maher's closing speech in last week's show. The left contains a multitude of viewpoints about every issue, and certainly not everyone at the anti-war events will agree with the inevitable Down with Israel posters and the anti-globalization anarchists that will also be in force because of the IMF summit that weekend. What everyone has in common is a disapproval of Bush and his administration of this war. Last week Maher called for a "California-style" recall of Bush, and given his low approval ratings right now, I would venture that this is a stronger likelihood than "stopping the war in Iraq." What do you think? Shall I start this meme going and find a way to inform every indie kid on their way what the new agenda is?

Not topical

"Ikeaphobia and its discontents"

Typically, anti-'dumb young leftist' blog posts would make me wary, but I really agree with Greenfield's sentiment. I always resent the guilt pangs I feel when I give my money to Starbucks, which is seldom. Seldom not because it's bad or offensive, but because really it is more of a dessert and milkshake place than a coffee shop. As such it is pretty good, but I'm not as addicted to dessert drinks as the sorority girls in sandals and sweatpants are at Tech.

I'm not old enough to remember the days before Starbucks he talks about, but it sounds about right. I can appreciate the chain's impact on the national consciousness, but other places have now taken the idea and improved on it. By the same token, he ignores the gripe I have always had with Starbucks--its presence in places like Rome and Prague. Why reach for the familiar when you traveled to its inspiration, right? Well, as a girl from Prague countered to me, if she saw a Prague-style coffee shop after being in the States all summer she would go there instead of Starbucks. I should note that after some searching around northern Fairfax county, we settled on Starbucks.

I don't know what Greenfield means when he says Nike is progressive, but if BuyBlue.org is a good indicator of how bad a corporation truly is. In any case, it's going to take a lot more than buying different coffee to turn the tide of global corporate hegemonies.