McBush's VP pick

Does this man REALLY think American women are dumb enough to not see through this latest ploy?

"I'm a maverick"
"Washington's broken"
"Obama's too inexperienced"
"I'm the underdog to Obama's celebrity"
"I need Palin as a VP. She's the right choice."

The guy has done nothing but REACT to Obama's successes and play catch up. Maverick? Ok, McBush. Washington broken? Hmmm... how many years has he been in Washington now? Almost 30. Obama too inexperienced? His veep's been in politics since 2006. So now he's gone and chosen a woman to try and take Hilary's disgruntled voters - once again REACTING to what he's observing in politics rather than actually creating anything. Never mind that no one's ever heard of this woman and really brings nothing to the table other than the fact that she's a woman.

This man's got NO leg to stand on. No position. Nothing new and different. You know, as much as I loathe Bush and know he's been wrong on everything he's touched, I believe the guy was passionate about his position and truly believed he was right. McCain on the other hand just seems like he's going through the motions. He doesn't seem committed and real. I have even less respect for him. Especially after this latest slap in the face to women. A clear ploy and an insult to our intelligence. I can only hope and pray that Hil's sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits see through it. They had the AUDACITY to suggest that Palin has broken the glass ceiling and that this is the all-mighty historic moment for women. Are you KIDDING ME?!?!? Hilary did that. Hilary broke the glass ceiling. Hilary earned those stripes. Not this beauty queen puppet.

I loved Obama's speech last night. And you're talking to a woman who was very skeptical, a woman who, had she been a registered Democrat (I'm registered as an Independent), would've very clearly voted for Hilary. My favorite part? When he commented on how this election has never been about him, but about US. I was just saying before his speech how I think the reason why so many people love him so much is because he is the embodiment and representation of true American ideals and the hope we have for ourselves. He is so right. It's not about him. It's about what he represents that we either see in ourselves or WANT to see in ourselves. THAT was a beautiful statement on his part and I'm so grateful that he said it.

I've drunk the Kool-Aid.

F*** McCain and his female puppet. Let him continue to play catch up.

Lifting the hex

Back in February I paid a visit to my hometown for my cousin's engagement party. At the time I was doing & looking great. My mom, a strong believer in the evil eye, kind of warned me that some of the guests, stuck in their own misery, may wish ill upon me. Never a strong believer in the evil eye, I brushed it off. I sashayed about in my mini skirt, and F-me boots, danced with my cousin and had a really fun time. About two weeks later I had the botched acupuncture treatment whose after effects are still plaguing me today (still don't know what's going on with me, still feeling the nerve sensations that have halted my yoga & tango practice). About a month after that I chipped my front tooth. And about 2 months later I tore my right foot's big toe toenail off in an accident.

I'm back in my hometown and scrambling to lift the hex that may or may not have been put on me. What does this entail?

Lead pouring. Let me explain. I went over to the house of a friend of my mother, the local medicine woman you turn to to rid yourself of the negative auras of the evil eye. She sat in front of me and started praying. She then spat on me (think 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding when Tula is walking down the aisle at her wedding ceremony and everyone's spitting on her), slapping me, calling me ugly. She then boiled down chips of lead in a pan, made me lie down on the floor with a blanket over my head, and came over to me and poured the hot lead into a pot of cold water 3 different times. The final time she did this was outside, but I wasn't around. In between boils and pours she's praying and spitting on me, and slapping me. After the final pour outside, she lifts the piece of lead out of the cold pot and exclaims "Oh my! Do you see this? Do you see all these holes? Those are EYES! And all of these particals? Chatter. People are talking about you! And look at the shape of this. Looks like a beast. You have an enemy. Someone who's trying to attack you. Oh you should've come to me sooner my dear. You'll be better now. Watch. In just 10 minutes you'll notice you'll feel lighter."

I didn't.

Why? Maybe because after all of that I still am a skeptic. I mean, do I believe people can wish ill upon others? Absolutely. And do I believe that communal thought and consciousness can create something? Of course. But I could undo all of that with the power of my own thought and consciousness. By sticking true to my own positive thought and power, none of that could harm me. So at the end of all of that, if I'm not buying the 'power' of the hex lifting, what good is it?

Still, I'm not taking any chances. I've asked my aunt to bring back an evil eye charm and bracelet from her trip to the mother country.

A few days later a seer told me my fortune from a cup of coffee grinds. I have a beautiful life ahead of me. If only I'd believe it.

A little less conversation, a little more action

I’ve been in Memphis for a few days and whoooweeee is this place different from wheres I comes from. It’s flippin’ cool! Home of Rock ‘n roll, blues and soul. Barbeque capital. And Elvis, of course. One night I went to Blues City Café for their catfish. Nothing to write home about. Either I have an overly sophisticated palate (ie. I love Cambodian and Syrian food) or an under sophisticated palate (I just don’t understand grub from below the Mason-Dixon line).

At the restaurant I met a few guys. One was a man in his 50s from Berkeley, CA. He’s been driving across the country for 6 weeks and is now looping back heading West. So cool. How many of us say we want to do this and yet how many of us actually DO it? The other guy was from the ATL. I started talking about how Memphis is nothing like Atlanta in that Atlanta is lacking a local culture and flavor, which Memphis has. His response, “That’s because the Blacks control Atlanta, whereas here it’s almost like they accept…. they accept….”

A: Second-class status?

“Exactly!” was his response. After processing what I just heard I replied, “You know, it’s exactly that kind of mentality that made me flee the south.” He immediately went into damage control. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me. My sister’s married to a Black man, and that’s what HE says about Atlanta. I’m just relaying it. I mean, I’m from Florida, I’m not from the south.” I ended the conversation on where I was going with the whole ‘Atlanta doesn’t have culture’ comment. I didn’t mean culture as in the arts, which is where he took it, because you know, according to him, ‘Blacks’ don’t appreciate the arts. I told him how I believed that Atlanta was lacking a local culture because it’s too new. Atlanta’s Inman Park, Virginia Highlands and MLK Blvd areas DO have a local flavor but that wasn’t incorporated into the mammoth growth that took place over the last 10 – 15 years. That it’s like a lot of other cities out there: Dallas, Jacksonville, etc. Just standard American cities with a bunch of suburbs and plazas. And then I walked away.

The following night I found myself sitting at the bar next to a group of guys gearing up for a night of Trivia. After 45 minutes of trying to emit pheromones their way, I finally met the cutie sitting next to me. His name was C.

C is a Democrat in a red state
C has lived all over the world
C is charming
C is sweet
C is funny
C is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E
C is a broker by trade
C is engaged to be married
FUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDGGGGGGEEEEEE
C gave me his email address and phone number and asked me to please stay in touch. Why? To torture A?

Fortunately his friend S stepped in and kept me company when C left to go meet his fiancée. Guess what S does for a living? He’s a journalist covering, and I quote ‘the Elvis beat’. Now that’s not a profession you hear of often.

So what do you do?
I’m a banker
I’m an attorney
I’m a mortgage broker
I cover Graceland

The man’s legacy is so alive that even 30 years after his death there’s still a paparazzo out there trailing him. ??

By the way, I've just gone on a visit thru midtown and they have stunningly gorgeous historic homes. This place is great.

Me talk business language not so good

As a Turkish-American, I grew up speaking the language in my house but never having any educational training in it. I never lived there. So when I open my mouth to speak Turkish, it's VERY obvious I'm not a native. I'm fine in day-to-day language, though I'm certain I'm making all kinds of grammatical and vocabulary errors. It's such a different structure. It's not like English and French where you have subject + conjugated verb + object, etc. It's a jumble of objects, subjects, unconjugated verbs and articles ending with a conjugated verb.

I started learning French when I was 13. I fell in love with it. I continued learning throughout high school, a bit in college, and then lived in Paris for a bit after college.

My French grammar is actually superior to my Turkish grammar because I had formal training. When I speak French, I wow Frenchmen and women with my ease and accent. That's not to say I don't make a boatload of mistakes & get stuck, but I'm not French. I'm AMERICAINE, so they have low expectations. So when I'm pronouncing the R correctly, or I'm using certain words they're floored. I'm not French, so there's no pressure for me to speak it perfectly. And yet, it still intimidates me to speak French with natives. Why? Because I know I make errors and I don't like that. I was teased when I was younger for speaking Turkish with a funny accent, and that insecurity has stayed with me and has affected my French too.

Turkish on the other hand - sigh.... I am Turkish, so there is an expectation that I speak it. And Turks don't hide their judgments. If they don't like your new hairdo, they'll tell you. If you've gained weight, you can't possibly stay in denial because your friends and neighbors and peers will exclaim, "Wow, you've gotten fat." It's all perfectly normal. But I'm also American. Which means I grew up in a politically correct culture that's far more thin-skinned. So I have always been so embarrassed when flagged over my lackluster Turkish.

I've had to learn to speak both languages in a business setting and what I've learned is that regular French and Turkish is nothing like business French and Turkish. Yesterday I was due to have a meeting with someone for work, and to my dismay walked into a room of FIVE suits sitting around a table. After listening to Ms. X go on and on in one of the above foreign languages about her organization, she turned to me, "Tell us a bit about your organization and what you've been doing since you've been there, and how you think we could work together."

A: Sure, but I prefer to do this in English if it's OK with all of you, as I'm far more comfortable in that.

I felt embarrassed for copping out.

And yet... and yet... they were totally engaged in what I had to say. I was wowing them in a different way. I'm sure when I walked in the room they thought to themselves (as most do) "Who is this young girl, how did she get THIS job? How much could she possibly know?" And yet... they were excited to hear what I had to say. And yet... at the end of the meeting one of the suits (a VERY good looking older man who made me nervous) exclaimed, "Very productive meeting. Thank you so much for your time." And yet... last week when I walked into a bar to meet three older gentlemen for a business meeting and they quickly tried to wash away the look of surprise on their face, they followed up the end of the meeting with a similar response "Thank you so much for your time and your insight. It was so helpful."

So why, given all of the thanks I receive for my so-called expertise and insight and strong work am I still feeling like the little 8-year-old girl being teased by her cousins in for speaking Turkish like Tarzan?

:-/