I hate Howard Dean, so I'm not at all amused to be receiving letters from him now that he is the head of the DNC. It will be a very long time, probably not until the next presidential election, that I'll be donating money to the DNC with Dean as the Chairman. And if Dean is the next demo presidential candidate, he's definitely not getting any money from me. And the next time I get another letter from Howard Dean, it is going straight to recycling.

I suppose I should comment on the Terri Schiavo case, although unless the rest of the nation I'm not that traumatized. I've been hearing about this case for about six weeks now, and I don't know, I'm not really moved. Callous isn't it?

It just makes me think that if you're that concerned about it, you should make sure that you have a written directive about what should happen in case you're in Terri's position. My brother knows that if I ever am brain dead, I would want him to pull my plug or let me starve to death. What is life without the mind anyway? I wouldn't want to be an emotional or financial burden to my family.

I feel bad for the Terri's husband and for Terri herself. Her husband had been trying to do this for 15 years and this the third time she's been starved to death. Why would her family want to subject her to 15 years of this is a mystery?

And you know, everyone assumes that Terri's parents treated her well while she was alive. What if that wasn't true? What if they were bad parents in her youth, and this is their guilt trip way of making it up to her? No one ever talks about that. It would be like that scene at the end of "Chinatown" where the Faye Dunaway's grand daughter goes off with the incestous grandfather. Or the people who insist that if a woman who gets pregnant from a rapist, that the woman should carry the baby to full term.

You know the only people who ever benefit from a national traumatic event like this are the laywers. They'll be making money from people wanting to put together living directives so they don't end up like Terri Schiavo. Lawyers always make money in times like these.

What's a girl to do on Saturday while cleaning up, but bid on expensive french shoes. Here's what New York Metro has to say about the Stephane Kelian shoes I just bid on and won for about $25:

Shoes, Women
The art crowd swears by these dowdy-chic, fuss-free shoes that are edgy enough to be seen on the gallery circuit and sensible enough to walk around in—like suede ankle boots ($555) and leather boots with an accented heel ($585).

Another web page I found has this to say about these shoes:

It's not easy to design shoes that keep Parisians looking casually chic and ahead of the next trend, but Stephane Kelian continues to do just that. The shoes balance a European minimalist, fashion-forward style with a comfort and practicality that keep Parisians walking all day long. Kelian shoes are sturdy, but beautiful--not for the princess who likes to totter around on spindly heels. Both the shoes and the store, located right off Rodeo Drive, reflect a clean and modern style. The helpful staff will assist you in narrowing down the search for a pair of shoes, usually gorgeous, buttery leather creations, that will have you placing your best foot forward.

I bought a pair of black loafers with a 2.25 inch heel, which normally retailed for about $400.

Red-headed boy was a shoe salesguy and he thought I was wearing a pair of these. I didn't even know what he was talking about till I googled the shoes and found out they were very expensive french shoes that you can only buy in shops in LA and NYC. I was wearing a pair of 3 year old black Dansko sandals by the way when he said this which cost me under $100 and are shoes Dansko doesn't even carry anymore.

Well, now I have a pair and I bought them on Ebay for $25. I'm bidding on another pair as well just for fun.

So I think the advice about not buying things during the beginning of a Mercury retrograde are true. The astrologers says don't buy things at the start of a Mercury retrograde because you'll have problems.

I bought some underwear at Victoria's Secret on Saturday, and already I found a hole in one of them and on the second one, the cute little decoration is coming out. What a jip! Now I have to decide do I go back to Victoria's Secret to replace the one I accidentally ripped and the one with decoration coming off. I could just sew the decoration back on, but what a pain! And I do need to replace the one with the tear because it's matches something else I bought there.

Decisions, decisions ... but if workmanship wasn't so shoddy or perhaps if I hadn't bought them on first day of the Mercury retrograde maybe I wouldn't have to make these decisions.

Somehow I got pulled in to work on a project with my company’s foundation. Now I’m being pulled into all these meetings and if this project is funded, it has the potential to generate a ton of publicity which will make it a highly visible company project. I hate projects that generate a ton of publicity. Your work gets scrutinized up and ying yang, and you end up going to a ton of meetings to brainstorm and plan a strategy. This project will involve not only my company board of directors but also the foundation’s board of directors. Talk about people breathing down your neck.

Okay it’s not like this is the first time my work has been presented to a company’s board of directors, but I just hate the pressure of it all. I’d rather just do my work and projects anonymously, and not draw a lot of attention to myself. I stopped speaking up in meetings, so I would get disinvited off the meeting lists. And it looked like my no meeting strategy was working until now. Meetings are such a waste of time. If you start volunteering your opinions in a meeting, you end up being sent to more meetings because “people value your opinions.” I know, I know, it’s a compliment to be thought of so highly that people keep requesting you to be part of their projects, but it’s also a complete waste of time. Plus you still have to do your regular job and now do much more extra work. Talk about recipe for spending a lot of nights in the office.

I don’t mind doing the background research, preparing the opinions and briefs for my boss so they sound intelligent and look like they know what they’re talking about when they go to their meetings, but that’s about all I want to do. I don’t want to go the meetings and get assigned to do more work along with my regular job.