Rest in Peace, Tim Russert

 I just found out that NBC News' Washington Bureau chief and moderator of Meet the Press, Tim Russert, died today at age 58 after collapsing.  This makes me very sad, not just that he died at such a young age, but because I have enjoyed his political commentary for years now, on the Today show and elsewhere.  I started watching Meet the Press this year, during the primary season, and he was just like a kid in a candy store each Sunday, especially in light of all of the crazy stuff going on.  He loved politics more than any analyst I've ever seen and all in all, he truly seemed like a good guy.  I'd set our DVR to record all new episodes of Meet the Press starting in January and hadn't been watching them lately, I've just deleted them after about a week.  I still have the episode from this past Sunday saved though, I'm so glad since it turns out it will have been his last one.  In light of what will be an historic general election season for President, his voice, insight, knowledge and boundless enthusiasm will be sorely missed by me and millions of others, I'm sure.  I'm just so bummed that he won't get to see how it all plays out.  Rest in peace, Mr. Russert, and wherever you are now, I hope it's always an election year.

Can't you just picture it?

222 days and counting...

Does this count?

Caught an edition of the Unger Report on NPR the other day, called Finding a Way to Evolve: "Oprah Winfrey isn't changing — she's "evolving," the media mogul recently told a magazine. And our humorist Brian Unger is following suit as he examines the path of personal evolution."

It got me to thinking because I recently made what felt like a big change in my life. For the past 11 years, I have used the exact same toothbrush, no not the *exact* same one, but a clear, plain vanilla Oral B brush. I have no idea why I latched onto this particular model, but I would literally buy out a store's supply when I could thinking maybe I could use the same model forever. Very weird, but I prefer to think of it as quirky. Anyway, this model has been discontinued for about 3 years, or at least I could never find them, and I ran out of the soft bristle version in my stash about a year ago and the medium bristles are pretty rough, so I decided that maybe it was time to step out of my comfort zone, bite the bullet and try a new toothbrush. My husband is the King of the Bargain and gets free-after-rebate stuff all the time from drugstores, I don't think he's purchased a toothbrush, deodorant or shampoo in the 7 years that I've known him. One of the recent free toothbrushes was an Oral B Cross Action, Soft Compact Head with a bright pink handle and so the other night, I tossed the clear one and went for it. All I can say is that I am sure I have been missing out on some pretty innovative toothbrush technology over the years! The cross action bristles, the ergonomic handle that just fits so well in my hand! Thank you Oprah, for helping me to feel alright about celebrating this strange yet momentous change in my life. Odd? For sure. But an evolution nonetheless.

Huh?

I just read an interesting article about Barack Obama in this month's Esquire magazine called "The Cynic and Senator Obama" by Charles P. Pierce.  I enjoyed it and wanted to email it to my husband, so I used the "email this article" function on Esquire.com.  After I entered my email, my husband's email and hit send, this popped up:

Um, what?

Ready & Waiting!

I bought my ticket today and my friends and I are already planning on partaking in a few special cocktails here beforehand.  We've been waiting a long time for this and now that it's so close, it's that much harder to wait.  All I can say is that it better be good!

N wonder women have so many image issues

Words of wisdom

I am a bit of a packrat. I keep things. Lots of things. Things that have significance only to me. I often keep these things in my purse or wallet, tucked away where I forget that they're there and then rediscover them at random times. I just switched to a new purse (a smaller one, trying to declutter) and in doing so also had to get a smaller wallet. This forced me to go back through the wallet I've carried for several years, a travel wallet I bought in 2002 prior to a 5 week trip to Europe that had lots of areas to stash things. One of the things I found was an old Magic Hat #9 bottle cap that has the words "Be Here Now" on the underside that I got on a beer sometime early in my college days (Magic Hat had sayings on all of their bottle caps once upon a time, I imagine they still do). My mind has been getting away from me a bit lately, so that was a nice reminder to take a deep breath and get back into the present. Here it is:

I also have a set of ticket stubs from Rocket from the Crypt's last concert ever that my husband and I attended in San Diego on Halloween 2005 and a guest pass to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that my husband gave me right after we started dating. So they are things that just feel good to have with me, that have good vibes. Another thing I found was a note card, folded in half and soft from wear, on which I'd written the following words in black ink:

"Ask yourself some questions on your true desires and the meaning that you want to give to your life. Don't hesitate to start a phase of introspection and inner searching to discover your personal legend. Give philosophy a bigger place in your search for happiness."

This was a horoscope that blew me away when I read it, probably sometime in mid-2000. It was one of those times when I really needed to hear something like that and I wrote it down and put it in my wallet because I always wanted to remember it. Here I have rediscovered it in 2008, many miles (both literally and figuratively) away from where I was when it first seemed significant and it is just as good a reminder now as it was then, it really brings everything into focus for me. The philosophy that I believe needs a bigger place in my search for happiness is Mindfulness, I have studied it a bit (in this book) but really need a refresher...phase of introspection, here I come.