Chapin came to visit me this weekend from San Diego. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dedicate the entire weekend to her due to my midterm today but we had a blast nonetheless. I studied and cleaned my apartment all day Friday. I met Chapin on campus on Saturday and we got to catch up over lunch. I had my Panda Express and she had Rubios. The Empower Change summit was happening on campus that day and that's why we were there. Unfortunately. we both weren't able to make it to any of the workshops but we were able to attend the keynote speech at Royce Hall given by none other than Bill Clinton.

" My wife has tons of credit cards. She has so many magnetic strips in her wallet, her purse points north." -Peter Sasso, Comedian (Reader's Digest, Sept. '07)

This is an interesting article on credit cards. I wish I had read it sooner.

Today Rob and I did some packing and then headed to Berkeley to see the documentary No End In Sight by Charles Ferguson, the founder of the company that made Frontpage. The movie is about the United States occupation in Iraq and had a variety of views from people who were part of the process to try to rebuild the country after Saddam fell from power. Rob showed me the trailer and we had the urge to see it but it's only playing in select cities right now. The 4:30 showing in Berkeley had a Q&A session with the filmmaker himself after the show so we went to that one. The movie helped us connect the dots to what we already knew to be facts. It's chock full of interviews with high ranking officials who knew that the U.S. policy with Iraq was going down the wrong path but were powerless to stop disastrous decisions from being made. Those decisions eventually led to the insurgency and now there's no easy way to fix the mistakes and no morally right way to leave. It's nothing like a Michael Moore movie. I don't consider it to be partisan or nastily poking fun at the Bush administration. I highly recommend it to anyone who want to understand the decisions that were made during the war and consequences of them. Rob and I managed to shake Ferguson's hand before he left and thank him for stepping up and making such a great documentary.

Rob brought this article to my attention the other night. The idea for the experiment is ingenious, but more importantly it revealed just how truly robotic people go about in their daily lives. I am surrounded with these types of people, the ones who are totally immersed in politics and business that they don't have time to acknowledge beauty at its finest. I may even become one of those people someday. That would be a sad thing. I hope I continue to retain a sense of awe and wonder. Like noticing that the strawberry plants outside this apartment and at Apple are starting to produce little strawberries, for example. I miss being able to act and think like a kid again.

Yesterday I had my first midterm in Political Sociology. We had to read both volumes of Toqueville's Democracy in America to prepare for it. The reading was a bit dry, like many writings on Political Theory, but I agree with some of the things he was saying. BTW, I love political theory so don't get me wrong.

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Drools...

After an extensive discussion about how I'd ideally like to see myself in ten years, I researched on what would make it possible to "have it all". In other words, to juggle a career, raise a great family, maintain romance with my husband, and still have time to sit back and enjoy the journey. There are so many women out there that can do it and I wonder how they are able to without much help from their husbands. Turns out many are not as likely to succeed without equal help from the partner and that might be why the divorce rates are so high. I found the following pdf article by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt and I think the she made several important points. I think that society has put too much emphasis on the woman's ability to multi-task better so the mindset is to just let her do it all. I would like to request that if women are required to pull their weight in the workplace then men need to learn to pull their weight at home. It would be a tough sell if women had to excell in all domains and their men continue to choose career over family and household responsibilities. And yes guys, we make note of that on our mental checklist of mating requirements.