Life and Times of AlieMalie

Are you ever confronted with something you’d never thought about? I’m struggling to think of an example other than the one I’m prepared to write about because these are just those sorts of things – things you never think about ’til they confront you one afternoon and you realize you’d never thought about that, but it makes perfect sense.

Hmm, let me wrack my brain some more …

Ok, maybe – this is a stretch – kinda like back in high school physics (this is for all you science nerds out there), where you were taught how a circuit is open when a switch is off and a circuit is closed when a switch is on. Unless I’d been sitting in physics, this never would’ve occurred to me, but as soon as we thought about it, it makes perfect sense and I can see it easily.

I think that’s a bad example. Trying to think of another one. Let’s see. (This is also really hard to think up because these tend to be things we immediately take as truth and never think of as strange or unknown ever again.) Gosh, this is hard.

Ok, I give up. Whatever.

So a few weeks ago, I was allowed access to the back of the post office for quite a while (having letter carriers as friends has its perks – for a nerd like me, I suppose) and I got to see a lot of things I’d never imagined. Never even thought to think of, ever. Did you know that your letter carrier spends about two hours every morning sorting the mail in what’s called a case? I knew the postal service had these massive machines to sort, so I assumed that they sorted all the mail and all the carriers had to do was pick it up and put it into the trucks to deliver it. WRONG. Apparently the machines sort down to a route, but it’s up to the carrier to do the rest. I had no idea. So they spend their mornings in these teeny tiny little cubby holes sorting all the mail. If you’re gone and your mail is on hold or is being forwarded, the machine doesn’t really care, it still sorts it and it’s up to the carrier to pull it out and hold it or forward. Can you imagine how much these carriers know about us? Some of these guys have to deliver to 1200 addresses a day and the fact that they keep nearly all of it straight is amazing, especially on the deadlines they have – every single solitary minute is accounted for. It’s crazy amazing.

Anyway, off track. It was pretty cool to see where mail wakes up in the mornings; I had no idea, obviously.

Last weekend I had the joy of shooting the wedding of some new found friends down in St Paul. After the day was over and we’d celebrated into the wee hours of the morning, I found myself back in love with my camera. As much as I talk about using it more, I find myself leaving it at home again and again because he’s just too big. But then there are shots that just look better when I use him for them.

Now I’m drooling over lenses. I want a wide angle lens first and foremost because those are the shots I can’t take with the DSLR and which I leave him behind because of and instead use my point and shoot.

So today will be spent working for a bit and then off to the local camera shop to look around. I’ve done a very good job of saving my pennies lately (I even stopped by and made a rather large deposit into my mutual fund – Hello, Mutual Fund, you might not remember me, I haven’t seen you in years!) so getting a lens that’ll keep me busy is money well spent, because while I’m out there shooting, I won’t be spending money.

I know my logic is flawed, but I’m going to pretend that it’s not. It’s only slightly flawed. And I’m saving more money in the long run. Buy low, sell high. Let me keep pretending.

So this evening on public television here, there was a forum broadcast that included people from a bunch of interested parties to talk with one of our senators regarding health care reform and how it will affect both North Dakota and the United States.

Now, there are a couple of rules when engaging in these sorts of undertakings:

1. Never tell the senator he’s wrong. Especially in a disrespectful tone when he has invited you to the forum. Saying something along the lines of, “Senator, you’re wrong! We actually need X, Y and Z!” is a foolproof way to ensure that you’ll not be invited to the next forum he hosts.
2. Stay on message. Whatever your message is, stay on it.  Your group has probably done a ton of research to find out what best resonates, and deviating from that message will only serve to dig you a deep, dark grave. One that probably doesn’t come with unemployment benefits.

Anyway, getting to what I originally wanted to post about. So, a certain person who shall remain nameless and who works with a group that I work against said that the solution to the health care crisis in our country comes down to one thing: more walking and biking paths.

That’s it! “Walkability and Ridability.”

And that’s a quote. On the record. On public television. To a very powerful senator. Who supports major health care reform initiatives that include more than just, “Building more walking and biking paths.”

I’ll add to the rules of on the record messaging: If you have to go off message (which according to rule #2, you never should), at least do it intelligently and don’t make yourself look like an idiot in the process and take your group down with you. The person in question? Definitely foolishly idiotic. I can only imagine that their boss cringed for an hour straight listening to them speak.

Anyway, I feel a lot better after watching this tonight, because if this is all the other side has, then we’re set. And also? It’s difficult to engage in a battle of wits when your opponent is unarmed. So I shall continue on in my duties, working for health care while the other side continually shoots itself in the foot.

This is what I feel like I’m playing every single day.  One really big, life size version of Risk.  With real consequences.  And someday?  Global Domination shall be mine.

Or maybe, just maybe, those wee little signs next to the hydrants all over town are for when the fire fighters can’t see the hydrant in the tall prairie grasses?

In the past month or so, I’ve finally felt like my life has taken a giant leap forward. Every so often in my life, I can feel the growth that comes along with being more self aware, though not often. More often it happens that I compare where I am with a time previous and realize that I’m in a completely different place.

However, just as I could feel myself growing with nearly every word I spoke and thought I imagined when I was backpacking in 2002, I’ve been able to feel myself changing and moving in a direction I’d like to go in in the last several weeks.

I’ve become more aware in trying to watch what I say and how it affects people as well as trying to stay positive, I’m not 100% successful, but I find myself a much happier person if I’m trying to create happiness around me and staying positive no matter what. It’s not that I wasn’t watching what I said previously, it was more along the lines that I didn’t really care if people didn’t like what I had to say in the first place, I had an opinion and everyone was entitled to it. While I still feel that way, I’ve been finding that it’s a lot easier to communicate my opinion if I frame it a bit differently.

Anyway, so far in Fargo I’ve met some really awesome people – people who make me stretch to become comfortable which is a good thing, to me at least, because it makes me reflect and do a lot more thinking and engage in quite a bit of introspection. For someone who’s job it is to do a lot of talking and schmoozing to get what I need done, I’ve spent a hell of a lot of time alone deep in thought in the last month. And I’m not sure I’d have it any other way.

And Fargo really is NEON in spring.