No matter where you stand politically, you have to admit that it is amazing to think that, beginning today, we will have a Black first family in the White House. How far we've come.

Sadie Pence 7/3/2000 - 12/1/2008

Some of you may have known that our sweet Sadie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer almost 4 weeks ago. The cancer had already spread to her other organs and we knew she only had a few weeks left. The last few days proved to us that the pain she was suffering was overwhelming, so we made the decision to put her to rest today. We miss her so much already.

The pictures below were taken 3 days after her diagnosis. Such a sweet brave girl.

This is how we'll always remember her.

A semi-intelligent political conversation

An email to my coworker after an earlier conversation:

I decided to do some research on what you said about Barack being Arab. I could not find anything except for a few blog posts about it. Where is your source? I would like to read it. In my mind, he is still African-American. His father (who more than likely is of Arab descent) was born in Kenya, and is Kenyan. Barack's mother is white, and he has never denied this, so your comment that he doesn't acknowledge that he's half-white completely blows my mind.

Anyway, I am more than happy to review any reading material you can provide. It's not going to change my mind about my vote, but I know that you would never expect that anyway. Just know that I will not engage in any war of words about the candidates with you. It is not the environment in which I want to work, and you never seem to talk about issues anyway.

His response:

He’s African-American in your (and many other people’s) mind, but he does not have one single drop of African-American blood in his body…and precious little African blood. To me, it’s dishonest for him to proclaim he’s one thing when, in fact, he is something else entirely. Yes, he does acknowledge that he’s half white (frankly, how could he not); that was a poor choice of words on my part. In fact, he grew up associating mainly with whites and even choosing to go by the nickname Barry. It wasn’t until college that he chose to abandon his whiteness and become black. I find this change interesting at best, deceitful at worst, but suspicious most of all. Why did he choose to be black when that’s the smallest percentage of his ethnicity? I could care less what color someone is, but it’s strange to me when someone tries to change it. Then I have to ask why. I believe his change was to further his own cause but I’d be happy to be wrong about that.

I like to discuss multiple “issues,” mainly out of the office (frequently, there’s not enough time to discuss serious issues in the office). I don’t discuss them with you because you’ve repeatedly said you don’t want to discuss them; however, I’d be happy to any time you’d like. I consider you an intelligent, thoughtful person and am always willing to hear such people out. For example, I’d like to hear why it is that you are a proponent of the Fair Tax.

My response to his response:

You know my mom is Vietnamese, and my father is white. You may not know, but I went through an identity crisis also. It is very very hard to grow up in many American towns if you look different, act different, and are named differently. I don't think you understand what it is like to grow up mixed. I'll give you some examples:

• When I was 8 I lived in Southern California for about 3 months (my mom was about to give birth). We lived in a poorer neighborhood in Westminster, CA. One time some Vietnamese boys at school found out that I was half-Vietnamese, and they followed me home, taunting me. It really scared me.


• When I moved to Louisville after living in Taiwan for 5 years, I tried to change my name to Melissa (actually I went through a baby name book and circled a few names, but Melissa was the one I eventually chose). I saw how different I was from everyone in the school and I just wanted to be the same. Luckily, the name never stuck. I was 14 at the time, just starting high school.


• I had a friend in college who is half black half white. I noticed that most of her pictures were of friends who were black. I asked her about it, and she told me that while growing up she had some white friends, the black community accepted her more easily than the white community. That's where she felt most comfortable.


• After living in Taiwan for so long, I identified more with Chinese people than with Vietnamese people. After I moved to the states, most of my Asian friends have been Chinese, and not Vietnamese.


• In the early 1990s, I lived with my mom and siblings in Marietta. Our next door neighbor's sons would take any opportunity to make fun of us. Once my mom and I were in the driveway doing a perfectly normal American thing - washing our car - and they stood there the entire time calling us names (chinks, gooks) while we tried to ignore them. I'm surprised with my mom's temper that she didn't turn the hose on them. Eventually the neighbors moved away. Once again, this was East Cobb in the 90s.

I can probably come up with more examples, but I am pretty tired right now. My main thing is just to let you know that growing up different (15 years ago and even further back, especially) is not easy. Now I see my uniqueness as an asset. But know that I did not always feel that way.

What I can say with certainty is that many people of multi-cultural backgrounds did not have an easy time growing up. I am not going to pretend to know what was going through Obama's head as he made certain decisions, but people change and grow with their environment, especially in their formative years. Have you seen his H.S. basketball team photo? He was the only black guy there! No wonder he wanted to fit in and change his name. And I'm sure you remember in college how segregated blacks and whites were. Why wouldn't you think that it is the same for him at his college, 10 years earlier? If blacks were willing to accept him, why wouldn't he embrace that?

I appreciate your compliment. I know we don't agree on quite a few issues. I tune you and Paul out most of the time just to stay sane in the office. You may have noticed that I've been working from home more often. That'll probably continue into November.

My reasons for supporting a consumption tax may differ from yours. I think that it might help curb the over-consumption in our society. I don't know though..I have to finish that damn book. When I do read it, I'll talk it over with you.

From one beauty queen to another

I know it's not fair to compare these two clips, but it is just too funny to ignore. The mishmash of words thrown together to try to sound informative is funny in a teen USA contestant here, but downright scary in a VP candidate during a one-on-one interview.

Daily P & P

As the election draws closer, I have a new challenge at work that is disrupting, not only to my work, but to my sanity. I refer to it as my daily P&P with Paul & Michael.

Yep. Porn and Politics.

Every morning I have to listen to them go back and forth about the latest left-wing gaffe over and over again. I admit, with Biden on the ticket, we are not short on verbal gaffes. However, the Rebublican ticket is no image of perfection either. Of course, Paul and Michael never mention any of the mistakes made by McCain or Palin.

What's interesting is that usually when I hear them guffawing back and forth about a particular issue (actually to refer to these things as issues really just belittles the word), I just get on hannity's or boortz' websites and do some reading. I usually can find what they're saying, word for word, in writing. I can't believe that not only do they not have original thoughts of their own, but that they feel the need to repeat it back and forth between them. One of them will say something he thinks is awfully clever, then the other one, on cue, will agree wholeheartedly and laugh. It's sort of like their daily affirmation. They really seem to get a kick out of it.

On top of the politics is the daily dose of porn I get. Now, I have nothing against porn, but I do believe that the office is not the place for it. Like middle school boys, they go back and forth between their computers snickering. I once even walked in on one of them just sitting there watching what appeared to be a blowjob (in my defense it was very closeup and I immediately looked away).

My office is very close to both of theirs, so I am unfortunately right smack dab in the middle of their playtime. They know where I stand politically, so they take plenty of opportunity to come into my office to 'educate' me. I'm not very good at debating, and anyway I refuse to take part in this kind of talk. I usually just smile and ignore them.

If someone were to convert me to be a conservative it sure wouldn't be these two clowns. They both complain almost daily about their home lives, and particularly their wives. Neither of them seems particularly happy. One has a closet tobacco problem; one is a crotch-grabber (his own). One is a fervant anti-islamist; one claims to be Christian but I fail to see any Christian-like behaviour.

The only good that has come from this is that I find myself working from home a lot more. Maybe I'll take the entire week of Super Tuesday off.

Cute Cuke

So here's our first cucumber for the summer harvest. Actually it's the only vegetable that has presented itself so far. The other plants (tomatoes, peppers, squash) all look big and healthy, but nothing edible yet.

Kind of cute, no?

Hopefully we have a better time with summer than we did with winter veggies. Out of the cabbage, lettuce and broccoli, all we had was a little lettuce that we ate. We'll just keep trying! Not buying that farm yet though!

Would you snitch on grandma?

I know the pictures aren't of the best quality (I was trying to be discreet), but our neighbor is washing her house! In a drought! Today isn't even her day to water her plants, let alone her entire f'ing house. I know she's like 80, but come on.