:: one for the masses... ::

:: December 31, 2005 ::

so storey and afsheen were making fun of me yesterday for only having blogged once this year. had to get another one in before the deadline.

stuff happens in my life - i work a lot, hang out with storey, call my friends way too infrequently - but i never feel particularly inspired to post about it. maybe it's because i spend so much time in front of a computer at work, maybe it's because i don't think the things that happen are particularly interesting, maybe i really do have some subconscious fear of actually communicating. who knows. but the upshot is, i rarely post here. sorry. maybe i'll get better, maybe i won't. the blog hasn't made it to the top of the new year's resolution list this year.

for a little review of what's been going on at work, you can read my work blog - at calpirgdotorg.
the healthcare page, the human pesticide testing and the food safety pages are more or less my pages as well, so you can see some of the stuff i've been working on.

on the home front, things are pretty good. found out about some family heart problems last week which makes me a little more concerned about my own crazy and upexplained palpatations, but all is okay with the family. things are good with storey. we may be moving from our beautiful big blue house in a few months - still staying somewhere in the bay area, just smaller and on our own.

that's all the news that's fit to print. maybe if i get super inspired i'll figure out a way to put some pictures up here or elsewhere soon.

happy new year's to all!
e 6:08 PM
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just need to save myself from going an entire year without updating. i'll do more updates than in the past year, that i can promise.

my current goal is to update this blog at least as often as i update my work blog. since i just promised to do that at least once a week, you've got a decent shot at hearing from me somewhat regularly.

for now, hi. not that anyone is even reading this anymore. maybe a redesign will help. maybe posting will help a bit more.

stay tuned for further rants against the prescription drug industry and its fun allies in various legislatures. warning: i'm doing a bunch of work on a ballot initiative this fall, so be prepared for an onslaught. in the meantime, go see the constant gardener.
e 6:59 PM
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bbbbwwwwwwwwaaaaaaahahahhahahahhahahahahhahaha
i'm back!!!
so, no promises about contining to do this, but just wanted to poke my head out into the world again. so, a little update. this summer i worked harder and longer than i ever have before, i barely saw storey at all and i became vegan. how's that for a brief synopsis of four months of my life?
of all of these things, the vegan thing was the best development. i highly recommend it to everyone.

life in our new place is pretty awesome. we're having a serious flea issue right now, but otherwise it's great. i love having space and being able to have other people come over and our gigantic kitchen and everything. now that we have so much room, everyone needs to come visit!

work is now back to normal and i'm loving it again. i get to see storey and that's wonderful. life is just good again. except for the fleas. this was going to be a more substantive update, but my conference call just ended so i have to get back to work.

happy fall!

e 9:37 AM
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so we're all moved in to our beautiful blue house. life is pretty fun, even if we can't quite figure out the whole heating the house thing. we should get on that sometime before the fall comes...
i can't believe that i'm starting the summer canvass in less than a month. it's going to be so weird to just get thrown back into that world again. should be fun, and will definitely kick my ass, but in a good way i guess. i'm just going to miss seeing storey.
on the bright side, the summer of fun continues to grow---rumor has it that the oh-so-charming jdo will be here! huzzah for summer of cool people! let me be the first to welcome you to the best place in the whole wide world john...
if i'm ever not working or sleeping all summer, there will be so much fun to be had between all the fun folks in town. now doesn't this make all the rest of you (i'm looking at you ldc and dom particularly) want to come back out to the land of wonderful goodness?
some day when i'm less tired of the computer, i think i'll change the color and look of this page. and i'll update more. but for now, hi world. i'm still here and still working hard.
ohhhhhh and the resolution that i wrote passed out of the state senate. it's going to be heard in the asssembly sometime this month. i think that's kind of cool. i also released my report to much fanfare in a few different california cities. kind of weird to hear yourself talking on the radio when you're driving...
and hurray for the fresno bee for writing an excellent editorial on my report and the prescription drug crisis...
e 11:24 AM
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create your own visited states map

I'm back. In the form of dictation to Storey. This punctuation is not my own. I also missed the two-year anniversary of my blog. But that is somehow fitting, since I have missed most of the life of my blog. I kind of feel like one of those parents who misses their kid's whole childhood, but feels like they have a pretty good excuse. Now I am tempted to just write and write and write, because blogging is much easier when you have someone to type for you. This is kind of fun. I should do it more often.

Today, I am going to volunteer for the Measure I campaign. For those of you in the debate world, this is known as the truism of preferential voting. Also known as the smartest thing ever. So don't run this case. It is tight. Later today, Storey and I will sign our second lease in eight days. You might wonder: Emily and Storey, why do you need two leases? Especially when you already have an apartment? And then we would tell you "That's because our first 'landlord' decided to be in breach of contract by backing out of said contract." He is very crappy. And I am very worried that I will run into him one day on BART and punch him in the face. I probably won't actually hit him. But maybe I'll just glare at him a lot. But who cares about him because we're going to sign a lease on a GINORMOUS house. It is beauuuutiful bluish lavender outside and, in case I miss Whig too much, it has some columns inside to make me feel at home. Not like the ugly inside columns from Whig that I used to run into all the time. More like the outside sculpted columns that were actually pretty. Now all I need is a big-screen TV, Gilbert playing pool in the background, and a good friend as president of Whig-Clio to buy the lounge more things when I want them. Damn, we had a pretty sweet set-up in college. Let me repeat how fun it is to post when someone else is doing the work for you. So until Storey revolts, I am going to continue posting everything I have meant to post for a very long time.

So as you guys have noticed, we're moving. This means we're going to have a new address. And we want to give it to all of you, but we need your addresses and such. SO PLEASE E-MAIL OR CALL US WITH YOUR MAILING OR AT THE VERY LEAST E-MAILING ADDRESSES, AND PHONE NUMBERS, SO THAT WE CAN STILL TALK TO YOU! Also, our wonderful new place will have an extra bedroom so you all need to come out and visit and you can even have your own room to stay in. Unless you are very stinky, in which case you can sleep on the back deck. Now Storey thinks that I am just doing this out of spite. But it's not true, I've wanted to write a bunch of stuff for a long time. I just get very tired and lazy after I spend ten hours a day at work, typing random stuff in front of my computer. Unfortunately, I have to end my ramble because I have to get up and go to do some phone-banking. I'll be back the next time that I can convince Storey to do all my typing for me. Thanks, Storey, I love you.

e 11:02 AM
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so, on what is fast approaching the two year anniversary of this terribly neglected blog, i've decided to post again. not that i actually have anything interesting to say at this point, it just sort of seemed like the thing to do. maybe this will get me out of italics purgatory over at the pyramid of blueness. i'm in dc now, part of a two week road trip for various work related activities. i had a training here, then a few meetings, then we lobbied congress for a few days, and tomorrow i fly to la to drive to santa barbara for another set of meetings. terribly exciting all. the job's actually great, though in large part responsible for the decline in my blogging over the last several months. well that, and the fact that i've gotten really lazy and that i don't feel like i really have anything to report. i go to work, enjoy it, and then go home eat and sleep. sometimes i skip the going home part.
life is otherwise good. i miss people from all different parts of my life. i checked out the snazzy new pictures on the panel webpage and started really missing debate again. especially that whole go to england on the panel's dime part of things. i also really miss whig. how amazing is it to have your own building with a pool table, big screen tv, computer cluster, kitchen and whatever the hell else they've convinced whigclio to buy recently?
it's also just such a good way of staying in touch with people and so convenient for the hanging out part of life. i get bits and pieces of that when i travel for work, just because we're all in one place at the same time, but otherwise, all the cool people that i work with are scattered around the country. funny that - it seems just like all of my friends. i think that we should just all agree on one place and go there. i guess that theoretically could work for my college friends, but the whole theory behind the group i work for is a dispersion of efforts across the country. bah.
anyway, does anyone know what the deal is with the stanford tournament? i was thinking about going, but don't know if anyone i know will be there or not. now that the panel apparently has enough cash to fly people to england, are all you guys coming out to california (i'm looking especially hard at you dom, if you're out there somewhere)? if you're someone who reads this and you will be there, drop me a line and let me know.
i wonder how long it will take for people to realize that i've actually posted again. now that i think of it, i think that amy has one of those automatic update you when someone has updated things, so if she hasn't given up hope on me entirely, she may find it first. we'll see.
in the mean time, hello to all from the not as cold as i thought it'd be climes of the district of columbia.
e 6:04 PM
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went to boston again. this time was a significant improvement on the last. not just because i had to spend less time away from storey, but i also got to see a bunch of folks i hadn't seen since july. special thanks to pat for the extended hospitality and to beth and nikki for the taqueria. i really wish that we could figure out a way where we all (everyone we love from all across the country) could live near each other. i think san francisco is a great place for us all to meet up. what do you think?
i love being here, i just miss everyone. bah.
boston also reminded me of what a cold weather wimp i've become since moving back here. it's not that i was ever that good with the cold (as anyone i went to college with can tell you), but now i just can't deal.
on the upside, we're moving to a new office so i can actually get some work done and all our stuff will be signifcantly snazzier. that should be fun.
nothing else of note to say for now.
hope all's well - know that i'm thinking of you and would love to hear from you. oh yeah, and kate - i still owe you your bathing suit. i'm the worst.
e 9:47 AM
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