another election year with no good decision to make?

I have real problems with John Kerry. He was on the Today Show this morning as I woke up (mumbling "grr, I hate you"), talking about Bush's gay marriage posturing as a feint.

So, yes, I think the Right is making gay marriage an issue to define their stance clearly on something, but it's also pretty apparent that the Left (i.e. the lovetastic city of San Francisco) is equally out there. I'm disturbed that Kerry has me defending Bush's rationale like this, but it's clear that Bush had to respond in some way. The way he has chosen is stupid and misguided and will further alienate middle-leaning socially liberal Republicans, but he had to choose. I'll assume Kerry's savvy enough to realize this, and is just capitalizing on the stupid extremism in order to pick up the middle-leaners for himself.

Because his most recent rhetoric on the subject has actually come out and stated that he is with Bush, he decidedly opposes gay marriage (no mention as previously of the civil union consolation prize), and what he doesn't like is putting a 1 man 1 woman definition of marriage in the Constitution.

Is it possible that Kerry is even more like a Republican than Gore was? And is it any wonder so many people in my cohort can barely muster the enthusiasm to vote at all?

I just try to remind myself that at least - we hope - Kerry wouldn't declare war on a woman's right to choose immediately upon taking office.

who's coming to the march?

I've been remiss in getting to the local meetups around the March for Choice/Women's Lives/whatever, but I think locals from Virginia are mostly taking big tourish buses up to DC for the March on 4/25.

I'm curious what other bloggers are doing, though. Are you joining up with a local delegation? Going it alone? With some friends?

I have a small group of local friends all planning to go, and maybe to stay over on Saturday, get a big hotel room or something. I'd like to meet up with others, but I'm not really about the tour bus. [Bad experiences. Smells.]

lifestyle blather

I've now reached the point where everyone knows about my "vegan during daylight" eating habits and I get (nicely) made fun of at work for them. Which is interesting. I get a lot of are you still doing that's. I think that's a symptom of our diet and instant gratification culture.

And I'm totally influenced by this. I've been following a regimen of daily exercise, including weight/circular strength training, and lower-calorie eating for about four months. As far as I can tell, I haven't lost any weight (I also haven't been weighed, so whatever). I certainly haven't seen any real appearance change. But my pants don't fit; I must have lost some girth around the waist. Skirts I can just buy a size smaller, but I can't find any pants that fit me. The first time this happened, I was perversely pleased - like "aha, I'm not even counting pounds, but I'm getting thinner"; now I'm just cranky about not being able to wear clothes. Why does it even matter?

Now I'm healthier, but I just don't feel any thinner (ergo more attractive); I get whiny and defeatist about this. Even though I know people don't just lose weight. Even though I do feel better most of the time. Actually, I feel fatter and less attractive a lot, because the exercise is finally resolving my warped image of my body so I see myself as being as fat as I am, not less fat. Or - I don't know, I just feel like I'm taking up space, and some embarrassing inner part of me thinks that makes me bad. Well, that's stupid. That's a stupid thought, no matter how grounded it is in "societal ideals". Body ideals are stupid.