The Blue & Gold

This week is Big Game week against Stanford University...

...and I feel like I have some kind of obligation to be school spirited and wear Cal gear, but (A) I don't own much Cal gear, and (B) I feel like school spirit shouldn't forced.

So, here's my sad attempt to wear our colors haha, but I don't think I did Oski proud :) I did take the opportunity, however, to wear my new grandpa sweater from Mars!! The rest of the outfit is compliments of Mindy's wardrobe: white top, blue shorts from AA, and tights from Urban.

Little Red Technihood

Lately I've been having a lot of fun with photo editing programs. The jacket in this photo is from lululemon, a remnant of my days as an 'educator' there. I love the paisley/tapestry-like pattern on it as well as the way the designers were able to discreetly plaster the lulu logo all over the jacket without it disturbing the pattern!

For the Weekend

This week was epic. First with the Obama victory and the spontaneous riot in the streets of Berkeley, then yesterday, I marched in the streets of San Francisco with thousands of people with my roommates and friends in support of the many homosexual couples who lost their right to marry on Tuesday.

While walking (what felt like miles) from the Civic Center to Dolores Park, a few moments almost brought me to tears:

• A pair of daddies carrying their twin babies on their chests while the babies held "No on Prop 8" signs.
• Two mommies guiding their daughter across the street while she shouted "No more hate!"
• Linking arms with my friends and chanting with the crowd "What do we want?" "Equality" "When do we want it?" "Now!"

Saturdays are always lazy for me, but today I felt inspired to make a little photo-collage in honor of this weekend's escapades...politics with a side of fashion; a good combination I think.

Rocking Gently on my Dreams

A few things...

• OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!! I was so excited and happy when I heard the news, I screamed and jumped in the street! After talking to one of my roommates but my anxieties and fears about the election, I was couldn't believe that my hopes that Obama would win came true!!
  
• Also, by no means was my elation singular. Around 8pm when the presidential race results were announced, students and people of Berkeley went crazy in the streets! We made a marathon run in a crowd of hundreds or thousands up toward College, around Frat Row, down Telegraph, into Sproul towards Free Speech Movement Cafe, back through Sproul and down and around Shattuck towards Telegraph again, all the while singing the national anthem and shouting "OBAMA!" and "Yes we DID!" It was truly one of the most amazing moments of my life, and an experience that i'll remember forever! Thinking back on it today, it seems surreal that it happened...i've never felt such a shared feeling of excitement with so many people. It felt momentous, historic, and refreshing. I can't wait until the day when I can tell my children this story.
• Amidst the chants of "Si, se puede" and utterances of change, Prop 8 passed :(. I am devasted and heartbroken that there is so much in hate in people that they would rob human beings of fundamental rights and award more rights to chickens and pigs!!
  
• Now my feelings are ambivalent; how can we claim to advocate change while we ammend backwards laws? Although I couldn't be happier that Obama will be our 44th president, part of me just wants to get up and leave California, America, and this seemingly hypocritical/paradoxical nation!!
  

Voting Season!

Today is the day before Election 2008. The monumentality of this moment both thrills and terrifies me because the older i get, the more i realize how much an election can impact my life. I can proudly say that i've been an Obama fan since the beginning, but in the past few months, especially with school starting, my belief in him has really grown. Something about his charisma, passion, and his genuine manner of speech makes me truly believe that he can bring the change that we need to this country.

Being at Berkeley has intensified the political frenzy, whether Democrat or Republican, everyone seems pretty excited about this election. My boss was saying the other day how it will be weird to read about this election and this time period in fifty years, when all this is written in a history book. I always wonder what side of the story will be remembered as the 'right account' of what happened because obviously not all sides are represented in history books. In fifty years, will my grandkids be learning about Obama's speech on race or Sarah Palin's battle against the 'liberal media'?

I think i'm having the most anxiety over the vote on Prop 8. First off, I can't even believe this is an ACTUAL proposition! How did a prop that takes away rights from individuals even get enough signatures to get on the November ballot? Even if people don't approve of gay marriage, they should still vote NO, because this is not the 18th century, and the bottom line is that we should not be ammending laws that deny rights to the citizens of this country.

Despite people's presidential political leanings, I really hope people get out and vote...because seriously, this is our lives we're talking about!!!