Retrospective Part 2: A diversion from my outline, already.

At this rate, it could take me another six months to finish all the topics I have outlined. I planned on writing about food this week. I did write about food, in fact. But other things have come up that are more timely. Some of this stuff has already begun to go stale because I started writing this on Monday and here we are into Thursday. I'm going to leave it as is because starting over would delay this even more, and what's the fun in that?

There have been a couple things that are in the news recently that are making me think a lot about the East Coast, NH in particular...

(I grabbed this photo from Boston.com and they got it from: Getty Images Photo / Jamie Squire)

1) Hooray for the Red Sox!! Sweeping world champs again! Woo Hoo!!

Appropriately enough (for Andy and me, anyway) we had a Boston friend over the night they won the series. Elizabeth not only lives in the Boston metro area, she's a big Boston sports fan, too. She happened to be out here because her job demands she travels all over the world (literally) all Autumn long. Liz added to the authentic feeling of watching the sox win the series all over again, but I think it mainly reminded all of us what it was like 4 years ago.

In May of 2004 I moved to New England at just the right time. The Sox were on fire at that time, the Curse of the Bambino was turning 86 years old, and New Englanders were beyond ready for a big win by their beloved team. It was impossible not to catch Red Sox fever in that climate. And of course the playoffs to the series could not have been more dramatic. As the Sox kept losing to the Yankees and their chances of a comeback sunk desperately low, signs saying "Believe!" sprung up everywhere. Cars were covered in stickers, businesses dedicated their marquees and store fronts to the cause, and people served as individual billboards to profess their faith in the team. People set aside their differences (unless a Yankee fan was in the room) and rallied together. On the outside people might complain about Sox fans, but during that time I realized how beneficial major-league sports can be for the morale of a region.

I am not a big sports fan. Even less so now than I was 3 years ago, and that wasn't much. My type seems to be common in the Bay Area. I am not going to start mimicking a sports almanac by memorizing stats and predicting trends. I do not want my level of happiness to be affected by how well "my team" is doing. I have no interest in starting a bar brawl or flipping any cars over the outcome of a game. But, I do enjoy the air of pride that comes out of a place whose people love and support their local team. And for that, I miss Boston.

To actually read the words on these images, click on them and head over to my flickr page. Both of these photos were taken by Lance K (AKA Pompsandpolitics) who graciously gave me permission to crop and post them each here. Thanks, Lance!

2) Campaign season is in full swing, somewhere.

I heard a sound bite of John Edwards bashing Hilliary Clinton today on NPR. The story was something about how he's changing his campaign strategy to focus on "integrity" and Hillary Clinton, like all the other candidates, is his punching bag. I wasn't paying attention to all the nitty gritty but I did catch it in the end when the senior NPR reporter reported the story on location from Exeter, NH. The event could have easily taken place in Manchester or Nashua, and many already have. That picture of JFK's bust up there is from a Chris Dodd event right outside of town hall in Nashua, our old city. I used to walk by that statue daily on walks down town. It is about a block from our first apartment. It is really exciting to be in NH during presidential election time. Candidates are always coming and going, touring all over the state. Whether or not you think the first primary should be in NH, it is true that people take it seriously there. Click on Lance's image of the NH Primary sign to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I did my part for the Dems in '04: phone banking and freezing my buns off on busy corners holding Kerry/Edwards signs. It was a lot of fun, and I felt pretty proud when NH swung blue (the only swing state to swing our way.) I cried that terrible day after the election. Not only did Kerry lose, all the excitement died immediately, and we were all left to mourn in solitude while yanking out our yard signs and peeling away our bumper stickers.

Now that I live in the huge, very blue state of California, I am not feeling the excitement. I'm ashamed to say I have no idea who I am going to vote for in the primaries. Obama? Clinton? Maybe even Edwards? With all our moving in, friend making and getting to know our new state, I haven't done my political homework to really boil down who my candidate is. I know a particular father-in-law that has been an Obama supporter since March (and I find myself still wondering if that's the case,) but I haven't felt strongly about any of them yet. For someone who considers the West Wing to be her all time favorite TV show, I'm thinking this is a little odd. I haven't even been enraged by Giuliani or Romney recently; what's going on? So it could just be me and my unique circumstances this year, but Washington, the East Coast and the former libertarian haven of a swing state I once called home seem awfully far away right now. And for that, I miss New Hampshire.

But you know what does feels close? Tectonic shifting.

I grabbed this image from the USGS's earthquake website. It's a really neat site that logs quakes in real time. Apparently there are earthquake sensing robots that know how to surf the web so the geologists don't have to rush. Quakes typically show up within a few minutes of a quake's occurance on this site.

This is not one of those newsy things that reminded me of the E.C. this week. No, it's a newsy thing that came right into our living room while we were watching a re-run of Scrubs on Tuesday night. See that big yellow block on the map? The one that is large enough to fit all the other little blocks inside of it? That was the 5.6er that we felt all the way up here in Oakland. The actual epicenter was about 38 miles south of us. While it was happening, it felt as though a big giant was outside wiggling the building just enough for the little pumpkins I have perched on the TV to wobble. I stayed camped out on the couch. Andy stood up. Apollo looked at us to see if everything was OK and then just went back to napping when the 8 seconds of rumbling was over. This was the 4th quake I've felt since moving out here. It was the biggest one so far, but it didn't feel that way because of our distance from the epicenter. It was a lot less scary than the one we felt in the middle of the night a few months ago. Trust me, waking up to the feeling of your bed rocking around after you've been REMing for hours is very unsettling. But luckily it is usually all over in under 10 seconds and I hope it stays that way while we're out here!

One more thing: I want to end with a shout out to Jess who will be running in the NYC Marathon this Sunday. Good luck, Jess! Have fun, you crazy runner. We'll be thinking of you.

So unless something else occurs to me that will be more interesting than eating, my food post is coming up next!