Why Hillary and Not Clinton?

I know, like I don't have more important issues to ponder or tasks that need my attention. This has been rolling around in my head for a while now, so maybe if I write it down I can let it go. If I asked someone why, I'd probably get the answer that we call her Hillary to differentiate her from former President Bill Clinton. But that isn't totally plausible since we call our current president 'Bush' most of the time. Yes, he can be referred to as George W., but he's usually not.

So why aren't we referring to Hillary Clinton as just Clinton? I think there's something there.

I haven't decided who's getting my vote on Super Tuesday, so what I'm saying here has nothing to do with supporting or not supporting Clinton. I feel like referring to her on a first name basis when we're not referring to the other candidates as Barack, John E. and John M., Mitt, Mike, etc. says something. Like somehow she isn't on the same level as the other candidates, maybe not respected as much because, dare I say it, she's a woman. Maybe it's because her first name has a musical ring to it, and it rolls off the tongue more easily than 'Clinton'.

Whatever the reason, I will refer to her by her surname as I do all the other candidates.

Do you blog?

So here I am writing my first 'real' blog. Oh yeah, I blogged on my MySpace site, but that's not quite the same, is it?

When my father knew more about blogging than I did, I figured it was about time I got myself upgraded.

I'm not guaranteeing anything about this blog. What I have to say will probably be boring to most people. Your life is just as busy as mine, so why would you read through what may be a bunch of meaningless drivel?

You may think I'm a stupid idiot for my opinions. You may think I'm wasting my time. And well I may be. I probably don't need one more distraction!!

This certainly won't take the place of my handwritten journal where only my most private thoughts are written and my most stupid mistakes recorded in great sordid detail.

The big thing I want to write about in this first post is the farce occurring on the political front. The last time I felt a minuscule inkling of hope was when Al Gore ran against Bush. I'm extremely discouraged about this election. I was hoping Kucinich would have more of a showing, just to send a message to our government if nothing else. If Clinton wins the democratic nomination, we'll almost certainly end up with another Republican in the White House. In fact, I think the Republicans want her to win the nomination because she'll be easier to defeat than Obama. Wouldn't surprise me if they'll fix the primary elections to make sure she wins. If Obama manages to win . . . I don't know. One of his major weaknesses is his inexperience.

What I don't understand is if Americans are so unhappy about the status quo why are we voting for candidates who will maintain the status quo? Clinton, my home state senator, can't take a stand on anything and stick with it. She'll probably continue to maintain troops in the Middle East and continue to support Big Bro... oh I mean, Big Business.

And then there's the lovely media, owned and operated by Big Business who has issued a gag order on any candidate who isn't one of the big three of either camp. Anyone who wants to find out the truth about issues and candidates has to go digging on the internet to find the information that never makes it into mainstream media. It's not that hard to do, but it takes people away from Monday night football and their almost daily forays into Wal-Mart.

On the lighter side, I finished the prepenultimate semester of my bachelor's degree with 3.52, giving me a 3.62 overall. I still have two difficult classes this upcoming semester that may cause a further drop in my GPA, but for my last year, I won't have those two nasties and should be able to get it back up there before I graduate. I've made progress in my efforts to be less perfectionistic. I know you don't believe that, but I actually didn't even do a homework assignment and I turned in at least one that was incomplete. It was in a class where I already had an A. It was more important to concentrate on the classes that were in serious trouble. I know that's hard for you to believe, if you know me personally, that I was in serious trouble, but there you have it. We all need something we're not good at to keep us humble!!

My dad was out for a visit at Christmas. We hadn't spent Christmas together since my monumental move to Western New York. And I hadn't seen him since summer of 2006. Christmas Eve was spent with my Polish neighbours. What a feast. And then I went to midnight mass where at least half of the songs were in Polish. It's kind of hard to fake Polish, but I think I did pretty good. No one told me to stop singing. In fact my neighbour said I sang in Polish better than she did. And she's a fluent speaker.

My re-entry into the US from Northern Ireland this past summer was difficult. A combination of factors made staying in NI to finish my degree an impossibility. However, once I got back into school and back into music therapy (it's a graduate degree in the UK/Ireland - I studied composition there, which was AB FAB!), it made the transition so much easier. Plus my experience of really being the weirdo (American and old, not just old) at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) made my presence at SUNY a non-event. My experience of being an American overseas has certainly changed over the years. Many times I didn't even want to say anything because I didn't want anyone to know I was American. Pretty sad commentary on how things have changed.

During my absence, the state of NY made a master's degree mandatory in order to practice music therapy. Fortunately a master's program should be up and running at my current university by the time I've finished my internship. And that's another story. I need to start narrowing down where I'm going to do my internship, which is a 6-9 month program depending on the internship site.

For what it's worth, there's my first post!
15.20 EST