this never gets old (for me)

hello, all! i'm leaving tomorrow morning (6:30 - YIKES) for galesburg - i will take a lot of pictures of stephen colbert, i promise. but i will leave you with the most recent katie pictures.

katie smiles, officially.

and, good god does she look like my brother in this one:

stewart/colbert '08

knox in the tribune

today's must-read: this GORGEOUS article on Knox College in today's Chicago Tribune. i am so proud.

edit: stupid chicago tribune requires registration! here's the text of the article:

Little Knox College rates big names as commencement speakers

By Lucinda Hahn
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 22, 2006

The president of Knox College, Roger Taylor, wouldn't want you to think he's gloating.

But he is.

That's because Knox is proving to be The Little College That Could -- could land the nation's coolest commencement speakers, that is.

This year, Stephen Colbert, star of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," will address the Class of 2006 on June 3.

Which may or may not top last spring's coup, when Sen. Barack Obama flew in from the capital to speak to Knox's Class of 2005.

Obama's appearance prompted a flurry of calls and inquiries to Galesburg from other college administrators -- including one from the dean of students at Harvard Law, Obama's alma mater -- demanding to know how a quiet school of 1,245 students, set amid Illinois' western cornfields, had nabbed the It guy of the Democratic Party.

"I loved it," Taylor recalls, clearly relishing his role as a sort of Santa Claus to Knox's senior classes -- which present him with a wish list of speakers in the spring preceding their graduation.

Getting Obama was a feat. But getting Colbert? That even impressed Obama.

"He said, `What? Stephen Colbert? How did you get him?" said Taylor, recalling an exchange he had with Obama when he saw the senator in December.

Indeed, Colbert's buzz has been near-deafening ever since April 29, when his acidic roasting of President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner -- with the president and first lady in the audience -- garnered mixed reviews but unequivocally positioned him as a speaker who will pull no punches.

So, how did Knox get him, and Obama before him?

Not with a hefty fee -- Knox doesn't pay its graduation speakers. But the college has a couple of well-placed moles -- influential alums -- at its disposal.

One is former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta (Class of '71) -- who is as connected as anyone in Washington, D.C. Once Podesta learned that the senior class had requested Colbert, he e-mailed the comedian.

"I'd been on a panel with him at the HBO Comedy Festival, in 2004, so I shot him an e-mail and put in a plug," Podesta says. "I think I just told him it was a great place, with a great history and student body."

In Obama's case, Podesta saw the senator at a function in Washington. "I think I bent his ear a little bit," Podesta admits.

Two other Knox alums leaned on Obama too: Illinois state Sen. Don Harmon ('88) and Skadden Arps attorney Charles F. Smith ('84)

In both cases, Taylor had issued a formal invitation via letter, extolling Knox's abolitionist history. The college was founded in 1837 by social reformists opposed to slavery, and in October 1858, Abraham Lincoln made his strongest anti-slavery argument to date in Knox's Old Main hall during the fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Old Main still graces Knox's campus, and it's the only still-standing site of a Lincoln-Douglas debate. That's not a bad backdrop for any commencement speaker -- including the one Taylor hopes to, and probably will, land for next year.

"I've invited," Taylor reveals, "William Jefferson Clinton."

new roommate!

so, we have a new roommate! hind is moving out to move in with her boyfriend, and priya and i have been new-roommate-shopping for the past week or so. the one we chose is named angelica - she is from spain and has pledged to cook us plenty of delicious food. mmmmmm, tapas. (that's tapas, chris. TAPAS.) so, i am excited. i'll be out of town though (at Knox's graduation!) the weekend she moves in but hopefully we can throw her a welcome party sometime soon.

ummm, what else? work is great. my co-workers are great. i'm going to Knox for graduation, where i plan to drink a lot, and schmooze with stephen colbert, preferably in that order. i'm going to be at Knox for 5 days, which rules, except that my flight to Moline on Wednesday morning leaves at 6:30 am! it's a crime. of course, this is the free flight that i got with wendy's cups, so i can't complain all that much..but! 6:30 am! i plan on consoling myself with alcohol.

also, i have a weird thumping sensation in my ear today. it's freaky as hell.

too goddamn cute for a post title

oh god, katie is growing up.

she's smiling now. gorgeous. i just started sobbing at my desk. sigh.

here it is

baby and auntie

okay, here's katie the first time they put her in her swing:


she's all, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.

and, here you go, dan! i found a picture of me and katie together. not high quality, obviously, but okay for a camera phone. she is so small.

nancy pelosi is the devil.

guys, seriously. of all of the incredibly talented, passionate democratic politicians we've got in this country, is nancy pelosi really the best we could do? her performance on meet the press this morning makes me embarrassed to be a democrat. if we fail to take over congress this fall, it will be her fault. she's a master of political stonewalling, equivocating, refusing to really answer questions, talking in circles, sticking to the talking points. this woman is absolutely incapable of inspiring anybody!

remember howard dean? when someone asked old howie a question, he made a point of saying either "yes" or "no" at the beginning of the answer. do you know how rare that is, and how said it is that it's so rare?

oh my god, she just said "maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House." i want to die.

hooray for mental health

hmmm, well, temping still rules. yesterday my supervisor bought me breakfast, then called the temping agency to tell them that i'm the best temp she's ever had, which is actually quite sad since i spend literally 90% of my time checking my email and reading LOST bulletin boards. not an exaggeration, folks. i mean, i do what they ask me to do when they ask me to do it, it's just that they don't ask me to do all that much.

it's really impossible to overstate what an effect leaving my previous job has had on my mental state. i feel like a completely different person. it's completely hot. but, knowing that i'm the kind of person who has to have something to fixate on/obsess over/stress about, i'm sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop. what will i obsess over next? i have no boyfriend to fight with, and a no-stress job! suggestions?

also, my Honors project got published, and will probably come out later this month. did i mention that already? i'm pretty excited about that. i'll post a link when it comes out.

and, who saw LOST last night? dang!

temping is the best.

greetings! time to move on from the katie pictures, sadly. so, here's the haps: since i got fired a few weeks ago, i've been temping, and holy crap, it's the best thing ever. i signed up on thursday and i've worked every day since then, and the pay is obscene! why didn't i quit my job and start temping ages ago? here's what i've done so far:

friday:
non-profit association - data entry

monday:
morning: hall monitor during AP exam at preparatory academy
afternoon: non-profit association - assembling binders

tuesday:
education non-profit - reception

okay, monday afternoon - when i say hall monitor, i literally mean hall monitor. i didn't proctor, i didn't even talk to any kids - i sat at a desk in a hallway and read a book (george stephanopolous's memoir!) for 4 hours. and the place i'm working today, they basically told me that they can't afford to actually staff the reception position full-time until the new fiscal year (july) but they have a "ton of money" in their temp fund, so they said i can keep temping here as long as i want. basically, my job description is answering the phones and sending out thank you notes when people send us donations. literally, i've been here for eight hours and the phone has rung 2 times. also, my immediate supervisor is looking for a new job, so she said "i'm going to be reeeeally laid-back with you. as long as the phones get answered, do whatever you want." i am lucky.

okay, i can't resist: one more picture of katie!