Elections, Jobs, and Trash Talking

From the title of this entry, you might think I'm going to discuss names like Kerry, Cheney, Bush, and Edwards with you. But I'm not.

The election I saw today was a high school student body president election depicted in the dark comedy from 1999 "Election". So the names I will mention are Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. The movie was an expose on the hypocrisy of politics and life in general. It is a movie definitely worth seeing. For me it had an added punch as many moons ago I ran for and was elected as student body president of my high school. So watching this film was a bit eerie and "close to home" for me. I noticed in particular some similarities between my own experience and the screen version:

1. teacher encourages guy who wasn't planning to run for office to do so
2. posters (or lack thereof) play a role
3. the initially strongest candidate doesn't necessarily win
4. speaking at assemblies is important for candidates
5. vice presidential candidates don't really matter
6. the "they just run so they can put their position on college applications" issue is revealed as a strong theory
7. and so on...

Lots of similarities between this movie and my high school election experience. I also see a good deal of national politics being another bird of this same feather. Manipulation, advertising, shifts in position, public speaking, VPs not very important to the outcome, ulterior motives to running for office...anyhow, you get the picture.

Now, jobs. I'm applying to be a case manager at a federally funded local employment assistance office. Yes, likely a serious cut in pay from my managerial jobs of the past, but at least this is in my field of psychology and is within a five minute walk of my home. If they don't gag at the sight of my overqualification on the managerial side and smile at the fact I have a psychology BA and that I interview well, perhaps they will hire me. I promise, I'm not after their jobs -- I just want to pay my mortgage and be able to eat -- much like their clientele. So goes the delicate dance of working to get a job. We shall see how it all turns out.

Trash (Talking). I got a call from the city public works office regarding my request to give me a smaller trash container. The lady I spoke with happens to be an Air Force Reservist on her way this weekend to Tucson to take a ride in an F16 fighter jet. What a deal. It turns out she was stationed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the time I was over there. Small world. Perhaps we saw the same camels...

By the way, the soccer shoes I bought yesterday fit fine and my reinflated soccer ball I dragged out of dusty storage is doing it's job quite well. I went for a two mile run today (I do them every other day) and I'm starting to feel like I'll be ready to play come October when the co-ed league starts. At 35, my butt likes to sit in the chair more than it did ten or twenty years ago, but once up and in motion, it moves very fast. Remember to stretch, remember to hydrate, remember to breathe.