polyticks.

So while i voted for a mrs. president in the ohio primaries, i have been a little torn lately. everyone is calling for H to bow out and hand it over to Barack. others say one just needs to accept the vice position, and that way the democrats won't lose any of their votes. i don't really know if that will ever happen, but i also don't like the idea of the dems fighting and fighting against each other, no matter how civilized it is. it seems to be a waste of money and time.

don't get too excited, dad! i'm still voting dem no matter what. but i wasn't so sure i made the right choice with my prelim vote.

Well, today i plugged into the live feed from WVXU at work to enjoy diane reems, fresh air, and day to day while I go about my business. and then I noticed this little link. Finally! Someone collected everyones issues and just let me take a little Seventeen Magazine quiz to find out who i should vote for.

Basically, by taking a five minute quiz you chose how you feel for issues like the war in Iraq, global warming legislature, and the death penalty. When you finish, you see a point ranking based on how your choices matched up with the major presidentail candidates, as well as how important that issue is to you. So my top two are as follows (no surprise), and i included the topics that I didn't match with them on.

Hillary Clinton 22.0 Iran The mortgage crisis Gun control


Barack Obama 21.0 The mortgage crisis Education

Sorry dad. The average score for McCain was 10 and I only registered a 3 with him. But please do notice Barack's view on gun control, which is one of the few issues where I dissagree with the average dem at the farmers market. So while I do think that No Child Left Behind is bunk and stem-cell research is important (especially for diseases like alzheimers), i fall extremely right of the line when it comes to banning guns being the answer to all crime in the US.

My running partner Shannon is probably shaking her head and sighing right now. But she's from Wisconsin. She'll get over it. Also, just in case you're wondering, Seventeen magazine analyzed what I would be if I was a shoe, and decided that I'm a "Flat," and that "your unique personality and sense of style put you ahead of the trends, and you aren't afraid to wear what you want," which basically means, um, you're weird and probably choose kale over regular iceberg lettuce. I wonder if the girls who are "Sneakers," are told that they love Paula Poundstone, and those who are "Heels," are applauded for their ability to flirt. Thanks for the deep revelations on my soul, seventeen.

We aren't going to reside in Cincinnati in just 10 weeks? Are you serious? Oh. Oh yes.

So says Timothy at dinner tonight. To celebrate me finally making it home after a L-O-N-G day of traveling, waiting, and traveling, we went out for sushi after watching a video on how to make sushi, which then rendered us completely incapable of eating anything other than sushi. Damn. Sushi!

So the interview! My first job interview in three years, and it was a doozy. I'd first say that I have never talked about myself so much for 7 straight hours. While meeting with my 10th interviewee (there were ONLY 11 total in 7 hours), I had to apologize for talking so fast and for the sinking feeling that I was just feeding her soundbites from my previous interviews. Thankfully, she was just lovely. Ahhh.

Only four interviews were on-on-one, which means I had one interview with three gentlemen and a lunch interview with four peers, all of whom were extremely intelligent and loving their current careers. It was intriguing (a word I found myself using over and over in the interviews) how passionate these people were about working with alumni/volunteers. I should say that I felt what most prepared me for these multiple person interviews was the mock press conference exercises in both chet's PR and the Arts class (your lead for Scrooge was arrested last night for having relations in a public park with an underage male. GO!) and camp wellstone (your candidate's vietnam injury story is being attacked by your political opponent. GO!).

But it seemed that the culture of the office focused heavily on autonomy (a word used over and over by current employees), and the directors of the department were energetic and...hmmm. intriguing? extremely energetic. passionate. basically, i came to the interview with no other information other than the two paragraph description I had read when i had applied and several hours of internet research, and by the end of the day had increased my understanding of the position by 250%.

Anyway, at 3 p.m. (that's 12 hours after waking, driving an hour, taking a plane, changing in an airport bathroom which will never be attempted again, and arriving one and a half hours early), i walked my pretty new shoes down to my hotel room, turned on gilmore girls, and fell asleep. i got to hang out with kaye, my good good friend that works for the org I interviewed with and also happens to be a fellow board game enthusiast, and i tried a beer with 10.5% alchol by volume. it kinda tasted like beer, but with vodka poured on top. not really recommending that to anyone.

Well, I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning and met "my car" at 6:45 a.m. Only then did i realize that my flight actually left at 7:30 a.m., and since about 200 flights had been canceled at O Hare due to safety checks, i was really nervous I wouldn't make it on another plane. But of course it worked out. And since my interviewing org was playing travel host, I had a large breakfast and waved and smiled at a baby for a couple hours. not too bad.

So we are back to where we begin. I am having another glass of wine left over from our dinner (a BYOB sushi place none the less, lovely!) and dreaming about the new digital camera I will be buying this weekend. Mmmmm. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Check out the dance move at 1:02.

I was looking for a music video that would make me smile. I think this fits. Not only does Mates of State always bring warm memories of my one room apartment in Fargo (with scary neighbors), but their latest album was listened to the most while riding bike between the Fargo Theatre and my first apartment with Tim. Which is technically a sort of seniors living center. Which meant it was nice and quiet.

Wish me luck for my interview tomorrow! I'm waking up at 3:30 a.m. and have been stressed out about my energy level for weeks.

Sppppppring Break Nati Day 2.

Easter Sunday. Jesus rises, ruth inhabits apartment. For the past*counting on fingers* six years, I have hosted an Easter dinner for friends. This year, everyone had families to visit, so tim and i spent it at home playing wii, making kaga and egg salad sandwiches, and after 9 p.m., exercising (that would be a ruth thing, not a ruth and tim thing).

It was a wonderful day, and it truly felt like a vacation. No one to call, nothing to do, and no one to report to. No guilt! A vacation from guilt is the only true vacation. The day was also greatly improved by something simple: a bag of robbins egg malted milk ball candies.

When we were kids, the meberg parents would hide our easter baskets in the kitchen, and then they would unleash us on the living and dining room of our farm house to race for robbin eggs and jelly beans, or possibly something wrapped in foil (CADBERRY CREAM EGGS) "hiding" on ledges a couple inches above the floor, around the gothic wooden pump organ, window sills, the greens in the plant window, and on the piano. our mother also sewed my sister and i many easter dresses, but when i try to recall them, i can only remember a specific peach number she made for my older sister. but i was privledged enough to wear it a couple years afterward.

anyway, those robbin egg candies were on the rack by the cash register this morning when i schlupped out to grab milk, and it really brought easter home.

mmmm. i miss my family.

SNL is back! sorta.

Usually, I stay in on saturdays to watch saturday night live. something about it being outlawed when we were growing up makes it very special to me.

so here is the best skit of 2008. lovvvve it.

Spring break CINCINNNNNNNATTTI! Day 1.

Everyone has left the pig city for one week of spring breaky-ness, so tim and i have decided to enjoy cincinnati as if it were the alabama beach, new york city, sweet sweet georgia heat, or whatever else our classmates are enjoying while we are stuck, i mean, home, in cincinnati.

okay, actually, after traveling way more then necessary for christmas, we're happy to relax and stay off of the roads. and i'll be able to put in more hours at work until i have that all important first real job interview on wednesday.so to celebrate our first day on homecation, we tried to assist in improving the economy by focusing on consumer spending. We went out. We purchased. Oh. It was good. Best picks of the day:

1. Breakfast at the Proud Rooster (swiftly followed by a call to AAA for a jump; tim left the lights on in the car last night)
2. A portfolio (again, for my interview) and sheets for our guest bed at target.
3. Gianni Bini shoes for my interview & a bright blue (not grey or black!) polo pullover for tim from Dillards.
4. Two used wii games!!! i got a harry potter game where you use the wii remote as the wand and cast spells!!! really fun.
5. hmmm. oh yes. seasoned pork loin, four bags of edamame, rice chips, delicious chipotle fries, and two bottles of wine from Trader Joes. yummmmm.

Yesssssssss. Yay economy! also, i think our purchases today have succeeded in securing our spots in the "we are young, white, and spending beyond our means" club. but hey, presidential economic advisor, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

What the world...needs now...is sneezing...sweet sneezing.

So I was driving to work today and behind me was a BMW with a tough lookin' white kid---baseball hat on in the 4 o'clock position (sorta backwards and swervy), wearing a hooded sweatshirt, probably some sort of large necklace thingy, sunglasses...really pushing for that thug look. And i was kinda watching him, cause he seemed to have a 14-year-old indian kid in his passenger seat that was like 100 pounds. CLearly I was intrigued. And immediately I thought...hmmmm. Thug in BMW. Drug dealer? Is that his junior high school contact? Did they just pick up some drugs at 10 a.m. and are now heading to Mt. Washington Middle School for illegal drug sales in the quad?

And then.

The big guy sneezed. He squeezed his eyes shut, covered his nose and mouth with both hands and lost control of his body for about 2 seconds. And he had to recover for a bit; wipe his hands off, check his face out in the mirror, shake his head back and forth a bit to re-establish that yes, he was driving, and yes, okay, deep breath, he's ready to drive again.

And I thought...he looked like a bunny! Like a furry little bunny sneezing in a field of clover.

And i wondered if in any gang stand offs (like the ones i see in saturday afternoon movies on Fox 19)there would be one guy staring down another guy and all of a sudden one sneezes and the other guy was like, oh man, gesundheit. Let's figure this out over some homde made muffins. It kinda made me morph the fictional drug selling gangsters into frog and toad.

So I found this video and thought it worked well for this post about how sneezing could really get people to realize that we're all just human. or mammals. In summary, sneezes are cute.

Oh. Oh no.

Well! I would LIKE to post some pictures from this weekend's debauchery, but unfortuantely, I lost something very special to me. While enjoying our second dose of bud lite with three times the amount of green dye required for a pony keg (green lips, teeth, and later on, even poops were witnessed behind closed doors), our gracious host made a sweeping motion with his left hand, knocking asunder a large plastic glass of, as stated before, ridiculously dyed beer.

well, thankfully i was wearing the jeans tim has been threatening to throw away since he met me, but both my digital camera and ty-ty's fancy-dancy cellphone were innocent bystanders in this tragic situation.

the ending result? one useless hunk of digital know-how that is no longer a camera, a slight green tinge to my lips this morning, and, probably, several green deposits in the stine family bathroom.

I am not a human telephone wire.

On Fridays at 10 a.m., I cover the switchboard at the university for our office manager. I kind of like it; I'm a big fan of telephone etiquette. But, you know, I usually only like in for about an hour, then it's boring.

Anyway, someone called today and the conversation went like this:

Ruth (in best Lily Tomlin voice): Thank you for calling UC Raymond Walters College in Blue Ash, how can I direct your call?
Woman: I need to talk to someone in the chemistry department.
Ruth: Okay, let me find that number for you, one moment...*looks for number in large book*...one moment...
Woman (to someone in the background): Talk about pain, my ovaries are-
Ruth: TRANSFERRING! *pushes buttons with haste*

Ew. Did you forget that right at this moment there is an instrument communicating your personal discussion about your sexual organs to a stranger in a (hopefully) far away land? Let me introduce you to a friend of mine---I call him Graham, you know, cause we're close. But most people know him as Alexander Graham Bell. He might be able to enlighten you about how to use this queer invention called...the... I forget. I just don't want to hear about your fallopian tubes before I transfer you to the chemistry department. Good god, why are you calling the chemistry department?

Cook OUT.

Cookin out and living life. The only way to enjoy spring time in Cincinnati. The only downside was we had to skip our last Managing Cultures class. Small price to pay, my friend.

The peppermints worked!

Dear Professor,

Something magical has happened. For the first time in two years, I left a classroom after handing in the final test in a quantitative course with a new feeling.

Usually when I do this, I feel that:
1. I have just been physically assaulted
2. I am close to losing my academic scholarship.
3. I understood less than 20% of the test material and will never apply it to my life or work anyway.

Monday, after leaving your finance classroom, I felt that:
1. I could possibly walk on air.
2. I have secured my academic scholarship.
3. I understood and am confident that I have successfully completed at least 80% of the test, and because of the knowledge I gained, I will be able to fully understand Marketplace Money (one of my favorite NPR shows).

I'm not saying I got an A, or even a B. It's possibly I got a C! But that I actually comprehended the material was a huge leap for me. I've gone from shunning numbers to embracing them and actually using them as...as they are supposed to be used? Guidance for qualitative decisions?

Wow. Anyway, above is one of the formulas that I used on the test, the Black Scholes model. It is actually a formula used to do something like measure how fast steam comes out of a teapot, or something random and sciency like that. Our text actually implied that people using the text to learn finance could not even comprehend the orgins of the formula and should just accept it as is.

I will do that proudly. Thank you. I accept and embrace my mediocre but hard-earned understanding of quantitative principles.

last quantitative test EVER.

Need some study tips? I googled "eating peppermints when studying" and this site, which claims to be updated as recently as 2008, gave me a few tips, along with my answer...

TIP 1 "Sometimes, if I have a study guide, I'll tape it to the front of my Trapper Keeper, so if I have any extra time, I can glance at it." Jeny
TIP 2 "For girls, when you study, have a scent in the room, preferably a perfume or something. Then when you take the test, wear that perfume. It can help you remember what you study because you relate the scent to the information. Of course you have to use a scent that you wouldn't normally smell." Clarise
TIP 3 "Listen to soothing, but invigorating music. I usually listen to Beethoven while I do mindless homework like math, French, or science assignments. It gets your brain pumping and flowing, and keeps you alert and awake." Jason

First of Jeny, your name is spelled with two n's. Not one. And I'd like to know where you purchased your trapper keeper, because i can't find them anywhere and i'm always like, ahhhh, oh no, i need a ruler and pencil holder INSIDE my three ring binder and it needs to shut with velcro or else i'm going to die. ahhhh. oh no.

And Jason. i don't know you. but i hate you.

you know what i don't hate? liz and dave's trapper keepers. that's right, little aaron and ruth did not get them, but dave got one with a lambourghini (sp?) and liz got one with a nice peaceful butterfly on it. although i'm pretty sure aaron and i confiscated them a year after their sheen wore off for the big fancy junior high students at hebron high school.

do i sound angry? this is my sixth hour of studying for my finance final today. oucheez. freedom is only 12 hours away.

update: trapperkeeper.com still exists, but refuses to believe it is 2008. only 2007.

update: liz's trapper keeper!!!

Stayin in bed on a snow day.

Mimi and Tim.
Originally uploaded by Ruth Ruthie Ruth

Ruth yells to Tim in a haughty manner: ...yeah, well, I'm getting an M

B

A.

Tim retorts: I
K

N

O.

Being a girl.

So I've been having dreams lately about being back in Hebron, ND. For those that dno't know me, Hebron is a town of about 800 people in peaceful rural North Dakota, and it's where I grew up. Usually when I dream about a Hebron, it centers around the public swimming pool, which is where I spent numerous summers with little parent supervision, free to make best friends for a day, and where I had to decide whether I wanted to take my "deep end" test at some point (swimming back and forth ((about 25 yards)) 10 times with the reward of using the DIVING BOARD!!!). it was also my first job (lifeguard alert), and also the first job where i messed up (left the water pump on after adding chemicals).

Anyway again, lately I have been having dreams about my K-12 school, and more specifically, about a current graduate school classmate of mine challenging me in gym class. What? I know. Apparently I take relationships and rejection, conflict, etc. much more seriously and personally than others around me. My real-life conflicts had invaded my dreams and I had started to wonder whether I should being seeing a professional---my stress was disrupting my ability to focus. Why WHY WHY can't everyone just be perfect? And reasonable? WHYYYyyyyyyYYYYyyyYy? *looks to the ceiling with crunched up fists*

Well, I have come up with a new coping mechanism. Instead of asking myself, god, why don't people comprehend simple communication tactics? or act like adults instead of third graders or scorned ex-girlfriends when dealing with conflict? or accept basic rules of order in the classroom? Well, friends, it goes a little something like this. I have taken it upon myself to diagnose others with multiple-personality disorder.

Drastic? Not if it all stays in my head! That way, when someone does something I consider rude (and directed at me) I simply say to myself, that's not MY friend, and it's not MY fault. it's...JACKIE. that evil dopplegangor Jackie. So i put all my stress onto that evil dopplegangor instead of taking it on myself.

What? You've seen this on Full House when Danny Tanner's evil twin MANNY TANNER started appearing in episodes? Well, I only steal from the best.
Manny Tanner

In like a lion, out like a lamb.

Ohhh. Although i am an eternal optimist, i can't say as much for our bank account. Ouch! We had to take our car in because the brakes, and the quote we got from starr motors was $500. OUCH. dang.ah well. we'll be too busy to go out for the next three weeks: exhibit A, my march schedule:




also: voted in the swing state of ohio today! wooo hoo! if you'd like to know, i voted for the h-dawg. my close friends know my reasons, but basically it's cause she marched in the same washington d.c. march for choice rally i did a few years ago. i also voted (like a democrat) for both tax levys on the ballot: cincinnati public schools and the cincinnati zoo. why? because i'm moving in june and won't have to contribute anything, really. hehe hee.

Oh man my day.

Well, the day. It started off so good! We had sort of a fake finance class, with this nice young thing telling us all about working at a private equity firm. ha! THAT won't be on the test! Then back home and watching about 25 of the 34 epidosdes of quarterlife. Oooooh. i love the subtle 90s undertones, and i love love love that the main character seems like a grown up version of angela from my so-called life. but what i really loved loved loved was the sexual tension between dylan (the leading lady) and eric, the over-bearing environment crusader. i was literally sitting in front of our laptop, head perched atop my hands looking at the computer screen practically waiting for eric to kiss ME. sooooo goooood.

oh yeah. and i skipped night class because i got my paper from last week back with a note telling me that using an apostrophe incorrectly was a "FATAL ERROR." what? what?

then i wrote and submitted two job applications! exciting. kaye is helping me scout jobs, so i'm getting more and more excited.

also...anonymous (non blogger peopl) can now leave comments. that means YOU mom, scotty and liz. here's a little treat from quarterlife.com. The description for this mini-episode was "tension builds between dylan and eric." um, could you get to the point more? a little more obvious please.

Clear Blue Phallic.

Um, did a study come out showing that men are the new target market for pregnancy tests? Or did Clear Blue Easy just give their advertising money to the same firm that does ads for the Air Force?

It's spring time?

It's spring time?
Originally uploaded by Ruth Ruthie Ruth

Well, it is about 45 degrees out and the snow is melting. Cincinnati collectively breathes a sigh of relief. Also, last week, Tim found $148 in cash laying the snow. DON'T JUDGE: we reported it, and no one claimed it, so today, we spent.

We finally got a vacuum cleaner that works, and we splurged last night got some good booze. Although we haven't cracked it yet. We might just stare at it and hold it for "sometime special" and then pack it and drive it to Chicago in June. And then to the next apartment after that. Since we're already doing that with a sheepskin car seat cover that Tim refuses to get rid of, what's the diff?

And yes---ran 6 miles yesterday with Shannon. Taking today off, but hopefully another 5 tomorrow! Or 4. or maybe even three and some push ups.