October 2005 Archives

Not one child came to door tonight to trick-o-treat. Thankfully, I hadn't purchased any candy, but still. Being in a very residential area, I really thought a few would stop by and was prepared to fully pretend like no one was home when they knocked. Oh well! I guess the British (at least in Wimbledon) haven't fully adopted the very American tradition of going door to door for candy on Halloween.

I didn't approve of President Bush's first choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and I don't approve of his second choice either. But at least on this go around, the person nominated, Samuel Alito has vast judicial experience. What makes me leery of him is his supposed objection to a woman's right to choose on the abortion issue.

Apprehensive as we really cannot afford to go backwards on this issue. Particularly since we all know that it will be poor woman who will suffer most. Middle class and rich woman regards of their age and race will finds ways to get an abortion if they want one. Basically they'll cross the border to Canada, Mexico or someplace in Europe.

Thus, unless the government plans to spend the money to take care of the potential increase in unwanted babies born, this difficult and life altering decision is best left with the woman. Only she can determine whether or not it truly makes sense to move forward with the unwanted pregnancy. Heck, even if they were going to increase welfare and education funding, I still think the decision should be left with the woman. Accidents and horrible incidents sometimes happen, and I would hate for a woman's life to go down a path she is not yet ready to take because she didn't have easy access to all the options available to her.

Harriet Miers’s withdrawal as a Supreme Court nominee makes me happy. She was an able woman, but by no means the best (not even the 100th best) candidate for this position. As such, I hope President Bush has learnt his lesson and will pick someone more qualified for this lifetime appointment.

In the meantime, I can’t wait to find out who among the Bush Administration officials will get indicted re the CIA leak investigation. I typically don’t wish this sort of misery on anyone (yup, that even includes those on the political right), but when you are as arrogant and reckless as those within the Bush Administration, you deserve to be brought to your knees. As such, thinking one or two indictments will do the trick.

Noticeable absent from 6 month review below is any mention of dating. That's because there is not much to report on that front. I did sign up with a dating service in the summer and even went on a few dates. But my heart wasn't really in it, so I pulled the plug. I'm not still pinning for Racquetball Guy, I just decided that I wasn't mentally ready and dating would a distraction right now that I don't really need. Particularly since there are few things I'd like to sort out before that becomes a priority again. Having said that, I'm leaving myself open to the possibility. Just not actively in pursuit. But perhaps in the new year, I'll resume my search for my very own Mr. Darcy.

For any one out there who thought I had disappeared off into the night, I'm still here. I was sick with the flu for the past two weeks and so did very little. Also, while much is happening in my world, I was ambivalent about blogging as my current state of mind is not as positive as I'd like it to be.

Basically, I'm in the middle of an internal struggle to decide once and for all whether or not my glass half full or half empty. I know the answer should be an easy one as I have a lot of things going on in my life that I should be proud of, but I still feel very much unfulfilled. So I'm trying to work it all out. Particularly since I want to make the most of what London has to offer.

To help me do this, I signed up with a life coach, Sheila Panchal. I know some would think this an indulgence, but I see this an investment on my future. Particularly since my efforts to go it alone have not worked. I have a long list of things I'd like to accomplish in my lifetime, and I need to take a more proactive approach instead of waiting for things to happen.

We are looking at all aspects of my life, but the subject matter that has dominated our last few sessions is my career. Somehow I seem to have lost my way. From as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a lawyer. Then once I decided to leave law school to raise my sister after my mom died, I sort of fell into a career that I've never fully embraced. Oh, don't get me wrong; I have absolutely no regrets about not returning to law school. What I do have difficulty with is the that fact that while I'm good at what I currently do, I don't feel like it’s my life calling. I don't feel like I'm living up to my full potential. The result is that this clouds my judgment on my achievements. So I'm trying to reconcile my conflicted feelings. I don't plan to make any drastic moves in the short term. Just trying to get a better handle of how I'd like to see my career progress in the years to come.

Beyond a review of my career goals, I'm also trying to build up my social network in London and having a life coach helps keeps me accountable. I have explored a fair bit of London by myself and while that was ok in the beginning, I know I need to become more social if I'm seriously going to make it here. Basically, I need to make more friends.

With that, I'm currently going through the new membership class for The Junior League of London. Based on what I've seen so far, thinking it will be a great way for me to make friends, expand my professional network and more importantly, give back to the community.

Beyond JLL, I also signed up for Weight Watchers about a month ago. I’m trying to shed the 20lbs I gained since moving over, but also looking at this as an opportunity to meet some women locally. So far I've bonded with two women and if I play my cards rights, thinking not only will I loose weight (so far, down 12 lbs) but will also make some new friends.

Also, at the urging on my coach, I'm following through on my desire to join a book club. Since I wasn't able to find one except the one at the local library, I am currently in the process of setting up a book club with another woman I met on one of the local Wimbledon Internet boards. A bit scarey, but going though with it. I've read approximately 27 books since I moved here 6 months ago (see sidebar for titles), and so looking forward to having a regular outlet to discuss some of these great and no so great books.

So that's what going on in my world. I'm trying to make things happen. Packing up and moving from Chicago to London was the easy part. Now trying to put in the time and effort to make sure that when I look back on this experiment years from now, I’ll truly be able to say I did all I could to make the most of this amazing opportunity.

I recently set up a family Internet site at myfamily.com. Specifically, the site is for descendants of Anne Francis Botswaine Barzey and William Henry Barzey who hail from Caribbean island of Montserrat. They had 7 children about 100+ years ago who have spawned offsprings several generations deep now residing in several Caribbean islands, USA, Canada and England.

With the site built, now in the process of gathering contact details for as many family members as possible with the hope being that they’ll join and be an active participant. So wondering, does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this family site sticky? I really do want family members to keep coming back time and time again.

I thought President Bush was against affirmative action or any type of quota system. As such, I'm a little baffled as to why he would choose someone to ascend to the highest court in the land who has no judicial experience. Oh don't get me wrong, I like the fact that he choose a woman, but for him to argue that Harriet Miers is "the best person I could find" insults our intelligence. She has never been a judge – not even in traffic court. And while that might be ok for some high level position – I don’t think it applies to someone who is going to sit on the Supreme Court. You need some experience. Not someone who is going to require on the job training. So in some way, it’s almost like President Bush is saying f*uck you to every judge who has paid their dues and worked their way up through the state and/or federal judicial system. And maybe, just maybe, he does support a quota system. After all, isn’t it about hiring unqualified minorities (that includes women by the way) for positions they don’t deserve? Wait -- don’t answer that.