a new historical condition

i've made myself a fleetwood mac greatest hits:
1. gypsy
2. gold dust woman
3. rhiannon
4. you make loving fun
5. seven wonders
6. everywhere
7. landslide
8. storms
9. sisters of the moon
10. dreams
11. go your own way
12. silver springs
13. sara

it's heavy on stevie nicks, light on christine mcvie, and almost totally absent on lindsay buckingham. the momentum of dreams, sara, and gypsy makes me happy. the crescendo of silver springs halfway through makes my day everytime. a whole new set of favourite songs! hooray!

i'm getting back into atlas shrugged, now that my paper is done. i'll use it as stress relief during the next two months. i'm working to get my hours done in the next ten days, so that i'll be free for the rest of the month. letting go of committments after two days when i've felt at the very top of my game will be hard, however. i've accomplished a lot, and set in motion even more. i've also found myself as the lynchpin, of sorts, of a key policy negotiation. this is when i lean on the connections i've forged all year, so far, and gamble on the trust i've built. i work with someone who consistently says that 'work doesn't get done in meetings', and i am living to be the counter example. define 'work', motherfucker. let's whip it out. seriously, though, there is nothing i like better than a good face-to-face meeting with someone with whom i share mutual respect. i shift topics rapidly, and, perhaps unfairly, judge others on their ability to bounce about on subject matter.

notes:

• the piano in massive attack's teardrop is still quite incredible, all these years later. i listened to protection and bjork's post a lot when i started at purdy's in 1999. both albums still make me think of working at 'pacific centre - atrium', and the scent of crushed almonds.
  
• to follow from that, i'm now entering just my second december since leaving purdy's last year i was... still depressed, writing sporadic news articles for the peak, still seeing the student society as a holy grail of proud accomplishment, finishing up my service to the citizen's assembly, not yet taking ownership of the NDP, and wondering what to do. i was not unhappy, though.
  
• here's stan rogers, the witch of the westmoreland. amanda, i think you might like it.
  
• songs that remind me of my election campaign in 2003 include hall and oates' privates eyes, gowan's moonlight desires, damon and naomi's astrafiammante, and toto's africa. i think i am still working to recapture what i felt through those months.
  
• amanda, kevin, and i were in kinko's waiting for our senate posters to get printed, and the beatles' and your bird can sing came on the radio. that song and she said she said, from the same album, along with here there and everywhere soundtracked this year's election. i've still got unresolved stuff from this year, but i will mention again that i got more votes than anyone, ever. 2256 raw votes, 64.5 percent. we failed, strategically, and i know that now, but, not being an incumbent, i did not feel confident enough on the slate to drive our campaign properly. the multiple threads that were combined in that think pink camapign are still surprising to me: it was a coup, and one that i should still be proud of. the fact that we lost is incidental, really; my triumph was the existence of such a slate to begin with, and there is only so much responsibility that i can take for my teammates.
  
• i still have unresolved stuff from this year.
  
• potential titles include 'there is a light that never goes out'.