Problem: No mail has been delivered in over a week.

Remedies:

1. Call post office. Call both local office and national 800 number. Call several times per day. Generally make nuisance of self.
2. Leave polite but firm note for mail carrier taped to mail box.
3. Mail empty envelope to self in order to test system.

Problem: Chunk of ice falls under tire, causing punctured tire and rim.

Remedies:

1. Arrange to have new tire special ordered.
2. Visit repair facility. Have tire replaced and punctured rim discovered.
3. Pay an additional $400+ for rim.
4. Call insurance. Insist they cover under comprehensive policy.

Problem: Rain causes things to become wet.

Remedies:

1. Procure umbrella.
2. Wear hat.
3. Give up.

I have not yet started my Christmas shopping. I haven't even formed my gift list yet. I know, I know--try to contain your shock at this unforeseen development.

*Please to note heavy sarcasm being employed.

The jury just finished deliberating in the case of Lori Drew, the mother who infamously posted, along with others, vile messages while posing as a teenage boy on MySpace. The target of her actions committed suicide after receiving a message that the world would be better off without her.

But, in that great tradition in which the law itself is always the last to catch up with crime, the only charges that could be brought against Drew were charges of computer fraud: namely, that she violated the MySpace user agreement.

Now, to be clear, I hope the woman rots in jail for the rest of her natural life. But, as her attorney pointed out again in closing arguments, she's not being charged with murder, despite the fact that the DA hopes to paint her that way (hey, if you've already got the jury thinking she's a murderer—which she is—then it's a small thing for them to find her guilty of some random computer charge). Sounds like a good attorney doing his best job to defend a really shitty person, right?

Well, not quite. This attorney, Dean Steward, defends his client by saying that "nobody" reads user agreements and that his client can't have violated something she didn't read. This line of logic has a few problems. First of all, it's absolutely inaccurate to say that you can't violate something that you haven't read. Of course you can! If you put your name to something and you don't read it, then that's your own damn fault. No one will give you a moron pass on that one. Second of all, even if she didn't read the user agreement, any idiot can tell you that harassing someone and creating a false identity are probably against the user agreement. If I polled a hundred people and asked them to tell me what sort of activities a MySpace user agreement prohibited without reading said agreement, I'll bet "don't harass other users" and "don't create a false identity" would rank pretty high on the list. Talk about common freaking sense.

Furthermore, the attorney goes on to make arguments that seem to undermine his stated position that this case is about computer agreements and nothing more. He blames the dead girl's parents for not watching her close enough, and for not pulling the plug on her "relationship" with this imaginary boy. Now, tasteless as that is, I think he has a point. The parents should've been watching more closely. And I'll bet they are the first people in line to blame themselves for that. However, it seems to me that the question of whether her parents should've been watching her is only relevant if the question at hand is "Who is responsible for this girl's death?"—which is the very question that the attorney (correctly) says is NOT germane to the case. What, pray tell, does the level of parental supervision have to do with Lori Drew's decision to commit computer fraud, a decision that was made long before and completely independent of the parents' decision not to steer their emotionally fragile daughter away from MySpace?

That's like dropping a bowling ball from a 50-story building and then saying that the person who caught the ball with his skull should have moved out of the way. Yeah, he probably should have. But by the time his moving out of the way became an issue, you'd already made a reckless decision that put someone else in danger.

Of course, she got let off the hook on the most serious charges, so that shows what I know.

In general, I find myself in agreement with the screeds against the increasingly early start to the holiday season. I've ever launched a few of them myself.

But this will not be one of them. Because everyone is writing them and I would just HATE to be unoriginal. Instead, I will mentioned a few things that I appreciate, even when they arrive just on the heels of Halloween.

1. Starbucks red coffee cups. I don't know why, but the red cups just make me happy. I enjoy them. I think they're totally bitchin'. Though the red cups were rolled out on election day this year, many weeks in advance of even Thanksgiving, I still welcomed their arrival.

2. Faster Amazon shipping. From about the last week in October until the second week in January, everything you order from Amazon arrives faster than fast, regardless of what shipping speed you choose. It must be a combination of an influx of seasonal workers, a mortal fear of falling behind on their order processing, a desire to engender consumer good will by ensuring all would-be presents arrive in time, and a hope that holiday purchasers will have such a good Amazon experience that they will become year-round customers.

I don't think they advertise the fact that orders are processed faster than usual, or the fact that they will often ship with a shorter transit time than what you paid for. But for those of us who are Amazon junkies, the improvement is both obvious and striking. A few weeks back, I ordered some books. Even though I chose the slowest and cheapest (read: free) method of shipping, my books arrived just two days later.

3. Christmas candy. To be more specific: candy canes, Christmas peeps, Hershey's mint minatures and candy cane kisses, red and green spice drops.

Yesterday, on a day when most of the people I saw were buzzing with enthusiasm about the election, I saw a woman with a button affixed to her purse that said, "Same shit. Different president." Eight years ago, I might have agreed. Four years ago, I would have agreed. Apathy and cynicism are familiar emotions to all of us, or at least for me.

But this election was different. And the dominating victory of Barack Obama confirms that I am not alone in that sentiment.

I am proud today to say that I voted for Barack Obama. I am proud today to say that my vote played a small part in history. I am proud today to say that I support a president who believes that the lives of Americans and the lives of Iraqis are not meant to be sacrificed for an ill-conceived cause. I am proud today to say that I support a president who believes that health care should be available to all people--and who has a commitment to make that happen. I am proud today to say I support a president who offers us more than just empty rhetoric on abortion. I am proud today to say I support a president who advocates on behalf of the least of these. I am proud today to say that I support a president who reaches across aisles and across borders to bring about the change we seek.

Tomorrow isn't guaranteed to anyone. We don't know what the next fours years hold, or what the next eight years hold, much less what is beyond those. Of course, I like many others am full of confidence that we can accomplish the goals that our citizenry endorsed by casting their votes for Obama. Yet I am realistic enough to know that it may not happen as we hope or expect.

But uncertainty of tomorrow doesn't render today meaningless. If anything, the uncertainty of tomorrow makes our todays all the more poignant. And today we have a fresh reminder that a nation can change. We have a reminder that a group of people once enslaved and once ostracized can claim a voice on the widest stage possible. And we have a reminder that, more than 140 years after Lincoln envision a just and lasting peace, achieved with malice for none and charity for all, our nation is still capable of making progress toward that goal. Whatever happens, for one day we got it right.

Sometimes we need the dumb idealists. The dumb idealists will probably be wrong more often than the realists will be. But when the idealists are right, they are the ones that change the world. We need people who charge out at the risk of looking like an idiot, because without those people we'd all become despairing realists. We might never get caught overreaching, but our world would grind to halt.

Ultimately, the faith I have chosen means that my hope is not in governments. My obligations as a daughter, a sister, a friend, a granddaughter, a cousin, a niece, an American, and yes, as a Christian, don't change because Barack Obama is now the president-elect. Nor would they change if John McCain were the president-elect. And yet, I refuse to go to the extreme position that says we as Christians should avoid politics because that's not what's going to change the world. To me, that is just a pious version of "Same shit. Different president."

I do not believe in the power of man to change the world. But I do believe in the power of a God who has chosen to work through human culture to accomplish things he could certainly accomplish much easier with a lightening bolt or two. I believe in a God who redeems instead of obliterating, and that even goes for imperfect institutions like the government. The presidency might look like a hopelessly ineffective exercise rolled up in the allure of power, but I still believe God is in Washington. It's a long held creed of Christians everywhere that God uses each of us, even though I don't know what we any of us are except ineffective and power-seeking.

We err when we put our trust in the instrument (government) instead of the artist who is writing the music. But that doesn't mean we despise the instrument.

I still respect John McCain. I think he's an admirable man and a devoted servant, and I hope he remains in government for as long as he is able. But in the end, I think McCain misfired badly. He had little to offer America except anger, fear and reactionary politics. He lost many of the traits that had defined his public career. History was accelerating, and he was caught flat-footed.

I wish McCain the best. But the country is at a crossroads. And Obama is, I believe, best suited to lead us as we navigate this critical juncture.