Feels like old times

The other day I realized that I'm regressing back to my childhood. And by this I mean my actual childhood of elementary school, as opposed to my maturity childhood of high school and college. My school colors are once again green and gold - just like at Van Horn, where I went to most of elementary school. And my mascot is once again a hornet - just like Van Horn. It makes me wonder why green and gold go with hornets. I understand the gold part, since bees and the like are known for their yellow coloring. But where does the green come from? Is it the color of the grass behind the hornet? Because don't they like flowers more than grass?

Also, I feel like I'm 9 years old again because most of the people I'm around are calling me Becky. Now, don't think that this is some sign that I'm going by Becky at school, and don't take it to mean in any way that you have permission to call me such a name. That name is reserved for people who are family members, or who have known me since I was 9 and were around my family who called me Becky. I think the number of people who fall into that list (non-family members who are allowed to call me Becky) is around 15 if I'm feeling generous.

But since I've been around my cousins and aunt and uncle, I'm getting used to hearing Becky. It's funny because neither of my brothers call me Becky, so I didn't hear it a lot in Bakersfield. I think much of my family there just calls me Beck or Becks. But here it's definitely Becky, and I've definitely noticed the difference.

In the midst of all this retro stuff I had a new experience today. And it'll lead to a new experience on Tuesday. Amanda had a handful of people over to her apartment in Davis to discuss the various propositions and the candidates for President. The real reason I went over there is because she said she was also going to bake apple pie (since what could be more American than talking about voting while eating apple pie?), and I love apple pie.

We spent probably an hour discussing the propositions, and then decided that we should watch the Hillary Obama debate that just aired, mostly because we couldn't figure out how they were that different (in terms of policy). So far this year I've almost completely avoided the political stuff, so it was interesting to hear what the important issues are (since they hit on the ones where they differ the most), and I was surprised to notice that I didn't hate listening to the debate. Of course, this could have been because they were actually cordial to one another, and it was inter-party, but I have to admit that I found it interesting. I don't think I like Republican vs. Democrat politics, but I could really enjoy other types (if there is such a thing).

After spending quite a bit of time discussing the different things (although interspersed with lots of other topics) I believe I will be voting exactly the way that I would have voted before I learned about what I was actually voting for. So my uneducated reaction towards voting is the same as my educated position. Interesting.