Hey kids, time to play a game!

(YAY!)

Step one:

Click here!

Step two:

Look at this photo:

Did you guess what it is?

Did you guess that it was different names? If so, try again, that is not the correct answer.

I want to show you a picture:

That is a picture of a parking stall that should have contained this type of car in our apartment complex:

That car is known as a Buick Rainier, and the one owned by MRF is pleasantly known as “Cheney,” yes, as in Dick Cheney.

Cheney was driven by MRF to a Honk and Wave for Tim Bridgewater yesterday…this honk and wave:

That Honk and wave took place on North Temple and State Street in Salt Lake City. That is right here:

Funny story, that parking stall lives here, along with MRF and myself at 200 East and South Temple:

Now, some of you more observant readers may have noticed that our home, the parking stall, and the honk and wave are two city blocks away…

MRF drove her car two blocks to go to a Republican honk and wave.

…

Just felt the world needed to know.

P.S. This is my car:

To my three loyal readers, thanks for checking in after this long drought of posts. After an oh, so fun blow up before the state convention, I have decided to lay low for a bit and let things cool off. Although I still stand by what I say, I can see that emotions have been running high and I am not interested in upsetting the people I care about further.

In the meantime, I have been busy looking for work and trying to convince My Republican Girlfriend (MRG) to actually let me live with her. I am happy to report that we will be moving into a new place, together, sometime early next month.

On that same note, I decided to make an honest woman out of her. That’s right, no longer is she MRG. I am happy to report that she is now MRF (the “F” is for fiance). Yes, we are taking the plunge.

As I type, we are in Saint George. Me, being the romantic that I am, wanted to show her the place that I felt was the most beautiful place I have ever known – Bryce Canyon. Her response, though not unexpected, was a resounding “NOOOOOOO!” in the most shrill voice you can imagine. Mind you, she thought I was just being a bullheaded jerk, not wanting to propose to her, but the point stands.

Well, I finally did get her out of the house and we headed on our way (but not after many hours of hearing about how she did not want to go). The magical day got off to a great start when I was pulled over for doing 50 in a 35 zone in Bryce wherein my only thought was “is this a federal crime?” Thankfully, I got out of it by telling one of the officers that I was planning on turning MRG into MRF that day. Thankfully, they gave me a verbal warning, but not before telling me that someone hit Bambi’s mom earlier that day – probably because they were speeding.

Relieved, we went to various lookouts and took in the scenery. Aside from the obvious joy only I knew about, I was happy to hear MRG (at the time) report that the animals were “here first” and that we came in – a small victory for me as I have been trying to push all this “environmental crap” on her for months.

Well, we eventually found our way to Bryce Point, where I finally popped the question using the engagement ring her mother had before she passed. She happily said yes and, as you can tell on the photo below, had no idea it was coming (thanks to the random tourist from Colorado who took this photo moments after the event):

So, now, I am happy to announce that MRG is now MRF – we are looking at a September date to turn her into my MRW.

Whelp, that’s the big news, the job hunt presses on and I will probably be back to writing once I get home!

Over the past five months, I have been diligently working long nights for little pay.  Indeed I have aired my grievances many times on this blog.  But the latest reason I hate campaigns will not stand!

Now that I am “between opportunities” (read unemployed) I decided to return to the gym to work off a little time and energy.

Well there was something I had not counted on…

Over the past five months I have been surviving on a campaigners wage, eating fast food, and not moving in the slightest.  This has resulted in less than satisfactory circumstances.

Since the last time I went to the gym, I gained 25 pounds.

25 pounds!

Let me put that in perspective for you; I have grown one of these in less than half a year:

MRG was kind enough to tell me that she “did not want to say anything” but that I “carry it well.” Thanks honey.

Sigh, I guess I will be hitting the cardio some more.

So yesterday My Republican Girlfriend (MRG) was doing her job, going door to door to various businesses to inform them of the upcoming I-15 reconstruction in Utah County, when she happened to walk into a print shop that produces lawn signs.  When she asked for the manager, one of the other customers in the room took on an immediate holier than thou attitude and, as she put it “all around prick.”

Now MRG is not exactly a shrinking violet. After about a minute of having this lawmaker thumb his nose and rolling his eyes at her, she had inquired about the nature of his purchase.  Of course, he was purchasing lawn signs for an upcoming campaign – but she decided to play dumb.

“I am running for Senate in this area” he replied, nose still upturned. “Oh really?” MRG responds, waiting for a reaction. After a bit of a scoff, he replies “yes.”

That is when MRG kicks it up a notch. “Well I am a Republican delegate for my area and I will keep that in mind.”

After a purposeful awkward silence (MRG is very good at these), she finishes her business and leaves the building.

Now, of course, living in Taylorsivlle, odds are very low that MRG could actually have an effect on this gentleman race, but MRG does not care to point this out to him.

Thanks to some forensic work on my part, I came to discover that the person she was talking to was none other than Senator Howard Stephenson (R – Draper – District 11).

Moral of the story – you may be holier than thou, but you never know when it is going to bite you in the butt.

*UPDATE*

I wish to extend a personal apology to Senator Stephenson. I just received a phone call from him and, after a very polite conversation, he informed me that he was not in Utah County yesterday getting lawn signs. MRG must have confused Senator Stephenson with another law-maker or candidate running in the area.

The moral of the story still stands, however, to any candidate running for office.  Don’t thumb your nose at people when running – you never know when it is going to get you.

Blue in Red Zion values truth over rhetoric and always attempts to make opinions obvious. In this case, I will fully admit to the error and appreciate and apologize to Senator Stephenson for having to take time out of his day to correct my error.

Around this time last week, I attended my mass meeting in a successful attempt to become a delegate.  At the same time, my Republican girlfriend (MRG) attended her first ever meeting, also trying to play a part in her party’s politics.

MRG’s night started out by driving to the other end of her severely gerrymandered district in order to attend. After confirming that she is, in fact, a registered Republican, the festivities began as she walked into a  junior high auditorium that reeked of Axe body spray, angst, and general puberty. The 400 plus people were ready to get their democracy on.

The night was, according to her, surprisingly devoid of politicians actually speaking.  I would have assumed that at least one or two state legislators would have spoken but, alas, they apparently did not show.

Two things stuck out in MRG’s mind – Senator Bennett is in serious trouble and that Representative Chaffetz needs to focus more on his district if he wants to hold his seat.

Bennett complaints were largely that he has been in office too long and that he is too liberal for Republicans.  I understand the first statement, but must admit that the second was a bit shocking. We are talking about a guy that, aside from voting for bailout money, has never voted the way the Democrats wanted. In MRG’s precinct the discord was quite palpable amongst the nine or so people who chose to attend, stating that Bennett had to go. Throughout the night she had also noted murmurs that the crowd was disappointed in the fact that Mark Shurtleff chose not to run against Bennett.

The discussion on Chaffetz is also telling. The Republicans in this Taylorsville/West Valley district felt that he was not doing enough for the district, instead focusing on pulling out the cot to make sure that he has something to tweet about.  They want him to focus less on what is happening in DC (regarding gay marriage perhaps?) and more on what the district actually needs. MRG herself can’t stand Chaffetz for the same reason.  The general message seemed to be that he is starting to upset people and that it will bite him if he does not stop playing with fire.

In the end MRG was elected as a state delegate  as well as vice-chair of her precinct – not to shabby for someone just starting out in politics at this level and who is relatively new to the district. I think it will be funny when we each show up to the state convention at the Salt Palace on May 8th and one of us walks to the left side of the building and the other to the right to attend our respective conventions.

It is not often that I have personal conversations on my blog, however I feel that there is some political importance to the conversation I had with my very beautiful and smart…and…Republican…girlfriend.

As we were both pouring over “the Facebook” we stumbled upon our mutual friend, Ashley Anderson’s, photo of himself in his “survivaball…” Please see below:

Now, if you are like my girlfriend, you probably have no idea what a Survivaball actually is, thinking that it was some sort of kids toy where you put them into a ball and roll them around.  “No” I calmly explained, “it is actually a protest device that eco-friendly people use to protest climate change.”

I then promptly pulled up this site, and showed her this video:

Her response?

“OOOOOOH, it is so cute! I want one”

This, naturally, makes me slap my hand to my forehead.

“Look,” she proclaims “it has eyeballs…and hands! I WANT ONE FOR MY BIRTHDAY! Tell Ashley to get me one.”

Now, I love Jill very much, but it is times like this that I realize I have to convert her to a worldview that recognizes the problems our world faces. Now, although she is a dirty, filthy, Republican, she also is not the uneducated type who us liberals so like to make fun of.  She will look at a situation and take in the information to come to a conclusion – it is just that, based on her upbringing, she comes to different conclusions than I would. Indeed, before this comment we had an exchange on healthcare reform were each of us was entrenched in our ideological view points.

But this is where I want to get to the heart of my post. We must understand that there are smart people who disagree with us.  All to often we are concerned with grandstanding that, in the end, only pleases us and does little to convert people who don’t know the situation. We must talk to each other rather than talk at each other – it is the only way we can have an open and honest political discussion and, hopefully, work together to make the world a little bit better.