Dunce and Dunst

In political news:

I voted on Tuesday and it felt mighty good. Partly because I wanted to give a little f.u. to our dumb governator Ah-nold for holding an expensive special election to push his agenda items instead of working it out with the "girly-men" legislators as it is his job to do. Partly because it felt great to see democracy in action.

My usual polling place is a bix box of a building, but this time I voted in a neighbor's garage. Something about seeing strangers congregating in a random person's driveway to do their civic duty was really heart-warming. I watched the senior citizens who were running the show as they took signatures and folded ballots. I imagined them taking coffee breaks in the adjoining home where someone had probably laid out a plate of tea cookies next to a pitcher of homemade lemonade to keep them going through the day and night. It felt good to press little ink dots in the "no" column and know that in some small way, Ah-nold would hear my "no." With just a little circle of smudge, I can tell the Terminator to get back to work. And that's a beautiful thing.

In celebrity news:

I read an interview with Kirsten Dunst in a recent issue of In Style magazine and have to say I was impressed. I've been trying to wean myself off of the celebrity interviews, because so often I'm annoyed or disappointed with what the real person behind the famous one has to say for themselves. But Kirsten seems smart, sweet, funny and pretty level-headed despite having grown up on movie sets and only being 23 years old in stocking feet.

I got the first clue there might be something behind the pretty face when I read her comments on her iTunes celebrity playlist. Unlike Jennifer Garner whose every song caption seemed to involve the tune's ability to pump up her workout ("This one is great for cardio!"; "This one gets me through those last 100 sit-ups!"), Kirsten's commentary (and song picks) showed some flair. I'm thinking I need to add Ms. Dunst to my "if you could have dinner with any five celebrities, who would you pick" guest list. And here I thought she was the lucky one. It's looking like Jake is.