This and That

It's been awhile. I've been BUSY! So in no particular order here is a bit of this and that from my life.

Philadelphia-I took M to Philly with Nana and Pops to see Aunt L and Uncle Fancypants (aka S). The weather was great. We did the historical stuff the first day and then had the most fantastic banana split at the cutest old fashioned ice cream parlor. The second day we decided to take a double decker bus tour which I have found is a great way to see a lot of a city in a short amount of time. The two most interesting things we saw that day were the Eastern State Penitentiary and the National Geographic exhibit Real Pirates! at the Franklin Institute. Both very cool.

Day 3 was a daytrip to DC. So many cool things. The Smithsonian was amazing and would easily take a week to see everything. My favorite memorial was the Korean War Memorial. I thought it was all really cool though. By the time we returned my ears were actually tired from listening to M talk non-stop for 5 days straight. But we had a lot of fun and I'm glad we had a chance to do this together. And I always love to see L and S. I will be glad when they move back.

Halloween-Thank goodness it was on a Friday this year so it wasn't dragged out all week. What a marathon day though-parade, parties, trick or treat and another party. But they were surprisingly pleasant. Z was Indiana Jones and M was The Unknown Phantom. I am in shock at the amount of candy they brought home. I don't think I ever got that much.

Obama-Oh my hell I am so glad that Obama won. For the first time in a LONG time I don't feel like I'm looking around and wondering what the hell are you people thinking!!! When I watch him speak I am comforted by his calm demeanor, his obvious love for his wife and daughters, his quiet confidence, and his intellect. This is a man who GETS IT! Will life be rosy and wonderful just because he was elected? Obviously not. But having someone in office that is bright, articulate, understands our role in the world, diplomatic and positive is certainly a breath of fresh air. Now WE the American people will have to pay for the mistake of electing Bush and Cheney. It won't be easy, but we have a huge hole to dig ourselves out of. Obama understands that if we don't, our children have no future.

McCain-I didn't hate McCain. Really. A couple of years ago I even said that if another Republican were to be the next president, I hoped it would be him because I respected his integrity and agreed with many of his opinions. Then he decided he wanted to win the election at all costs and his integrity flew right out the window. Not only did he reverse many of his opinions to win the GOPs support, but he chose a VP that in essence is the opposite of everything he stood for, just to get the conservative vote. And the kind of negative campaign he ran against Obama was downright disgusting. Since he threw the inexperience card out the window with Palin, he had to resort to the old GOP favorite tactic, fear. Fortunately most level headed Americans saw it for what it was, desperation. But there are those that it struck a chord with and believe that Obama is a friend of terrorists, a socialist, and too foreign. And those people happen to be the whack jobs that scare me. Using fear as a weapon is the definition of terrorism. Scare people to get what you want. Truly disappointing.

Palin-Yuck. Snarky, bitchy, self-righteous, ignorant, ambitious, power hungy and pretty. A frightening combination. I really hope her 15 minutes are up.

Prop 8-Or as I like to say Prop H8te. It's discrimination pure and simple. You cannot deny a certain segment of the population the same rights that everyone else has. If I can marry whom I choose, then everyone should have the right to marry whomever they choose. You can't take away a gay person's right to procreate. So they already have families. Why not make it a stable, committed family with all the rights other families have? I don't understand why people don't get that. Somebody else's marraige doesn't change my marraige at all. Honestly I don't think it will be long before it is legal. Hopefully sooner than later.

Winter-Already hate it. I hate the decrease in light almost as much as I hate the cold. Sure, I like to snowboard. It's making a bad situation tolerable. But I could give that up with all the rest of winter. I don't need a white Christmas. I would easily give up sweater, sledding, hot cocoa, quilts and a fireplace. I'd rather surf, wear sandals, drink lemonade and soak up the warm, light giving, happy happy sun.

Weight-I'm down to what I thought was my goal. And so of course I've revised that goal and want to lose 5 more. But if I don't, that is OK too. I just don't want to gain it back during the holidays. Now I really need to tone up. I should go to Pilates. But I'm so weak!!! It hurts!! Which means I really need to go. I need new clothes but have no cash. Better than needing bigger clothes right?

Cat-Getting big. Totally psycho and cute at the same time.

Dog-Mellowing out finally. Still cute too.

Homework-Hate, hate, hate. I know they need to do it to learn. It's just such a pain in the butt to have to do it EVERY night. It's too much. It isn't good for household harmony.

Our house-We finally cut a "window" between the living room and kitchen. I love it. It feels very airy and bright now. We also added a door to the storage beneath the stairs making it far more accessable. Now I'm anxious to get the pantry done. And I'd like to paint my bedroom and a couple of the walls in M's room, and get new flooring in the kitchen, and many more projects that we have neither the time or funds for. Someday! I have been decluttering like crazy and organizing and I feel much better about our house now.

Finances-It's not great, but it could be worse. No Costa Rica this year. Such is life.

Twilight-I think Robert Pattinson is hot. I know a lot of women were a little disappointed. He doesn't look like the Edward I had in my mind, but he is pretty perfect. And he can sing too! Pretty dreamy I think. The hair is a little crazy, but we all go through our phases. Not sure I'll see the movie though. I don't want to change the way I think about the books.

So that is what I think about all of that! Agree, disagree, whatever. It's MY blog!

Is it too Much to Ask?

So yesterday I went to get my birth control pill refill. Simple for me right now is no more kids! Anyway, I tell the person at the "fill prescriptions" window, "I don't really need another dispenser, just the pills" he says "okay" and walks away. Fast forward 30 minutes. I head to the "pick up prescriptions" window and they have the dispenser and pill pack sitting by the register. I say to the pick-up guy, "I don't really need a dispenser, do I have to have one?" He gives me a look and says, "if you don't want it, throw it away" and I say, "but that's the point, I don't want to and I already have several". And then he gives me a oh, you're one of those looks and says, just to irritate me I'm sure, "I can throw it away then" to which I just say"whatever". He throws it in the bag and staples it shut.

Why, oh why is it so difficult to reduce waste?! Shouldn't they just say, "do you need a new dispenser?" really, wouldn't that be more economical? I am just astounded by the amount of trash in my life. It overwhelms me. My recycling bin is crammed full by the end of two weeks. My garbage is never full after a week. I just can't believe how many people don't get it.

Do you want to know what else isn't simple? Getting all gung-ho about getting your masters degree, telling the whole world about it, and then burning out at midterm. I have an Economics midterm tomorrow that I really can't imagine I will pass. I look at the damn graphs and it looks like Greek to me. It just doesn't sink in. Then I remember why I didn't go into Nutrition in the first place. I don't get equations and formulas and graphs.

Sure, if I apply myself to the point of tears and a migraine, sometimes I have the great light bulb above the head moment. But sometimes I don't. Especially if I just don't give a shit. Actually I think this class could be interesting, but I'm taking the online version and I hate it.

So I am going to fail my midterm, make sure I do really well on the easy parts of the class, try harder at the final and hope for a C. I'm going to continue to focus on my Nutrition class and try for an A. Then I'm going to take the summer off and re-evaluate why it is I think I want a masters in Nutrition. Do I really want to be a Registered Dietitian? Do I just want to be able to say I have a Masters Degree. What do I really want to be when I grow up? I can't believe I still don't know.