Anxiety/Glee driven Crafting

I've always been quite the crafter

and multi-tasker

So while watching Glee on Hulu and talking to Michael, (who I worship and with whom I often associate) I was crafting

RINGS!

I love these rings!

I'm holding back from using all my wire tonight

ugh

Watching the Numbers

Up late tonight watching to numbers for the Alabama Primary

I can hardly stand the anxiety!!!!

My Man, Dr. Bentley is slowly but surely pulling ahead!!!

No one thought that Dr. Bentley had an icicles' chance in hell

HAHA (ok maybe that laugh is premature, but even if we don't make the run-off we've done a lot better than anyone thought we would)

WSFA didn't even send a camera out to his campaign party.... (it was in ttown, but still!)

He proves that a smart man with good ideas doesn't necessarily need the millions of dollars the other candidates had!

Praying without Ceasing for Dr. Bentley!!!!!!

About to give up on this day

The day started out wonderful (after a fairly crappy weekend)

I voted (I BELIEVE IN BENTLEY)
and was feeling all civically heroic
finally got my smoothie from Smoothie King :)
Started out on the road back to Montgomery (I have to vote in Ttown)

Here comes the sugar attack....
Apparently my smoothie's amount of protein didn't outweigh the massive amount of sugar
jitters
blurry vision
sick to my stomach
cold sweats

Any other signs that I may just be diabetic?

Get to work, everything is great! Even found some new crafty blogs (I'm so ready to be back in my house so I can get some hard-core sewing done!)

Time for lunch
it is raining like crazy
my pants are still soaked (2 hours later)

It's finally pay day
but it's raining and now my check is soaked

I get to the bank
and there's a line OUT THE DOOR (and Wachovia only felt the need to staff 2(!) tellers today)
Today: the day EVERY state employee gets paid.... wow
So, I spent half of lunch in line at the bank
sooooo tired of incompetence....

Ok so enough complaining.....

GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY
but only if you're voting for Dr. Robert Bentley
jk
not really jk
I'm being serious

On another topic:
My feet change sizes about once every 6 months... I don't know if it's related to weight, or what.... But last week I was a solid size 9.5 most of the time a 10
TODAY: I am a 9.... all of my shoes are slipping off
what a freak of nature!

Please pray for me today

What I've Learned

The last couple of months during this internship with Alabama's State Legislature have taught me a lot.... Here are some of those lessons in no particular order:
1. I can now wear gorgeous heels for 8+ hours without complaining (I swear it's like that nerve in the ball of my foot just went dead and stopped aching about halfway through the session... Here's to hoping it never decides to come back alive!)
2. MAIL MERGE!!!!!
3. How to completely ignore everything going on around me while I use above program
4. The most important thing I do all day is smile.... Serious about this one. A lot of the members came up to me at the end of the session and told me that seeing my smiling face every morning made the days go so much better. That I made someone's day any easier or more happy just by flexing some facial muscles is probably the best compliment I can receive.
5. I love the way my hair looks when it's curled at this length
6. BONES is an amazing TV-show, I know this because during the last week of session I watched the first two seasons on Instant Netflix instead of writing the 50+ pages of research paper I was required to do to earn my school credit. The reasons I love this show require a sub-list

• The way the"squints" talk remind of my favorite ASMS kids....
• Speaking of ASMS... Dr. James' endless AP Bio classes weren't useless, they have allowed me to understand what the heck is going on on this show!
• The science is almost completely sound
• It's set in D.C. (My favorite)
  
• It's allowed me to work on my vocabulary... They use really big words on that show!
• I really love clever shows, and this is a very clever show

7. On the topic of papers: I learned that I am an amazing paper-writer. I kind of already knew this, but it was kinda cemented last week. I did two of the papers early (read: before the week they were due, which is quite a feat if you know me), but the Monday before they were due I realized that I still had 28 worth of research paper to write... The ability to write 10 pages, with citations, in less than 6 hours is a talent I know will come in handy during Grad School. There were 6 papers, with 57 pages of research and opinion total, I have to admit that I'm extremely proud of myself. I still got them all turned in a whole day before they were due.

Just realized that I use "I" a lot... Lord, I sound like Obama
shoot

8. Alley Bar=fun, but make sure you have a guy friend there to rescue you from the creepy geriatrics with fake Australian accents who try to spend their social security check on you. Oh, and also make sure you set an It's-time-to-go-home-because-we-have-work-tomorrow alarm for ANNA who doesn't like to leave until 2 in the morning because she's a crazy-crazy!

9. I will never, ever agree on some things with some people... I have my own brand of politics... But that will not stop me from loving them to death and being as good of a friend as I know how... I learned a long time ago that you can't change someone's mind by yelling or arguing. I prefer to debate using logic, and especially economic facts, not based on emotion.

10. Politics are my Passion :)

This week

Very Important Things To Do this Week:

• Write paper about PACT (6 pages, no biggie. ha, right)
• Start one of the 10 page papers for class (there are two of them, and a journal, and two other papers..... ugh)
  
• learn to use Mail merge and send about one billion letters to people graduating high school in Mr. Lindsey's district.
  
• Work out EVERY NIGHT in prep. for the beach.
• Try not to spend so much time doing craft things.... It's eaten all my free time lately!
  
• NOT eat out for the rest of the week (you people are killing me!)
  
• Do as much of the above outside, it's supposed to be a beautiful week :)

A-day is Saturday, woo-hoo!!!! A wonderful weekend in Tuscaloosa is coming right up!

Spring!

Only pollen complaint: My car looks like a Tennis Ball
I am one of the lucky few whose sinuses haven't been affected by all the yellow dust, so my black-turned-yellow car is well worth all the beautiful flowers.

I absolutely loved the beautiful Spring weather we had this weekend.

I went into my super crafty mode: I made a billion of these, I have one in almost every color, and I have tons more ideas for them!

I also made this adorable box... I really like this idea, but I need to refine it/make it look more finished (please take notice of the red silky flower on the top... yeah I made that part too)

I also turned this questionable wall decoration into a beautiful thang to hang above my bed in Tuscaloosa.... All thanks to my roommate, the girl with two first names herself Elizabeth Allison! Oh and the help of some flat black spray paint (my trigger finger is still cramping!)

looks much better, eh?

I am bound and determined to make my room in Tuscaloosa beautimous!!!

What is America?

This afternoon I was in the downstairs office, killing time, when the topic turned to politics (Go figure)...
There were four of us: Dante, Al, Brittany, and me
Two male liberals against two conservative females

We were arguing about race relations, gender issues, and policy concerns when Al posed this interesting question:

What is America?

We all went silent for a minute, dumbstruck, maybe truly thinking about the concept for the first time.
Is it the Nation-State, the United States of America, these 50 states, laid out by a specific border? The mish-mash of different ethnicities that call that land home? The laws by which we are governed? All of the above?

Creator of the Webster dictionary, Daniel Webster had this to say, and I have to agree:

Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.

-Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America, 1788

But yet, as I sat there talking to my colleagues, all born and raised in America, all from very different backgrounds, I realize that even though we were all taught basically the same history of the US, we all pulled different ideas from that history, based on our own personal biases and experiences.

Dante, a young black man, was raised in a fairly rural portion Alabama, by parents and grand-parents who participated in the great civil-rights movement of the 1960's. He admitted that, often times to him, it is all about race. It does usually come down to black v. white.

I was raised by two white parents who taught me that race, gender, and socio-economic status shouldn't matter when it comes to the opportunities afforded by our Nation.

Dante tends to see America based more on his experience: evidence of inequities, discrimination in the past and present, and a feeling that there's a lack of social justice.

I see the issues of our past, and I want to throw them out the window. I want to see a country that is colorblind, that shows no discrimination-negative or positive (a.k.a. affirmative action), I want to make my own way and be proud of what I did, I want to see others succeed and be proud of them too.

So do we see this country through glasses that are colored in the way we choose: rose, tinted, perfectly clear, or otherwise. Or are we, as Dante suggests, just "products of the American system"?

I wish that America may be the following for all:

A place of bounty

A place of equality in start

A place with a Hard Work Ethic, but a compassionate heart

A place that sees no color, gender, or other attribute that divides us, but also respects those attributes for how they have shaped us.

A place where I am nothing more or less than what I have proved myself to be

A place where people who earn a profit and provide jobs to others are glorified, not vilified

A place where our laws are respected in order to give that promise made by our constitution: a more perfect Union, which established justice, domestic tranquility, provides for the common defense, promotes the common welfare, and Secures the Blessings of Liberty for all of its citizens.

It is far from a Perfect Union. There are many shortcomings, past and present; but it's up to people like Dante, Al, Brittany, and me to change those things. We need to learn from the past, reject the notion that our differences separate us, and move forward in an America where we can appreciate our differences and turn our debate into something productive.

First Post

My first post! I just hope I can make this blog as fabulous as Mrs. Priss


This is a place for me to vent, talk about the Alabama State Legislature, give and receive advice, and generally keep track of my wonderfully busy life.

So day #1, and this will include a general overview of how most mornings go:

My alarm went off at 6:30, but I didn't roll out of bed until 7:05; because for some reason I think my hair will take less time to dry this morning than any other morning..... great logic, right?
I stumble to the bathroom, cut on the shower, jump in and out before it turns cold (which gives me about 5.7 minutes aka not nearly long enough) wash wash wash, rinse, shave, rinse, wash face, shoot this is getting cold, cut it off, dry. Moisturize, get dressed, brush teeth, dry hair.

At this point the hardest part is over. I have ridiculously thick hair, it takes forever to dry... after I straighten it into submission-unless it's raining which makes this venture useless, it's make up time!

This morning everything was going great until at 8:05 I was on my hands an knees searching for my other brown pump. For some reason, I only have 2 pairs of brown shoes in Montgomery (2 others in Tuscaloosa at the moment) and only 1 pair that go with the outfit I'm wearing today. After cursing and scrambling for five minutes I decide to go investigate my trunk.

It was there, along with 2 pairs of boots, an empty purse, a Dr. Bentley for Governor road sign, one birkenstock sandal, some flip flops, a tripod, a quart of oil, an umbrella, and a 12 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper.... Sheesh! I keep my car spotless, which obviously means "let's throw everything in the trunk so you can fit into my backseat"

Now I'm at work, only 1 minute late, answering phones while the committee meeting is going on upstairs (GO Dr. Bentley!)


Oh yeah, minus my phone and healthy lunch UGH!