Twelve Days (Or Less) To Go!

Just popping really quickly, instead of reading about St. Thomas Aquinas, because WOW! Boring!

I am taking "International Conflicts" and "Medieval Europe" this term. I am enjoying conflicts, although the textbook author is a bit, shall we say, Pompous? But the other students are great and we have had some very interesting discussions. I have ONE more discussion board post in that class and I am DONE!

"Medieval Europe"? NOT my favorite class ever. I just don't care. All sorts of Catholic... stuff. I mean really, it wasn't like the average joe had books written about him in the 3rd through 13th centuries, just the Kings and the Popes. I think it would be a decent class if I took it in a real classroom with real discussion with other students, but I am not. So... I am struggling! I have a paper due Sunday, 2 more discussion board posts AND the final.

I am so READY!

In other news, BabyBoy and I (with another friend) marched in Tallahassee on 28 April in the Unite Women March against the War on Women. There were some really great speakers there and BabyBoy came home with a better understanding of what we are facing. (Because he tunes me out when I try to talk to him. He knew there were issues but not how widespread they are!)

Two days before that I turned 45!

We had a lovely visit with DSD's daughter in mid-April and the precious grandson and I am hoping that they will be back in July.

And we have a 10 day vacation planned to California in June where we may or may not see the LittleMan graduate... another entire post!

But George Zimmerman was arrested (step 1) although I am not a lawyer (wish I played one on TV), I am not completely comfortable with the Murder 2 charge. I think manslaughter would almost guarantee a conviction. It will be quite a while, of course, before it comes to trial.

My garden is covered with weeds, but my parents' is producing and we are hoping to pickle some green beans over Memorial Day weekend (when I will be relaxing without worrrying about HOMEWORK!) and pick, shell, and freeze black-eyed peas!

I cannot comment on your lovely posts due to the fact that here at work I still have Internet Explorer 7. Sigh. But I will be around to see how everyone is!

Oh By the Way

My rally/protest was OK. People showed up & not JUST people I had threatened... STRANGERS.
And there was a nice write-up in the paper that made me seem intelligent... until the last line. Still it was nice.

And for some reason, I can't get this Comedy Central video to embed, so be brave and click the link. It's The Daily Show where Jon Stewart explains how stupid most of the new governors are.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-24-2011/gov-hurts?xrs=synd_facebook

And BabyBoy's friend will be fine, although not going to Universal this month.

Awake the State!

Tuesday March 8, 2011 is the first day of the new Florida legislature. What have they been doing in the two months since they were sworn in? Who the heck knows? But so far all they seem to have managed is to annoy the crap out of a lot of people.

Rick Scott says no to high speed rail and the jobs and billions of dollars it will provide.. even after Senator Bill Nelson managed to get the towns on the I4 corridor to guarantee the additional money needed so the state will not be on the hook.

Senator Don Gaetz has introduced a bill declaring that medicaid recipients should be forced to lose weight, and stop smoking and drinking or stop receiving coverage.

Florida's proposed budget is set to drop all corporate taxes and property taxes (mine runs less than $800.00 a year) AND to cut funding to education, prisons, police forces, firefighters, and many OTHER public workers, while requiring them to pay more for health care and their retirement.

Does anyone else thing I have possibly moved to Wisconsin?

Well, I'm mad and I'm not going to take it anymore.

I will be at the Destin Commons next Tuesday night. I will be holding a sign. I may be holding a microphone. I have to get off Blogger and call the news media. It's time for Floridians to stand up and shout that we LIKE our middle class. We LIKE our teachers.

AWAKE THE STATE!

I signed on the organize this thing.. and now I am having heart palpitations!

Congratulations Governor Scott

In a couple of days shy of two months in office you have managed to force a miracle. TRUE bipartisanship is occuring in our great state. Democrats and Republicans from the I4 corridor are coming together in a beautiful gesture... but filing a lawsuit against the governor. And introducing legislation that will allow a citizen recall.

Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?

Protests/Rallies being scheduled all over the state next week. No one seems to be interested in NW Florida. Watch out. I am considering doing it myself!

A Brief Hello!

Back to work, back to school, very lazy about posting during the holidays, that is me in a nutshell. But our Christmas was filled with family (some of which I actually like) and our New Year celebration was filled with alcohol and good friends without a hangover on Saturday.

On top of that, apparently Penn State wanted to lose the Outback Bowl more than the Gators did, so Coach Meyer finished his time with the Gator Nation on a high note!

I am STILL working on the post about DC and the blogger meet-up. It will happen.

But someone (I don't remember who) asked me to post the analysis I did of Jon Stewart's Rally Speech. The analysis was for my speech class and (reading back over it) I think (with a great deal of false modesty) I did a pretty good job.

That will be the next post.

I would like to post about the upcoming end of the world also, but maybe someone already has?

Happy 2011 To Each and Every One of You!

A Couple of Pictures from the Rally

The Rally

BabyBoy, my friend, Em, and I left our hotel on Saturday 30 October about 8:30 am.  We quickly made our way to the Foggy-Bottom/GWU metro stop.  There weren't a lot of people milling about on the platform.. but, WOW, that first train was packed. PACKED.  We looked at each other and moved closer to the place where the first car of the next train would be (just a note... in DC, no one seems to want to move all the way to the front, so it is the car that will be the least full) and we waited a little nervously.  A man showed up with an ENORMOUS paper mache' head of his own head with a look of fear on its face. We were a little nervous for him. But the next train was not packed and the first car was almost empty and he and his big head were safe.  As we were. We even managed to sit... which was a good thing.

A few stops later, we emerged at the Smithsonian stop, into the sun, with what appeared to be quite a few others. We meandered. We shopped. We got FREE stuff! We took pictures of signs. And of BabyBoy with QuailMan. We wandered as far up to the stage as we could.  Em wanted to shove our way into the front group, but I am not into shoving if I can help it. So we turned around a found a nice spot close to some port-a-potties and a jumbotron where we could still see the stage.  We spread our free Rally towels out to sit on (I only forgot a couple of things but a large sheet and/or blanket was the one I missed the most!) and made ourselves comfortable. This was about 10:30ish.  We had a beautiful day and a lot of space and a great spot. Em and BabyBoy decided they wanted to walk some more, so I got comfortable, and I visited with many around me. And I waited. And waited. And waited. As the crowd got closer and closer and closer.

I started texting the other 2 members of my group about 11. I wasn't worried yet, but I was concerned that they would not be able to find me by the time they returned, because the demographics had changed. Text. Text. No replies. Then I had to go potty. And I didn't want to leave our STUFF. Text. Text. No replies. Who knew the overwhelming crowd would make Verizon virtually worthless?

They did finally make it back about 11:30, with a pretty warm Diet Pepsi. And wasn't I the hit of the group surrounding us? Guess who remembered the hand sanitizer? It sure came it handy after using the Port - A - Potties!

Then! It was time!

The Rally to Restore Sanity.

The Roots. For 40 minutes. The Roots. And some guy. Wow. Wow. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Really? I got up off the ground, where I was in danger of being trampled, for this? Not my bag, baby. What if this is all there is? Ok music and sore feet?

Wait, ok, it's 12:40 and Look! It's Adam and the.. other.. guy.. from "The Mythbusters." And they want us to.. WHAT??

Ok, the Wave was fun. The rest of the stuff (cry, laugh, jump) was pretty lame.

Finally at approximately 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time, with the Capital Building in the background and a crowd of OMG! in the front, Jon Stewart took the stage. And the crowd went wild. It felt right to stand with 200,000 of  my closest friends to sing the National Anthem. And it felt right to yell for Stephen Colbert (stuck 2,000 feet under us in his bunker, because he was afraid no one would show up) to come out and join us.

There was a lot of silliness, which was a lot of fun. BabyBoy is still not sure if his favorite part was seeing Ozzy in person.. or R2D2.

The people around us were great; we shared cough drops and napkins and someone's airplane bottle of vodka. And I'm also certain we all shared at least one contact high. What's a rally without a little pot?

Then the silliness ended and Jon Stewart gave a great speech on how Americans work together every single day to accomplish things that we probably never wanted to do in the first place. It's all over YouTube, but if you can't find it, give me a shout and I will post it here.

It was the best of times and I am so glad that I was able to be there. I wish I had managed to meet up with the other bloggers who were there, but maybe next time.

I will be starting a post soon about the blogger I DID manage to meet on Sunday and the rest of my DC trip. But school must come first.

Home Safe and Sound and Sane

Wow! What a great time! What a great city!

I'm home, FINALLY losing that cough, and, of course, behind in school and work.

But I have some great pictures and some great stories and I am hoping to get them up soon. I will probably just write a bunch of short posts, because no one wants the entire 4 1/2 days in one 4 1/2 day post.

Soon... I hope.

Because I don't want to discuss the elections. At least not until the wound has a nice scab.

Email Me!

There are details at my previous post on where I am staying and when I am planning to meet with TrueBlueTexan on Saturday morning. If you can't make that meeting and want to try for another, email me at LeftLeaningLady@gmail.com. I can access that email account from my phone.

I don't think I will be able to do a lot of blogging from D.C., but I am hoping to have a lot to say after I return. I just hope I have the energy to do all of the things I want to do!

Have a great weekend!

I'm Leaving.. On a jet plane!

Which is a bonus, because until our new airport opened we only had props!

For stalking purposes:

BabyBoy & I will be on the 6:05am flight out of Panama City and will be arriving in Baltimore at ~ 9:15 (we are changing time zones, it is only a 2 hour flight).  We will be taking the B30 bus into D.C at a cost of less than $10.00 each, instead of the $100 or more it would have cost to fly into Dulles.  I think the bus takes us to the green line, but I will have to check. We will eventually be switching to the blue and orange line (it's an omen) which we will take to the FoggyBottom metro station and then make our way to our hotel! (Pretty fancy, huh?? Thank goodness for credit card points or we would be camping under a bridge!)

The plan is to check in and then wander around D.C. gaping like tourists and asking strangers to take our pictures, because, we will be tourists and we will need to have proof we were there.

On Saturday we will be meeting TrueBlueTexan at 9am at the refreshment stand across the street from the National Air and Space Museum. I think there may be many other bloggers there at that time for a giant group hug... or at least some handshaking with alcohol wipes. :-) (If I still have this hacking cough, may I suggest a 4 foot radius? And, possibly a Lysol bath after?)

I am planning to carry a sheet or blanket to sit on during the festivities, I think, because I am not carrying chairs on the plane, but I have no idea where we will be parking our behinds.. or if we will.

I also do not plan to be arrested for jumping on Bruce Willis, but if I am... trust me it was worth it! :-)

Someone on Facebook was trying to set up an "Insanity after the Sane Rally" party, but it didn't seem to take off. I think there will be plenty of open pubs and bars and restaurants to re-examine the day.

What did I forget?? I hope you all make it!

Voting and Traveling and Being Sick

I am so glad the 'blog world is able to function without me. I have started a dozen posts in my head over the last week, but have not had the opportunity to get them down before, "Poof, they are gone!"

Wednesday (10/20) was our wedding anniversary, but we were inundated by family so we postponed the celebration.

Thursday I woke up with my throat on fire. And people due in from DC for training. So I went to work. And learned quite a bit. And I went out, because it seemed mean to NOT, and I adore these particular people (not something you will hear from me a lot), so dinner and drinks and I steadily felt worse. Fever, chills, aches, pains. Yuck. So not only was I miserable I have probably infected all of Bay County. NOT my brightest move.

Temp was ~ 101 at 8pm when I finally made it home. Nyquil and bed. Still ~ 101 @ 12:30 am. I took some Motrin and the fever broke between 1:30 & 2, but I was exhausted. I'm not sleeping well, even when DSD doesn't snore. I took Friday off and slept all day.

Yesterday there were groceries to buy, homework to finish, and a lovely dinner to celebrate our anniversary.

What does all of this mean? Well, I have not even watched the news in DAYS. Of course when I try to watch actual TV, the political ads make me insane. I would love to say, "I'm not voting for anyone running an ad that contains lies or is just nasty," but I refuse to stay home on election day! I will vote. Then I will bitch.

Thank you to everyone who is managing to post information that the world needs to know. Hopefully I will be back in the swing soon.

BUT, I must be healthy by Friday, because I am headed to DC!!!!

Poor, Pitiful Me

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, and underappreciated. While discussing this weekend's planned trip to the Mississippi St @ Florida game, DSD and I had words. He said he was joking.. about having biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast... fried chicken for lunch... ribeyes for dinner. He probably was, because he has been fabulous about what he is actually eating, but it is stressing me out.

I work full time. I am taking 9 hours of classes this semester (3 hours each term and 3 hours over the semester).  Any way you count it, I am getting 9 hours between August and December (down from the 13 that I took last year this time), I am trying to function working for a %#@@! who barely speaks English (Arkansas) and can NOT write it, but ended up as the boss. I am trying my best to take food with little or no flavor and make it delicious (and doing and excellent job, I might add!!) and I am not sleeping well at night.

I really want a week in a tropical setting with fresh grown food and my Kindle!

Which is not going to happen. I tried that this summer (five days in Destin) and that turned into a nightmare of drunken, crying crap to the point where I no longer speak to the person I thought was my best friend.

DSD's health. Babyboy's lovelife. (He got dumped last week and is sad). Many of my family are exhausting.

I'm just tired. And whining.

Or whining and tired, take your pick.

But, hey, I am going to DC in 17 days. And I am going to be even MORE exhausted when I get home.

But it will so be worth it!!