More Stuff

At 4:30, I finished my PowerPoint for my presentation in my writing class tomorrow. Bellydancing class is at 6:00. I realized I might as well stay here, since bellydancing is right down the street and my house is 30 minutes away.

So I'm at school and I should be writing my memoir rough draft for tomorrow night, but I've been trying to get that done since last Wednesday and it's just not working out right now. So I guess I'll blog about all the fun we're having here.

The new semester has been an adventure. I have almost all new students in my reading and creative writing classes. The writing class I'm taking is proving to be very strenuous. I put about 15 hours of reading/writing per week, plus three hours of class time each week. But when I'm done, I have my reading endorsement. I've been working on it for two years, so it will be nice to have it over with.

I've been recruited to join the district's literacy committee, as well. I go to my first meeting on Wednesday after school. So there's another new thing I've added this year. When I get done with the writing class, I'll probably also be joining the group that reads and approves novels for the district.

Al has been doing well. We had quite a scare a couple of weeks ago. We got word that Al's Area Director had been laid off and Chili's was closing stores. Rumors and assumptions were flying everywhere from about 5:00 on a Tuesday night until about 10:00 Wednesday morning. I was trying to come to terms with the idea that I might be serving tables again to supplement income. In the end, they closed seven stores in the region, none of which were in Utah. Of course, that doesn't mean that there won't be more cuts, so we pretty much are keeping our fingers crossed and Al is trying to be an even better manager than he already is. That whole scare made us pretty appreciative of the money we've managed to save and for my job security. It made the whole "rainy day" scenario very real. I just feel horrible, though, for the managers and employees of the stores that were closed. The recession is hitting a little too close to home.

Even though my job is secure, we're looking at really cutting back on education budgets. One idea on the table is to make all high school teachers teach seven periods, whereas right now they teach six (3 on A-days, 3 on B-Days, with one prep period each day). I'm doing that schedule this year and am getting paid extra for productivity. Let me tell you, it's killer! I'm expecting a big fight with the union if this becomes a serious possibility. Even being paid extra, it's barely worth it. I'm stretched so thin and I know I'm not as effective of a teacher.

Being an aunt again is also a lot of fun. I haven't been able to spend much time with Blakelee, but the time I've had with her so far has been fabulous. Perhaps when she starts being more awake it'll be even better! Even Al has been trying to become more comfortable with her, since right now, he's really only comfortable with kids 8 and up. He's doing a good job!

Well, there's about a million things I should be doing now, so I'm going to go and get to them before I have to leave school for bellydancing class. If you'd like to see my brilliant PowerPoint on how I teach the voice writing trait, please let me know. I even downloaded a special theme for it...that's how fancy I'm getting!

This time next week, I'll be packing for Vegas!

The Country On My Mind

It's no secret that I'm a supporter of President Obama. Those who don't want to support him certainly have a right to their own opinions, but I'm amused by the people who think they can simply deny he is now our President. I grew out of the whole If-I-Don't-See-You-Then-You-Aren't-There mentality before Kindergarten.

I'm also tired of being told by the outspoken Nobamas that I should not voice my support, because by doing so I'm automatically naive and think he's omniscient (I'm not and I don't), and that by supporting the President, I'm unamerican and a socialist (again, I'm not and I'm not). I also find it ironic that most of these unamerican accusations come from people who think it's ok to deny homosexuals their "unalienable right to...the pursuit of happiness," but that's another issue for another day.

I'm not going to agree with everything Obama says or does. He was my choice for President because I agreed with him on more issues than McCain. Obama is a stout supporter of education issues and the need to reform a well-intentioned but poorly administrated program. McCain wanted to ignore a problem he didn't believe existed. Obama wants to change things that aren't working. McCain wanted to keep things pretty much the same. Obama wants to socialize medicine. I think that's something that should be explored in order to protect our "unalienable right to life...." And I don't see anything Obama is doing that will endanger our right to liberty. That being said, I didn't agree with him on 100% of the issues so naturally I'm not going to agree with everything he does. I don't think that makes me hypocritical or unsupportive. And for those of you who are going to jump on the "You said you're not a socialist but you support socialized medicine" argument, let me say that I am also in favor of public education...which could also be correctly labeled "socialist education." Yes, certain aspects of our society should be socialized, NOT society as a whole. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"--health and education are critical elements of those rights that we hold dear.

So for the record, here is where I currently stand:

Things that we should not be arguing about:

• A $500,000 salary cap on executives of companies that are being bailed out by government money: Apparently, all this talent is going to go somewhere where it can be paid millions of dollars and get Las Vegas getaways and free cars. Then the companies left "talentless" are going to tank...period. Well, if these top execs were so talented, then they wouldn't need the government and the "little people" to bail out the companies that they couldn't manage to run profitably. Let them leave. (Assuming they can find a job--what flourishing company is going to hire someone who helped drive a company under and then bailed when they were asked to show a little personal sacrifice?) But if by some miracle, they move on to a new multi-million dollar company to ruin, and these failing companies that are left behind manage to find someone who's willing to do the same job for a paltry half-million a year, we might actually be dealing with a person who isn't obsessed with his/her own personal greed. Once the company is back on track and has paid back the government money, then it becomes a private industry and can pay whatever it wants in salaries, which may just help to motivate these poor new execs during this difficult time of $500,000-per-year budgeting.


• The tax issues of Cabinet nominees: people lie. Obama is not omniscient. The truth came out, they're gone, and now there's room for more honest people in their places. The fact that Obama didn't make excuses or try to keep them on is proof that he is committed to the high standards he has set for himself and his people.


• The need for improved child health care. These kids whose parents can't afford health care didn't choose to be born. They'll suffer enough for their parent's stupidity in other ways and in other places; they should at least be healthy in the mean time.
  

Things we should be questioning:

• Using tobacco money to support the child health care improvements: This is going to hit the poor the hardest. Poverty studies show that when individuals and families live below the poverty line, they tend to value entertainment above other things. This means that when you walk into a poor area, you're going to see nice cars with thousands of dollars of enhancements and a great alarm system, gaming systems and expensive televisions in the living room, iPhones and Blackberries, great stereo systems, etc. Meanwhile, the kids are eating ramen noodles and wearing too-small clothes that were bought for them last year at the Salvation Army. Poverty is usually caused by the failure to manage money well. The majority of smokers are beneath the poverty level. Raising taxes on cigarettes is not going to reduce smoking--this entire plan is counting on smokers continuing to shell out more money for the same product. Smoking budget goes up, Joe Smoker compensates by taking it out of the food/clothing fund, kids suffer. I think smoking is disgusting, and I think we need to do more to stop it, but I'm opposed to anything that wants to raise the tax on smoking. It won't prevent/reduce smoking, and innocent dependents are the ones who are going to get the brunt of it.


• Delaying Digital TV: This shouldn't even be an issue. Get your free converter box from your cable company. Now you're fine. You've had months and months to do this. The people who waited this long are the same people who are going to wait until after the next deadline as well. More time isn't going to solve any of the potential problems, so let's get it over with and just rip off the band-aid. I don't even know why this should be something the President is worrying about.
  

Something we should appreciate:

• A President who is willing to go on the record and say "I screwed up." No excuses, no justification or rationalization, just a simple statement of human fault. "I screwed up." He could have rationalized his ingorance of his cabinet nominees' tax history, but he just admitted he was wrong. Bush screwed up all the time. Did he say it? No. He wouldn't even pronounce "nuclear" correctly, which only solidified his ideas that his way was the right way because he was the President. After all, if he suddenly started saying it right, people would notice and then everyone would know that he was wrong about something, which would completely undermine his authority. (At least that's how I think he saw it.) Then there was Clinton--"I didn't inhale." "I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman." Why he couldn't have just admitted that he did it and he was wrong is beyond me. The fact that he was clearly lying was the only reason people even cared and still remember about it. Meanwhile, Obama answered the pot question with "I inhaled--frequently--that was the point." He also admits to being an ex-smoker who uses Nicorette and still sometimes gives in to cravings. On both of these issues, the American public seems to be saying, "Thanks for being honest. Let's move on to things that are actually important." We're not wasting our time obsessing about how the President lied to us. So no, Obama is not a deity flying in on some winged mythical creature to save the day, and he is able to stand in front of a camera and admit that he's an actual fallible human being. I have to say that I like that.

Special Olympics

I really do have a lot to blog about. So many things have happened...a new neice, a new president, new hatchlings! But I've also been dealing with a new semester and a hectic schedule. I'm finishing my reading endorsement with a writing course at night, I've taken up a 6-week belly dancing class, and I'm still trying to make it to the gym every now and then. When I finally am at home, I just want to crash...you know? So I'm sorry about being lazy with the blogging. I will play catch-up this weekend while I watch tv online, but for now, here is the latest fun time...Fullers Field playing the Special Olympics opening ceremonies dance!

Check out Mom and Dad's dance lesson moves! Also, off to the right, you can see Danny dancing with one of the athletes. She was in heaven!

Here's a friend we made:

99 Red Balloons:

Even more balloons:

And the end of the song...Danny is dancing with his little friend again!

I didn't get it on video, but I put some pictures on FaceBook of when the band let some athletes take the instruments to perform Jordan's Jingle. It was so cute. They just loved being the center of attention!

A little bit of "Keep Swingin'"

"Take On Me"

More "Take On Me"

And the end of the song...with a big finish:

Signing autographs:

But in the end, the band rocked so hard that Little Jeremy lost his head in a tragic falling incident. Superglue, anyone?

The guys from Wasatch Sound were kind enough to reset the mike to give this athlete a chance to shine: