You know we hear a lot about the people in the military who serve our country, and I agree they serve hard often at huge cost to their physical and mental and probably spiritual well-being. Today I want to write something about another kind of service, the civil service of a person who is now being vilified by the Republican party.
Jennifer Bruener is the Secretary of State in Ohio. She was interviewed on teh Rachel Maddow show on Friday and something she said just hit me hard. Ohio just won a supreme court decision that allows them to NOT have to check every voter registration against a bunch of other databases that they don't have control over and no way of verifying their accuracy. This is important becasue it will prevent 200,000 estimated voters from ahaving to use "provisional" ballots that then may not get counted....but that isn't what hot me. Ms. Bruener is being vilified by some speakers on behalf of the National and Ohio Republican Committees. Rachel quoted some of teh statements...the usual partisan blah blah...and I wondered why is it when the Republicans lose it has to be partisan political manuevering, they never just lose....sigh...anyway, Ms. Bruener said "If I have to be a lightening rod to take this so that the election Boards can do their jobs in peace, so be it." That statement moved me in a weird way. I was really proud of her - I mean no one wants to be vilified in the press, especially for simply trying to do what they can to keep voters able to vote but here is this woman saying you know what, if it means that people WITH the RIGHT to vote get to vote, bring it on. To me that is the epitome of service to her country.
So Thanks Jennifer Bruener for your service to this country.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Willy Wonka
Hopefully by now all y'all have seen Charlei and the Chocolate Factory or read it if not stop now spoiler alert.
You know ta the end when he goves back the everlasting gobstopper and Gene Wilder (in the movie) says and into the darkness a ray of light or something along those lines.... I am truely blessed. Tosday it was a tiny thing that meant oh so much. There is a writer whose blog I follow, somedays I post on it with honesty like i do here instead of what I say on livejournal whihc is heavily edited for not laying my troubles on others etc. A couple days ago I poured out a little of my angst about having nothing means that this current crisis means less to me. She responded with a private encouraging e-mail. The next day she wrote about heroes unrealted to this and I commented to her that she had been my hero the day before becasue that encouraging e-mail came at a tough time
Anyhow, today I felt so very alone, desperately and very alone and I was sitting at my computer and suddenly I had a new mail and it was a notice that she had added me on facebook. So I posted on her wall and said wow i was feeling disconnected and there you are and she replied and said I was one of her favorite posters
I am a giddy fan girl. (and really not a stalker but wow she is an amazingly good writer)
You know ta the end when he goves back the everlasting gobstopper and Gene Wilder (in the movie) says and into the darkness a ray of light or something along those lines.... I am truely blessed. Tosday it was a tiny thing that meant oh so much. There is a writer whose blog I follow, somedays I post on it with honesty like i do here instead of what I say on livejournal whihc is heavily edited for not laying my troubles on others etc. A couple days ago I poured out a little of my angst about having nothing means that this current crisis means less to me. She responded with a private encouraging e-mail. The next day she wrote about heroes unrealted to this and I commented to her that she had been my hero the day before becasue that encouraging e-mail came at a tough time
Anyhow, today I felt so very alone, desperately and very alone and I was sitting at my computer and suddenly I had a new mail and it was a notice that she had added me on facebook. So I posted on her wall and said wow i was feeling disconnected and there you are and she replied and said I was one of her favorite posters
I am a giddy fan girl. (and really not a stalker but wow she is an amazingly good writer)
Life without cheese
Well among other things, my husband has been diagnosed (finally!!!) with a dairy allergy. Cheese is my favorite food. hmmmm these two facts mean that our life is gonna be interesting for a while as we learn to make main dishes that are yummy and healthy and dairy free. Fortunatly it doesn't seem to extend to stuff that has a small amount of dairy like bread or butter but wow we tested this allergy theory a couple weeks ago; he went without dairy for a week a lot of his stomach troubles stopped then he had one glass of chocolate milk and 28 hours of stomach trouble commenced. Okay that is enough proof for me.
but crud mac and cheese, lasagne hot dish, there are a lot of pretty cheap meals we make that have cheese.....but we will work it out. I sense split pea soup on the horizen though - yummy yummy
but crud mac and cheese, lasagne hot dish, there are a lot of pretty cheap meals we make that have cheese.....but we will work it out. I sense split pea soup on the horizen though - yummy yummy
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
On donating to food shelves
Okay first off if you didn't know how bad my life is you do now.
Plus, I am very full of gratitude to people who donate food items to food shelves no matter what it is.
That being said, please try to think when you donate things to food shelves, it isn't like the receipients aren't thrilled with anything that has calories but perhaps err on the side of practicality?
For anyone who doesn't know how a food shelf works at least in my area, you can go once a month and they give you a couple bags of food based on how many people are in your families. So you get in our case, for example, 4 bags of groceries whihc have been donated. There is some good stuff - canned beef stew, chili, toilet paper, milk but there are some odd things too - like the box of sugar cones for ice cream. I mean no offense but huh? The Ramen noodles are handy enough and the rice was great, the sugar free jello is cool my daughter will like it but no calories does not in fact end hunger. The condensed soup is awesome - tomato and vegetable beef are good flavors especially in fall.
Anyway, I am happy to have stuff to make a dinner for my daughter tonight and the Internet for another day and a healthy daughter and free breakfast and reduced price lunch for her at school.... and a husband who loves me and there are many things for which I am blessed by whatever benevolence exists in the world. I am hoping we can just make do until my husband who seems to finally have his health uissues licked can work a fuill couple weeks at work - then there will be a little more money anyway.
Plus, I am very full of gratitude to people who donate food items to food shelves no matter what it is.
That being said, please try to think when you donate things to food shelves, it isn't like the receipients aren't thrilled with anything that has calories but perhaps err on the side of practicality?
For anyone who doesn't know how a food shelf works at least in my area, you can go once a month and they give you a couple bags of food based on how many people are in your families. So you get in our case, for example, 4 bags of groceries whihc have been donated. There is some good stuff - canned beef stew, chili, toilet paper, milk but there are some odd things too - like the box of sugar cones for ice cream. I mean no offense but huh? The Ramen noodles are handy enough and the rice was great, the sugar free jello is cool my daughter will like it but no calories does not in fact end hunger. The condensed soup is awesome - tomato and vegetable beef are good flavors especially in fall.
Anyway, I am happy to have stuff to make a dinner for my daughter tonight and the Internet for another day and a healthy daughter and free breakfast and reduced price lunch for her at school.... and a husband who loves me and there are many things for which I am blessed by whatever benevolence exists in the world. I am hoping we can just make do until my husband who seems to finally have his health uissues licked can work a fuill couple weeks at work - then there will be a little more money anyway.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Well I guess the nicest thing about being poor is that the current economic crisis is not causing me to panic. I don't have enough money to reach the FDIC cap of insurance and really my 0 net worth in todays world is not much different from my 0 net worth of last weeks world.
Its my birthday
I feel discouraged and I am still sick. I wonder if my parents are going to acknowledge my birthday. All of my siblings are born within ten days of eachother - I am the last in my generation; Audrey, my neice, is tomorrow.
Its my birthday
I feel discouraged and I am still sick. I wonder if my parents are going to acknowledge my birthday. All of my siblings are born within ten days of eachother - I am the last in my generation; Audrey, my neice, is tomorrow.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I can't get rid of this cold/whatever that is lodged in my lungs. At this point I have coghed so much that my chect and back are alternately sore and numb with random shooting pain in my neck if I move my head. I don't play to use this journal to complain about my health but this is getting crazy. When oh when is ther going to be some kind of way for me to see a doctor without having to go to an ER? Sigh I feel discouraged by the world at the moment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)