Tidbits of the tidbit...

I was watching television the other night saw that in some poverty stricken countries they do not have access to fuel. In the absence of fuel they have started using cooking oil as gas. It works too. The local governments have caught wind of their "cheekiness" and have increased the cost of cooking oil to make profits. It got me thinking about the things that have been unavailable to Americans in the past. Booze? We just bootlegged it until they let us have it back? Then I began to imagine bootlegging gasoline? How awkward would that be? With the recent floods, the droughts and summer heat coming to early this year we will see an increase in everything. And I do mean everything. All of our products that we maintain and grow here are interconnected. The corn that was wiped out will increase the prices of: corn (obviously), gasoline, alcohol, pet foods, pretty much every kind of instant pasta in the world (that's a killer for me), etc... How do we stop this hemorrhaging of American Life? There is certainly no over night solution. There has to be a way to turn this around, or at least get some paddles in this boat.
I was speaking with a friend of mine, and she told me that it was all President Bush's fault. "Whew", I wiped my brow, now that I have someone to blame it on I don't have to work on the problem. She furrowed her brow and informed that she was very familiar to sarcasm Learning that sarcasm was a "oldie but a goodie" with her I tried the truthful approach. I said friend "President Bush doesn't write the laws, he upholds them, our democratic congress of the past two years writes the laws". I think that she thinks I made that up. She then shrugs the debate off with this jewel " oh well I don't care about politics anyways". It was at this point I began to understand just how our country has wedged itself into this corner. We have spent the last ten years avoiding the other big conversation with our kids - voting.
To be honest I took social studies and American government in high school but I still did not have a in depth understanding of how this works? The economy, the government, the two party system. Once I was paying attention to all these things, it was then I realized that I was outraged. Surely I was the only person who was behind on these issues, I started bringing it up to friends, they had even less clue or concern than I once had.
I submersed myself into politics, picking a side and sticking it to it. Jumping on board campaigns and meeting people like myself who wanted to make a difference legally. It was exciting, invigorating and highly rewarding. This is my challenge to convey this message not only to people my age but to all people. We are in this together and if we don't take a stance and demand that there is change we will never receive it.
OK off my soap box. I must study for an exam now. I was just thinking all that and had to get it off my brain.
In Cedar news, she is GREAT!! She is getting so big, I took some new pics to put here for all to see her!! She is awesome!!
I went to the Congaree River this past weekend and went "tubing", I had a great time. It was a nice reprieve.
I am off to study.. wish me luck!

Not so hot..

Today I am feeling a little under the weather. My best may be a 4. I have a headache, backache and am slightly nauseated. I did not attend class this morning because I felt to ill to leave bed. I did have to come into work though. Something about them not paying if I am not here. I hope my professors understand.
Cedar and I have a routine in the mornings. She wakes up at 6'ish, we get out of bed she goes out and comes right back inside. Once inside I prepare her breakfast, she eats, I am usually roaming around the house making sure my books are together. Then we lay back down for a little bit and play or sleep. Depends on the mood of one of us. If she feels playful, yeah I am not going back to sleep.
Today when she woke me up I knew that I needed to get up and get ready for school. I was walking towards the door and my head was banging. I felt dizzy and weak. I let her out and decided that I needed more rest. More rest meant I would not make it to class. I instantly felt horrible. I hate hate hate hate missing class. When you pay for something as expensive as school it is awful to miss it. I lay there in my bed, dog looking at me, thinking I should get up and take myself to class. I don't know what felt worse; missing class or me.
I am sitting at work now, feeling miserable. As soon as I get off I am going home to force myself to do homework and attend a meeting tonight. I am supposed to speak at this meeting. It is election year and these events are very important. I will just have to put on my big girl pants and deal with it. I may leave early though the meeting, not work. The point of this blog is that we have to make lots of decisions in every day life. And the factors in these decisions sometimes are outside influences. It may not be fair, but it is life. Life is what happens while you're busy making plans, or so I have heard. I think it's normal to expect to fall short of things that you want to accomplish. It is extraordinary though to forge past what you expect to accomplish and do more. Not only will I go home and do tons of homework, I will speak at the meeting, do my laundry, be productive at work and vomit. Yes because that's what I feel like doing right now. I will attempt to make up for lost lessons and time. Feeling bad is all in your head, or in my case stomach too.
Decisions. Now it makes the think about what were my big decisions this time last year, two years ago, what about 5 or 10 years ago. What was I doing this time last year, what will I be doing next year? Either way I am losing time on my 10 year plan! lol!

Life lessons, blogs, pups and primary action...

I am currently a student at Central Carolina Technical College. I am taking 3 classes that are all influential. My history class is teaching me things that I kind of already knew but didn't know as well as I thought. My Ethics class is teaching how to think Ethically, I know right from wrong, but it's like our book says. "Studying Ethics is like studying grammar. You knew how to use grammar before you, studying it only helps you use it better". I enjoy the debating in that class and it does make you ask yourself some terrible questions. My psych class is a human development class. My teacher is a lovely woman who is fascinating! She has great quotes and asks questions that are hard to answer as well. The most profound thing she has said to me so far is think in ten years you will be 10 years older. In ten years you will be Ten years older. It sounds so simple but let that marinate for just a moment. Good lord willing I will be 38 years old and who or where or what will I be? I will be 38 in just 10 short years!! It was like a wake up call for me! Cedar will be 70!! I have so much to do and obviously not enough time to accomplish all of these things!! I have to see Greece, become a Senator, finish College, get married (well that's optional), help raise my niece, take care of my mom, it was "BANG". And all I could think it I don't have a lot of time!! Today in class we were discussing how to change your thoughts about issues. I pondered over this the whole way home (all 17 miles) and decided that there ought to be an instruction guide for this. So I am going to write one. I just have to work out the kinks on that one.
She has a blog that is very interesting and her daughter has one too (it's on my blogroll). She told me that it was very neat, I viewed it and she was right. Her daughters blog is beautiful it's full of love and faith. I will continue to read her blog because it gave me hope.

My teacher, also told of us a book that had 4 promises you have to make to yourself. Well I can't remember if they were promises exactly but it was 4 things to hold yourself accountable for.
1: Make your word Impeccable. Not only to others but to yourself. If you say you are going to do something, do it! Follow through is everything, not only in sports! A famous basketball coach once said "you're not a loser until you start making excuses for yourself!"

2. Don't take it personally. If someone says they don't like your shoes, well hey that's their preference. Usually what someone says is more about themselves than you!!

3. Don't Assume! Someone doesn't call you back right away, don't (ladies) think that it's you, or something you did. People have lives and they tend to get in the way of phone calls! I am the worst at it! Speaking of which, must empty voice mail.

4. Do your best. Even if some days your best is a 3 or 5 still do the best for that day.

And now Primary time!! If you live in Horry, Anderson, Berkley or Dorchester Counties all I have to say is LUCKY!! Here in Clarendon County the only primary I get to vote on is US Senate! Voting is such an important part of our Government Process, but that is another Blog.

In Cedar news; our eldest Dog Dreyphus bit her in the face yesterday over a toy. I was very upset, but I am learning that it is part of growing up. Learning what toes you can and can't step on.

Our first Blogging.. aww..

Cedar is a 12 week old Mastador. She is black with a white spot on her chest and purple spots on her tongue. She is hyper and lazy. Currently she is house broken, can sit and lay down on command. I am working on commanding her attention around other dogs. It's difficult, she just gets so excited. I love her very very much. She does whine a lot. She whines to go out, she whines when she's hungry, when she wants to get on the bed. My friend says that I should ignore her whining but I see it as our form of communication. But I may have let her run the show for a little bit. She is so cute though, how could you not? I am new at this. I am running for public office, and have a job that I can bring her to daily. We are together pretty much at all times. I have started letting her outside with the other dogs unattended in a trial manner of trusting her. Yesterday she came back wet with mud caked on her face. I was laughing too hard to fuss about taking so long to return. She is very aggressive with dogs her size. At 12 weeks she weights 25lbs. Doesn't seem to care for the water so much, even though she too has webbed feet. I am going to post some pics of her tomorrow. She is so pretty!! Ok well That's all for now. I will keep this updated and hopefully more fun!!