Random Ramblings...

1.  When you have an idea for a blog, you should blog. Don't assume you'll remember it. Because you won't. 

2.  I wrote a song in my head at 4 a.m. this morning. I don't write songs...For some reason I thought I'd remember THAT too. 

3.  I haven't. 

4.  Could the US be any more embarrassed? The Nectarine Nitwit just said, in POLAND, for God's sake, that it must've been "tough" to be invaded by the Soviets and Germany. Oh good grief! And they're apparently having to pay crowds to show up for him. Because, you know...tiny hands, large ego.

5.  Illinois...The Board of Elections says it's taking a "long, slow" look at the demand from the Fraud Fruitcakes. Oops - I mean the "commission" to look for "fraud" because, you know...tiny hands, large ego. They finally got the letter because the "commission" sent it to the wrong department. We've flooded Springfield with our very strong suggestions that they tell the "commission" to go jump in the lake.

6.  Illinois, #2...the legislature has voted to increase taxes. No surprise. The governor has sworn that this is a "2x4 in the face." Madigan needs to lay down and actually die - he's been in power 30+ years, and kinda reminds me of a zombie. Rauner needs to understand that, until and unless Madigan lays down and dies, he (Rauner) isn't going to get what he wants. The state has taken one small step to avoid being the first in the nation to have "junk bond" status. Lucky us. Jailing governors and being broke...it's a legacy of sorts. I think the taxes suck, but if you look at the taxes around us? We're just about on par with neighbor Indiana - who also told the "commission" (see above) to take a hike. Yes, there's a better solution. No, I don't have a clue what it is. Yes, we've dug our own hole here. No, I have no idea how to get out of it. Yes, I'd like to leave the state. No, I probably won't. 

7. Back to reading Faulkner. I just can't get on with "It Can't Happen Here." That one is by Sinclair Lewis, and I've been plowing through it since January. And I just can't. I really. Just. Can't. If you wonder why, pick it up. Sinclair Lewis is amazingly relevant. Berzelius Windrip reminds me of someone. Someone Nectarine. Read the parts about the 15 promises. If it doesn't send a chill up your spine, then you're either a member of "the base" who'll believe the swill coming from the un-drained DC swamp, or -- you're dead. Or - you may be very wealthy and above the fray we mere mortals have to deal with. Either way. Check your pulse and your privilege. 

8. The vanilla sock is coming along. It's great to have a mindless knitting project. I was jacking with my sister, who has to go to a shower (neither of us are much on baby showers, and particularly the games - we love to give the mommies the gifts, but we'd rather skip the whole "let's taste and identify the baby food" stuff). I don't have to go because I haven't been invited. And I'm not heartbroken. And I'm tickled that I don't have to crank out baby knitting. So I can concentrate on the socks and the sweater. And maybe crank out a few washcloths this summer. I'm still trying to get through some of the stash, and these projects will help. 

9. I have at least one more sweater I want to try. It's a plain, more of a t-shirt thing. It's a cotton-silk blend yarn, and I have a lovely chocolate brown for it. That will be nice - it's where the seams are "showing" as an element of the design. I started it a while ago in a beautiful grass-green, but I "outgrew" the size (I got heavier). I'll have to pull out the green one and see what it looks like - maybe now I can actually fit in it. If I remember, the green one is about 2/3 done! I set it aside when I gained the weight. 

10. Hubby got a bumper for the "heart phone." When we got it, we did get the gorilla glass, but there wasn't any kind of case available, and I have the heart monitor on the back, so I couldn't put an Otterbox or anything on it. Well, I dropped it one too many times, and the gorilla glass did its job. It shattered, not the screen! Hubby did find a bumper made for this model, and I can still do all the stuff with it. And still record the daily EKGs. Everything's fine. I'm just making sure it stays that way. It's cute and it's such a bright red that even I should be able to find it at the bottom of one of my more bottom-less purses! It's a small phone, and it tends to disappear in the nether regions of whatever bag I'm currently carrying. 

11. I switched to a slightly smaller purse. Let's see how this works! It'll fit my Kindle, but not my knitting. But I needed to lighten the load. How did I imagine I actually needed all of that stuff? And how am I going to function now that I'm not carrying it?

Catching Up...

So it's been a few weeks. Let's catch up here.

1.  The Bolero: Finished, not in time for Convocation, but all I have to do is sew up the seams. It's at home waiting for me after work this morning.

2.  Kid #2's hat: Just putting the edging on it now. I was going to do a whack of I-cord and then sew it on, but I thought that I might want to do what the pattern says (boring?) just to see how it turns out - and I wasn't sure how the I-cord would work.

3.  Is it bad when you're looking at the yarn that's left and thinking, "Wow, a really simple rolled brim hat!"??

4.  Cardiac stuff: The guy at Northwestern said to hang tight with the meds for now. He said I'd have to come back twice with EITHER procedure, because "we don't want to nick your esophagus or the top of your lung." I don't want you to do that either! Those parts work, and I'd like to keep it that way.

5. My Website: For the editing stuff and the voice-over work - we just have to decide on which provider we want to use. Hubby did a FANTASTIC job on it, and when it's live, I'll post the link.

6.  Weight-loss: Well, the "Metabolism Miracle" is helping. I'm about 20 lbs. down, and I really feel good. I told my yoga teacher that I almost "whooped" in class. We were doing child's pose and it was the first time in YEARS that when I was in the pose, my CHEST was on my thighs instead of my belly. She's happy with this program because she said it looks like I'm "glowing" and not drawn or saggy-looking (as if I was on a crash diet or eating the wrong things).

7.  New Chiropractor: So, my plantar fasciitis never really healed up after the Avon Walk, and it's gotten to the point where my friend Lori the Podiatrist said she really couldn't do anything more from her end. So I sought acupuncture to at least relieve some of the pain, but the doc (also a chiropractor and medical massage therapist) says that he'd rather work on getting my foot "right" and then use acupuncture if necessary. I have never had a "medical massage" but I have been adjusted. He pointed out that now, even though I can touch my toes, I'm bending funny and my hips are out of line (which I could feel). After he got done working over both calves, I felt like cooked linguine, but oh my.... I have noticed a difference. I'm excited to get this all fixed, and equally excited that he's in my insurance plan!

8.  Upcoming Election: PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE!! Go to the Google. Type in "register to vote" plus your state. Find out the deadlines, do your homework, and GET READY TO VOTE. I'm patently and obviously a liberal-progressive-tree-hugging-Democrat. And I really do want "our side" to win. But aside from that, it really irks me that people in some districts (You know who you are, Ohio) are screwing with everyone's right to vote. EVERYONE who is eligible should be able to vote easily and I can't believe we're going back to the Jim Crow era. Please make sure your registration is in order; help someone who's not sure of the process; offer to drive to the polls. Get involved. We have the right and we need to exercise it, regardless of HOW you vote. It's important that you DO vote.

9.  Abortion Rights: Really? Hang on...let me check. Yep, it's 2012. Women have been part and parcel of society since Eve ate the apple. We have the right to vote. We work. We raise families. But a group of uber-religious men want to tell us that we don't have the right to make the choice. I'm also blatantly pro-choice - which does not mean I'm pro-abortion. It means that I am in favor of our God-given right to make up our own minds. What does the Bible say? (I figure since we're being thumped over the head with it, we may as well use it...) God gave us free will. It's not my job to be God. It's my job to be there for you, to ask questions, to help you make sure that your decision is right for YOU. Not right for ME or right for some Republican conservative who won't ever know the impact the decision will have on you, because he's not living your life.  Abortion rights are needed. What's not needed is men shoving women backward. As women, we need to shove back. If you weren't born with a vagina, you really don't have a stake in this fight.

10.  The Garden: Well, I'm not sure we'll be overrun with tomatoes; they're coming steadily but not in great numbers or great size. Carrots? Well, yeah, THOSE are coming along like crazy. And my friend Shaun brought me a bag of backyard peaches. We're making peach preserves today. I hate peach preserves, but I know people who love them, so what the heck, right? I'd rather use them than toss them. If I can find the fruit without having a heart attack, we may also do strawberry jam. And I think we still have sour cherries - that would make a lovely sauce over ice cream, don't you think?

You DIDN'T Vote? Well...

...then don't gag over your morning coffee to see that our city's tax referendum (increasing sales tax by 1%) passed.

Because YOU didn't vote.

...then don't sigh over your morning newspaper when you read that some politician with ethics charges pending against her actually won in her district.

Because YOU didn't vote.

...then don't scream at your TV at another round of endless presidential candidate bloviation via commercial since there's still no nominee for the opposing party.

Because YOU didn't vote.

...then don't complain to me about the local Park Board (and by the way: REALLY? Are those LIFE appointments???) because "your guy" didn't get in.

Because YOU didn't vote.

We had a primary day yesterday. I was up before the chickens because I chose to be an Election Judge; a job I take very seriously. It's exhausting work because you are stuck at the polling place from 5 a.m. till 7:30 p.m. (polls close at 7 p.m., but it takes about 1/2 hour for you to tear down and properly shut down the voting machines) and then I got to drive the supplies and the voter box back to the Clerk's Office. I got home about 8:30 p.m.

For this, in a few months, I'll get about $100. That's about $6.25 per hour. I certainly don't do this for the money, since I do have a full-time job. I do it because that's my way of getting involved.

And I can tell you, on a local level, involvement means getting in the voting booth.

Involvement STARTS well before that, however. Involvement means educating yourself about the issues. I can't number the people (mostly women - YIKES!) who glanced over at their husband's ballot application form to see what HE was doing before SHE checked off the box.

Let me explain that, lest you think they were voting in the same booth. In my county, you have a pre-signed "ballot application form" that we have at the polling place. That's that little alphabetical book we pull your "ticket" from. You filled out an application to get your voter's card.

In a primary in my state, you have 3 options: You can declare a party (Dem/Repub) or you can declare "non-partisan" but ONLY if there is a referendum issue on the ballot. So there are 3 check boxes: Democratic, Republican, Nonpartisan. If there is no referendum, you MUST declare a party, since Illinois doesn't have (nor will it likely have) an open primary.

So. If there is a referendum issue, educate yourself. Get to know the issue. Think about what you want to have happen. Then go vote.

Women, please use your own brain. If your husband wants to pick one type of ballot, you really do not need to go along with him. So if your vote cancels his out? Well, that's sometimes the way it works. That's the greatness of the process. Sometimes we run neck-and-neck because people are passionate about issues, and will vote on them. And there are winners and losers. So if you want to just vote for the referendum and Hubby wants to vote for political candidates, that's perfectly ok. If he wants to be a Republican this time, you can be a Democrat. The skies won't rain down frogs and locusts upon either of you.

The turnout in Illinois was abysmal. In the toilet. The lowest in years. People, there are other countries in which the population votes, but they are "told" how to vote. Oh, sure, Chavez gets a mandate...at the point of threats! WE get to vote for who and what we want. We get to determine, to a certain extent, what gets on the ballot by participating in your town's council or the like. At my polling place, we had 19% turnout. Sad. But if you don't vote, you don't get to complain about the outcome. It's your own darned fault. You have the right to vote; it's up to you to exercise it.

At any rate, involvement starts by educating yourself. Then it continues when you get your butt to the polls and cast your vote. If you want to get more involved, there are a number of local politicians and issues that would welcome your help. Find an issue about which you are passionate, and get involved.

And go vote.