Moving Forward

Camping season 2011 is complete! We tore down from our month in Elkader, cleaned the camper out, negotiated through the construction around Ketelsen's RV, and ended up home around 6. We ordered pizza. While Alex and I watched "I am Number Four" downstairs, Karen and Megan watched "The Bachelor" upstairs.

Looking ahead, there is no signs of things slowing down anytime soon. We have something going pretty much every night and every weekend. I am actually looking forward to the next 5 weekends - I think I will sleep in my own bed (v. the camper).

I also am trying to kickstart my review writing. I (easily) have 31 CDs/DVDs to review and my ambitious goal is to write one a day. That's 500 words. For me, who proclaims I am a writer, 500 words a day should not be difficult. It's an hour away from the TV.

I am also ecstatic about work. One of the reasons I haven't written lately is I have been going into work @ 6 AM (getting up at 5) and that has caused me to go to sleep as close to 10 PM as possible. There are some big deadlines upcoming and I am doing everything in my power to meet them. Our department was cut by 1 (to 3) due to Lisa going to a different department. It has been a challenge. There are essentially 3 huge deadlines and I am doing every thing I can (like putting in extra hours) to meet them.

In *other* news, I could *possibly* be going to WinWriters in Memphis, TN, in March 2012. In *other* news, I could *possibly* be going to see Metallica, in San Francisco, CA, in December 2011. Both of those trips are too early in the planning process to go into a lot of detail. Not holding my breath on either - they may never happen.

So looking forward, there are a lot of things on my docket (I've never written that word before) in the next few months. There are going to be a lot upcoming things in my life and I cannot wait to experience them.

One final thought about the world. I am still finding out about the so-called "budget deal." I read on MSNBC that the Republicans won so I guess I should be happy? I also read that some members of the Tea Party wing are not happy. Mitt Romney, running for president, took the opportunity to speak about the president's lack of leadership (big surprise there!) and make a campaign speech in the process of a) condemning the current plan but b) failing to offer his own plan.

I'll take a minute to write about that. It makes me furious - and I don't care if you are a donkey or an elephant - when all the elected official can do is complain about the other plans that are presented. Where is *your* plan? If you know enough to say that the other plan is not going to work, is going to mean the loss of jobs, is going to mean that we are never going to get out of debt, then you surely know enough to offer a solution. Right? RIGHT??? Seriously. I don't get it. For example, if I tell you that a plan to only cut spending is going to make things worse, a fair response to that is, "Would you want your taxes to go up?" It's fair. Really, it is. It's okay to disagree. Personally, I think if you look deep enough and hard enough and long enough at where the federal government spends, surely, *surely* there is something that can reduce spending. And I've heard arguments that said, "If you cut XYZ program, it only reduces spending by 1 billion, but we have trillions we have to cut." Fine. How many billions have to be added up to equal 'trillions'? Figure it out and cut those programs.

That aside, I hope that the budget deal makes it somewhat easier for my kids to survive when I no longer walk the earth.