I am having a really hard time focussing on anything right now.
I have so much stuff to do and I just can't seem to get started on anything.
Sigh.
Suggestions?
About a week ago I was talking with Dan on the phone.
(Dan, for those of you not keeping up, is married to my sister Meg. They live in Boston. Now you are caught up.)
The conversation went like this:
D: Yeah, I'm supposed to be cleaning up for Emmie & Poppy's visit next week. (Emmie and Poppy are my parents. And my sister's parents.)
K: When are they coming? Tuesday?
D: No, Wednesday night I think.
K: So you have like a week to clean up. Why sweat it now?
D: I think that's what I'm supposed to be doing. I just don't want to.
K: Yeah, my house is a wreck. But I am NOT cleaning. Leave it, Mom will just clean it up for you.
D: Yeah, that's true.
Pause
D: So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? You driving down to Nashville?
K: Uh, why?
D: You know, see the folks?
K: Dumbass, aren't you cleaning up because they're coming to YOUR house?
D: Oh yeah.
So we didn't drive down to Nashville. We stayed here and went over to Tim's folks for feasting. I took the very necessary items of Cokes (they drink Pepsi -yuck!), broccoli casserole, grits casserole and cranberry orange relish. It is not Thanksgiving without these very essential details.
The turkey was delicious. The sweet potatoes, two of which she just baked plain for Tim and me, were not candied (not the ones on my plate anyway) and the cresent rolls were very cresent-y. And my casseroles were spectacular and perfect. The relish could have been a trifle sweeter, but I was in a hurry.
I hope the feast in Boston was splendid. I hope Dan managed to clean up to the satisfaction of his guests and his wife. I hope everybody else had a great day.
Except the guy who spent all day putting spam comments on my blog. I hope he had a really sucky day and had to eat some kind of cold leftover turkeyloaf with candied sweetpotatoes with marshmallows on top. And olives.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hate the days when my future just feels like a big old blank.
There was a time when I knew exactly what I was going to do. I was going to teach literature to college students and I was going to be very good at it and I was going to write brilliant papers and books and generally be extremely happy being a college professor.
And then, suddenly, I wasn't. So I was doing other things for a while. Not very happy with them, but doing them and doing them well.
I was great at Indiana. I was really doing good work. And then we moved here and I anticipated doing good work again and every time I tried to start that work, something happened to stop it.
And now I don't even know where I'm going next. Not a clue. I can make a really long list of things I don't want to do, but I have no earthly idea what is supposed to happen after this.
Some days that's okay. Some days I trust in the universe to show me where I am supposed to end up next. Some days I almost enjoy not knowing.
Today is not one of those days.
And the most annoying part is knowing that I can't do a damned thing about it right now. I hate feeling all helpless and swampy and trapped in nothingness.
I really don't like Lancaster very much. Had I mentioned that before?
I'm not sure what date this will have when it posts, but as I am writing, it is about midnight on November 9th -- in other words, the polls are closed, the votes are tabulated (I think there are still some absentee ballots out, though not enough to make a substantial difference).
And whew, that was a close one! I almost won the damned thing!!!
As of the final count posted by the Fairfield County Board of Elections, the race went as follows: Tatman with 4375 votes (52.10%) and me with 4022 votes (47.90%). So, to simplify your math day, I only lost by 353 votes. That is way too close for comfort frankly!
Now, keep in mind that as of October 19th, he had already spent over $3,000 -- including radio and newspaper ads, while I have spent something like $1,000 maybe... and never put a single ad on the radio or in the paper.
What a putz! I hope he crapped his pants all night long.
As I just said to Tim, imagine if I had actually CAMPAIGNED??? Whew! I get a creepy little shiver down my spine just thinking about it.
Thanks to everybody for all your support. The whole point of this thing was giving voters a choice and shaking up the status quo -- both of which I think we did very nicely. Overall the Democrats now hold the majority of Lancaster City Council seats for the first time in over 30 years, and we are finally creating a mechanism for campaigning and supporting candidates who actually want to win (I really didn't want to win, you realize that, right? I just ran because they asked me to and because the incumbent is a yutz. I mean if I was ready to go back to work, I would certainly pick a job that paid more than $6,520 a year...)
And my next step is to make sure the things we learned in this campaign get recorded for next time around -- which is something I can do well and will. And it's another thing I probably wouldn't have had time to do if I had won. I'm going to meet with the mayor sometime this week and encourage him to set up some kind of monthly roundtable meeting -- since I am pretty sure Tatman is too much of an idiot to take this one on...
Again, so much thanks for all you do. Matthew is waking up and it's starting to storm, so goodnight for now! Love you!