I am a coward and an addict
Hello, my name is Todd and I am a political junkie. I’ve been hopped up on politics for my whole adult life. Within the last several years my addiction has spiraled out of control. I eat politics for breakfast, lunch and dinner and my sleep is fitful and filled with political dreams or nightmares, as the case may be.
Now suddenly, it’s Election Day. I wake up feeling energized and optimistic. I immediately turn on the television and try to follow the “experts” as they explain why their candidate will win.
It’s now 3 p.m., and I am glued to the network election coverage. My wife shakes her head and leaves the house to do some “shopping.”
I’m still feeling energized and optimistic when she returns and starts talking about her day while I am trying to follow the exit polls and early projections. She picks up on the vibe, prepares a cold dinner and announces that she is going to retire for the night. She’s still shaking her head.
I watch the election coverage throughout the evening and try to calculate the electoral votes each candidate will end up with. The early results seesaw back and forth between my candidate and the other party.
It’s now 10 p.m. and I discover something else. In addition to being an addict, I am also a coward. I simply cannot deal with the crushing disappointment should my man lose. I am all alone with no one to vent to since my wife wisely chose to go to bed. Although I will be jubilant if my man wins, it’s still a chancy thing and my sleep will be fitful at the very best if he loses.
I am a coward and now that the candidates are in a dead heat I make the decision to turn off the television and go to bed. My wife tells me I am taking these things way too seriously. I don’t think so. I am deeply concerned about the future for my grandkids.
I will be crushed when I wake up in the morning and find that my candidate has lost. It’s now 11:30 p.m. and I am still awake. The addict in me wants get out of bed, return to the television and wait for the results. The coward in me wins out and I try to sleep.
African wild dogs: Not your average Fido
The regrettable and sad death of a two year-old boy at the Pittsburgh Zoo last week has cast national attention on African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), one of the more interesting - yet lesser known - canids in the world. Also known as the Cape hunting dog and Painted dogs, these canids live on the savannas and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa.
Special romantic evenings
My husband and I don’t always have a lot of extra money to do fun and exciting things and that is why we plan things to do at home. This past weekend my kids were both gone and we planned a very special night together.
We live in a two-story home and our bedroom is upstairs. On these special nights, we will bring down the mattress from our spare bedroom and we will place it in our living room. We bring blankets and pillows and we camp out. Other things that we include in these nights are making popcorn, renting movies and other things. Sometimes we give each other massages or things like that.
We did this last weekend and had a wonderful night. We had the lights turned down, candles burning and music playing. It was very romantic and it didn’t cost a dime, other than the cost to rent a movie.
We are planning another night like this, but we are adding a special feature to it. We will be cooking dinner together with candlelight as our only lighting. After preparing a meal together, we will sit and eat a candlelight dinner together and share a bottle of wine.
As you can see, this is something that is very inexpensive, but it can turn out to be really special. These nights that I spend with my husband are some of the greatest nights of my life. You can do this too simply by using the resources that you have.
Start gathering your tax documents
It may seem like it was just tax season last week, but unfortunately this is not true and it will be approaching soon. If you have a lot of documents needed for tax preparation, you should start now.
It is already almost the middle of November and tax seasons will be starting in approximately six weeks or so. If you are like many people, you may wait until the last minute to gather the documents that you need, but this is not recommended. This is a great way to forget things and to sacrifice your tax return because of the things you forgot.
A lot of people will make an appointment to have their taxes prepared and they will wait until the day before the appointment to get this stuff ready. There is a better option though. If you start now, you will feel less stress and you are likely to receive a higher tax refund. By starting early, you will be better prepared and will have time to really think things over.
When the end of the year rolls around, you will not be like the rest of us who are scrambling around trying to find all of the information we need to have our taxes prepared. This is a good idea for anyone, and it can make a difference in your tax return. If you have a very simple return that doesn’t require a lot of documentation, this is probably something that would not offer a lot of benefits to you.
So glad it's over
Whether you are pleased or not about the election results, at least it is finally over. This not only means that we have chosen a new president to run our country for the next four years, but it also means the end of the negative attack ads.
As a mother, I try to teach my children to be positive. I try to teach them to love others, look for the good in everyone and to criticize no one. Unfortunately our media does not have these same values. I really don’t know anyone on a personal level that enjoys these ads, and I know that I totally despise everything about them.
The bad part is that my kids have to hear these during every commercial break on every single channel we watch. What a relief that this negativity is over, even if you are not happy about the decision that our country chose.
Teaching kids how to be kind and loving is not easy because we are all human. It is so easy to criticize others and to think in negative ways. One of the only ways to stop this cycle is to promote positive conversations, programming and people.
Too bad the politicians in our country do not feel this way. These ads are embarrassing and something should be done to stop them from happening in the future; unfortunately, I have a feeling that they will continue and that they will probably get even worse. How do we promote kindness to our children when our children see the way grown adults act in these ads?
May-December romance
When seeing an older man holding hands with a significantly younger woman, many onlookers have the tendency to assume that there is something not genuine about the relationship. Surely, the female cannot truly be in love with the older man. She must be in it for some sort of monetary gain. Or is she?Although not in a May-December romantic relationship myself, I can definitely see the appeal of an older man. The more time a person has spent on this earth, the more wisdom he is able to gain. Therefore, an older man is likely to be a wise man. When he talks, it is easy to get fascinated by what he says. The things that he has accomplished and experienced in his life can cause a younger female to feel great admiration for him.
In comparison to their younger counterparts, an older man is likely to have achieved more successes in life. That means he probably has earned a higher ranking in his career, and has become financially-stable. A man who has achieved a lot in his career and has no signs of money trouble is more likely to attract a female—and not just the gold-digging ones. Generally speaking, women are just naturally more attracted to men who are great at what they do and are able to help provide for their future family.
In any relationship, it is common to want to learn and improve ourselves through a relationship with a romantic partner. When a romantic partner is older, there is plenty to be learned. So yeah, that can also make an older man appealing.
Matt the tattle tale
I used to look up to Matt Fox, a kid who was in the same special education program named “Family Focus” that I was in back in the 1980s. I can’t remember why I did. Maybe it was because he seemed like a cool kid to me, especially when he was in my class. Looking back, I cannot help but wonder if I did not misplace my admiration because of a certain thing he did to me one day.
One day each week towards the end of my time at Family Focus, my class had to march over to another classroom where special activities took place, one of these being playing a game. For those it was either a choice of The Ungame or (if memory serves me right) Uno. I was not a big fan of the former in those days. I found the questions I might have to answer to be too probing and, in turn, putting me at risk of having to reveal embarrassing personal details. With the inevitable outcome of me dreading each time they would march my class down the hall to the classroom they held special activities in like playing that game. Frequently while struggling across the game with my more enthusiastic classmates, I would break down in tears.
As I have written before about this special ed program, displays of emotion like bursting into tears was apt to bring punishments down on my shoulders.
Each game day we would be asked what we wanted to play. When everybody else but me once voted on The Ungame, tears came. Afterward, the lady in charge asked me what my tears were about. “I was crying for joy,” I replied in an attempt to brazen it out thanks to having learned the phrase from an episode of “The Pound Puppies” cartoon series.
Then Matt gave me a look that said you’re lying! and blabbed to the lady that I had not been crying for joy but because I was upset. I got a “reminder” for that from the lady, the first of their three-tiered disciplinary steps there with the other two being a “check mark” followed by the dreaded “time out.” However, all I harvested from my tears the day Matt tattled on me was that “reminder.”
I kept looking up to Matt in spite of that. I even gave him a drawing the day he left the program.
Now, however, I think my admiration was misplaced. Because while Matt was cool, he also sucked-up to the adults in charge by being a goody two-shoes and a tattle tale worthy of the award pictured above.
Freedom is worth more than you think
Growing up in the U.S. is something that most of us take for granted on a daily basis, and it is primarily because this is the only life we know. On Election Day, I was very surprised at the feelings I was experiencing and these feelings have led me to a great amount of gratitude to our founding fathers, our country and our freedom.
Voting is something that was not always allowed, especially for women. It was not until the 1920s that this was allowed. Today, we are all allowed to make our vote and we are all actually encouraged to do this. As I stood in line waiting to place my one vote, I realized how exciting this was.
I wondered if my vote really mattered, and I then realized that everyone’s vote matters. I was filled with excitement to be able to be part of this historic election and it made me appreciate the freedom that we have in this wonderful country.
It doesn’t really matter what the outcome of the election was. It seems that half of the people that voted wanted one man to be our president and the other half wanted the other man. Barack Obama won the event and the future of our country rests in his hands.
As American citizens, I believe that we have a duty though and it doesn’t matter if you are a democrat, republican or anything else. We all live in one country and we have one government. This gives each of us the responsibility to do all we can to make this the best country around and to live in peace and harmony with each other.
Pray for our leaders
Tuesday, November 6th was election day in the U.S. Barack Obama was reelected to serve as our president for four more years. Whether this was the person you voted for or not, it really doesn’t matter. There is nothing more than can be done and as Christians, we are called to pray for him and the other leaders of our country.
One of the most famous Bible passages that instructs on this issue is found in I Timothy 2:1-2 and it says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”
This Bible verse was written by Paul, but was included because of its importance. Everything in the Bible is in there because God put it there, even though the verses were written by human hands. This verse is one that is of high importance, especially during times like this.
As we all know, our country has seen better days and the economy seems like it will never recover. President Obama is in charge of our country and we must pray for him each and every day for this reason. There is a lot at stake and making decisions for an entire country cannot be easy.
By praying for him each day, there is a much better chance that he will make the right decisions. Our prayers may lead him closer in his relationship with Jesus and our country may have a better chance of regaining its strength.
I think Mitt got the message
Oh this dang 2012 presidential election. If I couldn't vote for myself, or for my toady Newt, I just didn't really care. I mean, I wanted Obama out of the White House, that's for sure. With his death panels. I have old people in my family, I don't want them to get death paneled! And darling little Tripp, have you seen how cute he is? He would be death paneled for sure.