Happy Birthday Dougie

To my wonderful friend who is now in India, I hope that you had a wonderful birthday. I miss you VERY much. With memories of wonderful times together....

I love you Doug!

p.s. meet you in NYC anytime you want :)

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Hello to everyone who has power. Here is Ohio, Hurricane Ike struck up quite the windstorm yesterday and has left over 800,000 of us without power. I am chilling at Stefanie's today, since she has power, so I thought I'd update the blog.

There is one major change about to occur in our lives...I accepted a new job last week at the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton as their Development Manager. It is a smaller theatre then Playhouse, much smaller. I'll go from a department of 4.5 people to a department of 2...this new job means a few things.

1. I'll have a lot more responsibility, which is scary but also exciting. Instead of just planning events and writing grants, I will also be working with corporate sponsors, the annual fund, the database and planned gifts. Basically it will be jumping into the deep end of the pool, but luckily, I'm a pretty good swimmer :)

2. Kevin and I will be able to carpool to work. My new boss has allowed me an 8-4 schedule so I can drop Kevin at the base, go to work, then pick him up after.

3. Although the job will start as part-time, it will transition into full-time, which was one of the really exciting reasons for taking the job.

Other then work, we are simply left to ride out the effects of the wind storm. Kevin still had work because the base is running on generators. I have spent the day with Stefanie watching Grey's Anatomy and reading about politics online. I have found that this presidential race has made me somewhat obsessed with politics. Most of you know that I am a conservative that leans towards the middle on some social issues. This election has my head spinning. On one side of the spectrum we have Obama - an intelligent, well-spoken, inspirational candidate that represents many things that I don't agree with and does not have my confidence that he is ready. While Biden adds credibility to his ticket, experience-wise, I feel the choice of Biden contradicted the "Change" he stands for. How can you fight Washington and the same old politics with a candidate that has been in Washington longer then anyone else in the race? It doesn't make sense. Not to mention, the changes Obama speaks of are really the democratic platform of the 90's, so how different is that, really?

Then, on the other side, is McCain - the "republican" candidate that I did not want. I would have voted for Mitt Romney in a heartbeat, but McCain has never had me fully convinced. And with his appointment of Palin comes all new questions. While I admire that she is a strong, conservative woman that is intelligent, well-spoken and inspirational, I feel her experience is the same thing I worry about with Obama. And throughout the whole process, there is the crazy media, hell-bent on electing Obama and discrediting Palin. As a former student of Mass Communications, I have completely lost my faith in journalism and unbiased media coverage of politics...the little faith I had left in the media.

So that is where I'm at. I don't think Obama is right for this country, but I'm also not convinced that McCain is. And while I was raised evangelical, naming one as your VP does not automatically get me excited. I do, however, feel McCain is the lesser of two evils. I do not believe that McCain is ANYTHING like Bush...the comparison makes me laugh. So you can see how I'm leaning, although voting for McCain sometimes feels like a close second to staying home and enjoying my couch on November 4. The whole situation is extremely dissapointing.

The Enquirer says it may be a week before everyone has power back...so I will keep you posted. But for now, I am safe and good.