If you've just found out you have but one hour to live......

Then I highly suggest you request that you spend it at your child's fall school program with your 15 month old who you swear is going through her terrible two's. Oh and make sure you husband is out of town so you go alone! This last hour of your life will indeed feel like it has lasted a lifetime, but I cannot promise you it will be the most enjoyable longest hour of your life, only the longest!
So as you can tell the election is over, and I am back to blogging about my life in 'perfectville'.
Tonight, as you may have inferred from the above, I spent my evening at my son's elementary school for his fall program. Have I mentioned that our school is ranked number two in the entire state??? If not 'I will'. (inside joke) EVERYONE who is anyone wants to be at the fall program at perfectville elementary school.
So instead of taking my favorite client out for happy hour to discuss 2009 planning at some swanky 5 star bar, I instead rushed home and put on my workout gear(I didn't dare show up in my business suit because I did not want to be identified as one of the few working moms and I don't play tennis so couldn't grab the standard acceptable gear), I grabbed the kids and headed out for school. We were strictly instructed to be there no later than 6:15 with the kids fed. Yes Ma'am. I followed my orders precisely and arrived at our teachers door at 615.
What the instructions left out was that while you had to be there no later than 6:15, the chance of seeing your child sing the 4 songs he's been practicing over and over and over again within say 15 minutes had about as good of a chance of happening as me getting a tax cut under the Obama tax plan. (Read, it ain't gonna happen).
So my 15 month old and I drop big brother off at his class and head to the cafeteria where I am assuming the singing will commence and in short order. Did I mention the #2 ranking and the overcrowding???? If not, I will mention it here AGAIN. The cafeteria was jammed packed with every mom, dad, brother, sister, grandmother and grandfather of each kid from K-2nd grade. They have to split the fall program over 2 days bc there are over 1100 students in our perfect elementary school.
So assuming that because the time frame was so imperative, I took a seat up front quickly to see my other little one sing. This lasted all of 5 seconds because my terrible 2's 15 month old decides she is not sitting, she is walking and takes off through the crowd of 500+ strong. When I finally get to her and scoop her up, she is having none of it and proceeds to scream at the top of her lungs during of all things, the pledge of allegiance. I am mortified, because clearly I cannot handle my child, will the other moms see through the work out clothes' disguise and realize I am one of the working moms trying to fit in???? The stares are making me sweat, or is it the fact that PES was built in the 60's and has no AC???? I can't tell which one, so I head out the door and enlist the help of a dad furiously typing on his blackberry outside waiting for his 1st grader to get up and sing. Whew, someone I can relate to! I asked him to scream for me when he saw the kids come on stage with the balloon dragon. He said ok but said not to worry there is a PTA meeting prior to the fall program, so I had at least 45 more minutes of time to try and tucker out my youngest. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? He then mentioned something about moving his money overseas prior to the stock market further reacting to BO's election. To thank him for watching out for my oldest, I offered him a BO sign I stole out of a neighbor's yard because I heard there was no need to worry about anything once he got into office if you supported him. I heard from one of his supporters that we did not even have to pay our mortgages anymore. This is fantastic news I thought, maybe now I can afford to stay home with the kids.
So after an hour of chasing a 15 month old around the school, inside and out, the fall program began. My sweet oldest sang puff the magic dragon and 3 other tunes I could not hear over my 15 month old's screaming, but I did not care. The screaming helped him find me in the crowd, he immediately smiled which warmed my heart and matched the sweat running down the back of my neck and made the whole night worth while.

Unfortunately, the race is over....

Ohio and Pennsylvania have been called for BO(does it stink in here, not yet, it will!), and I think FL and NC will be called at 10pm, and yet I am calm and have a sense of peace.
Given the obstacles McCain had to face in this election he did a valiant job at coming much much closer than any of the polls had predicted. Among the obstacles was the complete 'in the bag' media coverage of Obama.
I always wondered why the BO camp wanted his supporters to vote early, and now I know. Much of the negative information was unavailable to the 'average' voter until the last five days of the campaign(think bankrupting the coal industry, spreading the wealth, Rev Wright, Khalidi). I imagine that once BO takes office the media may do their job and cover the guy in the way they should have during the election campaign, maybe much like they covered Sarah Palin when they unleashed over 20 reporters to dig up any dirt they could on the lady and pretty much found nada.
I believe many many voters will have buyers remorse the more they learn about the guy they have just placed in charge of the most powerful country in the world. Our poor soldiers, can you imagine reporting to a commander in chief who while running for the democratic nomination said the way he would pay for many of the social programs he proposes would be to tax the evil rich and to pull our troops out of Iraq and gut military spending!
Make no mistake, BO is a liberal who understands that the country is center right. Why else would such a liberal run on the basis of tax cuts for 95% of the country? The most ironic thing about him and the people who voted for him was that they wanted 'change' from the Washington establishment and yet they got more of the same--an excellent politician who sought out shady characters in Chicago only to further his political aspirations, and a politician who knew how to say exactly what you want to hear in PA while telling the San Fran elite he plans to bankrupt the very industry that employs the majority of PA's citizens in one form or another. He's good, very good but he is the apitome of the typical politician that most BO voters were voting against.

I'm not a huge fan of BO for many reasons least of which is that he considers my family 'rich' and wants to take 40% of our income for federal taxes, please keep in mind that this does not include state, fica, property taxes etc., and yet I am not worried. Because I do not look to the government to solve problems I face each day, I look to myself and my family.

However I think I will now subscribe to the Peggy Joseph theory of an Obama Presidency and follow her lead beginning in 2009. If any of you BO supporters have not seen it, you will be so proud. Welcome to Obamanation, I plan to sign up and stop paying my mortgage immediately!

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=32999538485&h=RVyaV

With all of that said, I can only hope that there is a brain in BO's head that tells him he won the Presidency (not the Dem nomination) by running center right and that he will govern in the same way. Unfortunately I have nothing to base this hope on because his past actions and governing has been completely to the left.

Greetings from NC

WOW, I must be committed to the election of John McCain. I scheduled myself to volunteer in the swing state of NC during the UGA/FL football weekend. Am I committed or just that brilliant? Did anyone see the game? It was literally the worst I've seen GA play since I was in college many, many, many years ago. Anyway, I digress.
I spent Friday night trick or treating with Harry Potter, Lady from Lady and the Tramp, and the Burger King guy. And then hit the road for the great state of NC to volunteer in Hickory.
Saturday, I spent about 4 hours in the GOP headquarters making phone calls to local registered voters to remind them that Saturday was the last day to register in NC, and that early voting was going on until 3:00 pm.
In the beginning it was a little uncomfortable calling strangers and asking for their support but after some hang ups (very few) and stumbling through the script, I hit my stride.
It was actually a lot of fun talking to people who landed all over the spectrum from staunch McCain supporters (my favorite was a southern belle who said she did not realize there was another candidate in the race while using her best southern drawl), to Obama supporters (who were very polite once I thanked them for participating in one of the many things that makes this country great, and then hung up and thought, buyers remorse should set in early in 2009 when they realize that someone besides the top 5% of earners has to pay for all of the programs Obama is proposing) to finally the undecided voters. (Seriously, this late in the game. What are you, living under a rock??? and to those who know me well, no I did not say this to the potential voter). I know, SHOCKING.
Instead I engaged the undecideds in a brief conversation about why they remained so. Most felt that neither candidate offered them much in the way of solutions to the current issues facing our country but were committed to making a decision by Tuesday. I encouraged them all to go to McCain's website to really research the issues important to them and see how McCain proposes to handle them since most of what they are being barraged with on a daily basis are 30 second spots with alot of promises but not much substance. (Crap, I forgot to encourage them to research Obama's website, bad McCain supporter!!!!)
After the Saturday polls closed, it was time to hit the pavement in Hickory NC neighborhoods. It was so much fun to go door to door and hear directly from residents of the area who again fell all along the political spectrum. For me, I am happy to report that the vast majority of the areas we visited were overwhelmingly in favor of McCain but I did run into a few Obama supporters as well.
My favorite was a home where an older gentleman answered the door while his daughter in law (the home owner) came out to greet me from the garage area. She informed me she and her husband had already voted and not for my candidate. You would think that in this heated election and in a battleground state that she would have then kicked me off her lawn. Instead she was quick to point out that her father in law, the older gentleman had voted for McCain in FL-YEAH! I shook his hand and thanked him for his vote, and then thanked her too. She looked surprised, but I told her I am always thankful for anyone who participates in this great nations political process (and in my head said, even as ill informed as you clearly are). :)
She thanked me too, and as I left I found even less that we had in common, her license plate had a Gators tag on it. Are you kidding me??? I told her that I could not believe I found another thing we disagreed on. She laughed and said she had no 'Dawg' in that fight. She graduated from the University of Colorado, her husband from Florida. She said Florida was his problem, and finished it out with 'Go Dawgs'! It was nice to have such a pleasant conversation with someone I could not disagree with more politically.
This has been a very energizing experience for me. It reminds me that we can each make a difference in this upcoming election, and if the election does not go our way we can continue to be involved and keep these candidates on their toes.
Think about how many of us were up in arms about the $4 gas prices and called our congress people to say, get busy, get on with it and do our work- the peoples work. We as a nation, around 80%, believe that we should not only drill in America now where we have an abundance of oil available but also should develop alternative forms of energy. Our reps listened and we made a difference. While it was not completely successful because of the Democratic majority in the house and more specifically Nancy Pelosi--a staunch environmentalist who thinks we should never drill here, we made a difference. We showed that when we pay attention and call our reps out, they have no choice but to listen.
Now we need to pay attention to the needless and worthless programs we continue to throw money at with no discernible results. We could redirect money (our money) from useless programs and special interests and put it to work for things that work for all of us.
Regardless of party, I think we all would like to have energy independence and for all to have good health care, but the bottom line is we have to pay for it. In order to get to this place, let us all agree to pay more attention to this government who works for us and keep them in line, if not FIRE them, we have the power at the ballot box.