Home for this Week

This is my home for the next 4 days. For those of you playing "I Spy" that is my slutty suitcase in the corner. You will also spy the package of 4 Oreos by the H2O; that is my token of appreciation from the Hilton family of hotels.

I am a little bummed out about my temporary home. It doesn't have a fridge in it. That means I have to eat out this week. I made my weekly challenge goal to eat out wisely.

Today's meetings went well. There was an exercise of futility at the Post Office, but even that wasn't that bad. Tomorrow is meeting free. I am looking forward to that.

I am now working up the desire to go spend time on the treadmill. I'm getting there. The plan is to multitask, treadmill and watching "Dancing with the Stars". I will feel better once I get there. I have a half an hour to get myself in gear.

Eating Dis-Order

I have not had a good food day today. I listened to the voice in my head that wants grease flavored with artificial everything and minute traces of what the USDA considers meat in the most generous definitions of the word.

That voice brought a friend. That voice wanted more than the one square of good chocolate that I had been planning for. That voice kept reminding me that if it eat faster all of this would be over sooner.

Battling the voices makes me tired. Winning makes me tired...Losing makes me tired. I had to take a nap to reset my brain. It seems to have worked. I ate a Boca burger on an English Muffin for supper. That allowed me to hear the whisper in "the cheap seats" of my brain. That voice said "You can do this. You have all the tools you need within you."

Let the People Vote

I love politics and not in a subtle way. I love politics madly and deeply; like the way you love the boy you parents won't let you go out with in high school.

This election season is my intellectual crack. I can't get enough of it. I track it on the Internet. I watch the talking heads on TV. I even read about it on the road in the complementary "Weekly Reader for Adults" that the fine Hilton Family of Hotels leave on my door when I'm travelling.

Being this kind of geek; I was more than surprised that the primary in my adopted home state of Ohio counted. I was all ready to be an afterthought after "Super Duper Tuesday" in February. Yet, the political gods smiled on me and let my vote count. Then a funny thing happened; the elections that day set the stage for everyone else's votes to count. Good Times!!

I am now super disappointed in Sen. Leahy of Vermont, who's state has already voted. Apparently, he has come down with a case of the "my vote has been counted so screw you" itis. Rather than have one of the most exciting elections ever; he wants to kick some one out of the sandbox...keeping in mind that neither candidate is going to have the number of delegates needed to win outright.

On behalf of the states that still have primaries and caucuses...Everyone stay where you are and let the people vote. Do not deny them chance to voice their opinion or the opportunity to cast an historic ballot.

I Hope You Haunt Your Parents

An 11 year old girl from Wisconsin is dead because her parents are idiots. She died of totally treatable diabetes because the afore mentioned whack job parents of hers believed that "All healing came from God" and not doctors. This kid hadn't seen a doctor since she was three. When the ketoacidosis, too little insulin in the body, left her listless the parents chose to be "fast in prayer" rather than take their daughter to the hospital.

Time for a little self disclosure. Right above my head as I sit at my makeshift desk is my undergraduate degree. If you knock the dust off of the glass you can read that I earned a Bachelors of Arts in Theology. Also, through a series of car wrecks that I was in during my early 20s; I have a disproportionately large piece of scar tissue on my pancreas. That means my pancreas doesn't always work as well as it should. I don't feel like I'm speaking totally out of place. Here's how this works for me...when my pancreas is leaning toward the "I don't feel like working" side of things for more than a couple of days, I get my ass to the doctor. Do you know why I do that, is because I don't believe in God...no, it is because this shit can kill me and I don't want to die.

The parents are saying that they aren't worried about the impending investigation because they know they didn't do anything wrong; apparently not seeking routine medical attention for your youngest child isn't wrong in their book. If there is a proverbial God in the sky, the state of Wisconsin will take away your other children and throw your asses in jail for neglect and manslaughter. Plus, should you become sick while rotting away in your cells...pray on that.

No More Dancing

Our run is over. I'm proud of the 'eers. I owe Huggy Bear an apology. I didn't think you were the right guy for the job, something about that graduation rate at UC didn't sit right with me. I was wrong. The team looked good. That last/only turn over did us in. There will be next year and next year looks good. Joe Alexander...repeat after me "I will stay for my senior season!"

I Might Need an Intervention

I'm having a bad day at work today. Apparently information I had been given in regards to being able to do my job has been incorrect. I have also picked up an additional 2 centers. It's just been raining badness all over me.

To make myself feel better; during my lunch break I took myself on a virtual shopping spree at Sephora.com . I spent 30 minutes looking at what was new and shiny; mindlessly placing things in my shopping cart. Each potion, lotion, and colorant that landed in my cart made me feel less panicky. When all was said and done there was $325.74 worth of stuff in my cart, and I had said no to the T3 hair drier (even though it would improve the quality of my life). Mercifully, I don't have that kind of money this late in the month or I would have played a game of chicken with myself over the things "I couldn't possibly carry on without." Clearly I am not well.

Crocker Recipe du Jour

This is one of my favorite crocker recipes of all time. It is my Aunt Kathy's Cranberry Orange Pork Roast. It is simply too good for words.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of Pork Roast, preferably tenderloin because it is the leanest.

1 cup Dried Cranberries

2 Oranges for juice and zest

.25 cup Honey

1/8 tsp Cloves

Salt and Pepper

1/8 tsp Nutmeg

What to Do:
Salt and Pepper your piggy.
Chuck it into a cold crocker.
Mix everything else together and pour over piggy.

Cooking Time:
Let her rip for 7-8 hours on low

Super yummy with roasted sweet potatoes/butternut squash and green beans.

Only 5 points per serving kids!!!

4000 Dead is 4000 Too Many....

Think what you may about the War in Iraq and this presidency; but I believe we can all agree that 4000 dead soldiers is unacceptable. Actually 1 dead soldier is unacceptable in my book.

I spent 4 and a half years teaching at-risk students and helping them reach their goal of graduating with a High School diploma. Quite a few of those student joined the military, mostly the Marines. Every Sunday morning as I watch the political pundits argue back and forth, I hold my breath as they show the "In Memoriams" fearing that I will know one of those names. I've been fortunate...others haven't been.

Georgia on My Mind

For those of you who don't know what I do for a living; let me take a brief aside to explain my current career. I am employed by the nation's largest provider of special need and alternative education. My company works with children who suffer from disorders along the Autism Spectrum, struggle with more traditional learning disabilities, and have just run out of options available through their district. I work for the division that contracts with local school districts to help them with their "at-risk" population. An at-risk student can meet on of an endless list of criteria to be considered so. The majority of the students that we work with are credit deficient due to low skill levels. Our main goal is to get these kids up to speed and help them earn their diploma. I worked for 4 and a half years in a couple of our centers; both as a teacher and as a center director. It is by in far one of the most rewarding endeavors I have ever taken on.

I currently work for the Center Development department of said division. I have a snazzy job title that sounds very educational based, but the long and short of it is that I am a project manager. I am in charge of a center from the time the district signs a contract with us through roughly the first month of school. I am responsible for all aspects of opening a center. Other people have responsibilities to the center as well, but it is my job to make sure that their work is done or pick up the slack. Officially I am responsible for the entirety of the East Coast; but what that really means is Georgia.

As of right now we are opening 15 new centers in 9 new markets for the 2008-2009 school year. While others are glad-handing and dislocating shoulders patting themselves on the back; I am in full on freak out mode. I know that freaking out is counterproductive but it appears to be the right thing to do. I know that I am going to have help; probably both varieties, actual help and the help that seems to not help at all. However, at the end of the day I am responsible for it all.

A co-worker of mine informed me that this was a marathon, not a sprint...well meaning words but totally wrong. This isn't a marathon; this is an ultra-marathon, one of those races with no end in sight.

Happy Easter...

or March 23rd.

When I was a kid quite possibly my favorite part of Easter was coloring eggs. My Grandma made the most beautiful eggs; they were marbled. I would try to make some of mine like hers but mine were always muddy. Hers were always vibrant.

The non-professional egg coloring took place at my Granny and Granddad's. Every year someone tried to make the mythical "Charlie Brown" egg with the wacky wax crayon that came in the pack of dye. I don't remember if any of us perfected that technique.

This year I am celebrating Easter like our non-christian friends; hanging out with friends, watching movies, and ordering take away. I'm giving the pomp and circumstance a break this year.

LET"S GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!

After initially looking over the brackets; I thought that the 'eers had a tough draw. I wasn't sold on Duke after the Belmont game; but I thought it took WVU a while to get things going on an Arizona team that a lot of the talking heads didn't believe belonged in the dance at all.

That is why you don't play games on paper...

I have to give it to Huggy Bear. I was not sold on him as a coach after fellow Wheeling Jesuit alumni, John Beilein, left for Michigan. I am now willing to eat crow. Playing small and bringing in the 3 guard was brilliant.

We get the winner of Xavier v. Purdue. I will have to watch that game to form an opinion on either one of those teams. If Xavier should when the afore mentioned game; I will be forced to break my "always pull for the Jesuit school" statute. You never cheer against home.

View from My Window

Needless to say it snowed again last night. It also goes without saying that I am tired of the snow. At least this time it had the decency to be pretty.

All The Cool Kids Are Doing It...

So, I've started my own blog. I'm not entirely sure how well this is going to work out. I've never been particularly good at keeping a journal. I do, however, excel at picking out journals. Stationers clamor when I walk into a stationary store; they can see the Lust in my eyes and the money burning a hole in my pocket.



I'm hoping that I will be able to keep this up. I travel a great deal for work. Travelling Monday through Friday can sometimes lead to being a lousy friend. It makes it difficult to keep in touch with people about the minutiae of life. Maybe, this is where blogging can fill in the gaps.



I'm not going to make any promises about where my convoluted brain will take us(I, your humble narrator, and you, good reader). We will all just have to see where the coming days take us.