So… the President of the United States should apparently NOT talk to schoolchildren about the importance of education. ‘Cause that would be bad.

WTH? I’ve heard several people saying things like we shouldn’t discuss social issues in the classroom because the government should stay out of education. Um… the government runs education, unless you didn’t notice that public school is paid for by taxes and not directly from your pocket like private school or homeschool. At which point you can pay to send your kids to whatever weapons stock-piling, Kool-Aid drinking commune you want. Not that most private/home schools are like that. A lot of them are really cool, but, you know, if you don’t like the society you are a part of, you can find private education that caters to your particular breed of madness.

So, if you are still seriously concerned about the dangerous and subversive messages that the President is secretly sending to the youth of America with his socialist rally on Tuesday, I have discovered the ultra-secret hiding place of all the materials – including the speech and lesson plans, I mean lesson propaganda – that Obama is imprinting your children with through that hotbed of liberal thought known as public schools. It’s on WhiteHouse.gov. It takes 1 or 2 clicks to get to from the front page, depending on how you get there. Practically classified.

I’m sorry, do I sound bitter? I usually try to reign in my more caustic comments, but this just, well, it really pissed me off. The labels we carry – our political party, our self-identified race, our nationality, our religion, our jobs – these things are pieces of who we are, but the pervasive idea that you can disseminate all that a human is from a couple labels and then mark everything they do as evil or good because of it is destructive to the human race. All politicians aren’t evil. All liberals aren’t conniving. All Christians aren’t condemning you to Hell. All Muslims aren’t violent. All Americans aren’t money-grubbing, over-sexed, culturally insensitive morons. Some? Sure. All? Heck no. Our upbringing colors our opinions of everything, but people – and therefore groups – change. What was ten years ago, is probably not true today. For the love of God and Humanity, give people a chance before you condemn them. Don’t look for the worst, because you will find it even if it isn’t there.

And then where will we be?

I am feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is something I don’t ever seem to handle well; it signals my brain to retreat. So, I read a book, or, when I’m really overwhelmed, play cards. I’m not sure how I managed to be a theater teacher for four years.

I’ve found it helps if I break projects down into little pieces and then I can focus a little better; it starts to feel doable. So… I’ll try doing this online. I know you don’t care about my projects, but I’m going to tell you about them anyway because typing helps to calm me down and this way I’ve got my “next step” online to stare at when I decide I can’t go forward anymore.

Project 1: Donate stuff to SafePlace (then Goodwill)

• list all items currently stacked in my living room
• come up with a price for each item
• make a copy for my records
• pack car (Monday)
• drive to way the heck south Austin (Tuesday)
• check off items as they leave my car
• drive the rest to Goodwill and drop off
• put itemized lists into taxes file for this year

Project 2: Get Job

• email questions to TheaterPlay
• Make decisions if I want that job, and call them
• Agree on contract
• Get to work

Project 3: Rearrange Office

• move music to living room
• tackling one corner at a time, find a place to put all the crap currently on the floor
• clear off filing cabinet
• get help moving filing cabinet
• clean off/out desk
• get help moving desk
• remove pictures from walls (that need to be removed)
• empty bookcase
• get help moving bookcase
• put books back
• put stuff back on walls

Project 4: Clean House

• sigh

Project 5: Finish Shower

• Get more grout to fix those two stupid tiles
• Dremel out broke tile and replace
• seal grout
• find colored caulk
• Caulk shower
• get help replacing drain

Project 6: Get Back to Writing

• Get some other stuff done so I can concentrate
• Pick story to work on
• Write
• Query
• Do some every day

See, I can do this. I can do all of this. I can act all adult-like and get stuff done. *breathe… breathe…*

So I’m on Day 2 of excercising now. I don’t know if you remember, but earlier I said that as I introduced some of my old food stuffs back into the diet, I acknowledged that in order to stay under 150, I actually have to excercise. So… I’m actually excercising. Scott, who’s one of those crazy health people, helped me come up with a workout plan that I can live with. Then I made a huge workout playlist full of all my Britney Spears and Cobra Starship and Lady GaGa and a bunch of other bouncy music that it’s hard (for me at least) to frown during. Besides, if I’m thinking about Britney Spears’ perfect abs, it’s a little bit more inspiring to hold that plank just a little longer.

So yesterday I just had to dance for 20 minutes. Now, I’m a crappy dancer, but I am convinced that everyone actually likes to dance, even us crappy dancers. Just not in public. But alone in the house and it counts as exercise? Heck yeah! Today was planks (ouch) and squats, but again with a random selection from my 12 hours of bouncing pop music, totally doable. Tomorrow’s a day off. Two days on, one off give me 4-5 workouts/week, which is apparently good enough. So. A big thank you to everyone who encouraged me through 30 days of Paleo – y’all were awesome and muy helpful and now I’m eating waaaaay better than I ever did before (but with cheese and alcohol and one morning Scotte (and that’s a Scott-made Latte, for those who are unaware, not… whatever you were thinking…) and I’d appreciate any shout outs about how the workouts are going. Yay healthy!

Now if I can figure out a schedule (and sufficeint motivation) for keeping my house clean…