Thursday, August 23, 2012

We are...

A friend of mine posted something on FB today about what Democrats stand for (It can be found here) and she commented that she'd like to see something similar from the Republican side.  I can't help her with that as I'm neither a Democrat or Republican but it did get me thinking about those of us in the middle....not fitting either side.  Here's my interpretation of being in the middle.


We’re not against helping those in need; we’re against supporting those who don’t want to support themselves.

We not against helping others in the world; we’re against being the world police.

We’re not against those who believe differently; we’re against beliefs being used as a political tool.

We’re not against our government; we’re against the manipulation of our government by anyone trying to pervert it to their advantage.

We’re not against anyone’s dream; we’re against the vilifying of the American Dream.

We’re not against immigrants; we’re against liars, cheats and sneaks.

We’re not against American values; we’re against any one group defining for all of us what “American Values” are.

We’re not against helping all Americans succeed; we’re against those who believe the government owes them.

We’re not Republicans.  We’re not Democrats.  We’re not part of the 1% or the 99%.

We are Americans.  This is our America.

And we want it back.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

How crazy am I?

So I have two years left in my Fit by 50 (Fx50) goal.  I have been slowly but steadily losing weight since January but seem to have hit a plateau in the last month.  Been thinking about ways to get the weight loss started again.  There's still room to improve my eating habits without a doubt.  Don and I have talked about twice a week having salads for dinner and I think it's time we implement that.  It's time I got the bike out and got comfortable riding again.  One of my more insane thoughts though is to start training again for a 5K.  As some of you remember I started training for one a couple years ago but had to quit about six weeks in because of knee and foot pain from the arthritis.  I'm hoping weighing less this time will alleviate that problem, though the down side is my arthritis is worse than it was two years ago. :/  We shall see.  Now, to just start making this happen....I know me, I'm a planner.  Without a concrete plan things will just kinda drift along without any action taking place.  This means it's time to make a plan.

1. Monday/Thursday - salad for dinner (starting this Thursday)

2. Tonight - load some music onto my iphone for C25K.

3. Thursday - start C25K 

4. Add bike riding in by birthday, 9/21.

Here it is for now.  Start small and build on it.

In other news, I'm been approved to apply for a spot in the Excellence in Government Fellows Program.  This would be a great opportunity if I get selected.  I need to get to work on the essay questions for the application so I'm not rushed to get everything done by the Sept. 5th submission deadline.

I'm also toying with the idea of going back to school to finish my degree because, you know, I don't have enough other things going on in life.  This one is going to depend largely on money however.  I still need to get the AC/Furnace replaced before it starts getting cold so school may have to wait some more.

The garden is still giving us tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and finally beans!!  I'm loving making salads with veggies from the garden.  

There's other things rattling around inside my head but they'll have to wait for another time.