The past few months have been long and stressful due to a number of factors. One being that I started a new job back in September. Starting a new job is always stressful, perhaps even more so if it’s the job you have wanted for the past 10 years. As with anything now a days, it came with concessions. Another salary cut, but we didn’t have to move to California. Don’t get me wrong, we would love to move to San Diego but the wages there are just not commensurate with the cost of living.

My husband finally got his transfer approved to a different department where he is working at. The stress of what he had been going through was almost becoming unbearable. That’s a whole story in itself. A number of us have thought about writing our own book, but at this point in time I am just grateful that he was able to make the move.

Megan came down and spent Halloween with us. It was fun to have her with us even if it was for less than two days. That reminds me, I need to make sure she called her dentist and scheduled an appointment for the tooth that is bothering her.

I still have to figure out what to do with all of my blogs. I would like to move Leslie’s Little Soapbox into a WordPress format because there are so many more features available for it. I like being able to notify my Twitter account that I have posted a blog, in additional to having my “tweets” feed into this blog. I have more than one Twitter account, one for All Things Vols (which has kept me busy today), one for my job, one for the Birmingham Big Orange Club (which I’m about ready to ask them to find a new webmaster/host) and one for “me”. The Leslie Kirk blog started off as a testing site, but I really don’t have much time for testing. I may move the soapbox there. I’m also trying to get away from these “free” sites because I have to put up with “their” ads. I find Facebook to be just too busy, but it’s a social networking site that I need to hang on to if my liberal friends there don’t drive me insane first. Then there’s the high school site, seems to be loaded with a lot of folks from the 80′s classes. I’ve only found 2 or 3 people there that I knew. I suppose I should also include my LinkedIn profile in all of this. I think of all the applications I’ve been using and/or playing with I like Twitter best. I can just write a few lines here and there as the mood hits me. I can even “tweet” from my phone and have been known to send my bowling scores as soon as I finish the game (last week I sent them to my Facebook account).

Well, tomorrow is the day – get out and vote!

The closer we get to the upcoming election, the more fearful I become of our future. I’ve been lashing out at Leslie’s Little Soap Box, but I know that no one reads that blog, so unfortunately my ranting there go unnoticed. It’s really too, little too late. I just started actively using my Facebook account, but again it’s too little too late. Most of my “friends” there are very liberal and have already made their minds up.

I am so afraid for the future of this country, so many people want the government to take care of them, they have become lazy and are no longer willing to work for or even defend the American way. I’ve been told that I lack compassion, that I don’t understand people having hard times and sometimes needing a hand up. I nipped that conversation in the bud.

I want change too, but not what is being proposed. I want less government, less taxes and more personal freedoms. The path I see this country heading is the same route Europe took years ago. I find myself leaning towards the Libertarian Party, but it’s going to take time for them to really catch on. Perhaps the next four years will help push them to the forefront.

I really know nothing about being a political activist, but I think it’s time to learn something new.

Couple days ago I got a phone call from Megan, she was upset, yelling and talking so fast I just could not understand her. She’s driving home ranting and raving (I have told her before about driving while upset) and it took a little while to get her calmed down enough to get the picture of what happened.

Megan had gone to visit with her aunt. She called ahead to make sure it was okay and was told so-in-so was there. Megan didn’t know who this person was and had assumed it was a friend of her aunt. During dinner she got hit smack dab in the face, so to speak, as to who she was. Her father, still lacking in social graces, never bothered to introduce his new girlfriend to Megan.

I had told Jeff what had happened and he called to check on her. She had at least calmed down. Later on she told me to go read her blog, that she had used it to vent. I wasn’t sure what to expect before getting there, I was afraid she might have lashed out at her father, which could have had dire financial consequences for her. What I read was venomously angry post, lashing out at her sisters. It took very little time for me to understand why she was so angry with them, she loves them so much but hasn’t been talking to either one of them. She feels like she has lost them and now was afraid that she was going to lose her father to another woman.

I think a few other light bulbs came on for her. I have previously mentioned Megan’s behavior while she was living with us. She knew which buttons to push to make us mad, she tried her darnest to break us up on a number of occasions. She didn’t understand that not only did she have a father who loves her, she also has a step-father that loves her too. But she did everything she could to try and push him away because she was afraid her father wouldn’t love her any more. Later that evening she called to ask if she had been a “pain” (I’ve changed the actual words used) while living with us. I think it may have finally dawned on her.

So she took down the angry post and rewrote it. This time it wasn’t littered with profanity. This time it was much more on target with how she feels. You have to read through it, but there near bottom of the post, just before she mentions gardening and cooking, she finally said it ” I guess deep down I’m afraid that with a new girlfriend, he’ll forget about me.”

All of her fear came rolling out as anger. The pain she feels with the strained relationships she has with her sister’s came out as anger. She has tried on a number of occasions to patch those relationships, I think she has finally had to take the same position I have, the ball is in their court to mend the fences. I still hurt for her, she loves them just as much as I do. And she knows we love her too.

I just hope her father gets it too.

Looks like the interest in my ramblings has finally died out. Not much traffic to my blog anymore and that probably a good thing. I’ve gotten lazy and have been “micro-blogging” via Twitter instead of writing full blown posts. I’ve also got too many blogs/social networks to keep up with. I’ve been trying out Facebook, not my cup of tea really, too much junk going on. I think I’ve been putting more time into All Things Vols than any of my other blogs. Seems like every time I open up WordPress I have to run an update. I need to spend a little time redoing my recipe section too.

Megan has pretty much given up on her blog (and her sisters too). Interesting though, she has gotten 170 visits in the past 30 days from one city. Maybe she should add new content. She’s been going through the bureaucratic BS trying to get her Dental Assistant licensing. Right now she’s working part-time in a grocery store while she waits for it to all get finished.

Me, well I’m a very happy camper now working for the company I have wanted to work with for over 10 years now. Guess you will just have to Google through things to figure out where.

Sometimes no words are needed.