Things are changing....'my friends"

Where did September go??? I know it's a tired cliche, but true nonetheless.

I think the alarm sounded when this dichotomous weather set in. I go to bed at night toasty as a Quizno's sub and wake up feeling like I'm in a cheap hotel room with an overzealous air conditioner because Neal is committed to sleeping with the windows open. As if I didn't have enough trouble getting out of bed as it was....now, it requires psychological prep. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate to be cold. There's a reason I tolerate Texas summers...to benefit from Texas winters. It's the only investment I can bank on right now.

To all of you who have donated to my son's Walk for Diabetes fund, I'm giving you a cyber-hug. This is such an important disease to conquer because of the long-term damage it does to the body. My son's doctor is confident that a cure can be found within the next decade if a dedicated effort is made to follow up on recent developments. Again, thank you to all who have either donated or have kids who are raising money as well.

Beyond this, I've been lost in the political haze. I'm just flat-out disgusted at this point. I can't believe these two clowns topping the major party tickets are the best this country can do. I'm still waiting for the guy (or gal!) to come along who will actually follow the Constitution as intended. These two candidates have the depth of paper dolls. Obviously, I have my preference but please don't mistake it for a ringing endorsement. Even if my candidate gets elected, the American public will have to continue to play defense against his decisions.

Since it's politically incorrect to point out Obama's flaws, we have no comic relief other than what SNL has produced about Palin which I admit is pretty funny. The funniest thing I heard was when a talk radio station recently played a mock-commercial for McCain's latest "album" of songs about his "friends". The announcer would say "It contains all your favorites such as this classic..." and then they would play "I get by with a little help from my friends" by the Beatles where they would insert McCain's voice saying "my friends". I was laughing so hard, I nearly ran off the road when I heard it. Then, I went to pick up my daughter and re-enacted it for her...she agreed it was equally hilarious and made me promise not to sing it while she was drinking her Sprite. The only reason I refrained from doing so was because I didn't want to clean the Sprite/spit/snot mixture that would have been spread across the dashboard. Then, it turned into a game where we were trying to come up with other songs that contained "my friends" and doing a McCain voice. The funniest one we came up with was the Spice Girls ("If you wanna be my lover, you got to get with 'my friends').

Seriously, McCain needs to drop the words "my friends" from his vocabulary. It's just too distracting and there's no way he can get his message across with that phrase popping in every 10 seconds. (Hmmm...then again, maybe he should continue to do it for that very reason especially when talking about buying up people's mortgages.) Plus, if he keeps it up, we're going to have some raging alcoholics in this country after the next debate.

You just gotta laugh at it. That's the only survival tactic left....my friends.

Move over, Sarah Palin!

The signs, the bumper stickers, the hyperbole and rhetoric....I love election season!

Well, at the local level it seems we have our own female/phenom candidate in-house. My daughter ran (successfully) as treasurer of her class. The returns came in yesterday, supporting the informal polling data she had collected in the hallways and classrooms. Although she has never been the mayor of a small town or a community organizer (she's a school organizer, perhaps?), she has prepared by surrounding herself with qualified support-staff (that would be me with my accounting degree, who can show her how to balance a checking account and budget).

We funded our own campaign, which came out to a total of about $12. That included five posterboards, two smelly black markers, and an array of Sharpies in striking colors. We labored meticulously, scouring the internet for catchy slogans like "Put your money where my math is!" and "FREE MONEY...(Now that I have your attention, vote for me for treasurer!)" We sketched, colored, and decorated each poster with love. Too bad that she never got to hang them up. Apparently, due to some campaign ugliness in years past, all campaign materials must be approved by "the man." (Two men, actually...and she didn't get her posters through all the channels of authority in a timely fashion).

She has also managed to avoid an uncomfortable vote. In the race for class secretary, she had a couple of candidates that she wanted to support so she effectively voted "present" in that contest, displaying no preference at all.

I probably shouldn't be posting this on the internet because it's definitely fodder for anyone who plans to challenge her in the future. Can you just hear it now: "She says she's a decisive candidate...but did you know that she didn't even vote for a secretary candidate in her own class elections? Does she really care about who is taking minutes at the meetings?"

Then, there's this gem: "She says she's efficient with money, but did you know about her wasteful campaign spending in the 2008 election? She spent $12 of her family's money on posters she didn't...even...use."

It all sounds so silly when you put it in the context of school elections, but it's a microcosm of what's going on at the national level right now. A small part of me wishes the election were held today so we could get back to watching the new season of "The Office" or some such. It's like I have a meth addiction and I'm secretly begging for someone to set up an intervention but in the meantime, I'm compelled to turn on the TV first thing in the morning to check the scandal meter for my "fix". It's a cycle of futility.

Someone call Dr. Phil.