Looking forward to this weekend

It is Wednesday and only two days away from my road trip to FL to spend a couple nights with friends. I get to celebrate Halloween with them and then the next day I get to go and do my Freemasonic duties. I am looking forward to all the joys of reuniting with Brothers in South Florida and talking about higher body subjects that I have no one to talk with about up here. I look forward to all the warm hugs I'll get to give and receive back. We get to catch up with all that has gone on in our lives and I get to eat Cuban Food! YUM!!! So, I need to wash clothes tonight after I come home from Choir practice. Then tomorrow I go to my knitting night and come home to pack for my travels. I need to make sure I spend precious time with my boys tonight and tomorrow night, so I can take little hugs and kisses along with me.

Politics

I am nervous about the state of the nation. Birds have been whispering ill omens to me of what is to come. what is happening now is similar to stories I've heard from friends' about the circumstances for years in Cuba. If a reporter is not allowed to ask questions for fear of the station being black-balled from any future political interviews then our freedom of speech will soon be held in a political vice-grip. If we, as a democratic nation, are not allowed to be aware of fundamental requirements of our political candidates stated in our Constitution, then why should that candidate be allowed to run for office. Is the skeleton that bad? Is our expectation of at least meeting the requirements to run for office no longer count as a grounds for dismissal if one of the requirements isn't met? Why should our government bail out companies that have authorized too much credit or have made products below the standard of what Americans need? The government never bailed me out of my mistakes or my debt, instead I am rewarded with a bad credit rating and higher interest rates that are variable on my student loans. Hiring at my university has been locked, so the departments who need more professors to meet educational requirements for students to get a liberal arts education are unable to hire instructors to teach me. To add to this state of affairs some professors are being layed off or have classes taken from them, which creates less opportunities for students to complete their degrees in a timely manner. How many years will it take for a student to complete all their requirements necessary for their degree now? 10 years? Also, I have found out that my professors have not received a raise in at least three years. How does that promote a person to strive to do their job to the best of their ability? What reward is that for a university to at least not give a raise based on rising inflation? In essence, the people teaching are now getting payed less now than they were 5 years ago as the cost of living has risen. Is it good for the generations of students to come to be in the position of learning less than those before them due to the debt of a nation? I truly wonder where we are headed and it makes me not only nervous but depressed.

latter Oct events and future Nov events

There are a number of things to bring up. The first is just how difficult this past weekend has been. Michael spiked a fever of 104.7 which worried me greatly since the rest of us were not getting sick. He is better now but I ended up doing a vigil until 3am that night taking his temperature until it was down. I am now tired. Part of my exhaustion is also because I had surgery, an endometrial ablation, on Oct 17th to help with issues with endometriosis and a tubal ligation to make sure we do not conceive another child (which would be a high risk pregnancy after the ablation). I am still recovering and am in need of a long nap each day after going to school. This frustrates me since I like to have energy and help out with the boys when I get home. I am missing out on time with them to do fun things. It also forces me to do my homework and reading assignments at a later time in the evening. So, my sleep schedule is now off and I can't seem to get back on track with it.

My second issue is my schedule conflictign with everything else that I see as important. Sometimes I feel torn and pulled like a rope between things and people. Joe is wonderfule and tries his hardest not to make a huge impact on my school schedule, but issues and events with my friends seem to overlap with my school, Co-Freemasonic Lodge, and time with family. For instance, we have a huge event that could possibly occur on November 22nd. That is also the chosen day for my friend's baby shower that I need to go to because I will be her son's Godmother. The baby shower also brings in my mom and her boyfriend for the weekend and the event brings in a bunch of Masonic Brothers, so our house will be jammed with people on a crucial weekends for me. I have my huge paper for my English class also due on November 25th and I had planned on using this weekend to make the finishing touches on it and stress over it. I am just a bit freaked out over the upcoming schedule. To add to it all, I have to drive to South Florida this Friday for Masonis business, which I am looking forward to since it'll be a little break, but I have to take my work with me to do whatever research I may be able to complete so I can start writing this paper. I also have another paper for my other class due on November 17th which will require multitasking in my head. Yikes!

My third issue is missing my dad. Today I carved a pumpkin and almost started crying because it was a ritual for us to create a design together and carve an extravagant pumpkin when I was in school. So, I carved an extravagant pumpkin based on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with the Quidditch rings in the forefront. I hope he is looking down and is proud of the work I did. I am having a Samhain gathering with friends on the November 8th to help us all mourn the passing of family members. A lot of us have lost close family this year and we are all under the stress of missing them with the holidays approaching so quickly. I am just wondering how the year went by so fast.