A New Chapter in Life

My husband inspires me in many ways.

This latest inspiration is my hope that I can beat the recession with the same level of success as he has enjoyed. Since November 2009, he has worked his way into not one, but three separate companies, each job opportunity moving him closer to his career goals than the last, after much hard work, hundreds of applications, hours of resume writing and rewriting, and a healthy dose of divine intervention.

I left a stable position with a Director title and an office with a view this past Friday. It was a decision that had to be made, and I know I ultimately made the right decision for myself personally and professionally, as well as for the company I left.

What am I doing now? First, contemplating my place as a now "displaced professional" in one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression. I am very curious to see how my attitude and search for a new opportunity goes, given the caterwauling I hear from a number of people my age that go on about their inability to find "meaningful employment." Looking at Travis, it's easy for me to think that "those people" just aren't trying hard enough. In part, I'll use this blog to document my feelings as they change over the course of my search.

Second, I am actually applying for jobs. There are the usual "haunts" for the job search, such as Careerbuilder and Monster.com. However, I'm also looking for non-traditional work, such as per-project small jobs, both for additional income and to keep moving.

That really is the ultimate goal, to keep moving. I think this is the most important thing I can do to ensure that this period of time is successful, instead of becoming a block of days wasted playing World of Warcraft. I have enlisted the help of my iPad to do this by using Evernote to keep track of what I have accomplished in a given day, as well as see where I can add items to keep me moving. I plan to pursue a balance of job searching and project completion. I have SO many things around the home I've been wanting to do. I also want to return to rewarding the completion of my "Needs to get dones" with a game of basketball or a lesson in Spanish via my long-neglected Rosetta Stone software. By time I find a job, I'll be in great shape and able to hablo Espanol!

I think my biggest hangup will be to ensure that I keep on target for the different tasks I assign to myself. When I'm at the house, it's sometimes easy for me to get off target and pursue housework that I know can easily wait for its assigned day. I know I need to breathe-"detox" as one friend so eloquently put it- from the very sudden end of my most recent employment experience. However, I know that if I do not assign action to detox and just sit around brooding instead, I'll have a couple of level 85 raid-ready characters as the only product of my efforts at the end of the month.

So here's to a new road, chapter, or whatever else it should be called. Here's to the challenge of unemployment, and my attempt to meet that challenge with pizzazz.

I'm a bad Republican, apparently.

Ok, first of all, let me start off by making two facts perfectly clear:

1) I am not a registered Republican. I am registered unaffiliated, and for very good reasons.

2) This does not mean I am not still a rabid conservative. So don't go thinking I've gone weenie-liberal or anything like that.

Now, in light of those two facts, I was rather amused to see an article claiming "Republicans considering ideological purity test for candidates." Since I'm nice, I'll tell you what the ten tennants they consider Republican ideology are. Quoting from the article:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership;

Apparently, I would not pass muster as a Republican, as I can only truly agree with 7 of these statements. My views on the statements:

1) Yes, yes yes! I support lower taxes, deficits, and national debt. No municipal or county manager would DARE run his city or county on a deficit budget. Why the HELL does the federal government (and NC's state government for the matter) think it can do so? I'd lose my job and absolutely any chance of progressing in the field of government management if I ran a budget the way the feds do (and in the past 10 years or so, I haven't seen too much difference in the Republicans and Democrats.)

On a similar note, I believe that the right thing to do will be to stop the way-overdone entitlement programs in our nation. Phase them out slowly, so future generations don't have them to begin with, but people currently "depending" on these programs can ease out of reliance on the government into self-responsibility. Any comments made to argue with me on this point (oh, there ARE poor people that need this!) will be deleted. While sitting in the Health Department waiting room for my maternity visit today (wearing the only pair of maternity jeans I own, $12 at Ross), I counted not one but TWO patients there to receive "free" healthcare that had Coach purses. If you dont know how much a Coach purse costs, suffice it to say that I could almost pay the rent for the price of one of their larger bags. So at the moment, I'm not up for discussion on why you think it's ok for the government to force hard-working people to "charitably give" their money to provide health care and other benefits for those that refuse to afford it. Yes, I have used the maternity care provided while my husband and I were out of work (not that my financial situation is anyone's business). If those programs weren't available, I would have been more inclined to take a job to afford pre-natal care when I could. If those programs weren't available, there would be more charitable organizations prepared to help people in need that genuinely fall on hard times (as opposed to wanting any freebie they can get from other people so as to better afford their 2-pack-a-day habit and the like).

So, needless to say, about point #1, I dont think Republicans go far enough. They are too chicken to extinguish past entitlement programs for fear of backlash and losing their seats. Most of them would rather do the safe thing than the right thing.

2) Health care reform: it's real easy guys. Take the government out of the market and let it truly be a free market. Take away the barriers and laws that make it impossible to shop across state lines. ANY smart government manager will tell you incremental progress is best. Start with small measures to see if they fix the problem before proposing a hostile takeover of 1/6th of the nation's economy. Take smaller measures first, see what the effects are, and then move to other methods if necessary.

3) I DO oppose cap and trade, because I think it's a bunch of crap (I can go into greater detail on this, but I dont feel like it right now). However, I do agree that government intervention is necessary TO A POINT to ensure responsibility when it comes to the environment (Dr. Mangun did corrupt me some, I'll admit). However, I'd like to see measures undertaken by the private sector that research and design ways to turn factory waste into something useful (all the exhaust from factory pipes perhaps used to propell steam engines for some other part of the facility, for example). That whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing.

However, when it comes to endangered species, I have mixed feelings. The same establishment that tells us that we came from primordial ooze billions of years ago (AND DONT YOU DARE SAY OTHERWISE OR ELSE!!1!!) and advocates Darwin's theory of natural selection (survivial of the fittest) like Darwin was the voice of God himself are the same people that tell us we have to halt human progression and fulfillment of needs (such as with the oil reserves in ANWR) to protect certain species. Why cant those species just adapt, like the darwinians claim they have been for billions of years?

Additionally, I believe that much of the green movement in effect today is extremely faddish. Buying "organic" everything (which I see as just a handy excuse to charge $7 for a gallon of milk and the like) and other such green things I see as largely overblown. A lot of it is good, solidly backed up stuff (such as recycling, cloth diapering, etc) which I wholeheartedly support. However, I do believe a degree of it is hogwash. Another thing I can elaborate on more...another time.

4) This addresses the issues that come up with unions. I think the unions are 85% of why the american car industry is dying and almost dead. FOR THE MOST PART, I believe unions have had their time, served their purpose, and should no longer hold the political sway and other powers that they hold over some of our industries. I say "for the most part" because I know there are some areas where unions are still very helpful (such as for law enforcement officers). However, even in these cases, if you're working for a government entity (which is 90% of law enforcement), you should be doing so as a service. You're not going to make a ton of money. Get over it. (Yes, this goes for teachers too...) I do recognize sometimes, though, that government entities (such as police departments) have a tendency to want to avoid any kind of confrontation so will flame/fire/throw under the bus their officers and personnel. Unions can help ensure that true justice is indeed attained in a particular matter.

5) yes, yes, yes!! Immigration should be legally done. I have no beef, however, with the people that come here via river crossing to work. My problems are when 1) they send their pay out of the country and are not putting it back into the economy they are a part of, and 2) (this one is a pet peeve of mine) they are not paying income taxes and the like (because they're undocumented) and are using government provided services. I think so much of our illegal immigration problems would dissapear if anyone that was not a proven American citizen was refused services that are provided by taxpayer funds. This includes no public schools for illegal immigrant children, no prenatal care for the "citizen inside" the illegal alien knocked up chick (and, further, children born to illegals should carry their parent's nationality, not be given citizenship here), no requirement for county hospitals to provide emergency room care for every sniffle and sneeze they have (they should be charged full price for this. If they dont pay, send a collection agency on them and bar them from receiving further care until their bill is paid in full). Taking these measures alone would eliminate many of the problems Americans have with illegal immigrants. Let them come and forge a new life. Just not on our dime.

6) I can't say I agree with this. After seeing the military for what it can be (which is UGLY), I don't believe that blindly following the recommendations of military leaders is the way to go. Honestly, I don't have a solution to give for the wars we're currently engaged in. But blindly following anyone's recommendations (especially when the recommendations benefit the recommender) is a good way to go. I'm inclined to believe that the best course of action is to leave both Afghanistan and Iraq and focus on keeping our borders secure. Not only in the "keep illegals from crossing out of Mexico" sense, but also in the sense of insuring that we aren't letting any suspicious characters in the country, and monitoring the suspcious characters that are already IN the country (sorry tolerance crowd, this means if you're fresh off the boat from Iran or some other Allah-Allah-jihad country, you should be watched. Not harrassed, just watched, extra security precautious, etc. The bullshit about diversity and tolerance is why the Ft. Hood tragedy occurred). But, I focus more on state and local (internal political) issues, so national security isn't exactly my forte.

7) I dont agree with this. Leave them alone until they give us cause to beat the crap out of them. For example, if we tell North Korea to stop attempting to hurl missiles at us, tell them if they do it again we will bomb them with no remorse. If North Korea points guns at us, sure, take out the guns, destroy the weaponry they're threatening us with. However...if both they and Iran are minding their own with their nuclear stuff, let's stay out of it until they make it our business (by threatening us or something like that). I do heavily support missile defense systems :) Again though, foreign policy, not my forte.

8) Ah...the whole gay marriage thing. No, I don't support gay marriage. How-ev-ar, my view is pretty different than most. I believe that all federal tax benefits and the like that are given to married couples should be taken away. Marriage should be purely a private thing (I want to say religious but I know people dont do marriage for religious reasons as much anymore. So enter in whatever word applies for non-religious marriages). If people want to combine their finances and such, let them, but make divorce settlements run the exact same way dissolution of businesses is done. People can put death benefits and the like into a last will and testament (to avoid all the sob stories you hear about "lifelong partners" having their partner's remains taken from them at death because they weren't married. HELLO! Last will and testament solves this!) Bottom line: no government supported benefits for anyone due to their marital status. Let the individual churches decide whether or not they will condone the marriage of gays in their church. If they decide not to, leave them alone, that's their religious belief. I think this would rip 85% of the whole gay marriage stuff out from under the country. One less thing to fight about. So while I don't support the defense of marriage act, I likewise do not support giving homosexuals tax benefits and the like for getting hitched. Make everyone equally worthless :-D

9) The government should never fund abortion. Ever. I believe fully (and I back this up with extensive research done over a number of years) that abortion is never necessary to save the life of the mother. I believe it should not ever be legally used as a "birth control" measure. Even in the cases of rape and incest. If you try to argue with me on this, I'm always willing to listen to points, but know your words are going to be ineffective from the get-go. So why waste your time :).

Phrase #9 I feel is worded in a real cop-out sort of way. Had to get my abortion views out of the way first, but the other two phrases also require commentary. First, the health care rationing thing. I believe if the government runs this sector of our economy, this WILL happen. Because by default, the federal government does not know how to efficiently run anything. And I oppose government run health care period. I think just stating that you "oppose health care rationing" is an easy, cop-out statement that doesnt really mean much in the grand scheme of things. I think likewise of the "denial of health care" bit. If people dont read their health insurance policy, or LIE ON THE APPLICATION (like some of the sob stories I've seen recently did), then yeah, the health insurance company will deny coverage (another point. They deny payment, not the health care itself). People refuse to keep in mind that at the end of the day, the health insurance company is there to make money, not help you. Take responsibility for this possibility instead of whining about it, save up for health emergencies instead of buying the new big-screen TV. I dont think the government has the right to force companies to do A or B in regard to a contract signed with an individual (again: read your policy's fine print!!), however, if a company has contractually agreed to pay for certain things as long as the truthful client is paying their premium, they shouldn't be able to drop said client when they get sick. I believe that's breech of contract. And if they allow themselves to drop you like a rock in the contract, bring it up, get it changed, or go with something else. Even if something else is *gasp* saving up for health issues and the like. You always have a choice.

10) Everyone should be allowed to have guns :-D period.

So I think I'd be a bad republican. They way they word things, the way their bills are put together, is just not the way I think things should be done. Meh.

More when I feel like it,

Sarah

You know what really grinds my gears...

I figure I'll do this type of segment occassionally. I'm calling it "You know what really grinds my gears" after a similar thing Peter Griffin did on Family Guy a while back. Why? Not because I'm fond of Family Guy, more because "Sarah gets on her self-righteous soapbox" tends to scare away readers. So here goes.

What's particularly grinding my gears at 5 minutes to midnight on the Sunday after Thanksgiving? Something that's been on my mind, something I've noticed for a good while now. Without fail, every Sunday/Monday, a good many people on my little Facebook feed make some complaining commentary about how much it sucks that it's Monday and they have to go to work.

You know what I have to say to the people that complain about having to go to work on Monday?

Shut up!

This country sat down and ate turkey in remembrance of Thanksgiving, which should be a day of giving thanks and remembering just how far God has brought us. Instead, some choose to whine about having to go to work on Monday.

Hi, I'm 35 weeks pregnant. I have a Master's degree and have been unable to find a job since graduating over the summer. I am dying to have a job. Preferrably one in my field, but just about any job I'm physically capable of at this point would be nice. I'm applying for jobs I was overqualified for stepping out of high school, let alone qualified for now. I've been told I can pretty much forget it until after our son has been born and I have recovered from delivery.

Do you have any idea how much I would LOVE to have a job to go to on Monday, even with the weight, aches, pains, and other symptoms of late pregnancy? Do you have any idea what it feels like to see people complaining about having something you've been dying to get for the past months, because it's inconvenient for them to interrupt their two days of leisure and errand running to be productive and earn a living?

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. Do I want a job? Yes, it's at the top of my list right now. But I'm thankful that at least I don't have to worry about dealing with taking off to have a baby and what not. There is some good in it. I'm not complaining about the situation, just dealing with the reality of it. Everyone has their laundry list of problems and irritations they have to deal with in their lives. I have mine, but I try to be thankful for the things that God has given us, for the things I don't have to deal with.

Point is, everyone has their problems, but my goodness, do we have to complain about trivial things like being a productive member of society on a Monday morning on facebook, when there are others who would love to have that particular blessing to complain about?

Using my child as a billboard.

So far along this journey of carrying and eventually giving birth to a beautiful baby boy, I have received many different outfits and baby clothing items, for which I am very grateful. It makes me happy to see how excited people get over the fact that Travis and I are bringing a human being into this world that will, hopefully, become a well-rounded, well-educated individual with the ability to thoughtfully consider and discern truth for himself. Even if our gracious gift-bestowers don't go that far with their expectation for our youngling, I am happy to see that they are happy (as opposed to terrified) that we are becoming parents.

So far, among these gifted clothing items, we have received no smart-ass shirts or anything of the like. Which kind of surprises me. Normally, I would not advocate using my son as a billboard, but I'll admit, the temptation is there for a few select things. Most notably, the baby's t-shirt I found on some right-winger site which reads "I survived Roe v. Wade." I'm sure taking a kid out in public with such a shirt will offend some. Honestly, I don't particularly care if anyone is offended that I firmly believe that abortion is, at any stage, in all forms, and in every situation, an incredibly gruesome unwarranted slaughter of a child. My views on this are even stronger now that I'm experiencing pregnancy, and a "surprise" pregnancy at that. The question of putting such politically charged messages on my child isn't one that considers how offensive the message might be to some. For me it's just a matter of whether or not I think it appropriate to use a child (who can neither choose to wear such clothing, nor understand and choose whether to support my beliefs) as a display for my beliefs.

Like I said, using our son as a billboard is tempting for someone like me who enjoys being occasionally inflammatory, though I think I will refrain from doing so. I've come around to the way of thinking that although my views on different matters are very important to me, how does it help, for example, the millions of unborn being led to the slaughter every year out of inconvenience if I only alienate and enrage people with a smart-ass statement posted on my child's chest? I probably do more to help those children and the pro-life movement by peaceably explaining my views on this issue, and the same goes for any other issue.

Now...when it comes to this particular issue (as with some others), my views are most often greeted with an extreme intolerance. As in, I state simply my view, and am not allowed to expound upon why I take such views because I am interrupted with "I can't believe that! That is so wrong!" and similar backlash. I find the people that preach tolerance are oftentimes the most intolerant of any viewpoint with which they do not agree. Especially in matters of religion and politics.

But anyway....rabbit trail there...though I've seen some kick-ass baby clothes that well-express my views on different issues, I am choosing not to use my son as a billboard for my views. However, I cannot be held responsible for said child's clothing choices once he's old enough to understand the issues and choose such messages for himself. For now, I relegate my desires for snarky clothing items to the onesie featuring Richard from the Looking For Group comic. Because putting an undead warlock/mage psychopathic murderer on your baby's chest is SO much better. :-D

Planning stuff

I was recently asked by a friend to divulge the details of cost for my wedding reception. I happily obliged, though I think I may have overloaded the poor soul with details. It made me contemplate event planning, and the planning my life has gone through lately in general.

I planned my first big event in college, helping along the way in one way or another with Campbell's hosting of the November IC for NCSL (if you dont know what that is, ask in comment and I'll explain). From there, I got elected Lieutenant Governor, and the task of planning our big shebang (Annual Session) fell to me. Prepared me for planning our wedding, something I did largely on my own. (At least for Session, I had Tara to come with me and hold stuff :-D). I love event planning. Gets the adrenaline going, getting into all the details and making everything just so. Finding the deals always makes my day too.

And then there's event planning for life. I find things like planning the logistics of moving, new jobs, a lot of the life changes scary but exciting to plan for. With the baby on the way, I've kind of gone into overdrive with it. Everything on my registry lists was carefully chosen after painstaking research, including the different brands and types of cloth diaper stuff we're going with. If I didn't put it on there, there's a reason for it (usually).

Now, I've come to a sort of stand-still. Life is entirely up in the air for me, with the job search and everything else. I want desperately to get on with life. To plan the nursery and put it together, to move or plan to move, to start my career in local government management. With everything on hold (to the point that I have no idea where I will wake up Christmas morning), I can't plan. I can't act on a plan. Right now, the plan is sit tight, waiting on job prospects and God knows what else. So I'm left with only the looming prospects of change. And change is something that scares the heck out of me. I get comfortable, what can I say? Try moving me out of North Carolina for instance. Will I do it? If I must. Will I whine about it the whole way until I get there and see that the rest of the country isn't so bad? You betcha. Unless Travis tries to move me to the Northeastern United States. That's grounds for divorce :-D.

Eh, for now though, I chill out with visions of what the plans will entail once I have a direction to put them in. And yes, this includes decorating a nursery.

Blogging

The past few months I've had a lot of fun using sarcasm and truth to discuss different things that have come up in the adventure that is mine and Travis' first pregnancy/expected little one. But usually there are about 80 different topics that cross my mind on any given day that I wouldn't mind ranting or commenting about. Those who know me realize that my naming this blog "fancy stricken" is appropriate, given I'll be focusing on whatever strikes my fancy at any given time. I am slightly ADD (at least Travis tells me), so there's a whole range of topics I might find interesting to discuss. Among them are politics (local, state, and federal alike), my pregnancy, marriage, church or religion, my dogs, the latest video game releases...you get the idea. Always open to comments and suggestions, though please refrain from using profanity.

Until I feel like writing again,

Sarah