Tell Tale Signs of Summer

Graduation! I thought it would never get here. Seems odd to me in a way -- graduation again. I am the first in my family to attend a college and the first to attain a masters degree. (in public administration) I know that I will pretty much always work for the labor movement, some other non-profit or the government, so I knew an MPA was for me. I have started a research project now that I have the time. I will keep the details close for now, but in a year or so -- look for the book, coming soon to a dusty library near you!

My parents will be traveling from Wisconsin to attend my graduation. I am so glad that they are able to attend. My parents played a big part in who and what inspired me when I wanted to chuck it all and continue to wallow in the status quo. I also have some of the most amazing friends -- we seem to inspire each other when the need arises and I thank them for that as well.

Now that the degree is done, I continue to be a squeaky wheel and bug my boss for some sort of promotion. She does the best she can in these times and I doubt that I have ever worked for someone who cares so much for the people who work around her. I find that some of the things that I might have wanted to do a few years ago, no longer are so. I don't want to have a job that makes me travel a lot; this is not due to the whole 9-11 dynamic, but the fact that I enjoy my spouse and home life very much and don't like to be away from it. So now I look to those administrative management type jobs that still allows me to interact with many people (I enjoy that a lot), but also allows me to go home each night and be with the one I care about -- the one that no matter what happened that day, can make all things right again.

Well, enough of this -- time to prepare for a meeting. C'ya!

In Each Life...

Well, we got our dusting of snow and a little ice here in the nations capital city. Looked wonderful, but did not last long. I was of two minds of whether or not to have a snow day from work. If we stayed home, I would still be working hard on two classes I am taking to finish my masters degree, so either way -- there was not going to be a day of rest granted. We at my house did however get to go to a local concert of the DC GLBT Chorus; it was very nice and was a great respite from the angst of the world outside. It allowed me to take off my mind the confusion many of my fellow students have with our first assignment of Analytical Techniques.

Hillary Clinton collapsed during a speech today – I hope she’s okay…we need people like her if we are ever going to win back some sort of dignity for our country…Bush has really made a mess of things. As a veteran, I can honestly say that he should be impeached! His lies have caused and continue to cause the deaths of many innocent soldiers in our armed forces. Hell, Clinton lies about a bit of personal business that is strictly between he and his family and the Republicans want to impeach him – Bush lies, thousands die – and not one word about impeachment! Makes me sick to think that not one Senator has the courage to stand up and get that ball rolling!

Well, enough for today…back to the grind.

Me at the office 

In the Beginning..

Okay, so this is my first shot at this blog business. It will be a work in progress and we can all at once watch what happens here. The title of the page is taken from an old newspaper reporter, Heywood Broun. He used to have a column that was syndicated all over the country and that was the title of it. He used it much like we are using these blogs. Since he was rather famous and had some clout, he could spout his thoughts about the injustices he saw and get away with it.

So, here we are. Now, about me. I work for a large international labor union and am in school wrapping up my MPA degree, three more classes and I am done. Whew, thought I would never get there. I also volunteer with a group called Pride At Work, a constituency group of the AFL-CIO. It works to build bridges between the labor and the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi and transgender) communities. You can check out the web site here .

I live in Maryland and work in Washington, D.C. -- Since I came from a small town in Wisconsin...and I do mean small, less than 700 people, D.C. was a big change. It has been almost 15 years now since I moved here and it does not seem like the huge city it was when I first came here. I see now that it is fairly a small place with big things going on, political and otherwise.

Well, that's it for now. Will be doing more as the muse directs.