November in a Nutshell

It's been another busy month, lots of shopping hanging out with friends and the boy, family time and the beginning of the holiday season. So without further ado here is November in a nutshell.

• The Elections: This was a supercharged election year and there were lots of people who were passionate on both sides of the playing field, and even now still some that are upset/glorifying in the outcome of the race.  The incumbent was re-elected and we shall see how the next four years go in this great country of ours. Whether your side won or lost if you exercised your right to vote you made your voice heard. You may not always get your way, but as long as you do your part to make your opinions heard, our country will continue to be great. 

• Veteran's Day Weekend: Veteran's Day is a day that we say thank you for all the sacrifices that the men and woman in our United States Armed Forces have made for us to keep us free and safe. It's also a three day weekend (for a lot of people, not so much me) in which I house sat for my aunt; took a day trip to Camarillo for to go shopping with my sister, my father's girlfriend, and he came along as well; and my boyfriend came to visit. I found an awesome pair of sunglasses to replace all the scratched ones I have in my collection and the cutest jacket. I had some great laughs with my sister trying on silly hats and getting to spend time with family that I don't normally spend much time with.  Getting to see the boyfriend was a special treat, he wasn't planning on coming to town that weekend, but he was able to get things finished up at school earlier than planned and was able to share his long weekend with me.
• Baby Date: This month I got to visit my friends who had twins about a year and a half ago, I haven't seen them in awhile it was great fun to see how much the boys had grown since I saw them last (I think it was sometime in May or June). It is so neat to get to watch them grow into their personalities and become little boys instead of just babies.





Wine Tasting at Rancho Sisquoc



I made these Turkey Treats for the Big Day

• Thanksgiving: This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with good friends of our family and their family. We did the same last year, and I'm hoping this becomes our new tradition. We have such a great time together and there is very little drama that often surrounds big family events. My boy also came home for this long weekend. He celebrated the day itself with his family, but the Saturday after the holiday we went to a big breakfast at one of my favorite local restaurants (Kay's Country Kitchen in Old Orcutt, if you get a chance you should check it out), visited with his grandma a bit, then went wine tasting at Rancho Sisquoc and Kenneth Volk Vineyards. It was such a nice and relaxing day, something to be really thankful for.

• The Wizard of Oz: While this technically happened on Thanksgiving weekend too, I felt that it needed it's own bullet point. Every year since I was about 5 and was old enought to attend plays at PCPA my mom and I have gone to see their Christmas show. This year was no exception and we saw one of my favorites: The Wizard of Oz. The production was a lot different than in years past in that they used puppets for the munchins, flying monkeys, winkies, the great and powerful Oz, and Toto. It was really interesting to see what they could do with the dolls and how they could bring them to life. The actors who played Dorothy and Crew were phenomenal as usual. PCPA never fails to entertain. I'm so glad that I live in a place where I have amazing theatre in my own backyard.

 



 

Thanks for reading, and until we meet again, I hope you have a safe and wonder filled holiday season.

On Political Ground... A Quick Opinion Piece

Its an election year folks, and that means things are about to get ugly. Whether you live in a red or blue state or lean to the left or right, everyone seems to have an opinion of who is the better leader of our country. My focus here isn't to tell you who to vote for, your political affliations aren't my business, much like your religion or your sex life. What I am going to talk about, and maybe get a real conversation started, is about how American (and maybe the world, my scope of experience is pretty limited) Politics is completely disgusting and we need to change our process if we're ever going to make it a better country and do our part to better the world.

In my opinion a politician should put the people of his (I'm just going to use the pronoun "his" for the sake of keeping things to the point, I fully support women in politics) country before special interest groups. He should protect the Constitution above any religions, even his own. Freedom of Religion also gives his constituents a Freedom FROM Religion that should be protected just as vigoriously. When science makes break throughs that could save the lives of millions it shouldn't be discouraged because The Church finds it "icky" and "against God's plan." People say that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and they look at our Pledge of Allegiance as an example, however a quick glance at wikipedia will tell you that the section that states that we are one nation "under God" wasn't even added until 1954, when the Pledge was originally written in the 1892 and many of our founding father's didn't even believe in organized religion. George Washington wasn't a Christian by today's standards... does that mean he was a bad president?

Freedom of Speech comes at a cost. This means sometimes you have to hear things that you don't like or may not fit your "One Million Moms" mold, but if you can speak out, so can your opposition. Assholes like the West Borough Baptist Church have just as much of a right to protest on public grounds as the "Occupy Wall Street," and "Pro-Life/Choice" movements. Are any of their opinions morally, logically, ethically correct? It's your opinion against mine. It doesn't really matter, as long as they are behaving in a non-violent manner they have the right to make their voices heard. If we silence one of them, we have to silence them all.

I feel like politicians should stick to the issues at hand (health care, welfare, unemployment, national debt, on going wars in the Middle East, etc.) and tell us what their plan is to fix it, instead of telling me why their opposition is wrong. Tell me why you are the best man for the job and not why the other guy is a loser. Show me your intelligence without stooping to name calling. Prove to me that you're honest without telling me that everyone else is a lying crook. I want to be inspired, I want to pick the best possible candidate, not the lesser of two evils.