Wednesday can not come soon enough.....

I think the title says pretty much everything.

I am sick of this election crap already. The longer it has been, the more and more I am turned off by all of the politicians on both sides. It is at this point that I don't even really care who wins, just so we can move on.

It is hard for me because I am an issues guy, not a party guy. Both parties suck in my opinions; too polarizing. I am fiscal Republican with Democratic Ideals. It is a frustrating position to be in......

First. John McCain. Seems he has been trying to dig himself out of a hole. Literally and figuratively. Man that guy is old. Also, one of the major issues that I care about, the environment and alternative energy, he seems to be far less concerned than other candidates. Drill for more energy....not going to be as productive as investing into an energy infrastructure overhaul. Temporary solution to a longer term problem. Plus, I feel he has turned into a former shell of his original self and is now just spewing out Republican propoganda.

Next, Obama. Man that guy can speak! I bet you he could convince us he invented the internet..... He is all about change. I am for change, but some of his promises are ridiculous. First, "share the Wealth" Biggest concern with democrats. I grew up learning that if you succeed, you should benefit. And it was a hard lesson cause I usually wasn't always the winner. To me it seems like they are almost punishing success. And that is not a way to fix this economy. Heck yeah I would benefit more under Obama's Tax Cuts, but I feel everyone should have to pay an equal percentage of what they make. Democrats make people feel like victims and the people holding them down become scapegoats. Plus I think Obama would run into some hard times with his budget, considering he is promising half of America a portion back. And he want to reform healthcare? (Fat chance), schools (lofty ideal), and get out a Iraq (not a smart decision to do an immediate pullout).

Both candidates pretty much suck in my opinion and I am forced to chose between the lesser of two evils. And combined throughout the Primaries and the presidental campaign, they would have spent almost nearly $1 billion dollars to convince us that they deserve to be our president. I am thinking that the $1 billion dollars could have been spent much more productively....

Side Tangent: People are stupid and only live in the here and now. Frustrating that everyone pretty much focused on just the economy. People are talking about how the Bush Economic Plan was the worse thing that could ever happen to our country. When if you look at it, the Dow Jones average actually was increasing shortly after 9/11 (when the markets tanked due to, you know, those planes). They were rising and actually went above bush's starting level. Then the housing market collapsed thanks mostly to sub prime mortgages. (which were only possible thanks to Congress basically requiring that banks and lending companies give out risky loans, and then allowing those risky loans to get traded between various agencies until they were finally collected on). Some people just thought they should be able to live above their means and now here we are. What did they think was going to happen. Those people should have lost their houses. I don't get a redo on most of my mistakes.... Ugh.....

Won't even talk about the VPs. They really don't matter at all.

When will people realize that our president really won't be able to achieve all the promises that they make. Their hands are tied by the congress which has the real power in this country, yet people seem to forget this. Minus Bush trying to attain more executive power for himself, the legislative branch is the real area where change can and should be made. They are the ones that make the laws, pass the budgets, etc. Yet they too are stuck in "Washington Limbo" cause they can't seem to work together on anything.

Ideally, there should be term limits on politicians in Washington. No lifers.

It is frustrating for me because most politicians feel that once they are elected, they take that as a validation that their personal beliefs are what matter to their constituents. When in fact they should be basing all of their decision on how their vote would best suit their constituents overall.

So, I guess if I had an ideal vote, it would be for change. A change to how everything is going down in Washington right now.

"The world's a mess, and I just want to rule it....." Oh, if only that were true......

Lazy Saturday

So work this past week was good, but maybe a bit stressful. I had a lot to do, and not much time to do it in. I still don't have my list of things to do done, but I think I am going to take a relaxing saturday to chill. It is drizzling on and off, so there is not much I can do outside (cuts some of items on my to-do list).

I finally got my freezer from home here. Now I can fill it up! Never again should I run out of food choices.....most people don't understand my desire to have 13 cubic ft of freezer space. But when you grow up with 2 chest freezers as well as 2 more on other refrigerators, you can begin to understand why I love having freezer space.

Putting off cleaning my room. It is a mess, but hey, I can live in it still. I did lose a notebook that I need, so maybe that will give me the desire to clean it up a bit. Hopefully it is in that mess, or I am really going to start worrying (well not really, but it is something that I do need eventually).

No other plans for the weekend. Should be nice and relaxing.

Volunteering in India

So, one of the side effects of me being bored is I start thinking about all the places that I want to go to in this world. I love traveling and would be a in a car/airplane every other day if I could. So during this weekend when I was working overnights, I had a lot of free time on my hands. And you can only guess what I ended up finding.

I don't know how I found the site, but I just started to look at projects-abroad.org. It is a website with volunteering projects all over the world. At first I was interested in their China trips (cause everyone knows that I am secretly half chinese in my soul.) However, I started to get really interested in their Conservation and Environment projects. All of them look to be a blast. From saving rainforest in Peru or Costa Rica to helping with Reef conservation in Thailand or turtle hatching in Mexico, I really thought these would be cool projects to do. Strange as it may sound however, the one that got me to most interested was working on a sustainable farm in India. And I really do not know why for sure. Maybe because this is the one that would be the most out of my comfort zone.

Maybe it is because I have started to be more self sustainable in my own life, that the farm idea kind of fit in with that. I never thought that a farm would draw me back into farming. Ha, wait till my dad hears about that one! It only took on half way around the world to do it. Another aspect of the India trip is to plant trees and teach local farmers about conservation etc. I really think it would be a blast to do.

The thing is, this project lasts about 1 month. Or 2 if you want it to. I would probably have to quit my job, and I can only imagine what my parents/family would say about that. I do take their advice, but at the same time, I am the one who ultimately gets to make this decision. So here is what I am thinking. When I decide to move to another job, I may just end up taking about 3 months off in between and go off on some crazy adventure like this.

So who knows, maybe in the next few months I will be over in India watching worms compost material......

Busy weekend

So I had to work my first Holiday of work. And I was lucky to pull (aka get left with) Labor Day weekend. And not just the weekend, but overnights. Now I shouldn't complain because I could work on a unit or floor where I have to do nights more frequently, but man was it rough having to switch to a new schedule.

Friday night was probably the most difficult for me. However, the night itself was not so bad. It was busy prior to us getting there, but once 2300 hit, the OR was silent.

The next night was not as hard to stay awake. Granted that may have been because I slept from 0800 to about 1830 waking up a few times in between. We did have an ortho case on, but I didn't have to do too much for it. I was supposed to do a general case (lap appy), but the other nurse loves doing them and wanted to do it. I had no qualms in giving it to her.

Sunday, I kept hearing the helicopters flying and landing on the hospital the whole day. I kept telling myself that the night was going to be rough if they kept bring people into the ER. Well when I got there, there wasn't anything going on, but like I thought the ER was crazy busy. So always on alert down in the OR (well actually just fingers crossed that nothing would have to come down). Finally we heard about a speenic laceration, and not only did we get ready, we got ready for 2 separate rooms. Because charge did not now where he wanted to put it. Ugh. But after we rushed to get this emergency case set up, they decided that they did not need to actually come down to the OR till the morning. Fine by me. This poor kid sounded like he was beat up pretty bad. Lesson learned: Always wear your seatbelt and physics will always win over a human body.

The rest of the night was probably my favorite. Myself and a coworker were trying to see if one of the ghosts that haunts the core would show itself, but nothing happened. Bummer. I also found a website where I can watch old seasons of The Amazing Race! Best part of my weekend! Now I will get to finish watching all the seasons/episodes that I never was able to catch. Awesome. Except now I have a time waster at my disposal.......

Just woke up from only about 4 hrs of sleep hoping that I can stay up till the night, where my body will fall asleep, thus returning to its normal sleep schedule.

Heres to hoping.

Nap time

So....the older I get, the less and less likely I get to take rest periods during the afternoon. AKA a nap. And today I had the perfect opportunity to do such a thing as I don't have to fall asleep early tonight as I don't work till Friday 2300. And I just woke up refreshed and in a much better mood than I had been in prior to sleeping.

I had been getting frustrated with work situations and started to have a negative attitude, so I told myself that I was just tired and cranky like my nieces get when they too need a rest. And man I feel like my brain is relaxed and calm and able to better process things. Thus I am in a much better mood.

Naps rule!

My current life statements

Life is not just a set of random happenstances.

Words that come from my mouth should be spoken in truth.

I am on a path to better not only myself, but everything around me.

Green is more than a color.

Life is much more than what we have or don't.

Do no harm.

Leave no trace.

Happiness is found beyond circumstance.

Find yourself and others will find you.

If you do not give 100% of yourself everyday, who can say that you have truly lived?

Science!

So I went to the Science Museum yesterday with a good friend. We had a blast! First, when we got there, we thought that we would have to miss the sole reason for us wanting to go....the Star Wars exhibit.

Well, it just so happens that the one ticket guy told us that the tickets for the 130 entrance were still available when in fact they were not. So what does he decide to do? He gives us entrance tickets for 1130, so we did not have to wait in line. He officially became our favorite person who works at the Science Museum.....

And after about 1.5 hrs, I was over Star Wars, but Audrey still need to get her fix. I was ready to head out and see real science....

The rest of the day was fun. I got to see my dinosaurs. Which made me happy. I got to play and learn at the same time. Favorite exhibit was the video globe. I want one in my house just so I can see the entire planet at once.

I did realize though that the Science Museum is set up more for little kids. I don't mean to brag, but I feel like I knew almost everything in there already. But it was still fun. I got to play with Fire, water, watch a brain surgery on a video (which is not a cool as seeing the real thing....I know cause I have seen it....).

All in all, it was a good day to go to the science museum. But I think I would have enjoyed the Zoo a little more. Oh, well, there is always next time.