But I am addicted to a video game.

Yes, it's true. I cannot stop playing Guitar Hero III on the Wii. I love it!! :) At least it's helping me not be so bored every night when Charles is at work.

Just a few thoughts before I get to work and don't have time to think about this stuff for the rest of the day.

With the presidential campaigns in full swing, things are getting pretty crazy. The primary elections have been quite interesting - with no one candidate really standing out more than the rest. I have to admit that I'm surprised at how well Huckabee is doing. After Bush's administration, I never thought a right-winged guy would have a chance. I thought for the Republicans to have any hope of getting the white house, they'd have to have some pretty moderate candidates. Apparently, I was wrong. They have a couple of pretty moderate candidates and they aren't doing so hot. It seems Republicans still want the far-right candidate. Can someone like this really win the election, though?

I'm pretty torn this time around. First of all, my political views have changed quite a bit since our time in Australia. Second, I guess I'm thinking more about every issue rather that the ones the Christian circle tends to target - abortion and homosexual marriage. Third, I'm realizing how extremely inconsistent the parties are. Take abortion, for example. A good cause - defending those who cant' defend themselves, holding a higher view of the sanctity of life... but then how can we be for capital punishment? In both cases aren't we choosing to take someone else's life? Or what about war? I'm not trying to push any buttons here. These are things I am still working through myself. But isn't there some inconsistency with supporting a war that is killing thousands of innocent civilians but you can't kill a child that isn't born yet? Aren't they both murder? And I understand the argument that in the war instance, if we don't help, more civilians will die at the hand of their ruthless leaders. But does the end justify the means? I don't know. I also understand that if you make abortion illegal, it's not going to stop women from having abortions, or stop some "doctors" from performing them. It will still happen, but it probably won't be done as safely, which will put more lives at rist. It's all a little discouraging. We always talk about voting for the "lesser of the two evils." But really, what if there is no lesser of the two evils - just 2 equal evils with different ideas of what evil is?

Last night I was laying in bed wondering who Jesus would vote for. I know - that sounds ridiculous. But seriously, if Jesus were running for President, what would his platform be? I'm pretty sure it would surprise everyone. Jesus never did what was expected. But sometimes Christians (myself included) act like we have God all figured out and we have the exact political views that Jesus himself would have. Honestly, I think that's garbage. Sure, I think from studying Scripture and knowing Jesus and following his commands will certainly give us a better understanding of who we are to be and what we are to stand for. But we take things so far.

For example, at Asbury there is a big political discussion going on and this was a comment someone made (and I'm quoting) "Socialism is fundamentally anti-Christian. With its utopian plan, it attempts to replace the power of God with the state."
Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, and forgive me if you are the one who wrote that and you are reading this. But I think that's a pretty naive thing to say. First of all, I don't think that socialism is anti-Christian or pro-Christian. Just like I don't think capitalism is anti-Christian or pro-Christian. It's neutral. It's political. It's a system that some governments use to try to take care of the people in their countries. And you know what? In some societies it works very, very well. It has it's pros and cons, but so does capitalism. What about the "emphasis of personal greed that is required in capitalism and how it adversely benefits those with means at the expense of those without, and how it breeds predatory business practices, abuse of labor etc etc etc" (another student's response to the first statement)? We talk about socialism like it is the same as communism, and it isn't. What is one of the main theme of socialism? Equal healthcare for all - taking care of the poor. Why do we act like there is something wrong with that? If the Church isn't doing its job to take care of the poor, someone has to.

Anyhow, I digress.
All this is to say that I have no idea who I'm going to vote for this year. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

On a completely different note, last night I started watching season 2 of Lois and Clark and ate half a box of double stuffed oreos. :) Between the chocolate and the politics, it's no wonder I had a difficult time falling asleep last night.

I have been terrible about eating lately. I'm not on a diet or anything, but I at least try to eat healthy. Lately, that has gone done the tubes. Charles and I ate lunch out 3 times this week... Mexican, Subway (and not an "under 6 grams of fat" sub), and McDonalds. Terrible. Then last night I tried out a new recipe for Olive Garden Alfredo. It's terrible for you, but boy is it delicious. It is very very close to real Olive Garden Alfredo. So we ate our little heart's out and then it expanded in my stomach - bleh. I looked about 5 months pregnant.

Then Charles informed me that I am making dessert to take to our friends house tonight. So last night I made a key lime pie and today and I'm going to make chocolate blancmange. I have no idea what it is except that it's Australian and it's chocolate. And it looks easy. I probably don't need to make both desserts, I'm just afraid that the key lime pie is not going to be good.

So we probably will have a lot of dessert left over that I will just HAVE to eat... :)

What can I say? I love food.

It is January 7th and it is 70 degrees outside. Unbelievable! I love it! I missed snow and was glad to see it in NY (but not drive in it) but I'll take the warmer weather any day.

Also, the day we drove back (Wednesday), they had an inch of snow on the ground and all the schools were closed. It's a totally different world from NY, where you could get 4 feet and you'd still have to go to school. However, people in this state CANNOT drive in any conditions except dry roads and green grass (and even that is questionable) so I suppose it's better that things close. Charles went to the store on Thursday and even though there was snow on the grass, the roads were totally dry and clear and people were STILL driving 20 mph. It makes me frustrated sometimes, but other times it just makes me laugh.
Then again, being that there are NO SHOULDERS, I can't say as I blame them TOO much.

Lastly, and this has nothing to do with weather, I finished watching the first season of Lois and Clark on Sunday (my Christmas present for Charles). I love it. I want to get season 2 soon!

Alrighty - back to work!

I know I"m a little late on the whole Christmas thing, but this vacation was just too much fun to stop what I was doing to blog. I had almost 2 weeks off from work (paid - woohoo!) for the Christmas break, which was wonderful. It was the longest vacation I've had since my family went to Ireland back in 2003. It was great fun. We spend 4 days with Chuck's family in NC for Christmas and 6 days in NY with my family for New Years and a day with my Grandma in PA in between! I didn't get to see as many as my friends from home as I would have liked, but it was a good balance of relaxing and going. I got to see my roommate and her hubbie, which was great. We went out for Mia's pizza (the best - cheese pizza dipped in mild wing sauce! mmm!) and had a fun time. I didn't get to see my best friend, which sucked. But it's hard when you have family stuff going on. My parents re-created Christmas for us, since we couldn't be there Christmas day, and it was so special. They even had all my cousins and aunts and uncles go over to my grandparents house the night before "christmas" and Granda read the Christmas story and everything. That is one of my most favorite things of all our Christmas traditions and it made me feel so special that everyone was willing to do Christmas all over again.

It was good to be with our families again and it was good to be around AJ. I sure miss having a dog. (This is me with my "puppy". He is so so cute! He loves me.)

For Chuck's family, it was the first time they'd all been together since Christmas 2005. Pretty crazy.
For New Years Eve we had some friends come up from Houghton, which was fun. We played games to celebrate the new year. That is the best way, I think! I also got to go skiing with my dad, brother and cousin. I don't miss the snow all that much, but i sure missed skiing. Especially with my dad. We have a lot of fun.
We had good weather for traveling, which was really good. I hate hate hate driving in bad weather. They were calling for a big snowstorm on Wednesday - the day we were coming home - but we only had a little bit from Cleveland to Cincinatti. Nothing that really stuck - praise God!

So now it is back to work. I have a lot to catch up on. But I don't mind so much, since I feel like I had a sufficient break. And it was definitely nice to come back and fill out my time card for full pay, when I only worked 2 days out of the past 2 weeks. Beautiful! :)