I'm Right Back In It

Today's the day, but not really. The statute allows until 2/1 since there's no incumbant running, but I really wanted to file by today. My statement is almost ready, but my three word title is not perfect yet. I think that I'm just out of luck on that one. Attorney or Lawyer, let me know your thoughts.

I have about 8 million things to do, so I made a list of the most pressing things and then I forgot the list at home. The idea of making a new list seems daunting. Is that over anyone's head--Carl and Dave (quite seriously) pulled me aside yesterday to tell me that I have to be careful not to speak over people's heads. They can't understand me. I'm having a little trouble understanding what people don't understand about me saying "hire me", but I'll take suggestions as to how I can say that more clearly.

Debra at PTA just sent me an e-mail to ask if I was going to attend the tour party. I replied yes and she replied that she thought I might not come, because I was quoted in the newspress as cutting back on my volunteer activities. She said I should come, because there will be voters there. Of course I'm going where the voters are. A little press can be a bad thing.

And the adventure continues.

P.S. I spent all day Monday alone with Jackson--what a cutie. And I didn't catch a cold from the plane rides--all in all, a great trip.

I am so Skinny

Who knew? I went shopping for clothes yesterday. My campaign committee wants me to get a signature blue suit and yellow or cream blouse. They only had a cream blouse is size12 and wonder of wonder it fit. I looked everywhere for a royal blue suit. After work, I made Melody come with me to JC Penney and we searched high and low. I found some long johns and thought seriously about buying them--tried them on even. I went with L and size 14. Mel said that's her size so when I get smaller, she can have this stuff. The long johns, not what I was shopping for, were on this incredible sale, but I didn't have my JC Penney card, so the sale price was not as great. Thank goodness, so I could walk away. Why spend money I don't have on something I'll wear for two days. As we were walking out of the store, I saw something blue--a blue suit. It has black trim and it's not that attractive. Size 14 petite. Yeah, right I thought. It was on the up to 70% off rack (from $160) and Mel found a tag that said $49.99, so I tried it on. It fit so perfect. I need new suits--really, my suits are falling off of me. But it's not that attractive and it's two tone--blue and black trim. It's lined--that's good, but the pants are narrow. I'm desperate--I hate buying clothes when I'm desperate. So I go to the counter to buy it. It rang up for $32. I almost paid $20 for long johns and instead I got a suit that fits perfect for $32. How cool is that.

I was glad that Ryan won for Biggest Loser--I didn't watch it though--some meeting. I was flipping channels last night and VH1 has a celebrity biggest loser show. I'm done with reality tv. Everywhere I look there's something about amazing weight lose--it must be a January thing. Anyway, amazingly I can feel muscles in my thighs--I thought it was some kind of tumor at first. It really freaks me out. I mean it's cool, of course, but freaky too. Since my knees don't hurt anymore, I've started doing the thigh exercises at Curves. And I'm making a conserted effort to jiggle my legs as much as possible--no more concentrating on the toes as a way to redivert the energy. Talk about easy exercise-- I can jiggle unconsciously all the time. That's got to build muscle and burn calories over time, right. Of course, the right leg does tend to take all the initive, so I'll have to work harder on the left so I won't walk lopsided.

The train is on the track

So I woke up this morning and I was thinking how am I going to be President of PTA when I'm City Clerk--that's a lot of time and all times of the day. It's going to be difficult to juggle everything. I won't have girl scouts anymore--I mean I'll stay involved, but not so much. Oh no, I think I was saying that I'd be president of ABWA next year also because of convention. Woops. I'm going to be president of Kiwanis next year. Geeze oh man, I'm going to be swamped. Of course, I might not win the election--there are eight candidates. All I need is the bad luck to be unfindable in the list and it's all over. I'm going to be plenty PO'd to put money into a campaign and then not win. I better win--that's all there is to it.

Rosa who is on my campaign committee came to Kiwanis today to see the Masonic Lodge where we're going to have the kick off party on Feb. 2 (you're all invited). Then we went over to city hall to take pictures--Rosa wanted one of the Glendale flag. The council chambers were locked, but we happened upon a council member in the hall and he opened the door for us and even got up on a stool to hold the flag up behind me. How cool is that. Dave is putting the pictures on a disc and then Victoria (Rosa's 13 year old daughter) is going to play with them and put them on the website. I think I'm at least half way on the signatures and this train has left the station and is chugging up the hill (at least I hope it's a hill and not a mountain).

No Cake Walk

Where on earth did that phrase originate--I went to a cake walk once--it's like musical chairs, but whereever you land you get the cake and I guess since all cake is good cake, it doesn't matter where you land so it's all good--a cake walk. See what a great problem solver I am.

The City Clerk candidate forum last night was very interesting. Scoping out the competition, screwing up my speech and generally sounding lightweight by comparison was the call of the day. They all seem very nice, but even now I want to give them advice about what they are doing wrong. This is good I suppose that I can see their weaknesses, but unfortunely I practically shouted mine, so we're even. Lorna is the best prepared candidate and probably the most qualified (except for me, of course). Stephanie is a delight--she's well qualified and the most charming (except for me, of course). Paulette is too young. She wants it the most (except for me, of course) and Adrienne says there's a bunch of signs out for her already. The guys in the race are too cavalier (but then, so am I). Arty is charming and young and so not right for the job--he's an activist and he'd be bored in a minute. Steve is very nice, has a long list of community service (not as long as mine, of course), but I don't know--he looks tired. George is retiring from business--he looks like he'd retire after one year on the job as City Clerk, so it's a little hard to take him seriously. He did say that he would expand the office to give them more room if he was elected--tipping me off as to how small my new office will be. I hope there's enough room for the Kincaids. All in all, it's going to cost money and it's not a sure thing. Of course, if it wasn't difficult, it wouldn't be an adventure now would it. I'm going to need a lot of signs.

It's Still Raining

We are in storm 2 of 3 so they say. It's just a steady drizzle so far, but it's more rain then we've had in the past three years combined. This is a day to be curled up at home, but I volunteered at the Y this morning and now I'm at work with a desk full of stuff calling me.

My campaign is underway--collecting those signatures and making plans. The other candidates didn't all quit when they saw I was running, so it's a race. On Monday, there's a forum about the office at the coordinating council of home owner's associations. Sounds interesting. Carl says that I should have a 2 minute, 3 minute, 4 minute and 5 minute speech ready to go. That reminds me of the five minute speech that I had to prepare for top ten. I did a dry run for the chapter and then asked how long I'd been speaking--20 minutes.

Does anyone know a good joke I can start my speeches off with? The city clerk is in charge of dog licenses--maybe something about dogs. I've sewn up the dog vote in Glendale, my dog Link had to barked all night, but she's wagging her tail to say they're all on my side now. I asked why it took all night and she seemed to say, well there are a lot of different languages spoken in the homes in Glendale...so it took a little longer...to translate... yeah, I better not quit my day job.

The Biggest Loser

I hate reality shows and as a rule turn the channel as fast as I can when they come on, but I must admit that I am fasinated by the Biggest Loser. I think I've caught just about every episode, although I turn the channel when they had challenges (except climbing the stairs in the high rise building--wow, I was right there with them and the spinning OMG) and I push mute when they get all teary and smultzy (of course then the close caption comes on and I have to force myself not to read it). But it is absolutely riviting to see these people melt away. I probably wouldn't have been able to watch it if I didn't have a remote control to change the station a lot during it (I wouldn't watch the interpersonal "who do we vote off" stuff), but seeing Mo run with his little league team last night even now makes me want to cry for joy.

Cookies went ok last night (three new troops showed up), but I didn't run out of supplies (Council sent a box of extras). Two troops that usually have a lot of cookie booths were not there and the booth person said too bad. I am not doing that job. (She sent them an e-mail today--yea). Volunteers, volunteers I have to keep repeating that we are all volunteers.

Nominating committee is having another meeting--joy. Today is Kiwanis and ABWA, tomorrow is Kiwanis and my campaign meeting, Friday is Kiwanis, Saturday is ABWA and then I think I have Sunday off. I guess I'll find out at my campaign meeting what plans everyone has for me. I used to have this great map of Glendale that set out all the different neighborhoods, but I don't remember what I did with it. I'm a little afraid that I'm starting to want this too much, but that might be what it takes to win so I don't want to stop either. Adventure, here I come.

In the Middle of a Good Book

Well, I started Little Earthquakes because I had ten minutes to kill. Big mistake. I don't have time to read it now and I can't put it down. It invades all my time, by sitting over there looking compelling. I mean I'm already an expert procrastinator and now I have yet another arrow in the quiver diverting me.

I'm on the nominating committee for PTA. I volunteered because I wanted to be on the board. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the nominating committee will appoint people they know and if you want to be on the board, get on the nominating committee. So we got together, juggled things around, made some calls, made offers, got turned down, got a few reluctant ok's (with promises that we'd help and do all the work, if they'd just take the title) and today after the slate is finally done we get the grief for our choices. No good deed goes unpunished, that's all I can say. Tonight is Girl Scout Cookies. In November there were 19 troops registered and today there are 27, but of course I only have supplies for 19. This is going to be so much fun. I refuse to do cookie booths, but council (in their wisdom) has set out all this criteria for cookie booths. I don't have any volunteers willing to do all this stuff that council says will be done for the troops. Council wants lists and times and quite frankly, no one is willing to put it together. I'm so not looking forward to this year's cookie sale.

People are calling to encourage me in the City Clerk race and that's nice, but when I actually turn around and ask for help, the encouragement takes a step backwards. I still need to get a straw hat and I need to make some buttons. (Of course, one lady cautioned me against buttons "after the fiasco of the buttons in the last race"--apparently in the ABC measure race, buttons were worn "too much.") Doris said that Pam Ellis' husband would help with lawn signs, but Pam says that they are best friends with one of the other candidates, so that might not work. This morning I got a call from a homeowner's association that is putting on a forum for the City Clerk race--next Monday (same day as PTA, which is actually a good excuse to miss the PTA meeting for the senoritis program that doesn't really apply to me). Less than a weeks notice--this is going to be fun.

I went to see Beyond the Sea about Bobby Darin on Sunday with Gloria--it was so good. Caveat: I had no expectations whatsoever, so just the good singing was enough to carry the picture. I like Kevin Spacey, but it really was an indulgent picture with him pretty much doing anything he wanted. I enjoyed it, nonetheless.

And lest we all forget that I am wasting away to nothing--I finally achieved my half way point (and had to put a safety pin in the back of my slacks that are falling down). I have no time to eat this week which is really my biggest challenge--forcing myself to eat small meals at reasonable intervals. I sure hope I can keep this up forever. In and Out Burger is starting to call me--between that and Little Earthquakes, I'm getting very distracted.