Political Venting - Before I Go Crazy

I love this weekend. College Bowl Week goes into overdrive. I've going to end up watching at least a half dozen of these games.

Now, all I have to say is the following:

Go BLUE!!!! Go JACKETS!!!!!!

There is a phrase used in football and basketball to describe a person who's physique does not fit into the normal proportions for any particular position on the playing surface. Those folks are called Tweeners.

We have the same on the calendar. The 6 days between Christmas and New Year's is a tweener. It has nothing to do with Christmas, but if one is working then one doesn't really want to work (or probably does so at all) and if one is off but sitting around the house one doesn't exactly enjoy the time off either. So here it is, the tweener time.

For me, the tweener time got more tweener when my bosses at AFLAC thought it best to give me comp-time for the week. I believe I accidentally guilted them into it when we had a debacle involving our change over to the new credit card system and I ended up missing the first night of Hannukah along with most of the following weekend. I was none too happy, and they knew it. So, they called me and graciously gave me the time off.

Unluckily, I am still doing work for my part-time gig. So for 4 to 5 hours a day, I am a working guy. So this isn't exactly a vacation, but it's not nearly as much work as I'm used to. So it's a tweener.

Tweeners are everywhere. I'm starting to wonder if Hillary Clinton is a tweener. She's not a bad Senator, but I abhor the thought of her as a President. It's not that she's incapable, as she clearly is. But part of the job of President is to inspire and lead the nation. We've seen from the W years what happens when the President either cannot or will not inspire us to be better. I see the same problem with Hillary. I just don't get her as an inspiring figure. Barack Obama has all that quality, but does he have the experience? Will he become a tweener too?

What I believe is that I'm in that tweener category also. I'm 45. I'm not young, but not old. I'm not cool, but I'm not stodgy. I'm not the most intelligent man on the block, but I'm not stupid either. Some say a tweener is versatile, but I wonder whether it is ultimately a hindrance.

Just ask Hillary.

More things I've learned from this trip.

Seattle has traffic which is almost as bad as Atlanta's. It's horrible when it rains, which means it's horrible most of the time.

The pancake house at the hotel is wonderful, but a little pricey. Luckily, guests get $2 off cards, so it makes it very much worth while.

Not a bad hotel. There's a jacuzzi in the room. I enjoyed it last night, and I'm going to enjoy it again tonight.

This is a beautiful area. I took a drive east this afternoon, and found a town called Sammamish. It's on a lake, it's quite pretty, great houses (that are probably scary expensive). It reminded me of some of the small towns around lakes in Michigan.

Is there anything more boring than eating dinner alone in a hotel room?

Now, for a Political Scum announcement.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have found Scum heaven. It is the 2nd district of Louisiana. There, the electorate looked the other way as they re-elected William Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson is famous for keeping his excess cash in a freezer. He will probably soon be indicted on bribery charges. But the voters of Louisiana obviously missed out on this information, or just didn't care. So, they get what they get.

Luckily, speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has already said that he won't be sitting on the powerful Ways and Means committee. I'm not sure what he'll be doing, but it will probably involve him looking over his shoulder continuously waiting for his friends from the FBI.

I'm now in Seattle. Here's a few things I've already learned from my second trip here.

I'm taking Frontier every time I come out here, or anywhere west. They have live TV on flights for $5. So worth it on a plane. On my first flight, I worked and watched TV at the same time. It was great!!!!!

Nice little hotel here. The Redmond Inn. And they have a pancake house which goes with the hotel. I'll give you a full report tomorrow.

But, that brings us to the one thing I continually hate about traveling. Hotel beds. They are uncomfortable. I have already lied on this one, and the tradition continues.

I'm up at 5am here (not so bad, it's 8am Atlanta time) and into work at 7am.

No one on the WNNDL was able to give me a place or two to go tomorrow after work. I shall do some research at work.

Off to try to sleep.

It's December 1, 2006. We are officially in the down period.

In my not too distant past, the down period meant that I was depressed and hiding it from each and every person in my life. I try not to do that anymore. I take Zoloft (thank goodness for the generic drugs) to keep the depression at bay. I try like hell to keep my life a open book for Tracey, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. I think I'm getting better at it, but I know I fail sometimes. It's a bummer when I do.

Emotionally, I don't feel too bad at this point. Tracey's dad is in hospice and that is a strain. If for no other reason that negotiating through two different families with very different perspectives on life as an overall rule. It is sooo hard on Tracey. All I can really do is help her as much as I can. But if nothing else this has proven yet again how great our friends are. They have all been dying to help us, bring food, do shopping, anything. I may just have them re-paint the house, maybe put down new carpet.

I've been wanting to do a new Political Scum. Unluckily, it is now after the election and there is very little news on the scandals front. So I keep watching for the two or three scandals which are developing out there that I've been watching and waiting for. If we are lucky, one of my favorite political scums, Rep. William Jefferson of LA, will be voted out of office next week. I shall keep my fingers crossed.

I just found out that Tom Glavine is going back to the Mets. That pisses me off. I really, really wanted him to get win #300 in a Braves uniform, with me at the game. Now, I'll have to watch it on TV with him wearing a Mets uniform, which has never looked right on him. I know he was expensive, but don't you think that the extra crowds he would have garnered as he got closer to 300 would have made up for the extra salary?

But, the baseball winter meetings are next week. Thank goodness for Hot Stove news.

My fantasy football team sucks!!!! I'm 4-8, with little to get excited about. Just about every move I made this year blew up in my face. Bummer!!!

Quick, can I get to Hanukkah?