Life Has a Funny Way

Lots been going on for the past few weeks. I won't bore you with all the details, but here's a quick recap...

-- A California court ruled that parents are breaking the law if they teach their children at home without a credential. This one's actually a pretty big deal to me personally, having been home educated K-12 in California (by non-credentialed parents who did a damn good job, thank you very much). Full blog post on this will be forthcoming, but I must say it's been fun to see all the homeschooled kids come out of the woodwork and leverage the positions of influence they now have (after achieving academic and professional success) to fight this ruling. But don't let the word get out that we're not all crazy jumper-wearing homophobic anarchists. NBC writers will get terribly confused.

-- We (CASW) had our last full concert of the year last Sunday. We sang Dvorák's Stabat Mater at the Kennedy Center with the NSO. I found myself incredibly moved, not by the music as much (I didn't think it was our best performance), but by the text. That performance was really my Easter service.

-- I got a promotion. Which means that I've achieved one of the only concrete goals I've had for my life since first being asked the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" The answer has been "a Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill" since I was about 15. And not only do I get to check that box, but I get to work on the one policy issue that I have always wanted to -- health care. I'm already exhausted and overwhelmed, but ecstatic at the same time.

-- Appropriations are finally finished. Translated: I don't have to work weekends and 18-hour days anymore (at least for a while).

-- My husband, being the most amazing, generous man ever, and knowing that I was on the brink of collapse after approps, booked an entire spa day for me, which took up about 7 hours of my day today. I have never felt so pampered. Or so loved.

-- I got to go shopping this weekend for some new clothes because my old ones are falling off of me. This one actually is the most exciting of all of the above. It means that after a long, stressful and painful health ordeal and the frustration and weight gain that went along with it, I'm finally starting to get my life -- and my body -- back.

-- Barack Obama's campaign all but imploded last week, demonstrating that racism is alive and well in America... in the black community.

-- I forgot to fill out my bracket before the deadline last Thursday. Even though I couldn't care less about college basketball, and usually pick teams based on mascots (i.e. tigers would kill eagles), I still feel left out.

-- The death toll of the Iraq War, which just marked its fourth anniversary, just reached 4,000. To put that in perspective, 54,000 died in the three-year-long Korean war. About 300,000 died during the second World War.