Politics & American Idol

I've been watching the news here and there lately when I get that itch (which is pretty constant these days). I know, I know-Clem told me not to, but I just can't help myself sometimes. I feel so stupid and completely ignorant if I don't know what's going on. After I mowed the yard this morning, I came inside to cool off and....I watched Fox News-the only one I'll watch. Of course, since the DNC's going on, that's pretty much all anyone's covering. Needless to say I could do without that coverage, but at least I know what the enemy's plotting, at least what they SAY they're plotting. So I was sitting there watching it and someone was out on the street briefly interviewing people about who they're voting for-if they're even aware of the upcoming election in 69 days-and why. They're mostly young, maybe in their 20's-and I can say that now that I'm not in MY 20's anymore. All I heard spewing from their mouths was petty, ignorant and, most of all, uninformed BS. "I like Obama because he's just so confidant." (Because THAT'S what makes a good president) "I like Obama because I think he really cares about this country." (Nevermind the ridiculous taxes he'll impose or the fact that he won't render honors the flag) "I'm voting for Obama because he has really good stage presence"(No joke, that's what that stupid girl said) "Blah, blah, blah................................." It sounds like they're voting on "American Idol" and not for the next president. Is that what this nation's coming to? Does ANYONE care about something besides the next stupid reality show that'll be on or what they're wearing to prom? Am I just retarded for caring about what's going on in D.C. instead of from what 3rd world country Pretty Boy and Hemorrhoid Lips are adopting their next kid(s)? Am I stupid for caring about what's going on socially in this country instead wasting my time saving the whales or adopting more "green" ways of living? (By the way, "global warming's" a joke and I'll argue that to my death. I think Al Gore and the big auto manufacturers are conspiring together, and Gore's making a HUGE profit. But that's just the tip of the iceberg for me.) Why can't all these people take a more active interest in for whom they vote? And why doesn't Obama-siah allow anyone to talk about his big ears or his wife or his WHITE mother or his middle name or his voting record or anything else that's the least bit questionable and/or relevant? Why is everything racist if it's something he doesn't want to talk about? How in the hell are his ears a racial issue? I've seen PLENTY of white people with ginormous ears......RON HOWARD!! I don't care what color your skin is, just be a decent person.

I'm not a big John McCain fan, but since he isn't Obama I'll defend him till the end AND I'm going to vote for him. When did Obama EVER serve in the military? Dewey said one day in a political debate, before the primaries, that the Commander in Chief of all the Armed Forces should be required to have some military experience. I agree to a point. I don't think it should be required, but I think that between the Prez and the VP one of them should have some experience. That just makes good sense. And I like Cindy McCain, she's an all right lady. Johnny-boy isn't conservative, but at least he kinda-sorta pretends-even if his nose is squarely up Teddy K's rear end. He's certainly more conservative than Obama-siah and his nasty wife.

OBAMA WON'T EVEN HONOR THE FLAG! THE FLAG OF THE COUNTRY HE WANTS TO RUN!!! HOW CAN ANYONE VOTE FOR SOMEONE LIKE HIM??!!! And Michelle-can we say Marxist? (HA HA HA!!! Marxist Michelle! Michelle the Marxist!! I love consonance!) There's no place for that in this country, the Marxism not my use of the alphabet-just to be clear. I can't even begin to go into that right now, but let's take this little nugget, example of Marxism or not. Just a sample of her character, I guess. She said that for the first time in 22 years (or however many) she's really proud of her country. Ok, that's like saying "I've been married for 20 years, and I just discovered that I love my wife." REALLY??!!!!!! Are you freakin' kidding me?! You've lived in this country your whole life and enjoyed the benefits of Affirmative Action so you could go to Yale or Harvard or whatever it was, and you're JUST NOW proud of your country? Are you just plain stupid?! Or are you selfish? I think both and some other really terrible things. There's no taking a comment like that back or saying that it was taken out of context. You meant what you said, every word of it.

And I get so sick of hearing all these people complaining about the economy and the excessive spending by the pres. NEWSFLASH!!!! The DEMOCRATIC-MAJORITY CONGRESS approves any spending by the president!!!!!!!!!! He can't spend a penny without their consent. So if anyone wants to blame Bush for spending so freakin' much money-START BY BLAMING CONGRESS! Blame your precious Nancy Pelosi. Blame Joe Biden. Blame Teddy Kennedy. Blame Hillary. Blame your messiah, Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his big, stupid ears. While you're at it, blame CONGRESS for sending our troops to ANYWHERE in the world, not just Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't think I heard anyone complaining about Bush's stimulus package back in May. I was more than happy to get that money, and I'll freely admit it. It was awesome. You can also blame CONGRESS for our gas prices. We could drill in Anwar, but CONGRESS isn't letting us. The poor little animals might be displaced and inconvenienced a little. BOO FREAKIN' HOO!! The poor little animals will adapt. They might actually appreciate the warmth of the pipes running through that frozen wasteland. At least, that's what CONGRESS will have us believe their reasoning is. Maybe something more ridiculous like it'll cause cancer will be next. We could be drill off the coast. But the libs want to maintain their ties to the Middle East. That's pretty much what it boils down to. If you don't like what CONGRESS is doing.....DON'T VOTE FOR THOSE PEOPLE THAT KEEP GETTING RE-ELECTED!! If you HAVE voted for any of the aforementioned people, DON'T COMPLAIN, about the economy or the cost of gas or the war or anything else that CONGRESS votes on. Keep in mind my husband's in Iraq for the 2nd time. I want him home more than anything, but I know that if they were to be pulled out right this second it would be monumentally disastrous. So I'd rather have him there for a while longer to keep anything potentially devastating from coming over here to hurt my kids or anyone else I love. And I'm not saying don't blame Bush for anything, that he's totally innocent. I'm not in love with everything this administration has done, but he has only so much power. It's called checks and balances. But he IS better than Gore and Kerry and any other jackass that's against him. Let's not even get me started on Edwards and his recently come-to-light indiscretion.

Before the stimulus checks hit, I heard this one guy on the radio-admittedly a filthy, dirty hippie-talking about it. He was "explaining" what it'll do to our taxes (and what will Obama do, dummy??) and how it won't stimulate the economy at all. He said people will put some new floors in their houses, the economy won't really be stimulated. Let's look at that. I go to the flooring store off of 190. I pay the guy and that money goes toward his business. Now he has an additional $1500-that he wouldn't have had otherwise. Now he can go buy some new supplies to help run his company. That money goes to another company that wouldn't have otherwise had it either, and so on and so on. HHHHMMMMM......I think that's like a chain reaction or something. I'm pretty sure that's stimulation. And I'm fairly certain that's the intention of the stimulus package. That's the typical mentality these days, and it's sad.

Here's something else that eludes me-Hurricane Katrina. Check it out: the city of New Orleans knew looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong before the threat of Katrina that their levees were in bad shape. And did anyone do anything about it? Nope. That's the city's responsibility to maintain them, not the Federal Government's. So, Mayor Ray Nagin, maybe you should've done something about the levees beforehand instead of blaming everyone else when they broke! Besides that, they had a week's notice. If they couldn't afford a bus ticket out of town-GUESS WHAT! They've got feet! The only ones I felt bad for were the ones that couldn't physically do anything. Let's say I was stuck in NO when Katrina came up. If I had absolutely no other way out of there , I'd be stealing me a Wal-Mart basket and loading my kids up and walking. Jump on I-55 and go north. Walk 10 miles a day (give or take) and I could be plenty far away so my kids would be safe. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! They get put up in Texas and bitch and moan about everything. They stole from each other or anyone else they could. They behaved like animals. My dad says it's the mentality of living in that area and never getting out, from one generation to the next. It's learned. I agree that the mentality is learned, but I disagree that they don't know any better. They're aware of laws regardless. And I'm so sick of STILL hearing about it. I'm not saying no one in that city did what they could, it was just the vast majority that sat back and let it happen. We didn't hear about the ones that actually helped themselves. Instead we saw dumb@%$ Sean Penn with a camera and a little boat go in there. That's good, Mr. Penn. Why didn't anyone else think of going in there with a camera? Because obviously that solved everything. Where was all the complaining and blaming when Iowa and where ever else were slammed with the tornados? Who ran to help them? What retarded celebrity brought his camera crew to help those people pick up the pieces? Who did the people in those states blame? That's right, that's right. They were decent about it. My aunt took some of the Iowa victims in and I'm sure she took excellent care of them.

Well, this one certainly didn't turn into "Love Letter Wednesday." It was more like "Hate-Filled Wednesday." I just had to complain. I'm so tired of stupid people that don't think. Politics is one thing that I can go on about for days. Even if my opinions are way off, at least I'm making an effort to inform myself, which is way more than some people, like the ones that take the general election as lightly as they do "American Idol."

The First Day of School

So, today was the first day of school. I remember Lilly's first day of Kindergarten. She already went through Pre-k, so I was already ecstatic. Someone stopped me in the hall after I had deposited Lilly to the appropriate classroom. This woman told me there were coffee and donuts in the gym for a "Boo Hoo Breakfast." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. My husband was in Korea and I had 2 other kids waiting at home with Jane. I wasn't about to waste my time with all the cry baby moms just because my child was doing something that was LEGALLY REQUIRED!! So off I went to start my day.



Then Kaylan started Pre-K in VA. I met with my next door neighbor and another friend at IHOP to celebrate. That began Alyssa's 2 years alone with me. Kaylan had some behavioral problems. In fact, I started to think that she was possibly autistic because her behavior was so similar to my brother's, who really is mildly so. The summer before she started school, I started taking her to a shrink, not because I wanted the wildly popular diagnosis everyone else was getting or because I thought I could get some magic pill to cure her. I wanted to find out what was wrong with her, if anything, and get her the help she needed. I liked her shrink, Dr. Berry. I'm not crazy-religious, but it was a Christian-centered therapy center and everything revolved around God. He was HUGE part of anyone's treatment. That was comforting because it wasn't typical but it wasn't ridiculously alternative either. Anyway, Dr. Berry decided that there wasn't anything wrong with Kay. She just didn't know how to control her emotions, so they took over everything and overwhelmed her. It didn't matter what emotion is was, good or bad. I thought Pre-K would be a ginormous challenge for her, especially since her teacher, Mrs. Myrsten, looked like she had just graduated. She turned out to be a Godsend. She was absolutely WONDERFUL with my Kay. It got to the point that Kay wanted to please her with almost everything she did. It was awesome.



Today began the next phase in Alyssa's life. I was at Mom and Dad's last week for Granana's Camp, so we missed Meet-the-Teacher Night. I went by the school yesterday and found who went where. I thought this morning would be a nightmare. I got up and 0545 and turned the dryer back on to de-wrinkle the uniforms I had left in there over night, brushed my teeth and peed. And then I woke up the kiddies. Alyssa slept with me last night only because she wasn't going to sleep by herself. So I gave in. I thought for sure she'd be the worst of them all. While they were brushing their teeth and peeing I ran around and got uniforms together. They were so cute this morning. Dewey was supposed to be online (if he could be) by about 0630, so I made sure I had hair fixed and everyone dressed by then. He didn't get on, but I had everyone ready a little ahead of schedule. I even made all their lunches last night so all I had to do this morning was pull them out of the fridge and give them to the appropriate child. I decided to walk them in this morning since we weren't here last week. THAT won't happen anymore this year. As I came around a corner with all 3 in a single-file line behind me, so teacher yelled at them and told them that starting tomorrow morning we wouldn't round corners like that anymore. SERIOUSLY? On the FIRST day, when everything's already chaotic as it is? REALLY? I almost said something to her, but decided to let it go. Their teachers would take care of transporting the kids from one place to another, so there probably wouldn't ever be any mention of it again. Dumb &*(@#. THAT wasn't the way to start my day. We had a pretty good morning and then that. Whatever.



I dropped Alyssa off at her class first so Lilly and Kay would know where to go in the morning when I drop them off. I talked to her teacher and filled something out and kissed her good bye. She was a little sad when we first got to the school and didn't want to stay, but when she met her teacher she was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. Then her teacher gave me a gift. When I got finished there I discovered Lilly and Kaylan were gone, so I had to track them down. They had gone to their own classes already. So I filled out a couple more things for each of them and came home. I should be doing my pilates or putting away all the laundry that's piled up since I started school this summer. Instead, I thought I'd tell you how quiet the house is right now. Besides the keyboard and the a/c, all I hear is.....nothing. The TV was constantly on before Alyssa started school, now it isn't. The TV in here isn't even on. I prefer the silence. I never thought I'd have time to myself. When I got back here I read what Mrs. Rich had given me. It was a ziploc with a cotton ball to remind me of the tender little spirit I had just left in her care and a tea bag so I could put my feet up and relax a little. Kinda cool.



So what will I do with myself now that I have 3 school aged kids? Should I sit back and relax and enjoy my time alone? Should I take up a relaxing hobby like crocheting? Should I just go back to bed only because I can? NO A CHANCE! What does Evelyn do with spare time? I'M GOING TO TAKE ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY THIS SEMESTER!!!!!! I figured I need to make the most of my uninterrupted time and add even more stress to my life because THAT'S what anyone needs. If I don't take that, I'm taking at least 3 courses to make up the difference. How's THAT for time management? I'm not entirely sure yet. It's getting late. It's already 0830 and I haven't even showered. I need to get up to CTC and figure out what I'm doint this semester.

Right AFTER Finals.....

Again, it's not Wednesday. It's been a busy week, but I think I've done rather well. I crammed for 4 straight days and finished finals on Thursday. I walked away from Psych with a 74 and an 89 in Govt. AN 80-FREAKIN'-NINE!!

I checked my grades the morning before I took the finals and I had a 90.25 in Govt. Slightly above where I had been, but still a perfectly wonderful surprise. My final was 50 questions worth 6 points each. I pulled an 86, dropping my grade to an 89. I'm a McCorkle. Government and politics is our thing! And all I could do was a B?! That's crap! So I called Mom and told her the bad news. Maybe I'm harder on myself than anyone else could ever be, but Mom was so happy. I was still pretty unhappy about it...to say the very least. I was so close to that A, and I was furious that I was only getting a stupid B. I talked to Clem when I got home a complained to him. He said he only got a C in govt, so my B was pretty awesome. I agreed and said that it made me feel a little better..........................like A LOT better. I NEVER do better than Dewey at anything. EVER. That still makes me smile when I think about it. He's Mr. Wonderful and excels at everything he ever does.

Psych was completely different. I had the worst time with that course. I did everything I could think of to do well in that retarded course, and I only pulled off a C. I guess it's better than a D or an F. My instructor's tests were so freakin' hard. The class average on everything was either a high D or a moderate C, with the exception of the paper and that was a B-which I got. Even her open-book tests only averaged C's. (One of them averaged a D!) I was more than happy to get out of there with only a C, even though I could've done much better. The good news is I NEVER have to take that crappy course ever again. So much of it was, I think, entirely made up by a 5 year old. And the book focused WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much on that sick #*^@%^$ , Freud. I don't know about any other parents out there, but I NEVER witnessed my children fascinated with their behinds. EVER!!! But, according to Freud, that's one of the stages ALL children go through. Maybe mine are just weird, but I never saw any indication of such a phase. Nasty, nasty man. He makes my skin crawl. Gross. I think I need to take a shower now. I feel so violated just thinking about him. One good thing that's come from this course is my decision NOT to major in psychology. I'm sticking with my original plan and pursuing nursing.

Enough about school, there's PLENTY more of that to come. Veronica and her kids came down Thursday afternoon. Poor Ethan. I think he was disappointed because all of his cousins were girls. I WOULD say that Bevo made up some of the Testosterone difference, but he's gay and is fixed. So Bevo didn't really help. In fact, Hailey was the only one of the Andrew kids that really like Bevo. So much so he was pretty irritated with her. But he's such a good boy he took it and never even growled at her. That's why he's my best friend, besides Clem, of course.

Yesterday we hit up Schlitterbahn. We got there late, which really bothered me because I'm not late. I'm on time and completely ready. I'm not always bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I don't think I'm EVER that happy or awake, but I'm fairly reliable. Mom was waiting for us at the front with our wrist bands and everything else was already waiting. So Veronica and I dropped the kids off and found some baby boats for the kiddos. Then the fun began.....until about 5:00. Mom, Veronica and I took all 6 kids over to the huge kiddie area where it started sprinkling. After a while of that, the thunder and lightning started and everyone stayed in the water. Strange. But we got the kids out and headed back to our tables. By that point it was pouring, and that isn't even really the right word for it. It was more like sheets of rain. Everything was soaked but we managed to get out of there by about 6:30. I didn't even get home until about 10. I didn't even get the pictures I wanted. I got a few, though, so I'll take what I can get. The girls fell asleep on the way home, so they were a joy once we actually got inside and they started getting ready for bed. There was some crying about Alyssa and a toothbrush. I'm still not quite sure about it. But we got home and everyone eventually settled down and went to sleep just to get up early and go to church this morning.

It felt pretty good getting this portion of school done, but it doesn't feel so good knowing that I'm about to start it all over again in a couple weeks. I'm already feeling the pressure. But the kids start school a week from tomorrow (ALL 3 OF THEM!!!) so maybe it won't be as bad this semester. I'm still doing it online because of Alyssa. I think I'm going to be up at the school quite a bit dealing with her. She's going through this phase right now where she won't keep her clothes on. She's naked a lot. So I'm waiting for a call from the school going something like this.."Mrs. Clemons, uh, we need you to come up to the school as soon as possible. We're having some trouble with Alyssa. She went to the bathroom and came out without her clothes on, so now we're having some issues getting them back on her. If you could help coax them back on her as our methods have proven completely ineffective.........Thanks." Yeah , that sounds about like her. I don't know what would make the school think I could do any better than they could in something like that. I guess it's because I have no problem MAKING her do something. But whatever. It's getting late and I have to be up in the morning for Alyssa's physical. That's fun. Catch yous guys next week.

Right Before Finals....

Well, I missed "Love Letter Day" again. What's new, right? I'm trying to be very diligent in keeping up with this, but I still seem to be slacking. I guess I'm keeping Clem up to date fairly well, it just seems like there's more I could be doing.

Let's see....finals start on Monday. Am I even remotely ready? Of course not. I just started on my GOVT review yesterday. I should really be doing that right now because I have 3 chapters for PSYCH that I still haven't read, much less outlined. I'm not nearly as concerned about GOVT as I am PSYCH. My GOVT instructor's awesome. He's pulled 25 or 30 questions from each of the 7 chapters this test covers for the review, and he's putting 50 of the questions directly on the test! HOW COOL IS THAT??!! I'm almost finished with this review. This last chapter's about Texas' voting system, who runs what, how often, etc, etc. So I remembered I needed to change my address on my voter registration, but I didn't want to go up the courthouse and wait. So I printed out the form online and I'm mailing it in. I love the internet.

I'll be so glad when PSYCH's done. I think I really hate that class. I made a 72 on my last OPEN BOOK TEST yesterday or the day before. How sad is THAT?! It's OPEN FREAKIN' BOOK!!! My instructor's tests are so hard. I still haven't figured out what my problem is. I did pretty well on the 2 leading up to this one. So I have a 75 in there right now. I figured I can make a 40 on the final and still pull a 71 out of the class. I'll take it. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely NOT going to make a 40. But at least I know where I stand. That's all I'm saying, Mom.

I'm also still trying to get Alyssa enrolled in school. All I need is her shot record. Here's the problem-I thought I had it, like I had Lilly and Kaylan's, but I don't. I guess I either forgot that I didn't have it or forgot to request a copy from her old pediatrician. Or both. So now I'm scrambling to get a copy. I went to the hospital on post several weeks ago to request everything from Fort Eustis (in VA). MacDonald (the hospital on Ft. Eustis) was supposed to fax a copy of the shot record to Darnall (hospital on Ft. Hood). I went over there on Monday thinking surely they had it and just didn't call. How wrong I was. 3 weeks later and MacDonald STILL hadn't even faxed it. IT'S A FAX! How hard is it to find her records and pull out the shot record and put it in the fax machine and punch in the number and let it do its thing?? Seriously. Dewey or I are the ONLY people in the world that can even go pick it up. No one else. So Darnall sent them yet another request and now I'm waiting. Still. Yeah, it's my fault because I didn't keep up with it. However, I tracked down the guy in Release of Information at MacDonald so I could fight with him. It's Thursday now. I've called him everyday since Monday and it always goes to voicemail. What do I do now? I've left him a message everytime I've called, spoken slowly and clearly. I've left my numbers and everything else his outgoing message asks. I've heard nothing. I guess I could go sit at Darnall and wait for it to come through. But what do I do with my kids? It's a tiny office and it smells funny and my kids are loud. I'm stuck. School starts on the 25th and Alyssa has a physical on the 18th. They can't even do that without her shot record. I completely forgot that their new pediatrician didn't have it on file either. I'm just screwed. Maybe I'll figure it out. Maybe.