Wow...the end of the semester is here.

Almost. I can hardly believe that I'm 12 hours & a thesis away from being done w/ my higher education. (Well...for awhile, at least-I need some time to breathe and live) I have sooooooo much to do before May 7th gets here...luckily, after this semester is over it should be smooth sailing-no more than 8 hours per semester, and my LAST semester (fall) I will have only an internship (for credit!) and my thesis...now that's gonna rock. And I might have a job sometime soon-that is, a REAL one actually doing what I'm interested in...so keep your fingers crossed for me. Things are stressful as hell right now, but hopefully I'll be able to breathe in a couple of weeks, and it will be bliss to do NOTHING except work for a month. Summer session starts up in June, ends at the END of July, so it won't be too bad, and then I'll have August to relax...ahhhhhh...

Lorillini!

Lori is officially an ILLINI now! She got accepted into the Computer Engineering program at UIUC-and I always knew she would. She was getting very nervous, but got her letter yesterday. As if they would reject her-she had a 33 on her ACT and a 3.97 GPA-and her college GPA has been just as good for her first year at KC...she'll transfer as a junior in the department. The child is a genius-I'm not kidding. Who pulls straight A's while taking 18 hours of Calc 3, Calc-based Physics, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra? (PLUS Adv. Comp?) Yeah, that would be Lori. Anyhoo, if she has HALF as much fun at U of I as I did, she'll be bound for a wonderful college career-I hope she loves every second. And I'm going to be only an hour+ away, so hopefully we'll get to see each other a bit more often next year.

Craziness...

This has been such a busy week. I have finally gotten to the state of sleep deprivation where I have resumed taking naps-you know, I have one of those schedules now where it's sleep when you have any spare time, otherwise you WON'T. This week has been a mess of committee hearings at the capitol, various papers, work, IARF Spring Meeting, job interview...the list goes on and on. Oh, and I rediscovered the fact that I have absolutely NO tolerance, as I had a few glasses of wine at the IARF legislative reception Wed. night and was, well, "relaxed" as a result...it's been quite awhile since I've been like that. It felt good...lucky I didn't drive that evening, though. Then, Jess fixed vodka tonics for herself, me, and Elizabeth as we watched TV...it's so bad here-people just sit around and drink, people don't even bother going out! Ah well, I guess it's part of going to school on a campus that is far and away from nightlife of any kind (well...except for Bootlegger's...but it doesn't count)-far in away meaning 10 miles, but still that's a pretty long drive when you can just kick it in your living room!

Oh-I did something this week I thought I'd never find myself doing. I actually APPLAUDED Speaker Madigan after he made a statement at Wednesday's hearing. Before you criticize me and call me a bad Republican, don't-he was making a jab at Gov. Blago-they are not friends, to put it mildly. Blago made the statement that he will not balance the budget on the backs of the hard-working citizens of Illinois (that's a lie-bc really, he is-isn't he closing Vandalia prison? And forcing fees on small businesses who are nearly going BANKRUPT trying to pay them? He's a liar and I hate him. HATE HIM!)-well, Speaker Madigan said to Blago's rep at the hearing, "Please take this message to the Governor-we want to let him know that the budget will NOT be balanced on the backs of the DD/MI community!" SWEET! Even Dems know Blago is a dirty bastard. He's not gonna survive the next election and I cannot wait to work on the opposition's campaign.

I've adopted a new slogan: I stole it from the Dems-they have "A.B.B."-"Anyone But Bush".

Well, I have adopted "A.B.B." as well.

"Anyone But Bla-gag-me-vich".

Yup, my hatred of Blago has gone far past any silly Republican/Democrat thing-bc when it comes down to it, I'm really more of a moderate-socially moderate/liberal, fiscally conservative..with a few exceptions. However, I typically align myself w/ Republican politics, always have. Anyhoo, Blago is trying his best to kill Southern Illinois simply bc of a few legislators down there that are at odds with him. Specifically he hates Frank Watson-no surprise there. That's fine, Blago, make THEM miserable, but DON'T punish the people who are ultimately responsible for electing you to office! Downstate is the reason that Blago won the primary, and downstate is responsible for his victory. Maybe the cold-hearted, unforgiving branch of conservatives say that they deserve it, and they got what they voted for, but I don't think this is true. Democrats always claim to be champions of the "little man", but this Governor could not be more different. You do not cut corners in the name of balancing the budget when there are no more corners to be cut! Vandalia prison is just one example-I don't have relatives or anything working there, so it doesn't affect me (my parents both teach high school); HOWEVER, I do see so many hard-working men and women in my small town who are going to be affected by VCC's closure, and this is just another harmful blow to an already fragile economic system in Southern Illinois. UUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH...SAVE VANDALIA PRISON! IMPEACH BLAGOJEVICH!

Well...I could write a lot more now but I'm VERY tired-and tomorrow is basically going to be the longest day ever, and then some...so I'll write more later. Until then, adieu.