Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Pardon my rant...

But seriously...I was having a good day/evening until about 45 minutes ago. But first, let me rewind and provide some background information.

Yesterday, Sioux Falls experienced our first snowfall (I mean we only got an inch or so, but still). It made the roads pretty slick and even the plows came out for the first time this winter season. My brother Josh returned to Iowa State on Sunday and since he's a freshman, my parents did not allow for him to bring his truck with him...so it sits in front of our house. Well, in fact, Josh last parked it in front of our neighbors house and the tail end was partially hanging over their third stall driveway. So last night, post-work and post-dinner, I was going to the gym when I suggested to my parents that I should just drive Josh's truck to the gym and then re-park it in front of our house upon my return. Dad thought this was a good idea. Mom didn't comment. So that's what I did.

Fast forward to this evening in which I was departing for the gym again (post-work, post-dinner). This time, I didn't say anything about driving Josh's truck, but I figured it would do some good to drive it a couple miles every day since it's starting to get frigid cold around these parts. So I drive it to the gym, work out, and begin to drive to Hy-Vee to pick up some Special K cereal and yogurt. Then....I see flashing lights behind me. Perfect.

I knew I wasn't speeding. Ever since I got a whopper of a fine in Indiana, I've decided to reign in my speed so I was thinking "ummm....okay dude. lets see what you got." As it turns out, one of the truck's headlights was out. Awesome. (After hearing this, I did recall overhearing a conversation between Josh and my parents about said headlight...but heck, it's not my car, I don't have to take care of it). THEN he asked for proof of insurance for the truck. Great. Now I have to dig through my brother's mess of a truck for an insurance card. Well I happened to find two cards...both of which were expired. Again, thanks Josh for being responsible. So I tried to explain to the cop that it's the same insurance policy, it's not my truck, I'm sure the current card is at home. He asks me to call my parents. Excellent. So I call. Mom's not too happy about having to drive to Hy-Vee and bring the updated insurance card...but alas, she gets in the car, sans cell phone. The cop tells me to wave out my window to the patrol car when I get a hold of my parents, so I foolishly lean out the truck window and wave. Patrolman comes up...I inform him that my mom has the updated card and she's coming to drop it off. Cop: "Oh there's no need for that I guess. I'll just give you a warning for a burned out headlight and failure to show proof of insurance." Me (in my head): "Seriously dude? Do you have any idea how crabby my mom's going to be?" Me (actually): "Thank you, sir." So then I frantically call home, and Dad tells me that Mom already left and she didn't bring her cell phone.

End of Scene. Close Curtain.

Curtain Up. Mom arrives.

I get out of the truck and grab the card from my mom, who is obviously wondering where the squad car is. I tell her that they no longer needed to see the card and that I tried calling her but she had already left. THEN she proceeds to lecture me about how I'm going to have to pay my brother for gas. Why yes Mom, I'll be sure to give Josh $3 for the 5 miles that I've driven his truck over the past two days. Let me also note that Josh doesn't even pay for his own gas...my parents do! Ugh so frustrating.

When I returned home, neither one of my parents asked if I got a ticket. It would've been even better if I did...nothing like getting a ticket for a burned out headlight on a vehicle that I usually NEVER drive and for failure to provide proof of insurance when, in fact, my insurance card for my Grand Prix is always in my wallet. Apparently responsibility only gets you so far as to when you have to rely on other people to be responsible too.







Hi, my name is Courtney, I'm 23, a college graduate, and living at home with my parents.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

P Diddy is my hero too?

Saw this on somebody's Facebook page. Thought I would share it so that you might understand why I (generally) vote Republican.

WHY IM GOING TO VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!
I'm voting democrat because Barbara Walters is my idol and so is P.Diddy.I'm voting Democrat because English has no place being the official language in America. I'm voting Democrat because I'd rather pay $4 for a gallon of gas than allow drilling for oil off the coasts of America. I'm voting Democrat because I think the government will do a better job of spending my money than I could. I'm voting Democrat because when we pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, I know the Islamic terrorists will stop trying to kill us because they'll think we're a good and decent country.I'm voting Democrat because I believe people who can't tell us if it will rain in two or three days, can now tell us the polar ice caps will disappear in ten years if I don't start riding a bicycle, build a windmill or inflate my tires to proper levels. I'm voting Democrat because it's alright to kill millions of babies as long as we keep violent, convicted murderers on death row alive.I'm voting Democrat because I believe businesses in America should not be
allowed to make profits.Businesses should just break even and give the rest to the government so politicians and bureaucrats can redistribute the money the way they think it should be redistributed.I'm voting Democrat because I believe guns, and not the people misusing them, are the cause of crimes and killings.I'm voting Democrat because when someone with a weapon threatens my family or me, I know the government can respond faster through a call to 911 than I can with a gun in my hand.I'm voting Democrat because oil companies' 5% profit on a gallon of gas are obscene, but government taxes of 18% on the same gallon of gas are just fine.I'm voting Democrat because I believe three or four elitist liberals should rewrite the Constitution every few months to suit some fringe element that could never get their agenda past voters.I'm voting Democrat because illegal aliens are not criminals, are not sucking up resources through government aid, hospital services, education, or social services, but are just people trying to make a better life by coming to America illegally.We can't blame them for that, can we?I'm voting Democrat because the same teacher that didn't teach my child to read can reasonably educate them about sex.I'm voting Democrat because my trial lawyer's crippling multi-million dollar lawsuits against doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and HMO's will make health insurance and medicine much more affordable.I'm voting Democrat because Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson will end racism once and for all. because Christians in the Republican Party are intolerant, theocratic warmongers and atheists like William Ayers have never hurt anybody.I'm voting Democrat so that no family member of mine will die in a hospital bed. They will still be waiting in line for Obama's socialized medicine, so they will never actually make it to a bed. If you want more reasons just hit me up!


Yikes. Big, big yikes. Except for the first sentence. P.Diddy is pretty legit.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Election Hangover...

Greetings loyal subscribers. The campaign season has officially wrapped up and it's truly hard to believe. I honestly can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away! But let me back up and give you a little bit of an update.

I was one of two people in charge of planning and organizing the Election Night Victory Party for all of our statewide candidates here in Sioux Falls. That included the US Senate, US House, Governor, Sec of State races and on down the ballot. So needless to say, it was a pretty crazy process. I've never planned a party before (well, besides Student Senate parties...but those were easy = I make food, you bring drinks). This was on a much larger scale. I had to stay within budget, research venues, vendors, pick out the food, figure out music/staging, and make sure people were actually going to come to this thing. Angel (I consider her my mentor at work...I've learned oh so much from her during the time that I've worked at FOJT) was my partner-in-crime. And thank the Lord she had done this before. So we narrowed it down to which venue we wanted (Ramkota) and which vendors and we were planning on 400-500 people to come. We organized the program and gathered campaign signage to hang in the room. Things were definitely falling into place! And then...I was dispatched to partner with the Kristi Noem campaign and do advance work for the bus tour the weekend prior to Election Day.

First of all, I should say that I was super excited. I love traveling and meeting voters across the state...so I was pumped to get out of the office for a couple days. And then I realized that I would be dumping basically all of this Victory Party work onto Angel's lap. Realizing that this party could completely flop or succeed depending on the work that was put into the planning process, I briefly panicked, and then managed to gather my mental thoughts and move forward. The bus tour came and went (it was a huge success btw) and after returning to Sioux Falls, we had only 2 days before the big day!

After little sleep, Tuesday quickly arrived and Angel and I spent all day at the Ramkota setting things up for the event. We worked with great vendors who managed to get everything set-up and powered up around 5:30 so we even had time to change! Which was certainly something that we weren't expecting.

Then the doors opened.

And 800-1000 people showed up.

Oh my goodness. It was a mad house. But it was GREAT. Thanks to my good friend and former boss, Hugh Weber, he twitpic'd a comparison of the Republican/Democratic parties. Now...you tell me which party looks like more fun. (For more pictures from the party, visit John Thune's facebook page!)

Needless to say, the party went off without a hitch (I think) and every single statewide Republican candidate won! It was absolutely amazing.

We finished cleaning up/tearing down half of the room around 1:30AM and then hit the bar.

**As a note, I hadn't had a drink in 90 days, and I've lost 35 pounds....so please keep my new level of "tolerance" in mind when reading the following section**

I had a tequila sunrise. And was incredibly buzzed. Should've stopped there. But no, I had some celebratory wine. Oops.

**Fast forward to the next morning at work**

Woof.





In conclusion, the election is over. For those of you who are concerned about my future plans, they're up in the air at this point. I'm employed at FOJT until the end of December, so I have some time to figure it out. I'm also going on a cruise in the beginning of January, so that's somewhat inconvenient when it comes to government jobs, but hopefully that's not a deal breaker. If anything develops, I'll be sure to let the blogosphere know.

Also, I'll be in Valpo a week from today. I can't wait to pretend I'm a college student again.