Current location:	The Homestead
Current mood:	energetic
Current music:	"Hope You're Feeling Better" by Santana

And This Is The Week That Was . . .

Wow. Like much of talk in the blog world, I mean, the Dems, who'd a thunk? Mel(ody) and I had been hoping for a while--years!--that something like this with the mid-term election would happen but just refused to even really talk about it out loud given the Democrat Party propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. (For example, Kerry's ill-conceived comments last week.) We were driving back from East Texas yesterday morning listening to NPR the whole way and then, after I dropped off Mel(ody) at her school so she could teach her class I got home just in time to see Bush's press conference and discover, among other things, that Rumsfeld had resigned. It was one of those days that 1) gave me an extraordinary amount of hope and 2) will go down as one of the big political days/milestones in my life. It just all felt very momentous. Bush, I have to--for once--give him some credit. He was a relatively gracious loser. Then again, as it dawned on me as I was watching (and then listening back in the car as I drove back over to pick up my blushing bride after her class) to the Q&A, his early record is full of failures so he's probably given versions of that speech 3-5 times after various staggering defeats in the past.

Anyway, the trip to East Texas was relatively uneventful. I met with the president of the college out there to give him the overview of what we do and how we can help his college. (He did ask a question none of the other presidents asked: did I have a list of books we'd done so they could see if there were any they could go ahead and adopt. No, I stammered, flummoxed, I do not. DUMBASS!!!) Talked to a few folks about book projects and may actually have one or two come to fruition. Went to some 110 year old pottery factory and bought a ton of clay flower pots--huge and cheap--and a bunch of crazy tea pots that were made there that were very cool that we'll use for Xmas presents. 

Today, it's back in the saddle at school. I have to do my big presentation to the new instructors--around fifteen--about the whole publishing operation. As always, I wish I'd had more time to work on it--that is, more than the couple of hours I'll spend on it today when I get to work--but it just didn't work out that way. Oh well. There it is. So sad. Too bad.

(Oh, and I must add, for the FIRST TIME EVER I actually used to workout room at a hotel while I was on this trip. I mean, I'm already verging on being as big as a house and with the amount of travelling I'm doing in conjuction with the unhealthy food on th road I'm determined to do what I can to keep the weight under control. So, there it was: 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer at the Fairfield Inn & Suites. Woo-hoo!)

(Still a skosh less than 1700 words on my nanowrimo novel so I'm way behind the curve on it. I am, however, determined to get caught up and finish in a stunningly victorious fashion.)