Tired Today

Most of the time, Wifey takes S in for her multiple therapies. It's mean adjusting working schedules and reducing hours a little bit. Tuesday is mine. I bring S in for therapy at 7:30. I don't fully understand the difference between this and all the other therapies but this looks like the more global how is it going as a whole person sort of thing. She does about an hour than I have to run to drop her off at daycare, and pick up the other one and take her to school. Then I go to work. The weird thing is I'm only getting in an hour to two hours later than I usually do, but in some ways it feels like I've had a whole day already. By that hour the local parking lots are filled and I have to park a quarter of a mile away (not an exaggeration) and hoof it in.

Today was even longer, because the kid needed a blood draw this morning. Who knew that there would be a full waiting room at 7 in the morning?

Anyway. Tired. Not blogging much and not writing enough.

Will it pass?

It comes down to this. A couple gut wrenching days of counting the votes one by one and a handful of people looking at the good and bad of this bill who still can't make up their minds after having heard every argument for both sides ad nauseum.

Presidents didn't use to do this. In the past, they seldom risk everything they had on a vote that they weren't absolutely positive they couldn't win. Everything was consensus. Maybe it has something to do with the gridlock in place, but the last two POTUS have been a lot more willing to throw it out there. Because if O can't get this through. He might not get another significant piece of legislation through his entire time in office.

Why has this been so long and painful? Part of me thinks that's just part of the process. Making legislation has never been pretty. And there have always been political trade offs here and there. But I do think everyone has better learned how to throw up roadblocks and the Democratic leaders haven't been quite as innovative in overcoming those blocks. Yeah, they're pulling out a complex reconciliation maneuver, but it would have been nice if the leaders could have had a better grasp on their votes earlier. Yeah, there were circumstances like the unfortunate passing of Kennedy and Murtha, but there were solid arguments for change that weren't made effectively.

Do people realize that without this fix, we can't afford healthcare at all? We really can't keep going the way we're going. It kills businesses more than taxes. It stifles innovation. And it leaves too many people who attempt to do the right thing on the outside.

All right, I'm not going to re-hash all the arguments here. I've got that novel class to get ready for. I'm more behind than I'd like to be.

It was a pretty good weekend. We went to the Oakland Children's Zoo. J got to run around with her friends and see the animals, climb on the toys, and ride the train. It's interesting to watch her take things in and process. You could just watch her learning things. She hung out with a girl who was about a year younger, and J was simply following her around all day and copying whatever the other kid did. Peer pressure.

At night we went to a friend's house. J got to play with their dog. And honestly, she liked the dog. She didn't mind the dog jumping on her, and she was happy to have someone around to lick up all her crumbs. I didn't know if she would be one who would be afraid of dogs, but she isn't.

Sunday, we went to the Academy of Sciences up in San Francisco. Another good place for a three year old to run around. We topped that off with a nice lunch at a Persian place in inner Sunset, Lavash. Definitely worth trying if you're in the area.

Maybe it just seemed like a great weekend because it finally stopped raining. We could have used that extra hour of sleep though.

Spring.

I'm excited that the calandar has flipped to March. Now if only it would dry out a little bit so I could start taking my kids on hikes every weekend.

Novel Class

I just signed up for a class on writing novels. I did it with some trepidation. All this time I've talked about novels, but I really don't have anything resembling a first chapter that I like yet, that I'd submit to a class. I just don't have my crap together. I've got a couple weeks to get something together. The thing is my job allows me to take a class like this once in a while at no cost to myself. So I'm not going to feel awful if I have to drop it at some point.

I've taken a couple short story writing classes in the past. And they have been useful. The first one was sort of eye opening. The second one impressed me less. The third one was better than the second. The quality of the other writers in the class made a difference. The teachers in all the classes were pretty good, but the first spent the most on basic ideas and the least on remarking on everyone's stories. Sometimes, those discussions were a lot longer than they needed to be. And some comments on my stories were useful, and some were people saying something, just because they needed to say something.

Things that I did learn.
1.Good dialogue can really carry a story. It demonstrates character and if done correctly can move the plot forward.
2. Never start a story with getting out of bed or an alarm clock going off. That's a good way to start a day, but not pretty dull for a story.
3. Stories need a ryhthm. Think camera angles. Sometimes close up. Sometimes a more distant shots.

I guess if I'd learned more, I might have more stories out there.