There is something foul & very wrong here...

...when the federal government wants to do everything it can to make life easier for entire families of illegal immigrants, yet they look for ways to deport those people who are trying to follow the rules. Case in point: Ewelina Bledniak An attorney missed a filing deadline 8 years ago (and the paperwork was filed) that would have allowed the now-11 year old girl to apply for a green card (her father is a US citizen). Now the INS says she has to return to Poland (where she hasn't been since she was 2 years old) and remain for one year before she can return to her family in the US. Luckily she has a grandmother in Poland where she can stay until the legal proceedings come to a close. However she doesn't speak much Polish which will make attending school difficult while she's gone.

Why does this country seek to waive paperwork for citizenship, waive citizenship requirements for drivers' licenses, provide free healthcare, waive citizenship requirements for entrance to community colleges to people who actively & knowingly broke the law & have no intention to follow the proper channels to become legal citizens, and make them de facto citizens? Why are individuals being punished for doing the right thing? Is it because individuals don't make up an entire demographic voting bloc that can be solicited? Something stinks in Washington...and it's not just roadkill along the Beltway.

Why blog?

I've been asked by people over the years why I maintain a blog, LiveJournal, or whatever the current method of chronicling thoughts on the internet is. I've also been asked what my "theme" is. I have a few free moments, so I'll address those points.

First of all, my theme. As anyone who has read my various iterations of journaling/blogging over the past 6 years knows, I have no overlying theme. I don't keep a photo journal, I don't keep to one topic such as book reviews or sporting events or breast cancer or political opinions (although during Election 2008, I did have a recurring series of blogposts about things said or done by Democrats that I found particularly laughable)...when the spirit moves me, I type something up. The quote at the top of my page reflects my style:

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~~Francis Bacon

That's my theme in a nutshell.

And that also dovetails into why I maintain a blog. Not only is it a way for me to gather my thoughts in a more organized fashion, but it gives me a way to share those thoughts with others who know me, especially friends and/or family who are out-of-town. We don't have to arrange a phone call or make sure everyone is copied on an informational email, but instead you can just drop by for a visit and catch up on what's been going on in the mind of Dawn. Granted please don't think there was nothing going on in my head for the 4 months after the wedding; that's called getting settled into a new job, new apartment, new city, and enjoying newlywed bliss with the new hubby. Picture a big 'ole smile and you'd be right!

My blog posts pretty much sound like a typical conversation with me. I'm not politically correct, I often ramble in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, and you might wonder, "Where did that thought come from?" But most of y'all probably are used to that. For example, I was thinking in the shower the other morning about the Flintstones and how the family, gender, and social dynamics portrayed reflected what I concerned "the norm" when I was growing up...and this considering the cartoon originally aired in the early 1960s and I was watching it through reruns in the early to mid '70s. Wacky, I know, but you never know what's going to go through my mind...or what is going to set my fingers into "type it out" mode.

My blog is entitled "This, That, and The Other" and that's the perfect description for the "anything goes" selection of topics you'll find here. That's me...that's my blog. Time to leave the office...I'm ready for a beer.

I thought this day would never come...

the day that a fanbase could supplant my 30 years of detesting UGA fans. Enter the baby-blue whiners from UNC. Yes, my 4 years at Wake Forest taught me the pleasure and duty of hating Carolina and somewhere in a box of college stuff, I still have one of the gold & black "Beat Carolina" signs that were issued to all Wake students attending the annual UNC/WFU matchup at Greensboro Coliseum. However, it has taken the 21st century internet message board as well as 6 months of living in the Triangle to bring me to my current level of revulsion for UNC fans.

Where do these clowns get their pompous superiority? Are they injected with it upon purchase of their first UNC t-shirt from Wal-Mart or does it come attached to their drive-by diplomas? I see many similarities between UNC & UGA :

1. Both schools have more fans that didn't attend the school than did. This phenomenon is known as "Wal-Mart Bandwagon Fandom" whereby a person chooses a team based on the number of apparel items they see on racks at Wal-Mart. Chances are if they see more Duke or Clemson shirts next year, they will become the "biggest fan evAr" of that team...for that year.
2. Both schools have a polar opposite in the form of an academically superior engineering school (NC State & Georgia Tech) which makes their fans feel extremely threatened.
3. Both schools have journalism schools which turn out the most biased writers in the history of the printed word.
   
4. The fans of both schools pollute the newspaper blogs & internet message boards with delusional boasts of eternal superiority (usually filled with misspellings).
5. The fans of both schools have a martyr complex when challenged.

When I moved to the Atlanta area in 1980, the media was saturated with constant fawning over UGA and articles about "Herschel this" and "Herschel that"...(note to the eleventy billion uneducated UNC fans out there: that's Herschel Walker.) Spring forward 29 years and daily, nay hourly, media references to Tyler Hansbrough and "his will" have been shoved down the throats of residents in the Triangle. Talk about deja vu!

As the night of the NCAA championship game winds down, I can only hope that the idiots who flood Franklin Street, no matter what the outcome, get what's coming to them: the clap, explosive diarrhea, or a night in jail.

Getting pwned by Daylight Savings Time

How many of you have forgotten to change your clocks with the switch to or from Daylight Savings Time and shown up early or late for some engagement that day? I'll admit that I have once upon a time...and felt quite foolish showing up to church as it was letting out.

Well, here it is 3 days after the time change and I feel even more foolish. I slept on the light side last night due to having to get to work a bit early today for a training class, so I didn't want to oversleep. Like we normally do, Ed hit the snooze a couple of times and then I made myself get up & start getting ready. I took a slight detour into the computer room to check on the weather & such, got dressed, Ed got up, and I finished fixing my hair, etc. When I went downstairs to put my lunch together, Ed was curled up on the couch watching SportsCenter (a normal before-work activity). He looks up and says, "You do realize it is 6:30, not 7:30...?" I looked at him blankly and asked, "What do you mean?" He replied, "I thought it seemed rather dark out, so I checked the clock on ESPN and it's really 6:30. " This confused us to no great end, because we've made it to work without problems the past 2 days. So we either snoozed the alarm for much longer than we realized on those 2 days, or when setting the alarm last night, the time got boogered up.

So Ed is napping on the couch for another 45 minutes, and I get some free time to play on the computer (with my luck, if I tried to nap, I really would oversleep!). I know tonight will be "early to bed" for the "We are so not morning people" Morgans...!

I'm baaaaack!

To sum up the past 4 1/2 months: The wedding & reception were great, the honeymoon in Whistler was lots of fun, I've worked a helluva lot, I'm loving married life! On to today's blog...

After having 3 inches of snow on Monday, Saturday brought temperatures in the 70s (it may actually have hit 80) with a beautiful cloudless sunny sky, so Ed & I decided to go walk at the Fred G. Bond Metro Park. We parked near the lake and decided to head down one of the trails that goes around one end of the lake. When we hit the back of one of the subdivisions that borders the lake, we saw a sign that said "Rough Trail - not recommended for joggers". It was also marked as a black diamond trail. Hmmmm, what to do when you're out of shape and only intending to walk a couple of miles before hitting a sports bar to watch the NC State/Miami game? And you see that the trail ahead is muddy? Well, for once I decided to push myself instead of opting to turn around and taking a different paved trail, so I told Ed that we should go for it.

The trail reminded me a lot of the trails that I hiked in Ecology Club in high school on backpacking trips to state parks. Lots of tree roots to maneuver, determining the best way to avoid the mud, up & down terrain...and it wandered all the way around the lake perimeter, including following one of the offshooting fingers off the lake. Several projects had been done by Eagle Scouts & one of the recruit classes from the Cary Fire Academy, providing wooden bridges over some of the marshy sections of trail. The entire walk took an hour and we estimated about 3 to 3.5 miles...and boy, were my hips feeling it afterwards!! But that's not necessarily a bad thing...they need the exercise!!!! It was a great day to be outside and we both wished that we could have today's weather year-round - I'd be Susie Outdoorsey if it was like this all the time!

One thing I look forward to exploring with Ed is the Greenway Trail System in the Raleigh area. Much like the Silver Comet Trail back in Cobb County, these paved, multiuse trails wind through the Triangle and are just the thing to encourage me to get back to trail-walking and getting back in shape. And hopefully future weekends will be like today...when I want to and love being outside!

Farewell to Singlehood!

Yes, it's about 20 minutes till my wedding day, so I wanted to make one last blog as a single gal. A few years ago I never thought this day would come...I'd given up on searching for Mr. Right. Best move I ever made, because shortly after I'd made that decision, I met Ed. Of course at the time, I had no idea that we'd be more than acquaintances. But despite the distance between Raleigh & Atlanta, we developed a friendship and from that friendship came love.

Yes, I'm marrying my best friend...what could be better than that?! I seriously don't think there's a person who knows me better than Ed, and that is such a plus in starting our life together. We have a communication level & a comfort level with each other that is amazingly open...and I know I can be myself with him, and he understands the real me.

I can honestly say I've never been happier in my life...and tomorrow will truly be the bestest most special & happy day I've ever experienced! Mrs. Ed Morgan is who I'm meant to be!

Winding down...

So I have one week left in the Atlanta office before heading out into the unknown territory known as the Raleigh office. It's gonna be weird, leaving the place where I've spent soooo many hours over the past 2 1/2 years. I think I'm ready to leave the work I've been doing in Client Service and learn exactly what a Database Specialist does...and investigate new challenges & learn new products & skills.

What I'm going to miss the most are the people. While my team has undergone a number of personnel changes while I've been a member (people moving into new positions within the company as well as those who have left to pursue new jobs elsewhere), I've really enjoyed the people I've worked with. Coworker Ed has kept me laughing with his dry wit and we've made a really good partnership, working together to keep our accounts happy & running smoothly. The other girls on the team have been a lot of fun to work with as well as joke around with. I'm going to miss many of my customer contacts...who I speak with on almost a daily basis and a few of whom I've even had the pleasure to meet and develop friendships with.

But that's part of life...moving on when the time is right, but not burning any bridges when you leave, instead taking with you pleasant memories and knowing you can always come back and visit.