Just Doesn't Make Sense

I have always known that I was just strange, but once again I have proof.

Most of you experienced the dreaded springing forward of daylight savings time this past weekend. It always makes for a rough weekend and it is everything I can do to remember to change the clocks and make sure I get to church on time on the following Sunday. (Thank goodness for cell phones that change automatically)

Anyway, this year, it wasn't bad at all. I was up on Sunday morning, a little later than usual, but that is to be expected when a whole hour of my night just disappears. Still, I had a Sunday morning meeting and had no problem making it to that on time. I was up late Sunday night, but still had no problems getting up on Monday morning, got to work a few minutes early and had a pretty decent Monday.

But this daylight savings thing finally caught up to me this morning. I totally slept in past my alarm. I was almost an hour late to work, and I have been dragging and trying to catch up all day.

With any luck my postponed "daylight savings drag day" will end soon and things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Is it pink or purple?

Quick background here . . . I have one of my full time seasonal color employees that works with me at my office and we collaborate with the two designers on staff a lot. We help eachother a lot by just talking things through and getting eachother's opinions. We work a lot with color and combining colors and just a lot of collaboration.

Anyway, today one of our designers was working on a project and had shown me a plant that I didn't really have any experience with. Well the lady that works for me is a perennial flower guru and knows them all. So they two of them were talking and we were pulling up pictures online and trying to figure out some others plants that would accent this one well in a garden.

The conversation got funny and I realized that anyone listening in would probably think that we were a bunch of loons. We were discussing how pink/purple this flower is. After a long discussion the consensus was it is more pink than a purple but more purple than a pink. Not fuschia, still purple, but a purple with pink tones and not blue tones. I am thinking that I might need to send a request to the people at crayola to ask them to come up with a nifty one to two word name for this color.

If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

By the way, the name of the plant is Stachys officinalis 'Hummelo'.

Can't hold my tongue any longer

So I live in Illinois right . . . which is and you know (so long as you at least walk past a news paper or turn on the TV) in the middle of yet another political scandal. Our fabulous (very sarcastic) governor who is only a small part of corrupt Illinois politics has been arressted for allegedly trying to sell our vacant senate seat. Once again, ya'll know know.

Honestly his arrest came as no surprise, he has been a horrible governor. But we the people of the state of Illinois re-elected the man just a few years ago. So we deserve it I guess. I mean, Chicago politics have always been corrupt. The days of Al Capone may be over, but our political system is more honest than it was then. And for the most part I am as guilty as the rest, the city functions, it's clean, crime is down, and the corruption stays mostly under the table so we look past it.

Now, the state government is a totally different story. It has never functioned!! We have the most dysfunctional and self serving state legislature I have ever seen. And to cap it all off a governor that fits right it. (Side note: if you think our beloved president elect managed to be a part of these systems and never got his hands dirty, that is just plain naive or ignorant, sorry to be blunt, but I see it first hand and you don't play with pigs without getting dirty).

So now, we have a governor facing impeachment, a vacant senate seat, the democrats up in arms throwing their own to the wolves, republicans calling for a special election with the hope of seating another republican in the senate, and an appointed senator who has yet to be and will doubtfully be confirmed. Of course the man feels that he has a right to the seat and has gone so far as to say: "We are hoping and praying that they will not be able to deny what the Lord has ordained," Not sure when the Lord started ordaining senators, but this guy thinks that he has. My goodness . . . please NO!! But, he is prepared to sue in the case that he is not seated in the senate. The American way I guess. God bless America!

So what is my point here. People here in Illinois are upset, they are divided, they are embarrassed, and worst of all not being represented fairly on the national level (not that we have been the past two years while our junior senator was too busy running for president to be a senator, but we didn't seem to complain then). Anyway . . . my point is that we deserve every bit of what we have gotten. We look past corruption, we don't pay enough attention to who we elect and why, we are too complacent. It is just easier to keep letting wicked men lead us, than it is to fight to help good people be elected. I know that sounds crazy that good people could actually be involved in politics, but they have to be out there. It isn't enough to decide that things seem ok and just vote for the incumbent, or to just vote along party lines. It is our responsibility and right as citizens of this country to elect leader to represent us.

If anything, this situation along with the election last November have prompted me to not just talk, but to actually get involved. I know that I myself can't change the world, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try. We should all do everything in our power to make the world better, even if we don't see any success, we should keep trying and try to bring integrity back to politics, I know it sounds crazy, but we have got to try.

Thanks for listening to my rant :)

10 Reasons I Hate the Snow

I didn't always hate snow. I grew up in Idaho, Utah, Washington and we always had snow and I always loved when it would fall (admittedly hoping that we would have a snow day and I wouldn't have to go to school). But I always enjoyed playing in the snow with my sisters and friends. Sledding was tons of fun and I even tried to ski a time or two.

But now, it is all over. I find no more joy in the falling snow. Mostly due to the fact that everytime that the snow falls and the rest of ya'll make a cup of cocoa, start a fire, and curl up in a blanket; I get called out to go to work all night. So here are my top ten reasons why I despise snow (In no particular order).

1. People who can't drive in it think they can and go 10 mph and no one will mind
2. I hate shoveling my walks and driveway
3. People with 4wd think that they can drive like normal and try to kill people
4. No one seems to be able to park in the stall
5. My dog does not want to go outside
6. The snow covered up my winter pots outside so now you can't see them
7. I don't get to sleep
8. People still drive like they are in a rush to get somewhere . . . for heavens sake give yourself more time
9. The salt on the roads sprays onto my windshield so I can't see
10. I have to cancel plans all the time