It's official:

My liscense came in the mail today. it's official, i'm a Texas resident. Wierd.

Things that have recently made me quite happy...

1) Election day -- or, more specifically, the day after election day. I knew I was ready to see a change in out country's current government, and I'm happy to know that the majority of Americans agreed with me. I sincerely hope that this shift in power will take our country in a positive direction, and I'm fairly certain it will. I guess I'm just praying that all our elected leaders - both new and old - do their jobs well, act responsibily, and work towards the betterment of everyone, and not just themselves. All the negative campaigning leading up to the elections made me sick, but now I'm just hopeful and excited to see where our new leaders will take us. And here's, especially, to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker-of-the-House-to-be, and the first woman in that position to lead Congress! I actually just found out about her today, and I've been trying to make up for that fact by reading as much as I can about her. I love this quote of her's from a USA Today article I found online: "It's tough. You talk about the glass ceiling. This is the marble ceiling," Pelosi said. Her ascendance, she said, tells women "they can handle power at any level, that we can breathe air at this altitude." Damn straight.

I had some of the kids at the afterschool program doing an election activity on Wednesday. They had a color-coded map of the election results for the Senate races, and a deck of cards that had one state on each card. I had them sort the cards into the states where the Republicans won, the states where the Democrats won, and the states that didn't have an election this year. It worked out even better than I thought! The kids I had doing it went from not even knowing what the election was, to learning the names of the two parties, and figuring out on their own which party basically won the election. I had to laugh though, when Leonardo cracked up any time I said "Democrats," because, as he said, "I keep thinking you say Democraps." Hey, if it helps him remember... I figure he'll figure out the truth eventually! :D

...I always get sidetracked when I try to make these lists... I'll keep the rest of the "things that have recently made me quite happy" shorter!! Here goes...

2) Last Saturday I went to the North Texas Conference UMW annual meeting. It started pretty early in the morning, it was an hour's drive from my apartment, and I had to set up and stand next to a display table for Wesley-Rankin, so I honestly hadn't really been looking forward to going. But when I got there, I found out that the guest speaker was non other than (bom bom BOM) Barbara Wheeler, of GBGM, and the US-2 program, in New York. That is, she is someone I met at training this summer, and it was great seeing her. And she gave a little shoutout to me in her address, haha!

3) I made it to the gym at the YMCA three days this week -- much better than my slacking 0 times the week before...

4) Ugly Betty. It's a great show, watch it.

5) The benefit is Saturday. It's been talked up so long, I'm glad I'll finally get to experience it...

6) Mixed CDs (and ITunes!) I just burned two great "Driving Tunes" CDs. And guess what? Making these mixed CDs taught me something about myself: that I really must have multiple personalities. That's pretty much the only thing that could explain my absolutely random taste in music. I mean, on one CD, I start out with a little Ben Folds, then go to a couple of Raggaeton numbers, hit on some Elton John and some Joanie Mitchell, there's a little Kelly Clarkson in there too, and then I end with Fall Out Boy and Flogging Molly. Um, wierd combination ... yes, I know. But it definately makes me happy. Sweetness.

7) I have pictures to post on here. They're coming soon...

8) Staying up til 2 am. Actually, that doesn't make me happy, it makes me tired. And incoherent. So with that, goodnight!!