This whole stimulus package....omgawd!

What parts to keep in, what parts to keep out!?  I dunno!!!

Am I an economist?  No!  Are our senators?  No!  Are the pundits?  No! 

What I do know tonight is that my right-leaning Indie sister and I spoke on the phone for hours.  She even made my battery die.  Yet again.  And when we spoke of Obama she said, "I still have my doubts".  I said, "Why you have doubts?" and she said, "He seems to be the answer and yet he's so slick".

I said, "Slick how?" and she answered, "I adore that people love him and feel inspired by him, but.......he doesn't have all the answers."

And I said, "Of course he doesn't.....what do you want, GOD???"

And she said, "No!  Of course not!  But I was hoping he would think outside of the box!"

And I said, "You think he hasn't so far?"  And she said, "No, but I didn't expect Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and yet.....I'd hoped".

And I thought:  OMG! 

So I said, "Well, I wanted Mr. Smith too, but, hey, we can't expect TOO much of a shake-up this soon.  Things like that only happen in movies."

And she said, "True....true..."

(Like me, my sister says a lot of those little ....'s, like she's pausing and thinking)

Then she said, "Well, some folks say he's too much of a politician and too slick..."

And I said, "Yeah, well, some people don't remember Clinton."

And she said, "Well I was  hoping he'd be different."

And so I said, "He IS!  He can't work outside the box because NO politician can, just yet.  Give it time!  Politics ain't bean bag.  He wants to rough up things, ruffle some feathers, make his mark, but he can't yet."

And she had the nerve to say, "Why not???"

And I had to remind her, he's a Leo just like she is.

Shut her up in a heartbeat.

Heh heh.

I dedicate this post to Leo's everywhere.  Cuz I know you soak this shit up.  Cuz you're Leo's.   And yeah, you-know-who, I know you're reading this.  I hope you liked it.

Heh heh.

No shit, really.  I was.  I slept in the back of my boyfriend's pickup truck in the parking lot of my office, and I took showers every morning in my company's gym.  And during the day while I was at work, my boyfriend would take his truck to his friend's house and do our laundry and make sure my clothes for the next day got ironed so I wouldn't look silly the next day.

We got away with it for weeks, eating balogna sandwiches in the back of his pickup truck every night for dinner.

And we finally moved on to a better place with two paychecks, and didn't eat balogna for over a year.

We kept our pride during the whole ordeal.  We didn't beg, we didn't ask people for favors wondering if we only wanted drug money.  We were just destitute at the time, but we managed, and we muddled through.  We ended up in a very nice apartment in San Jose with 12 foot ceilings eventually.

But....I always hurt deep inside, wondering what my mother might think if she knew....and my grandparents....I pictured them rolling in their graves.  What kept me sane was the fact that my grandparents and their parents before them probably, at one point or another, had to deal with being poor and broke too.

So it makes me wonder how the wealthy can live with themselves, and keep their pride the way I somehow managed to do, while I was struggling, and they aren't.

It makes me wonder how CEO's can expect millions in compensation, when some of their own secretaries or data clerks or IT newbies might be struggling the way I was....and the way that I could be still if I get fired tomorrow.

Millions in salary.  Millions in stock options.  Perks up the wazoo.  "Networking", they call it.  Well, fine.  Network THIS.  Network seeing your secretary moving in with mom and her husband because she's only making $55K a year and can no longer afford safe housing.  And then network in the woman her age who has three kids and works at Wal-Mart instead of at your company....

Don't rich people get it?

Fine, donate to PBS and get all our kids smart with Sesame Street or whatev, while you get a tax break for it.  Donate a few grand for the homeless....while getting a tax break for it.

But ride the fine line that the common folks like us ride, and tell me how comfortable you feel donating anything but sympathy.

....would you still love me anyway, for my blogs?

Just curious.

Because you see, I don't really care who isn't me.  And who isn't them.  Or who is someone else but working under a different name.  I don't care who's a she or a he or a something other than we.

I just care about the content.

If the content is good, I recommend it, even if I don't like the person who shared it.  If the content ain't so hot but was written by a friend, I don't recommend it but move on to other posts.

Cuz....I'm just a sweet blog poster.

Don't dream it.....be it.

Be yourself, and blog on.