2018

2018

2018 has been WILD to say the least!

For the celebrity world, we lost a lot of people. Penny Marshall, Nancy Wilson (jazz, not rock), Sondra Locke, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roy Clark, Stan Lee, Burt Reynolds, Aretha Franklin, Charlotte Rae, Harry Anderson, R. Lee Ermey, Milos Forman, Steven Bochco, Stephen Hwking, David Ogden Stiers, Lewis Gilbert (directed Bond movies), Marty Allen, Vic Damone, John Mahoney, Olivia Cole, Peter Wyngarde, and Jerry Van Dyke.

The political world has become a very hot mess and our nation is quite divided. Donald Trump seems perfectly happy to say whatever he wants and piss anyone off as he pleases. The Democrats won some seats in the midterms, but time will tell what that will do for or to us come January. In the meantime, the world's view of us as a nation is tenuous at best, the worst it has been in a while. Whoever replaces Trump will have a lot of damage to fix.

On that note, I will say that social media has become more of a battlefield in terms of real and fake news, personal opinion, and tons of memes. One person reams Trump and others will defend the man, a person defends Trump and others will tar and feather him. As long as the battle stays in digital text and not on the streets with weapons, I think we are safe.

I find myself watching more old shows on disc and YouTube since the current slate of programs is absolute shit.

Terror. The terror is within our nation, not other countries. Every week it seems like some business, church, or individual is the target of a mad gunner. Talks of gun control pop up, but die down, though it gets longer when there is a school shooting. Quite frankly, nobody feels completely safe unless they are white, straight, and Christian. Even then, nobody is completely safe.

On the personal side, we had quite the year. The big thing was, we bought a house! After years of being slaves to landlords and property management companies, we decided to take a gamble and see if we qualified for any sort of mortgage assistance program for teachers. We actually qualified for one even bigger. We looked at homes 1 day in July and by week's end we'd made an offer. On Labor Day weekend, we moved in. It's been quite the roller-coaster ride since but I would not give this house up for anything!

On the job aspect, I moved back to 1st grade (teaching it, not being a student, I SAW that look!). Luckily I was able to stay in the portable, PLUS I was granted my request to do the morning announcements. It has been a great school year so far.

As for the school system itself, I see nothing positive in terms of real raises or relief as long as the current administration is in power. We have a new superintendent who's superintentions I am not clear on yet. The union fought a funding battle over the summer and won, but I haven't seen much in terms of change yet.

My family is my strength as always, plus a network of friends both in and out of school. My relationship with my in-laws is, as always, fluctuating. I like Vickie's brother. I try to get along with her mom, and I've given her a lot of slack since her longtime live-in whatever died in April. However, I have seen and heard things that make me concerned about Natalie. spending time with her in terms of safety and nutrition. I hope the next year proves to be better in that department.

Travel-wise, we took 2 road trips. 1 was to Phoenix to see my old high school buddy Tris and his family in June. At the end of June, we traveled by rental car to Bremerton to see my sister getting married for the second time. I am glad we took the trip, it gave us a chance to mend fences and start talking again. We didn't have the best of relationships, but we do have each other in times of crisis and happiness.

HAPPY 2019 EVERYONE!