Getting ready for Christmas

This has been a pretty normal Christmas season and yet it hasn’t been.

We have our normal late gift shopping, financial woes, lack of planning, trips cancelled or altered, heart warming family moments, heart freezing family moments, stress, crowds, colds, a persistent cough, baking and gift exchanges.

This year we added a new car (Silver 2007 Honda Accord SE V6) and the events surrounding the holidays just totally don’t make sense. When did I move backwards? When did I start acting 16 again? Why do I say this? Just trust me. I feel bad enough. I don’t want to go through it all. Just know next year will be different. I’m not going to feel like this next year. I won’t let that happen.

Christmas is coming and it will be enjoyed but there’s going to be saddened hearts all around and I’m admitting now that it’s mostly my fault. Should have managed funds better, been more responsible, gotten a new car sooner, kept in touch with family, etc. All of these things I’ll take care of properly next year. I’m not going to feel like this again.

Now, if I could have a little time to make some lists so that come January 1st, I can start the year right, I’d appreciate it. Thanks folks. And Merry Christmas.

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Early December Reflections

If it weren’t for this cough, I’d be totally enjoying the evening. It’s been raining all weekend and now I’ve got that wonderful feeling of a freezing cold house while I’m wrapped in a fleece sweater and a fleece throw. So here I am huddled in front of the computer and having a GREAT evening…if it weren’t for the cough.

So the week. Hmm how to describe it. I’ve found myself in a bit of a funk brainwise. I know that at work I really need to spend MUCH less time on the ‘net surfing the KATG forums or digg but I just can’t seem to keep myself away from it. I’ve been given a tedious project to work on and that should help. My boss doesn’t mind my surfing, so long as work gets done but I don’t like the way it makes me look when every time he comes up to talk, I’m online. So I’ll do something about that starting tomorrow. I hope.

Had a great week of football last week. Watched the Bucs win in the morning, Chargers win in the afternoon and the Patriots win in the afternoon. Today, not as nice (Bucs lost) but still pretty decent (Chargers and Pats won).

I really love the cold weather, the rain and all this gloominess. I suppose I might like it less if it happened as much as it does in the Pacific Northwest. Doesn’t matter. We get a few days of rain a year in San Diego and I cherish each and every one. What about you?

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More corruption and cheating…

OK I really do NOT want to make this blog a political one but this has got me a little stirred up because it’s a bit personal.

For those that know me, I am a Latter-Day Saint and the second Home Teacher we had in our ward was Matt Romney, son of the Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Members of my ward have been leading campaign workers in the San Diego area for Mitt Romney.  Based purely on what I knew of Matt and how good a guy he seemed to be, I was a pretty strong Mitt supporter. As the campaign has moved on though, I’ve become less and less a supporter and I’ve lost respect not just for Mitt but now I have to ask Matt what he was thinking.

First, was the comment during a GOP debate in May. Mitt Romney mentioned both that he wished to DOUBLE Guantanamo and he also was for enhanced interrogation techniques. This shocked me. Mitt is also a Latter-Day Saint. Guantanamo has become notorious for it’s poor treatment of prisoners and there are also documented cases of prisoners who not only don’t belong there but also have suffered these “enhanced interrogation techniques”. How could Mitt not only condone this but call for more?

THEN two stories came out surrounding people in Mitt’s campaign staff. Robert Lichfield was a major contributor to the Mitt Romney campaign and it turns out he founded an organization known as WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) which was masquerading as a camp for troubled teens when instead it turns out it was simply a torture & rape camp against teens. Then, one of Romney’s campaign aides, Jay Garrity, was investigated for impersonating troopers. Some supporters have tried to claim this wasn’t the case when recordings of the call and traces on the cell phone match Mr Garrity AND in 2004, the Globe reported, “Garrity was cited and fined for driving a Crown Victoria with red and blue lights mounted in the grill, a siren, a PA system, and strobe lights; and for having a nightstick and identification showing a State Police patch that read “Official Business.There has also been votes of fraud.”

Yet another major campaign supporter, Alan Fabien, was indicted on fraud charges. He quickly ceased volunteering for the campaign.

NOW, we learn that at the recent Florida Straw Poll, Mitt supporters were allowed to vote more than once per voter (some as much as 80) AND some supporters of other candidates caught CHILDREN voting, some as young as FIVE YEARS OLD. It’s no wonder that at 200 strong, Mitt Romney was able to secure over 800 votes and win the straw-poll. When people complained to the committee in charge of the event, they were threatened.

I occasionally check out the website that the Romney kids have put up as a sort of family blog compiling journals of their work in helping get their dad elected. Here I see pics of Matt and family at the Florida Straw Poll.  Matt, did you know this was going on and if so, whether this was within the rules or not, how did you not stand up and fight against it?

I was taught growing up about how pure and true the church is. I was given hope that while we’re all still human and prone to mistakes, Latter-Day Saints just didn’t lie, cheat and steal. While I can’t pin the entirety of the church and it’s doctrines on the actions of one person, when Mitt said he wasn’t running “to be a spokesman for my church,” he wasn’t kidding.

I can’t see how a goodly Mormon man can condone and call for the expansion of “enhanced interrogation techniques” or accept money from the types of people he’s accepted money from or continually change his stance on various issues or now allowing this cheating and stealing and overall dishonesty to go down in Florida straw polls. How many of the other straw polls has he won in this manner? I’ve also heard he’s been caught talking about purposefully dodging questions at debates and joking about stuffing the ballot box. Why? Why can’t you just be upfront and honest about who you are and what you believe?

Whether you like it or not, you are representing the church and to continue changing your opinions, dodging questions, cheating and lying I’m only losing more and more faith not only in you as a person but in the church itself.

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