Odds And Ends

Well, I'm about to go home for Labor Day weekend, which means this crazy month of August is about to come to a close. I've now officially gone to at least one meeting of all my classes, and I must say when I look at everything I'm going to go through this semester, I'm a little nervous. Granted, that's how I feel at the start of every semester, so I'm sure I'll end up okay, but still... I'm just going to have to rely on God if I want to balance my academic, professional, spiritual, and social lives.

Oh, there are also a few updates going on in my family. My brother and his wife had their second child, an adorable little girl. This is also their second daughter; the first is three. Their first little girl looks a lot like her mother, but I think my new niece looks a lot like my brother, her dad. I saw her last weekend when she was born, and I hope to see her again this weekend.

I also have a prayer request. Recently, a close friend of mine became very ill and is taking the semester off to recover. She's a sweet girl and I'm going to miss her. She lives out in the Midwest so I doubt I'll have a chance to visit her. Just pray for her healing and her family as they take care of her this year.

Those are about all the odds and ends I have, although I suppose I should say that I wasn't really interested in this year's presidential race before, but now that John McCain has picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, I think it's definitely interesting. Either way, we will have our first African American president or our first female VP. And I'm also liking Palin's record on economic and social issues. She may not support same-sex marriage, but she did at least veto a bill that would block giving health benefits to the same-sex partners of public employees, so that's admirable of her. If I'm not mistaken, that made Alaska one of the first states to extend benefits to such partnerships amongst state employees. Pretty impressive for a Republican, huh?