a_natural_beauty

Again I've taken some days away from getting on my laptop. Sometimes it is just difficult to get up and turn it on and get away from my comfy couch. But in the last week there has been some good news and some not so good news. I'm starting to feel this is normal anymore. For awhile things were really looking up and nothing too bad could happen but I know bliss never happens forever. And that's okay. I guess it makes me appreciate when good things do happen and come around. I'll be checking my reading page this morning, I hope you all have been doing as well as you can be.

So the good news is work has picked back up again. We've been getting more patients and my coworkers and I have been able to stay all day. Finally it feels like it's gotten back to normal. A scare just enough I think to make us appreciate us for job - the other day - Wednesday I think it was we were talking about it. Just at how comfortable it is to work there and how bad some of our past jobs have been.

Animal crossing has been a nice distraction. So far my island has seven villagers. Anicotti, Bam, Bertha, Lucy, Mira, Moe and Shep. The Able sisters shop, Timmy and Tommy's store has expanded. I have the campsite now. I'm working on getting my star rating up. Currently I have one star :-p But I'll get there. After Mike moves in we'll get the online membership together and if any of you would like to come to my island we can do that. I still need to get all of the fruit trees. So far I have oranges and peaches. And my island already produces pears. I had to look up the list of villagers just now and there are sooo many: https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Villager_list_(New_Horizons)

I finally got all my stamps sorted into albums. This means my extra stamps to trade and my current collection! I'll be posting photos to my stamp groups on FB and see if anyone is interested in trading. I have quite a few extras I would love to get rid of. :)

The bad news: My mom's health has taken more of a drive again. I won't go into much detail but it's been painful to see. She dose have an appointment to get a scope done later in the month and I'll be taking her to that. But lately it's gotten to the point where I often wonder how happy she is.. getting older and having all these health problems - yesterday on the ride home from the library she had trouble taking because of her dentures and she got so upset with herself. :( My dad's health has been much better in a sense but I worry about him at times as well.

I am somewhat stressed about the trade war happening and the state of things here in the U.S. as well as worldwide. There isn't much I can control or do to change things other than change things in my own life and circle. But again - I'm trying not to let the stress and worry get to me. I had a feeling things would get bad but this is a new level that some days can still be hard to get a handle on. I haven't been to stores yet since the tariffs have gone into effect.

Somewhat good/bad news: The Ohio libraries had one heck of time this past week (honestly for a bit longer at my local library due to budget cuts already) due to fundraising being cut with a vote that happened yesterday. Luckily the vote didn't cut funds completely but there will be some cuts - we found out last night at our pot luck that next the vote goes to the senate and then we will see what we can do from here. But currently it looks like this issue will come up every year - two years and it'll have to be voted on. Before all of this happened we had the option of sending out emails to our local representatives and house speakers - which so many people did! I think more than they expected which is why their original cuts to funding didn't happen. Originally it was going to reduce the funding by $100 million. One important fact I learned from all this is that every dollar spent by Ohio libraries Ohioans receive $5 in economic value. So within the next few weeks we should be learning how we can continue this fight.

Tomorrow as some of you may know here in the states will be an economic blackout - the first of a few coming up this year! If some of you don't know, the idea is to not spend money anywhere. So it's ideal to stock up before or after this date. There are a few others throughout the next few months. I will try to list them prior to when they happen. They include boycotting business like amazon, walmart, nestle and general mills.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/02/26/feb-28-economic-blackout-what-to-know/80066188007/

From the website: "Consumers are preparing for a 24-hour economic blackout on Friday, one of several boycotts planned by groups of consumers or activists to protest what they call corporate greed, companies that have rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate federal DEI programs since taking office. On Friday, those groups are encouraging consumers to not spend any money anywhere for one day. If they have spend, they are encouraged to buy from a local business."

I will be a part of this. I have gas in my car and food at home. All of these boycotts I will make sure I can help with. It may not seem like much for one person to do it. But if enough of us do our part who knows what will happen...

I go through some days where I feel more anxious than others. Some days I am more hopeful than others.
But one thing I want to STOP is the adds. Before I noticed political adds used to just be on regular TV but now they are on Youtube AND on the radio. This nice quite morning I wanted to get caught up on DW and enjoy my breakfast of sunny side eggs, toast and tea and on the radio there was an add about my state's senator Sherrod Brown. It lasted what felt like minutes and felt like it was never going to end. Saying untrue, rude and distasteful things... almost like a child wrote it. So I unplugged my radio and now I am listening to Pandora.
I'm tired of all the negativity and hate. Why not say something good about the candidate you are supporting? Why not give us new information on why you are supporting them? No... Okay, but don't just say fact less, terrible, angry and just nasty adds OVER and OVER and OVER. It's gotten ridiculous these past few weeks. Within two or three adds I see or hear now one is related to politics here in Ohio. It makes me want to just go pack up and live in the woods for the last of all of this.
Soon all of this will be over. I'm hoping for a good, positive and new outlook and a new candidate. Most of you know who I support, I don't feel the need to say it here. But my ears will be beyond happy when all of these stupid adds are done. Gosh, I HATE it. And that takes a-lot for me to say.
Rant done. Takes some deep breaths.

If you guys don't like seeing a quick political post, then just scroll past - I will be posting happier stuff soon, I promise!

I usually don't write much on my own end about politics, but I felt like this one was necessary just because I am worried about the outcome of the next few months and years here in the United States, where I live. Tomorrow as many of you know is Super Tuesday. What is super Tuesday? If you aren't familiar - Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions can be won on Super Tuesday, more than on any other day (copied and pasted from Wikipedia).

Here are the states that will be up to vote: Alabama, Alaska (GOP only), Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

This will sound crazy, but I hope republican Nicki Haley will stay in the race. I have and always will be a democrat. But I fear that if Trump gets the nomination and gets away from being guilty with all these lawsuits like he has a history of, there's a chance he may win and become president again. And our country can't handle that. I think Biden could beat Haley since she is very unpopular. But her being in the race and seeing the pole numbers and seeing how torn the republican party is gives me a glimmer of hope. She just won the district of Columbia, her first win. And that also gives me a bit of hope.