Ahhh, Friday

The thought of skipping out of work early this afternoon crossed my mind yesterday, but I have a full day of interviews and meetings, and am afraid that is simply impossible. I think until I get to a Monday - Friday, I'm going to work a long day on Thursday (because there's nothing better to do on a Monday) and have a short day on Monday (because it's technically my Friday). Now that I've confused everybody before 7am, I guess it really doesn't matter, as long as it all works out, right? Right.

My best friend is in town and I saw her last night for the first time since early May. Before I got the museum job, before I got the Pearl, and before I started this final stage in the long uphill battle to get out on my own. I've decided seeing her and her family is probably in my top five favorite things. And even though I could have gone to sleep at 8 last night, I still made time to go spend time with them. Her newest nephew is cute stuff. I walk in the door and Marissa just throws a baby in my arms. Ha. The other kids were happy to see me too. Kelsey is really cute, at one point she asked if I wanted to know "the whole truth" and then went on to tell a story. It's fun.

Tomorrow is election day. I won't make a pitch about political parties or who is better than the other one. I do know this and ask you to consider the implications. If DeVos wins, not only will we all become citizens of China, my dad will be out of a job. Is my dad's job better than your dad's job? No. Is teaching special needs kids better than working in an auto plant? No. DeVos's top priority is not only to shut down all intermediate school districts, but to start with the Macomb ISD. People move from around the country so that their child(ren) can enroll in our special education programing. We have among the top autistic programs in the country and do a huge service to the other special needs students. The age they would be able to stay in school would be dropped to 21 - currently it is 26 and my dad works in a school for 21-26 year olds. Not only by shutting down the MISD would my dad be unemployed, but by dropping the maximum age, his chances of being employed by a local district would be slim. So the point is - not only would the hundreds (maybe thousands) of kids that are currently enrolled in ISD schools be forced to integrate back to their local schools, and not only would some be forced to the work world earlier (my dad's kids need those extra five years of training and conditioning), but all the staff would be layed off and their futures unclear. ISD's have always been a topic of being cut from budgets in nearly every election, but if DeVos gets it, scary things will happen. And it just won't be to our state's measly industry either.

Re-elect the Canadian. If you don't, in five years, we'll all be blown away.

My stomach hurts and I'm exhausted. Now I get to go do what managers do all day. The good news is: I get to promote someone. At least I get to do this before I have to hire or fire someone. Practice all around.