Morning.

SLEEP
Wow, I haven't seen this in a while (morning, that is)! Lately I've been getting to sleep around 12 or 1 or so, and then sleeping until at least 10 in the morning. Sam has sorta been into the schedule too -- in fact he usually sleeps until noon. (By the way he is definitely NOT sleeping through the night yet.) Though the schedule seems to work for all of us, it seems a little weird so I'm trying to get myself back into more of a reasonable schedule. It's tough. The past two nights I tried to go to bed early and still didn't get to sleep until about 11:30, and yesterday I still slept until 10:00. Today, though, I got myself out of bed by 8:30! Yea! But you gotta realize that though it sounds like I am sleeping tons and tons of hours, I only sort of am, because I wake up every three hours, am quasi sleeping/awake feeding Sam, and then sometimes I get back to sleep easily and sometimes I don't. Usually I do, I guess, but regardless it is just not the same kind of sleep as pre-baby sleep (or pre-pregnancy sleep, I guess!). And I used to need a lot of sleep back when sleep was easy! Anyway, I am certain I will need a nap later, but I still think it's good to get onto more of a normal schedule.

VISITORS
In other news, Great Aunt Sally is visiting baby Sam (and us) this week! I don't have a lot of plans, but she just wants to see the little guy anyway. I bet we will do some park visits and some nice meals. We have been doing debate parties at Meg's for all of the presidential/vp debates and that's been fun, so Wednesday Sally is going to make some clam chowder with her very own Alaskan clams - yummm!! We are lucky.

I will take and post pictures of her visit soon. Also, it sounds like Sam's other great Aunt Anne will be visiting next weekend. Cheers to Great Aunts!

JOBS
Things are definitely NOT good on the job front. I still think the library job is going to pull through, though it still hasn't been posted yet. The title is Digitization Coordinator and it sounds like they do sort of refer to it as "Liz's job" around the office. So that's all great. But I also found out that the salary is really not what I had expected. I will be making significantly less than I made pre-grad school and at least $8,000 less than all the other Admin/Prof positions in the rest of the libraries. Boy do I feel valuable. I realize this is yet another testament to the disaster that is the US economy, but it still feels like a reflection of my self worth. I feel trapped and incompetent. I need to find a plan to make sure that at some point I have potential to do something more than lower-middle class office work. I just don't know that I will ever feel satisfaction in that, even though the rest of my life seems to be providing all the satisfaction I should need. The truth, is, though, that one area of life cannot make up for another -- they are just too intertwined and provide satisfaction for different needs.

You see, what also makes this job thing a little tougher to swallow is that we are totally broke right now since we are living on Aaron's grad student stipend, which half of is going straight to health insurance and taxes. Yes, I truly believe we are the prime example of the US economy right now. Also, I didn't even get an interview for the stinkin' gallery coordinator job at the art school. Not even an interview?? This is a part time job that involves minimal experience (BFA only and a little bit of gallery experience), skills, creativity. Yet I hear they flew someone in for an interview. Yes, I think someone will yet again be relocating to take on a part-time gallery job. Sigh. Again, the US sucks right now.

Even more bad news on the job front, a prof. of mine had suggested that maybe I could fill in for another prof who is going on sabbatical next semester, but I think that job is going to someone else, and it doesn't seem like they will need me to teach any foundation classes next semester either. Or if they do, they won't know until last minute so it will be safer for me to take a full-time benefits included job.

I really am depressed about this job stuff. But I guess I should just feel fortunate to have the library prospect. Hopefully that will pull through.

I can't believe anyone is going to vote for McCain. I can't see how you can look at the problems the majority of Americans are facing today in their daily lives and not think that this is a huge priority for the Federal Government to take on. And I can't believe that people think McCain's policies have any way (or even honest intention) of fixing this problem. If the free market's goal is to turn a profit, how can it look out for it's fellow man? Families cannot afford health insurance (I think I will have Aaron take me off his insurance, actually since we just cannot afford it), and a $5000 credit will A) not pay for private family health insurance (check it out, I did) and B) that credit is going to the insurance companies anyway, not "Main Street" (yes I just said "main street" ha ha), and C) he wants to tax the income that goes to employer-provided health insurance too, so the $5000 is just to offset that. Am I wrong in all of this? It can be so hard to wade through all of this junk that I will be upfront and admit that I might be mistaken in his plan, so feel free to correct me.

And why are people afraid of government health care plans? Obviously Aaron and I cannot afford the employer-provided healthcare available to us. I have filled out the necessary paperwork to start getting Sam on the State health insurance. That's right, Indiana has a government funded health insurance for infants and children. It covers everything because we realize as a society that we need to take care of babies and children. That it is in the interest of our society and culture to take care of our own. How come this changes when a child grows up? And again, the corporation and business is designed to turn a profit -- should healthcare be a business designed for profit? I think it's safe to say that businesses have definitely proven time and time again that superior product and service are NOT the generally accepted ways of increasing profits.

Sigh. Again, I'm just rambling as I run around and do chores and say good morning as the rest of the house is now waking up. So I will end here. More political rants later. But really, the next post will be photos of the cute boy and his aunt and the fun stuff we do this week.