Like a Bird Without a Feather

Christmas went well.  No holiday-eve fights at bars, although my family was out untill 1AM on Christmas eve, at a bar.

Some of my family is on very, VERY tight budgets.  The one thing that has always made me worry more than anything is money.  My grandparents live check to check, and have to work jobs as seniors in order to be able to afford anything beyond pay for bills and eat meagerly.  My mother and step-father I believe are also having money troubles, but I feel it may just be a tight budget time as they adjust to having a mortgage and the such.  All of it makes me feel very bad.  I don't know, anytime I've heard anyone in my family having a tough time with money, I just start to cry.  As I said before, stress from money is the only thing that really gets to me, and I can't stand to see my family live a very hard life.

especially when it used to be my grandmother who always made the decent living, and she would spoil us with presents as children.  Now she gives me $25 and I feel bad for taking it.  Like, I want to cry because of it.

When I make money, I will take care of them.  They will not have to worry about money.  I will also help my sister out with school expenses.

However, my family has proceeded to crack me up with presents.  I asked for highlighters of certain colors in packs, and my mother got me the 5 colors in one pack, and said she had to look at 5 stores to find that combination.  I won't lie, I honestly figured they would just give me whatever they found.

This week has been filled with news of shootings. We had nine people killed in the Nebraska shopping mall, seven people killed in two separate shootings at Colorado religious establishments, and even a fight breaking out that turned into a shooting match at a Columbus mall. Not very festive news for the most festive time of the year.

All this has had me thinking about the FISA debate when proponents of the warrantless wiretapping were quick to argue it was necessary to give up freedoms for security. Would these same people apply that argument to the second amendment instead of the fourth? I think we all know the answer on that. Perhaps the next time a Republican Senator says that we should give up freedoms for security when it comes to listening in on phone calls, then he should be asked about giving up the right to bear arms as a way to protect us in church or at the local mall. Let’s see how quickly the subject changes then.

from:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/10/a-week-of-shootings/

Well, "Black Friday" at work sucked.

Classes have been wrapping up.

That means exams, aka 100% of my course grades are coming up.   I'm having a pretty ehhhh time with that.  Very ehh in fact.

That is all folks.  Sorry, not very interesting.  Check back after Dec. 19th.