Getting Political

A friend and another acquaintance are running for election as a California Democratic Party delegate, so J. and I trekked to Stockton this afternoon to vote for them.  We saw parts of Stockton we've never explored and it was a fun, winding drive to get to a vacant office they were using for the election.  Pretty great turn out and while it was very different from a 'regular' election (example:  you had to sign a form with name, address and signature, verify you were registered a Democrat - and then they put an 'x' on your hand with black marker and gave you the ballots.  The ballots were pieces of paper with all the candidates name on them - with little clear 'dots' by their name.  Only you didn't bubble in the dot - you just circled their entire name.  You could vote for up to 14 and (conveniently) my friend had a 'hand out' that helped people in Tracy with suggestions for who to vote for.  After you've voted, you folded the paper and put it in a paper ballot box - just like the boxes kids put Valentine's in - only much bigger.  Then as you're exiting the room where you vote, another person puts a red 'x' on your hand next to the black 'x' - confirming you have voted.

Interesting process and J. is going to reach out to my friend to get more info on how she got on the ballot; what does her election mean (if she was one of the winners) and does she go to the California Democratic Convention?  Something for us to think about and look into in Reno where we will both have time to be more involved.

It was a lightening fast, jam packed week at work.  I thought I'd try to work in the office a bit this weekend but I just couldn't force myself to get there.  I'm planning to get up and go in early tomorrow and stay late - my only 'in office' day this week is Monday.  Tuesday is trekking to Sacto for the Governor's Budget workshop.  Wednesday I am taking the day off because we're going to San Francisco again to meet with our finance person.  Thursday, I head to a CBO in a district 2/3s of the  way to Sacramento and then another meeting that afternoon at the County Office of Ed in Stockton.  Whew!  Crazy busy week.  Good thing I'm heading to Reno/Carson City on Friday for a four day weekend - just me this time.  I'm going to visit Carson City on Saturday and the rest of the time is just down time and fun at Atlantis.  I'm relieved because I just looked at the 10 day forecast and thank goodness it's looking like Friday (which had been snow all day) is now cloudy in the AM but sunny in the PM.  I'm so relieved because I'm really looking forward to going but still feel nervous about driving in snow.

We got another draft of the floor plan and we're getting super close!  Hoping for a conference call early this week - we think once it's 'final', they send it out for the rest of the work - the elevations, etc. and then we hope to head up in mid-February for a design center day (or two).  Once we've made the design decisions, then they do the pricing and we'll know the cost.  And then (we hope) they will start digging our foundation and we'll be truly on the way to a new house.

We've talked through some furniture things and have pretty much decided that most of what we have is going to go with us - and we'll figure out if we will use it and if not, sell it up there.  I'm glad to have that sort of thought through more because sometimes, it's all the moving parts and schedules that flummox me - selling the dining room set, for example.  We'd thought that's what we would do - but then we can't really do that until the movers have packed the china.  Why, you ask?  Because if we pack it, movers won't move it - and we could move it up to the storage unit but....it's a lot of very fragile pieces.

I overthink things a lot and it drains me of energy big time.  So the more we can just 'resolve' to get it off my mind, the better.

Don't worry - there are still many, MANY moving parts.  Plenty to ruminate about at 3AM daily, including weekends.