Not a Fan of 2012 and 2013 Isn't Looking too Good

A little retrospective musing seems in order. No worries, it isn't a full "year in review" rant or rave. Merely a way to mull over some things. The things that have stuck with me all year. By no means everything that happened or even things that others might consider important. Just a handful of things that continue to dance around my thoughts...

Globally - Malala Yousafzai is a true heroine. At a tender age of 15 she stood up for what she believed in (education for girls) and was shot for it. By the Taliban, who apparently afraid of little girls. She has survived and continues to receive treatment in Britain  She is an inspiration. The Taliban were revealed for what they truly are: frightened, ignorant, small-minded, misogynistic men who prefer living in the 12th Century. The "winner" of this conflict was school girls.  Of course it isn't over yet. They are still vowing to kill her.

Nationally - President Obama was re-elected. It was a long, ugly race and at times the mind boggled over the sheer arrogance displayed. I always said that Romney was the only one who had a prayer of being Obama but he never seemed to grasp how out of touch he was with the majority of Americans. Now that the results have been certified (always amazes me that with today's technology it take so long to do this) it wasn't terribly close: Obama won 51.1% to Romney's 47.2% (these are popular vote tallies) becoming the first president to do so since Eisenhower (Reagan for comparison got 50.75% in 1980).  I find it amusing that Romney ended up with 47% of the vote ... since he went on that rant about how he disregarded 47% of the voters. Guess he thought he'd get that 51% ... opps

Also in national news things got weird in regards to women's reproductive health: the Catholic Church got all upset when told that under the Affordable Health Care Act contraception would need to be covered. There is a religious exemption for religious organizations  The Act does NOT consider a hospital founded by the Church decades ago and now run by laypersons as a corporation to be a religious organization. My take? Your religious beliefs do not give you the right to discriminate against someone or otherwise break the law. Render unto Caesar people. And the coverage of male reproductive medications (i.e. Vigara) but not female (i.e. the Pill) has been ruled as discriminatory by the Courts and the EEOC. Then there was that whole trans-vaginal ultrasound legislation over in Virginia. For you men out there this type of ultrasound does not occur from outside a woman's body. And they say there's no war on women ... yeah, right. When you are going to force by law a rape victim who wants an abortion (which she has a legal right to) to undergo a procedure that causes her to be penetrated FOR NO MEDICAL REASON are you not just raping her all over again?

Locally - The President came to Lima Ohio during his campaign! To Lima Senior High School in fact!! What an honor for our town and our high school. I don't care what your political affiliation is when a sitting president shows up in your town that is pretty flippin cool.

The Lima City Schools was able to pass a badly needed new money levy. Thanks to the HUGE amount of support from parents and the students themselves. Typically it is just staff crying in the wilderness. This time is was 200+ people literally marching in parades.

Fabulous local businesses opened, grew or settled in for the beginnings of a successful first year: The Met, Mara's Gourmet, David's Finery, Pears Avenue (celebrated its second Christmas), Vino Bellissimo moved in next to DeHaven's and more are on the way! The scary thing for my budget is the fact that Mara's, Vino and DeHaven's are now all within walking distance.

Personally - My mother was ill for over two months with something that should not have take two months to get through. The doctor was fine the people IN the doctor's office on the other hand are permanently on my "shit list" (if you'll please pardon the expression).

Got an offer to buy into the company from work (become a voting shareholder) still waiting on the paperwork but this is not an everyday occurrence and was a surprise.

Niece in Texas had her second adorable daughter, her sister got married and my dad and stepmother came up to Ohio for a visit. So more time spent with the "new" half of the family which was nice. 

Feeling some drifting from Les' side of the family though. Have a great-nephew that is now a year old and I still haven't met him. I realize I'm not the only one but really Fremont is not that far from here OR from his great-grandmother in Indian Lake for that matter. A niece on that side had a baby girl before Christmas and I am STILL trying to get the new mama's address from her mother so I can send something in congratulations. Guess I ought to just be happy I got invited to the baby shower. Les' mother has had some falls this year and is now recovering from a broken femur (thankfully not the hip).

And then there is the volunteer work I do. And this is where it matters! Work is work, the volunteer stuff is my heart and soul. So when I got proverbially kicked in the gut from one organization despite everything (raising over $10,000 from two events, producing a 600 page personnel manual, handling unemployment matters, doing the newsletter, running the membership drive, collecting back-owed money from the old capital campaign and burning WAY too many midnight hours - which takes away from anything resembling a personal life, gardening and cleaning my house!) it hurt. A LOT. And this is an organization I would like to have worked for well into retirement. 

Just goes to show that no matter what I do I will always be stuck in the organize this/be the secretary for that role. Never mind the 25+ years in communciations (public relations, media, marketing, web development, etc.), the Master's in communciations, or the MBA and LOTS of experience with nonprofits. I will never be "good enough" for anything more. The words of a college sorority president come back to me in times like this: I was de-pledging because they tried to tell me who I should be friends with and even wanted me to change my major. I told her I couldn't do that so I had to leave. She said that was just as well because people were afraid of me. It was the first time I'd heard that, but it wasn't the last. I scare people. So stick me in the background.

Same thing happened with local theatre. I was trained that there are no small roles and that includes offering my technical skills when I don't get cast. Well now I couldn't get cast in a show if I were the second coming of Katharine Hepburn, Angela Lansbury, and Meryl Streep all rolled into one. Why? Because I know when end of the hammer to use. So I no longer audition. What would be the point? Why suffer the disappointment. Sad really, having been in acting since the 4th grade, having majored in theatre as an undergrad ... for what? Can't even do community theatre around here. 

So as I look towards 2013 and my birthday tomorrow I'm not feeling too good. It will pass, I'll continue to do what I need to do to get things done etc. But I can't guarantee that my heart will be in it any longer.