New blog for the new year.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start this off by mentioning the new little bundle of joy in my life, Maxwell Grant Spurling, born Dec. 29th and filling my world ever since. Max was a surprise, complete surprise and as I looked at him earlier I remarked to Rainey how beautiful he was and how he filled me with such love and she summed it up superbly we she said, "He's every thing you never knew you wanted." His birth experience wasn't without a couple of hitches though, first he has a very pronounced birthmark on his chest,back, and left arm that the doctor is going to send us to a pediatric dermatologist to have checked out. And secondly our family got hit with a terrible stomach bug (which involved throwing away a mattress) both during and after his stay in the hospital. It's been three days now since any ones been sick, so I hope and pray we're out of the woods. The worst of this for me was I got sick the night Max was born and wasn't able to stay in the hospital with him and Rainey which led to a number of tears on both our parts. But we're here now and so far so good and that's all we can ask for sometimes.

In keeping with the random name of my blog I liked to discuss (briefly) my new favorite reality show, the GOP primary race. With it's ups and downs and name calling and rigmarole and now a vote that has sent one or more people home it's as exciting as Survivor ever was. Of course this show has much deeper implications for our country and unfortunately shows the pitfalls of the party system in America. I've always been sort of middle of the road in politics, on some issues I'm liberal on others I'm conservative and some issues or just to complicated to fall into a nice little category. If you'd have asked me a few months ago who I'd vote for come Nov. I would have easily said Pres. Obama, a month ago I would have said whoever the republican nominee turns out to be. Now? Well, now I'm not so sure. What led me away from Pres. Obama was the debt crises in Europe and our own unbelievable debt here (trillions of dollars? I can't even comprehend how much that is). I don't blame the Pres. for the debt it's been climbing for a long time under both repubs and dems but something has got to be done about it and it's not going to be pretty. I hate though that the first things they always want to cut are the programs that help the needy, can't we start somewhere else? Like with congress's pay and benefits and the pork barrel spending on needles things. What I would like is for the Pres. to say I'm going to remain socially liberal but I'm going to drastically cut spending and shrink the federal gov., he'd win hands down. Or I'd like to see a repub. say I'm going to be fiscally conservative but I'm going to be liberal on some issues. See, I'm very middle of the road and I don't think I'm alone. But the way party politics are candidates have to line up all on the left or all on the right or they don't have a shot. Look at my fav. of the repub. hopefuls, John Huntsman, because he isn't far right he didn't even campaign in Iwoa and has been largely out of the conversation the last week or so, which will change now that they're all moving on to New Hampshire. I don't think Huntsman has a chance but I do think he's about the most qualified to lead our country right now, when China and other developing countries our are biggest threat. But unfortunately it seems to be a money racket and Romney has the money to get the nomination. Well, not as briefly as I'd meant to be but there it is for better and worse. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out and I can only hope and pray that whoever wins the election will lead the country to prosperity.

All right last topic, I promise, Forever Plaid opens the end of this month and boy do we have some work cut out for us in the days leading up to opening night. I feel like I'm cramming for finals. There's still a couple of songs I'm having a hard time remembering. Why do you have to sing the same words different ways each time? And which doo, dah, do goes where? Which ooo or ohh goes here? Or was that suppose to be an ahh? The harmonies have to be tight on this show and the choreography has got to be learned quick. So bring on the late night rehearsals, the singing these songs until we're sick of them but know them backward and forward. And if, no, when we learn it all bring on the crowds.