A Summer to Remember!

Hello Friends,

I hope you have all had a good summer. Mine was the busiest summer I’ve ever had, but also the most rewarding. In the time since I last updated this blog I graduated college, worked a successful Congressional campaign, moved back to Sumner County, and began working for our Congressman as her district Staff Assistant.

Here’s a snapshot of my summer:

14,000  miles driven

10,000+ phone calls made

13 County GOP meetings

11 “Reagan Day Dinners”

9 “Meet & Greets”

4 Tea Party meetings

4 Right to Life meetings

3 Senior Citizens Center Visits

2 Farm Bureau functions

2 Fundraisers

1 Casket Factory Tour

1 Jail Visit

Ungodly amounts of barbecue consumed

& 1 Great Victory Party on August 2nd! 

… And that’s not even a full picture of everything that took place during the course of the campaign, just what I attended. I started to sit down and attempt to write out a blog about all that we saw and experienced this summer, but I just couldn’t do it justice and explain everything the way I wanted to. So here’s the next best thing, my summer in pictures:

I graduated Tennessee Tech with my Political Science degree in May. And the whole family circus was there for the occasion. They sat through that boring 3 hour commencement ceremony just to see me get my diploma. And they all stayed awake! I had said since middle school that this was what I wanted to study in college, and I’m thankful that I was able to do that and that I am now able to work in a career that uses what I’ve learned.

The Strawberry Festival in Portland, TN was one of the first events of the campaign season.

Our Congressional district encompasses all or parts of 19 different counties. We saw some beautiful “Small Town USA” places during our many campaign stops. This is the Sutton General Store in Granville, Tennessee, taken at the annual “Heritage Days” event, where our campaign participated in the parade.

One of my favorite stops that we made over the course of the summer was a tour of the local playhouse in Crossville. It is one of the top rural theaters in the country. This is in the set building area backstage. At the time of our visit, they were running a show which featured one of the stars of “The Shawshank Redemption.” The Director of the playhouse was a gracious host to us and told the Congressman that, although he didn’t agree with her on everything, he believed that she had the “compassion, the decency and the common sense to represent us all.” I thought that summed it up pretty well.

At the 4th of July parade in Hartsville, Tennessee. That was a busy day for us. We were in a parade in Greenbrier earlier that same morning, and ended the day with an event in Gallatin … Have I mentioned that we do a lot of parades?

Some of the best people I know: our 2012 campaign staff! This was at a Nashville Sounds Game in July. Earlier that day, our candidate and her husband had invited us to their home for a cookout and took us out to the lake on their boat. This was one of my favorite days of the entire campaign season.
From L-R: Kali (Field Rep-Gallatin), Garrett (Field Rep-Lebanon), Chris (Press Assistant), Me (Field Rep- Crossville) and Annie (Campaign Manager). Not pictured is our Press Secretary extraordinaire, Jen. Good people all around.

Our candidate at an early vote rally in Crossville with former state senator Dewayne Bunch and state representative Cameron Sexton. Three great Tennesseans in this picture. People are sometimes hesitant to make endorsements in contested primary races and I appreciated the political courage that Sen. Bunch and Rep. Sexton showed in voicing their support for our candidate.

Just a few weeks before the election, our candidate came under attack. Two super PACs, both of which were funded entirely by one disgruntled voter outside our congressional district, spent over $250,000 on false, negative ads attacking her. It was encouraging to see the media slowly pick up on these lies and call them what they were.

It was a long march to the finish but on election night, our candidate won by a landslide, taking all 19 counties in the district and garnering nearly 70% of the total votes. So proud of her, all that she stands for, and the race that we ran.

The headline says it all!

Team DB at our celebratory lunch on the last day of work together. We had won our race, emptied out our offices, packed up the storage unit, and even left a note for the 2014 campaign staff. So thankful to know these guys and call them my friends.

The new digs! I’m excited to have joined our candidate’s legislative staff following her win on August 2nd. Our Gallatin district office is located here, in the Sumner County Admin. Building. It’s my first full-time, “permanent” job since graduating but no worries- our office visitors are always there to keep me humble by often referring to me as “the intern.” I don’t correct them

Oops.

I think I had sort of forgotten about this thing, but after several reminders from members of my family who regularly read this blog to make sure I haven’t dropped out of school or turned to a life of crime, I’m back for an update.

It has been a crazy busy, but fun last semester of college. In these last few weeks that remain, there have been a lot of “lasts” and things that I love which will come to an end.  I’ve really been trying to take it all in and appreciate everything.

One of my favorite classes this semester has been Constitutional Law. This class makes for a total of 33 credit hours I’ve taken in the political science department, almost all of which were taught by the same professor: Dr. Maxwell. For the past four years she’s been a mentor to me. She traveled with us and coached us for our annual moot court competitions, hosted us at her home every year for a department-wide Christmas party, and nominated me for the internship at the state capitol in Nashville, which has been one of the most fun, rewarding experiences of my life. When I landed my new job- more on that later- she was, after my family, the first person I told.

Last week, I attended my last class with her. It was such an odd feeling walking out of that classroom that I had sat in at least twice a week for the past four years. And it made me just a little sad. I’ll get to see Dr. Maxwell again at our department’s end of the semester party and I’m looking forward to thanking her for all that she has taught me and for the investment she’s made in my life over the past four years.

On Friday, we published our last issue for this year of The Oracle, the Tennessee Tech student newspaper. I’ve had an opportunity to work there as the Assistant Opinion Editor for the past two semesters, and got to contribute an editorial in all 18 editions of the paper we ran this year. We discussed everything from the supposed “Republican war on women,” to Tennessee’s recently passed voter ID law, to Kim Kardashian. It probably was the single most fun thing I’ve done while at Tennessee Tech. In my last column, (the title of which I think sounds a little morbid and did not pick out myself) I got to thank by name many of the people who helped put that publication together each week. I thought that was important to do. Later this week, I’ll have to go clean out my cubicle in our staff office and I know that another wave of nostalgia will surface as I take down my pictures and emails I’ve tacked to the wall, and walk out of that place for the last time.

Saturday, I put in my last shift at the pharmacy where I’ve worked for the past year. The way I randomly landed that job- without even actively seeking it out or interviewing for it- still makes me laugh and reminds me of the way that God always, always provides. Many of our customers drove me crazy, but the people I worked with there were some of my very favorite people of all. Over the course of this past year they all became very special to me and even though I’m excited to move on to a new job that will allow me to apply what I’ve studied in school, it still wasn’t easy to leave.

On my last week of work, several coworkers brought food, while another gave me a thoughtful card and gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants. On Friday, the pharmacist who worked that evening took us all out for dinner and picked up the tab. And being the dork that I am, I brought cards for everyone so that they would know how much I appreciated them too.

All of the “lasts” and the farewells are leading up to a new beginning with a job that I have already started, but will kick into high gear on the Monday following graduation. I’m excited to be working on a political campaign for a candidate that I really admire and believe in. Some of you will remember that I had worked as an intern with this person’s successful 2010 campaign, and now I’m back for round two- this time with a paycheck!

Being that it is my first “adult job”, there has been a little bit of a learning curve. I’m thankful for good friends who have helped me out such as my coworker Rebecca, who I often call when trying to decide what is appropriate attire for various campaign events, my neighbors who have probably heard me through our paper thin apartment walls practice saying things like “Hi! How are you?” and “Jonathan Frank. Good to meet you!”  in about a hundred different rates of speed and intonation, and my friend Brittany, who I called in a panic the other day trying to find out what the frequency was for the local NPR affiliate so that I could quickly brush up on world news events before I picked the candidate up (after washing my car. twice) to take her to a meeting.

Also, many thanks to my parents who bought me new pants. Confession: for a period of about two months, I wore the same khakis to every single campaign function.

As the days pass by leading up to graduation on May 5th, I feel a lot of different things. I’m happy, excited, a little sad, and a little terrified. But mostly I’m just thankful. These have been a great four years. God’s promises always hold true. He has taken care of me in my time here, always provided, and always been faithful.

-Jonathan

(click on pictures to enlarge) 

My first weekend in Cookeville. August 2008. Note the "McCain for President" shirt I am wearing. Unfortunately, that one didn't go my way.

Picking up my gap & gown earlier this month

Good times in Nashville with friends from the campaign.

Mom & Dad just returned from a trip to Puerto Rico for their 25th anniversary. I love this picture that they took while on the trip!

Margaret's first prom last Saturday!

From our trip to Auburn in March for family weekend.

Easter Sunday

Classes, the dreaded V-Day, and a big first!

Happy Monday everybody!

I went to the YMCA and ran earlier, thus doing my one productive activity for the day so now I’m sitting in my apartment, putting off writing an Educational Psychology paper, eating cookies (yes, I realize this cancels out the run), watching Hoarding: Buried Alive and updating the ‘ol blog. I’ll write my paper  later today, tomorrow another time.

The school semester is moving right along. I’m taking 5 classes this semester. Here’s the breakdown:

Educational Psychology: I’m a Political Science major. I don’t really know why I’m in this class, but I needed an elective credit and the time of day it meets was really convenient for me. Plus, I have a lot of friends that are Psychology majors, and I wanted to take one of these classes to learn some of this stuff for myself because I’m tired of them using all their little tricks they learned in class and psychoanalyzing me all the time.

“Your small handwriting means that you are focused and introspective.”
“The way your arms are crossed means that you are forming a defensive shield,  and have anxiety because of a lack of trust.”
“The fact that you are looking down tells me that you are lying. You DID get my text yesterday!” 

It’s annoying. So I decided to take this class so I would know some of that stuff too. Anyway, the professor is this unintentionally hilarious hippie grandmother-type who is easily distracted. I don’t really know what, if anything, I have learned, but I do enjoy her stories.

Constitutional Law: It’s the sixth time I’ve had this professor. Let’s be honest, I’m on auto-pilot in that class. Oh- Last week somebody from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) came and spoke. I felt like I was going to get arrested the whole time he was there. I think it’s because my car has expired tags.

Public Relations Cases & Practices: I really enjoy this class and this professor. This semester, we’re putting together a PR campaign to address the issue of crosswalk safety. Apparently every now and then people get hit in the crosswalks on campus. I mean, I’m not really sure what to tell them- look both ways? If you got hit you probably had it coming?– we’ll have to work on that.

Teacher’s Assistant: I sit in the office checking my Facebook, and occasionally make copies of stuff. Sometimes they have food in the faculty lounge, which I take from when nobody’s looking. Best class I ever had!

Upper Cumberland Folklore: Um, just look at the title of the class. Oh, and it’s a 3 hour night class. I’d rather be waterboarded.

—

This semester has also been a busy one for our school newspaper, The Oracle. And I feel like I’ve finally hit the big leagues because after a semester of work there, I finally received one of these little love notes on our website: 

As an opinion writer, you’re nobody until someone says you deserve to be shot. So I was flattered. The funny thing is, I have written about President Obama, Michele Bachmann, Troy Davis, the Occupy movement, the abortion debate and so many other topics, all to very tame responses, then I got this comment in response to a tongue-in-cheek column on Madonna’s halftime show at the Super Bowl. Go figure.

I always knew that if you talked crap about Oprah in any sort of published media, you would get struck by lightning, or people would come to your house and cut you, etc.  but I thought Madonna was fair game?

—

I finally saw the movie “Courageous” this weekend. You NEED to see this movie! Also, is it just me or are those Sherwood Pictures people getting better at acting too? I enjoyed and appreciated the message of Fireproof and Facing the Giants, but was still distracted at times during those movies by what I thought to be less than stellar acting. The entire quality of this movie is a step above all of their previous films. Loved it!

—

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. My original plan was to sit at my apartment sulking and eating an entire frozen pizza in one sitting while watching The Breakup, Best of “Cheaters” Vol. 1 or some other such entertainment. Then I got a call from one of my very best friends/fellow bitter single, Corey, asking if I would join her on a “date” of convenience. I said sure. Why not? So now we have plans. I just told her to keep it cheap, and that if the waiter/waitress remarks about what a great couple we appear to be, as they are bound to do, just go with it.

I did also receive a Valentine’s Day card this year. Unfortunately it’s from someone significantly older than me, and to whom I’m related . . . Thanks grandma! In middle school, she boosted my self esteem by telling me that I was “skinny as a rail” at the height of my obese stage, and every year since I graduated from the 5th grade, thus moving past the tradition of mandatory Valentine’s Day card exchanges in school, she’s sent me one in the mail. You gotta love grandparents. They always have your back!

That’s all for now friends. Have a great week!
-Jonathan

Thoughts on SOPA

Everybody and their Mom is talking about the pending legislation in Congress aimed at stopping online piracy and protecting intellectual property. While it doesn’t look like either chamber of Congress will vote on the legislation anytime soon, both the Senate bill (PIPA) and the House bill (SOPA) continue to cause a lot of controversy, leading some websites such as Wikipedia to go offline for 24 hours in protest, and leading many a Facebook friend- including several whom I’m pretty sure would not be able to identify a picture of Joe Biden- to post links to various petitions aimed at stopping this legislation.

While the stated goals of both bills are good, I agree that these bills, in their current form, are poor legislation and I’m encouraged to see The CATO Institute, The Heritage Foundation, The Drudge Report, Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Paul Ryan, and other conservative leaders come out in opposition to these bills.

But here’s my thing: Both congress and the state legislature address issues that are just as consequential as SOPA/PIPA, if not more so, on a regular basis. We shouldn’t require that an issue become a trending topic on Twitter, receive a celebrity spokesperson, or lead a major website to go offline in order for us to become engaged in this process.

I remember when I was an intern at the state capitol. The Senator I worked for that year sponsored what I believed was a very important bill, which would have allowed individuals who were victims of rape or abuse the opportunity to break a lease agreement and relocate to a safe place without having to face financial ruin. We issued a press release before the bill came up for a vote in committee, made information about the bill available on Facebook and the Senator’s website, etc., but we really weren’t ever able to drum up a lot of support or excitement for that legislation. There wasn’t much of an appetite for it in the media. Because people were not aware of what was going on, the lobbyists for the Tennessee Apartment Association came in and killed the bill. The day the bill came up for a vote in committee, you could hear crickets across the halls of our office building and the committee room- which is open to the public- was empty. The bill died and that was that.

Weeks later, the ‘Guns in Bars’ bill came up for a vote and it was chaos. Phones were ringing off the hook. Our office was inundated with emails. Supporters of the bill flooded the balcony of the Senate chamber. Constituents called telling me that if the Senator I worked for did not vote a certain way on this one bill, they would see to it that she was not reelected.

Do you see the point I’m making?

PIPA/SOPA is an important issue and yes, they are bad bills, but they aren’t the only items of legislation this year that I believe demand our attention.

The Tennessee state legislature, for example, is scheduled to take up a bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week which would make the sale of “designer drugs” known as “bath salts” and “Molly’s Plant Food,” illegal in the state of Tennessee (SB2172). This is important legislation. Tennessee- and especially the Upper Cumberland region of the state, where I live- has a real drug problem. Right now, manufacturers can take an illegal drug and make a chemical change of as little as one molecule, and create a substance that isn’t illegal. This bill will end that practice, and in doing so- save many lives.

Don’t wait for someone to tell you that something is important before you act on it. Be engaged in the process year round, and speak up on those issues that matter to you.

Thinking of all my D.C. congressional staffer friends today. Hope you’re able to catch a break at some point

-Jonathan

The First Day

Today started the first day of my last semester of college. As I do about many things on a regular basis (i.e., what I’m going to eat for lunch on a given day, when I can’t get the Netflix to work, when I notice the slightest hint of disorganization or messiness in my apartment-thus setting off my OCD tendencies) I panicked.

I would like to think that I’m fairly mature and responsible, and I know that when I graduate I’ll be ready for it, but still, the thought of being out in the real world seems kind of daunting. I still don’t even know what the heck a 401K is. Until very recently, I thought it was some sort of a race or marathon. Do I have one? How do I get one? Maybe I should ask the payroll lady at Kroger. Or my Mom. Or Google.

Also, I feel like I don’t have any of those trendy, professional adult hobbies. I don’t golf, eat sushi, smoke cigars, play chess, or go to wine tastings. Instead I watch Celebrity Rehab, still order the funny face pancake off the children’s menu at IHOP, and wear out the “Fat Booth” iPhone app with my friends so we can see what everyone we know would look like if they had 6 chins. Sophisticated, right?

Anyway, as a second semester college senior, I don’t prepare as much for the first day of class as I used to. Freshman year, I pre-ordered all of my textbooks, and had bought a notebook and folder for every class two weeks before school started. I was that guy. This year, I came to class empty handed but I still got there about 30 minutes early. At Tennessee Tech there is this unspoken code that you do not move from the seat that you choose on the first day for the rest of the semester, and I learned the hard way sophomore year that if you don’t arrive to class early on the first day, you end up sitting by the kid that smells like a mixture of cigarettes, a wet dog, and tuna fish for the entire semester. I’m not doing that again.

After class let out, I went to work. I wasn’t scheduled to be there, but one of the technicians made lasagna and as we’ve established, there is very little that I won’t do for a free meal. This was my text message conversation with my pharmacist, Lisa, this afternoon:

ME: Is lasagna still happening? And how tacky would it be if I came by and got some?
LISA: Pretty tacky . . .  [She was kidding. I think.]
ME: Well how about if I came to say hi to everybody and then just happened to take some lasagna while I was there?
LISA: Still tacky. But then again, we’re used to you.
ME: Okay I’ve been sitting out in the parking lot waiting for the OK. I’m walking in right now.

I have no shame.

Hope you’re all having a good Thursday! Stay safe out there in the crazy blizzard (read: flurries and light rain).

-Jonathan

The Nightmare Before Christmas (aka the Frank Family Christmas Card Saga)

Happy Chrismakwanzakah y’all!

As of yesterday at 5:00 PM I am officially done with fall semester of my senior year. Which is really exciting until I consider that I have one more semester until I’m in the real world. Then I think about getting a job, paying back my student loans, paying on a mortgage, having kids, my hair going gray, what hobbies I’ll have to occupy my time in my old age . . . then I just get tired.

Anyway, now that finals are over, I suppose it’s time to change out of the tracksuit (which incidentally, has never been used for purposes of an athletic activity), hat, & glasses I’ve been wearing for the past week and return to things such as bathing regularly, and stop doing things like eating almost an entire pizza at 3 AM and obsessively making flash cards and reciting terms and dates in my sleep.

I feel like I’ve already forgotten most of what I learned this semester.  Except I do remember reading in my “History of Crime in America” class that 60% of serial killers wet the bed regularly as adults. I found that statistic fascinating.

During the weekend that separated the last week of regular classes and final exams at Tech, I went home to take Christmas card pictures with my family. True to tradition, there was never a dull moment.

As I arrived home, my Mom was pulling out of the driveway. “Where are you going?” I yelled. She announced that she was going to pick up the neighbors so that they could take showers at our house. Their hot water heater busted.

I said a silent prayer thanking God that for once it was someone else’s family.

As I made my way on into the house, I saw that everyone was getting ready for Christmas card pictures. So naturally, it was complete chaos. I ducked one flying hair brush, stepped on 3 hair clips, and ingested a cloud of hairspray on my way to my room (aka the couch in the bonus room).  This year, my Mom wanted all of us to wear a shirt from our school for pictures, and then we had also brought a change of clothes in case those didn’t turn out. Our first stop was Moss Wright park.

I give you, the Frank Family Christmas card rejects. Round 1:

Then we had an idea. There was this really scenic house down the road that we were pretty sure nobody lived in, so we changed clothes while driving in the car, and headed there to take a few more pictures. I suppose it was kinda sorta trespassing, especially since there were signs posted all over the yard, but hey- we’ve done worse things. And I knocked on the door first to make sure nobody was home. We were there for about 15 minutes and had taken a few good pictures when we spotted the homeowners. A very short conversation ensued, and then we left. Quickly. 

It’s the oddest thing. People get so angry when a family of six sets up camp on their private property and takes pictures. I wanted to interject and tell the homeowner that if he knew my family, he wouldn’t think anything of it, but decided against it.

We then headed out to my grandparents’ farm across town. At this point I think we had basically given up:

A couple hours and 117 pictures later, we did somehow manage to end up with a few pictures we could use. It was a Christmas miracle! Knowing our track record with Christmas cards, many of you can be expecting yours in the mail sometime around Martin Luther King Day. Also, you can probably expect some sort of attempt at humor. Christmas cards in the past have said things such as:

“Merry Christmas! From ‘We Three Franks.’”  (1997)

“Wishing you a ‘Tender Tennessee Christmas’ . . . From Connecticut!” (2000)

“We know this card is late, but who said Jesus was born on December 25th anyway?”  (1996)

I’m actually not kidding.

Anyway, even though I’m out of class for the semester, I’m staying in Cookeville until the 22nd to work at the pharmacy, and then coming back to ring in 2012 by working there on New Years Day, which depresses me just a little. I suspect we’ll sell lots of phentermine, Nicorette patches, and Viagra to account for all those New Year’s resolutions people made.

But for now, it’s back to the How I Met Your Mother marathon I’m watching. Ah, being done with school for a month sure is nice!

Until next time, I hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas!

-Jonathan

28 Days

That’s how many days are left until my very favorite day of the year! Also, I couldn’t think of a witty title for this blog post so I just decided to go with that. Anyway . . .

I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. Stupid school takes up all my time. I’m three weeks behind on “Modern Family”. That’s how busy I’ve been. Also, the column I write each week for my school newspaper takes a lot of time to work on and after I’ve written that each week sometimes I just don’t feel like writing. I’m having a lot of fun with The Oracle though. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I can be honest enough to say that a couple of those first columns kinda sucked,  but I’m pleased with what the response has been lately. If you haven’t had a chance to, I hope you’ll read some of my recent columns about the pro-life movement, Occupy Wall Street, anti-Islamic sentiments in the state legislature, and- most importantly- Kim Kardashian.

But don’t read all of that unless you’re really, really bored. Or maybe if you have to use the bathroom and you know you’re gonna be a while but you don’t have any good magazines available to you.

I just got back from a moot court competition in Nashville. I know- kinda geek-ish, right? But as much as I’d love to pretend not to, I really do enjoy it. I’ve decided that the only organizations on campus that are too dorky for me are the Quiddich club, the Dungeons and Dragons group, and maybe the Society of Clarinets. Everything else is fair game.

Our team did really well this year, coming in 3rd place. If I was a better person I would say that it was a great learning experience, and we went just to have fun and yada yada yada. Pssh. Forget that. I just wanted to beat those hoity-toity, overconfident kids from Rhodes College, and we did! Yeah they had perfectly coiffed hair, tailored suits, higher ACT scores, and arrived in their own private bus, but we beat them dadgummit! The fact that we come from a school in Cookeville, Tennessee that everyone still thinks is a community college and seems to mentally picture as being next to a Subway in a strip-mall made the victory that much sweeter.

Also, I have to tell you about the lawyer from Tennessee State University. I’m pretty sure English was not his first language. He had a very strong accent and- pardon my crudeness here- he used the phrase “hardship” a lot in the course of his oral argument and I swear every time he said the word it honestly sounded as though he was saying “hot sh*t.” There was audible laughter in the room each time he used the word.

“Your honor, we must consider the hardship being placed on the respondent today.”
“Ultimately, this case is a matter of hardship.”
“We must expand the provisions of the equal protections clause in our state to stop this hardship!” 

It was around his second utterance of the word that I developed what I call the church giggles. I was sitting in the back of the room biting my lip and staring at my feet, trying so hard to keep from laughing. Some light laughter was emitted so I started coughing to cover it up. Then more laughs. The harder I tried to stifle it, the more I wanted to laugh. It was terrible. But in my defense, my professor and half of the other competitors were doing it too.

The week after moot court competition was, of course Thanksgiving which I consider to basically just be a dress rehearsal for the real holiday that comes a month later: Christmas. This year I did something I’ve never done before and joined in on the Black Friday madness.

Worst idea ever.

I went to the Wal Mart in Madison, TN which is always an interesting cultural experience anyway and presents a slight risk of getting assaulted any day of the year but this day was especially crazy. If I go next year, I’m bringing a Kevlar vest, and a lawn chair and a book for while I’m waiting in line.

The lines for each checkout aisle stretched all the way to the back wall of the store, and everyone was very possessive of their spot. Each time someone tried to casually ease their way into the line, someone would inevitably yell out, “We’ve got a cutter!!” and then the angry mob would direct the person back to their proper spot in the back of the line.  I saw a few intense arguments too. If there is one thing I’ve learned from my black friday experience, it’s don’t get in the way of a pissed off soccer mom on a mission. Those ladies will literally shop to the death.

The whole time I was standing in line I was pretty much getting groped from all sides. I felt like a female Herman Cain staffer. Apparently there is no such thing as personal space at Wal Mart on black friday. The woman in front of me in line kept whispering strange things to me:

“Stay close!”
“Keep your eye on that lady in the black sweater.”
“Did you see that man just try to cut in line?! Who the %#$* does he think he is?!”
“I got this Blu Ray player for $50! Can you believe that?”
“So anyway, my son and his baby mama are having problems again . .  .”

I feel like we really bonded.

Anyway, I’ve got to go work on this project for my Constitutional Law class that I guess is kinda sorta important so that’s all for now, friends. Stay well and drink some egg nog for me! Or boiled custard. Whichever you prefer really.