Hiatus?

It's been over a week, maybe two since I've posted last. Have I been enjoying my sabbatical? Well I joined an "athletic club" aka gym & after the first visit I realized how much I've missed the gym since we've moved here. I've never really experienced a "runner's high" (probably because I'm not a real runner - I walk with some intermittent jogging) but the endorphins have kicked in. Although it's a little farther than my old gym (I definitely will drive every day, which with my old one I could walk if I was feeling adventurous) and I have no awesome work out buddies (until they get their rears in gear and find jobs here) and it's hard to go at night (Buddy & I haven't tried the gym's $1.75/hour daycare yet, but we will) - I still love it. There is something awesome about watching The Biggest Loser (with their last chance work out) and being on the elliptical. My old habits were to watch & feel incredibly hungry for chocolate (it's hard to see someone sweating so much).
Anyway, I am on my official week 1 of training for the half marathon. Registration is May 1st & I AM going to complete the walk/jog with my two former workout buddies.

In other news, I created a company for myself tonight. I wanted a free subscription to Real Simple and they wouldn't take "home maker" as a defined enough business title (kept asking me to select another subcategory & wouldn't let me select all - even though I do it all). So now you can refer to me as Mrs. Becky -----, Purveyor of Awesomeness, ----- Home Inc. (the ----'s are for my last name - I'm not going to post it on the Internet - safety first kids, safety first.)

Oh, and I am coming to dislike the whole census thing. At first I thought it was cool, doing extraction for family history- I've seen a lot of census records. I thought how awesome it would be that someone could look me up and see that I'd been here, at this time (like that one TV show with the famous people doing family search). But then I saw the signs and the "workers". So my experience with a census worker was this: I was at the library & was going to pick up a form since our house is new and for some reason we didn't get one in the mail. The census "worker" (who I thought was just a creepy guy using his laptop and sitting really close to the public information table for weeks on end) stopped me - my hand outstretched to get a form - and said "You need a census form?" I replied "Yes" Then he said "English?" I replied "Yes" (although I wanted to say "Obviously"). Then he said (as he handed me this rectangular shaped form) "there you go".
Yeah, he totally earned his $12/hour. We can't pay teachers $12 an hour but we can pay a creepy guy hovering over forms.
And the sign outside the library says "Have questions about your census form? A representative will be at the library M-F 10:00-5:30" I filled out the form and the only questions I have is: 1) why did you make the form this large rectangular shape that is obviously costing tax payers more to send back? and 2) how could anyone SERIOUSLY have questions about this form. If you can read and you have a black or blue ink pen, I'm pretty sure you can fill in your name and age (and those living with you). A first grader could probably do it (except those boxes are a little small for first grade print - ok maybe a second grader).
Then the signs & commercials everywhere (& we don't even watch the 8 non-cable channels we have more than 4 hours a week). "Fill out your form" "Don't forget to be counted" blah blah blah. Seriously, the only people who aren't going to fill out their form are: 1) people who can't read & fill it out themselves - but they could have a "worker" help them and 2) illegals who don't want to be found out. And the census "workers" that will be pounding the streets like missionaries here in a month or so, do you think that they are really going to answer the door (or even be home) when you come a knocking? I doubt it.
So - I like the whole idea & understand the importance of being counted (it's not like I'm trying to hide from the government or that I think the whole thing is a big-brother-watching-you conspiracy) but really - how many millions (which we will go into debt to China for) will be spent because of stupidity when it comes to the census?

And those three things are all I've been thinking about since my last post (not counting the company I "made" tonight - so I guess I've only been thinking really about two things the last two weeks). I know you really missed me.