Born at Menlo Park
More heat than light emit you
Dead in twenty-twelve

If you listen to the Christian Right® then you probably believe that the world is going to H, E, double hockey sticks in a handbasket. We'll soon live in a world full of people married to animals, drive-thru abortion clinics and nothing but reality shows and hip-hop videos on television. And with all these hip-hop videos we'll soon be facing a crisis... a shortage of rap video girls.

Where, I wonder, will all these hip-shaking, spankie-clad hoochies come from? How will we meet the ever-rising demand for bling girls?

Worry not.

"Are you sure you're OK?"

She asked me twice just to be sure. I was OK. I am OK. Really. But Donna was observant to recognize that a little part of me had been broken that morning. A tiny little fantasy crushed by circumstance and bad timing.

"We've been struggling with this decision and while we feel you're still a strong candidate for this position, the timing isn't quite right for us with the current match of project load", the email from New York said.

In anticipation of Mitt Romney's clear-the-air-about-the-cult-err-church-I-belong-to speech I thought of the legitimate questions many Americans may have for Mitt. I don't mean the kind of questions that have no bearing on his potential presidency like, "How do you explain the recent shift in the LDS Church's position on the origins of the American Indians?"

Discussion like that is certainly of interest to me but is, in no way, relevant to Romney the candidate. No, instead I have two questions for Romney following yesterday's speech.

1) If your church membership were in jeopardy because of your public position on a national issue being in contrast to that of LDS church leadership, would you change your position to save your membership?

I have every intention of writing my thoughts about Mitt Romney's landmark speech on his faith in Mormonism as it relates to his candidacy. I should say... I had every intention.

We've had a bit of a flood in the basement today and have spent most of the evening, along with the help of a generous neighbor in the disaster clean-up business, drying out the carpet. Today's window-well-waterfall pulled me away from the office a little early and I've got some catching up to do tonight.

Tune in tomorrow to hear all about how Mitt missed the point and how it probably doesn't matter anyway since his speech was not even about what most people think it was about.

A few weeks ago the batteries in both my watches died on exactly the same day.

One of my watches is a twenty-four hour watch like astronauts wear and is handy for confusing people who have the nerve to ask me what time it is instead of just wearing a watch themselves. At noon, the hour hand points to the bottom of the watch. At six in the morning, it points to where you would normally expect to see the number 3.

The other is a snazzy Cole Haan number that makes me look like I belong in an Abercrombie ad. Which, of course, I do. I prefer this watch for every day use as the astronaut watch is just one step on the nerd scale above having a Casio digital calculator timepiece.

For a few hours each day, Donna works as an underpaid government employee in a classroom at a local elementary school. It's a tough and thankless job but she finds working directly with students to be particularly rewarding.

Yesterday, after the class sang the National Anthem, as the do each morning, one young boy approached Donna and said, "Wow, you could totally sing that at a football game."

That's just about the grandest compliment a nine-year-old boy can pay a person, I think. Yes, high praise indeed.

When Donna was growing up, her parent always lovingly teased that she was their "big girl". I don't mean when she was like five in a gee-now-you're-in-kindergarten-please-stop-sucking-your-thumb sort of way. At five feet, seven inches, Donna is nearly as tall as her dad. So even into high school, she was their "big girl".

While she's never been anything even close to obese, and while she's never considered herself fat, I think it's a safe bet that she also never thought of herself as skinny. In fact, I think that while she's always been aware of her weight and shape, she's never really had either a positive or negative body image at all.

She's certainly been aware of her weight and size and shape but it's never seemed like it was really a part of who she is... a part of her identity.