THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR....

or that some of us have been waiting for. The first candidate forum. I wouldn't say we went mano e mano since there probably wasn't a dime's worth of difference among our positions, but it was a good crowd (there may have even been two undecideds in the room, you never know...!) and it was a wonderful warmup to what will be a long and winding road to the nomination. Modesty prevents me from telling how well I did but suffice it to say I've been winnowed in. We sat up on a very crowded stage at the American Legion in Dalton and yours truly was literally "on the edge" (if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room!) and also had the distinction of getting to go FIRST for the opening and closing remarks and LAST for the one minute answers to the questions. They didn't rotate the one minute answers, so I was ALWAYS last and so the temptation would have been to say "me, too!" but of course the challenge was to reframe the issue each time with a bit different lens. So while the format wasn't perfect, the mental exercise it provided was probably worth it. The other highlight has been the article on the "Blogger Candidate" coming out in the Valley Advocate. The blogosphere is bouncing it around and talking about it. Andrew Varnon did a wonderful job with the piece and so he wins the award this week for MY NEW BEST FRIEND. And, oh yeah, Medicare D closed the open enrollment period on Monday and we're still standing. In fact, I witnessed an interesting phenomenon yesterday. The phone was QUIET. I sort of didn't know what to do.....and then I remembered that there are other people who actually don't have a phone growing out of their ear at work, and can catch up on long forgotten administrative tasks and can plan ahead. Who'd a thunk it? A new life. It may take me some time to adjust.