Reason I love Chicago.

The walnut room Christmas tree!

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." -Elmer Davis

On this Veterans Day all I can say is Thank You to all the men and women who bravely serve our country in any conflict that our nation has gotten in to. You have all done something that I can never truly thank you enough for. You protect and defend our nation in times of need. we as a nation need to help you all in return for your service to us.

I also want to say Thank You to all the families who have a loved one serving. Your families also serve our nation and we also can not forget about you.


Our military is something that makes our nation great and I can not thank all the men and women who have served enough. So on this day and everyday I say thank you.

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." -Joseph Campbell

It's a new Day, Its a New Life and I'm feeling GOOD :)

So recently I have started a new journey in life. That journey is my weight loss journey and as of today I have lost 50.4 pounds!!!!! It feels so great and it is AMAZING!!!!!! I can not explain how this makes me feel. I am OVER THE MOON with excitement.

The two biggest tools that I have been using in my journey are diet and exercise. I know everyone says that when they are loosing weight but that is how I have been doing it. For me the diet started back in February when I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting. Weight Watches is such an easy diet that I don't even notice that I am on it some days. For instance my family and I went to Connies and have a slice or two of pizza and not have to worry about it. If you are someone that is thinking about joining Weight Watchers all I can say is JOIN! It is the easiest lifestyle change while dieting that you will make and if you follow the plan you will start to loose weight. Not to mention that the food they sell is very good and very addicting!

The next big thing is going to the gym. For me it is my ultimate me time. It is an hour of time where it is just me and I have to focus on what I am doing. I have even found some classes that if I don't goto them I just feel off for the week. The first class is Zumba. It is SOOOOOO much fun and it is a great way for me to start my Saturday mournings! I have no dancing skills what so ever, I have to left feet, but this workout is upbeat and energetic that the hour just flies by and I don't even realize how much I have done. I have also gotten into spinning. Everyday after I work out I always feel good and it keeps me going back for more.

So that is a quick snap shot of how I have gotten here, there is a lot more to go but the first is gone and that is a start. I am not completely sure on what my ultimate goal weight is but I will know what it is when I see it.

My kind of Town Chicago is!

So my computer is down right now and I can only blog from my phone. I have decides thought that I am going to blog why I LOVE Chicago along with everything else. Here is the first of many!

Beautiful days on the lake! Happy Sunday October 9!

The Emmys: My thoughts on it

So last night I like many other people watched the Emmys. Here is a quick rundown on what I thought about it:

- Very Happy that Melissa McCarthy and Julie Bowen won top prize's for women in Comedy!

- I thought Jane Lynch did a good job as host but there were some bits that they should have stayed away from (The singing actors and the fact that Fox used the Glee font for all the words, We get it Glee is extremely popular but come on Fox!)

- More love for the Daily Show just shows how amazing that show is! (I think they said that the Daily Show has won one of the awards 8 years in a row or something like that)

- The bit that all the nominees for best actress in a comedy took the stage as if it were a beauty pageant. They alwase do a bit together and it is fun to see them change from year to year!

- I am SO MAD that Jim Parsons won for outstanding male and not Steve Carell! Yes I do like The Big Bang Theory but Carell KILLED it this year on The Office! Michale Scott is one of the best office bosses in television history and every year the voters of the Emmy's passed him up for someone else and now he can never get that recognition for his work as Michale Scott. Also I am not the only one that fells this way.

- The Office also has not been getting the recognition that it should be. I think that it is still one of the funnest shows on TV right now and I think a lot of the supporting cast deserved nominations like Rainn Wilson.

- While talking about people I think should have been nominated there are more on my list like Community, Joel Mchale, Bones, Joe Montana, and Nick Offerman just to name a few.

- I might be in the vast minority but I did not like the fact that they put Ryan Dunn in the in memorial section of the show. Sorry he killed someone when he died and how he died should not be glorified.

- No love at all for Too Big To Fail! I think William Hurt killed it in that move!!!!

- I loved the look that Steve Levitan's wife gave him during his acceptance speech for Outstanding Writing. It was perfect and I loved that the camera panned to her at the right moment considering the episode he won for.

Well that is what I thought about the show last night. I am not much a drama person so I can't comment on that part of the show but I was happy The Good Wife won something!

The end of an era for me!

So this week I start my last semester of undergraduate work. Wow!!!! It seams like it has just came up on me but it is such a great feeling! It has been such a long and rewarding journey. I just hope this last year goes by slowly because who knows when I will go back to school because it has become so expensive to go to school. I think that the education system in the United States is screwed up! I would love to go on and get my masters but it cost so much money to do that. The fact that it cost an arm and a leg to even go to college is crazy!

Besides the fact that higher education cost so much money, another problem that I have is how teachers are evaluated. So much emphasis is put on exams and how many students in one teachers class can pass the exam. Personally I think that the results of the exam should be used in teacher evaluation but I don't think that they should a major part in teachers evaluation. I say this because I think that an exam does not accurately show what a student is learning instead what it does is shows that a student can repeat information that is given to them. I know this for a fact because I am a horrible test taker but that does not mean the teachers that I have had are bad teachers. Instead it had been the absolute opposite, I have had great teacher that have made a big impact on my life (my mom is Facebook friends with one of them even!) Although I am not a teacher I have a feeling that the reason that we are currently so many cases of teachers cheating on exams for their students is because they are afraid for their jobs and all they want to do is mold the minds of the next generation. Exams cannot test for a students environment. I am lucky that my parents made education a priority in my life and the neighborhood education is important to everyone, but that is not the case for everyone.

Plain and simple the United States needs a massive education overhaul and we need it fast! We are doing a dissatisfaction to the generation by continuing to ignore our failing education system. The biggest change that needs to happen is the repeal of No Child Left Behind. Trust me when I say I can go on a another rant about how that policy is absolute ridiculous and does not work. It is probably one of if not the most dangerous policies that came out of the second Bush administration. I say this because I went to an amazing High School that has been recognized for being one of the best High Schools in the state of Illinois yet because of No Child Left Behind the school has been placed on probation year after year. Needless in my opinion something had to be done and it has to be done fast because of we as a country continue to neglect our education than we will fall from grace and we will fall hard!

With that being said hope everyone who is in school has a great school year!

Fun Facts about Hawaii

*******WARNING: This blog is about politics. I just have to get this off my chest and since this blog is about MY THOUGHTS and MY OPINIONS than I thought I would just put this here. The great this is that If you don't want to read this STOP here!*****************************

Right now two of my siblings are spending their last week in Hawaii, and I can tell you that they DID NOT need a passport to get into that STATE! In light of the clams that Mr. Trump has mad I figured that I will look up some things about the 50th state in our union (anyway this is more fun than writing papers!lol)

* Hawaii official became a state August 1959.

* It's capital and Largest city is Honolulu

* Hawaii has two Senators and Two Congressman

* Hawaii has a population of 1,360,301

* From east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.

* Hawaii has its own time zone

* Honolulu is the nation's 11th largest metropolitan area.

* Hawaii's State Song: "Hawai`i Pono`i" (Hawaii's Own)

* Hawaii's State Motto: "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina I ka pono" - The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness

* Click to here to see what a Hawaii birth looks like

Sorry to say but Obama was born in Hawaii when it was a state. His opponent in the 2008 Election, John McCain, was not born in the US but instead he was born in a US territory (The Panama Canal) and you did not see the Democratic Party make a stink out of this. If you don't like our President DO NOT THROW OUT THIS CRAZY ARGUMENT THAT HE IS NOT A US CITIZEN!!!! Let me quickly make myself clear; I do not think that every person who does not agree with the President automatically thinks that he is not a citizen. I know that some (maybe a good majority) of his opponents now that he was born in the US and they don't like him because of his policies and to those people I have no problem talking to them about him. But when people , like Trumph, start throwing out clams of Obama not being a citizen it aggravates me. Also I am NOT saying that McCain is not a citizen, McCain is a citizen just like every other citizen that was born in a US Territory/military base.

I believe in our President and I think that he has done a lot to improve our country. There have been things that he has faced that no one could have expected; a housing bubble that has burster, a nasty situation in the Middle East, break outs in Libya and Egypt, and an economy that has been failing. I think that he has handled himself with great pois and dignity in these situations. He is willing to be bipartisan to try and get the best policy for the people of the Unites States. Yes he has not gotten everything he has wanted, but he has also gotten major things done. (Health Care Anyone?)

This is my plea to all Americans STOP ASKING TO SEE THE PRESIDENTS BIRTH CERTIFICATE. HE IS A CITIZEN!

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly." ~ Robert F. Kennedy

Currently watching The Notebook. I just have to say that I LOVE this movie so much and the book is on my summer reading list. I think it is the 4 time I have watched this move this month.

Today I was looking over everything in terms of graduating and noticed that I am 26 hours away from graduating!!!! AHHH SO EXCITED! This time next year I will be putting my finishing touches on my school work and getting ready to goto commencement. Now a lot of my friends that I went to High School are graduating this year and it does make me sad that I will not be joining them, I am OK with the fact that I am going to stick next year out and have my BA in Poli Sci/communications.

With the school year winding down now I am starting to look forward to the summer. Hopefully I can find somewhere to work. I will be taking a class at the Chicago Photography Academy this summer to improve on my photograph.

I have been having a lot of DC nostalgia recently. It just seams like what we are talking about in class and what I see on TV just beings me back there. One of the people who gave a leacture in one of my WII classes was giving a lecture at another Illinois school, I turned on C-Span (Yes I am a nerd and proud of it!) and the President of the company that I interned for was on it. It was just an Amazing experience and I am so blessed that I had that opportunity!

I have been having the fortune of listening to lectures given my Tim Wise. Mr Wise's is one of the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States, and has been called, “One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation,”. His lectures bring out things about race that we tend to forget.

OMG Obama is a pirate! Sorry I just had to put it in there!

Also Way to go Mississippi! Although I still think you are wrong in so many ways that is AWESOME!

That is all for now!

Long time since I last wrote!

Confession: When I first started this, I thought that I was going to be writing A LOT more than I have been!

So a lot has been going on since I last wrote here! I had an amazing experience i one weekend in February. I was apart of Model Illinois Government! MIG was sooooo much fun! I got to sit in the Illinois supreme court room and Illinois House and debate bills that the actual Illinois had debate.

Also I went to Arizona for spring break with my mom! We spent the first two days in Norther Arizona/Southern Utah. We went to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. It was beautiful! The rock formation and just the pureness of the area made it great. There were parts of the drive to and from Phoenix where there was no billboards, no street lights, no nothing that just made it great! Than after that we drove back down to Phoenix. We went to hang out with some of my mom cousins and see a spring training game.

I had a lot of fun in Phoenix and I loved going to the Spring Training game! Being at the game makes me long for the day when I get to go to a regular season game!

School has been going good! I have had my ups and downs but I am doing it and trying to get it done!

I did just applied for an internship so fingers crossed! Other than that I am trying to figure out what to do this summer!!!

Thats all for Now!

United We Stand! Union Strong!

"Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor -- those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized -- do a disservice to the cause of democracy." ~John F. Kennedy

I could not say it any better! Right now in Wisconsin the Governor, Scott Walker, is threatening to ban all unions!!!! To me this is infuriating and simply moronic. He thinks that by doing this it will help Wisconsin with there budget problems. Sorry to say but this is not going to help!!!! The Unions have never and will never be one of the major problems. Unions have gotten a bad rap and now more than ever it seams like to me they are not getting the positive image that they deserve.

Yes I did just intern for National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a federal labor union, and I am a very proud union child, My dad in United Association of Plummer fitters and welders. I have had very positives experience with both of them. So for me when I hear when people blame unions for what is wrong I do get mad.

Unions have brought so much to America that we take for granted now. Things like the 40 hour work week, the weekend, Child Labor Laws, they fight for the bargaining units, and they do so much more the list just goes on and on and on! With out unions and the union movement who knows what the current work force would look like? Unions fight today for fair working conditions for their members. So the myth that unions are out there to try and make their members receive something that they don't deserve is wrong. They just what what is good for their bargaining unit. I know that my dad's union has been nothing but a positive aspect in my life. They have proved a health care plan that is amazing and I have never had to stand on a picket line with my dad and try to fight for what he deserve, his union has done this for him.

In short unions are a positive thing for America. They have helped keep the middle class strong and we all benefit for Unions work. Our legislators should not be waging this fight against unions!

NEW BLOG!

I was having so much fun blogging in DC and it seams like more people read it than I though and that is AWESOME!!!! So I have decided that I am going to continue to blog. What am I going to blog about? well everything. So take it as it is. This is what I am thinking about and how I fell. Can I be wrong about something? maybe but than again this is who I am.

So here I go again. ..just this time it is just me and my ideals.

So as many of you all know on Monday night there was a huge snow storm here is the Midwest, at time it seemed like it was just not going to stop! Well thanks to the storm UIS canceled two days of class!!! Having class canceled was a first for me, granted we never had a snow storm like this when I was in Elementary School and High School it still was something different. The last time High School that I went to, Oak Park River Forest High School, closed because of snow or bad weather was over thirty years ago!!! So when ever some bad weather was coming all I could wish for was late arrival.

But what happened here in the Midwest is nothing compared to what is happening in Eqypt right now. For those of you who don't know the people of Egypt have had enough with there government and took action into their own hands. I hope that the people in Egypt get what they want. On a personal note I ask everyone that is reading this to send good vibes/positive thoughts to the EShafie family. Sara ElShafie is a very close friend of mine and her family lives in Egypt. Sara was in Egypt studying for the semester but she safe in Paris right now.

That's all for now!