mmm...Leftovers

As it's the day after the best day of the year, leftovers seem an appropriate subject.

First, for the billions following, sorry I've been a little lax in the blog updates. In my real life, there's this job thing and it thinks it's hot shit cuz it gives me money to support my family. Anywho - I have a certification test coming up on Friday that I've been studying for. Sorry to let you all down, but I won't let priorities get in my way again. Promise.

Next, I'd be remiss if I ignored the election...yes, it's been awhile since I've bloggy-blogged. I don't want to get all political, but thank god the right guy won. I supported Obama from the day he announced his candidacy, volunteered to be a delegate at the county level and even donated. You know that important lint brush they used before his half-hour infomercial...I paid for that.

But being in a marital union of mixed race, it meant something on a personal level. Few white guys, and I'm about as white as you get - even used to sport a mo-lit - can even begin to appreciate what this meant along racial lines. I don't claim any great fountain of wisdom, either. However, having kids with the same racial make-up as the president-elect, I believe I have an appreciation many others can't. I mean, there's not a lot of families that have to deal with a dinner conversation where an eight-year old spouts "You gotta problem with black people? We're sitting right here!" No matter what the racial make up of the family, that's just not a sentence you're prepared for...trust me.

Anyway, I have a point, and not just on the top of my head. I kept my boy up on November 4 so he could watch the speech. Personal interjection; Obama + speech = effin genius. So, the boy's watching the speech and spending the majority of the time playing with his transformer. Yeah, he's eight. But a couple of days later he's talking about it because they had a discussion at school. I asked him if he thought it was cool that a black man could be president? He answered, "I already knew that, Dad."

Maybe we're further along than we give us credit for. Until you read the increase in racially-motivated crimes since the election. I hate people.

Finally, writing-wise, two tidbits.

#1 Finished a story last week that I've submitted to a major anthology. I like the story quite a bit technically. I think it's layered and touched on many different themes that the anthology was asking for. But I don't like the story because it's a stereotypical horror ending...the anthology kind of dictated I do it that way, but I'm disappointed I went that route. If I don't get it in the anthology, I'll probably never submit it anywhere again. I'll elaborate more when I get an answer.

#2 Returned quite some time ago from The Lake House. Great weekend. Great to see the guys. Disappointed in no swimsuits, but Alabama was beautiful. And I ate enough fried crap and BBQ to raise my cholesterol 60 points. It was awesome!