LeahAndMark.com

It’s been an interesting past week/weekend. Our friend Anna (of Anna & Chris) has been staying with us since her landlord hired pest control people to spray for bugs and um, mice and other things – which inevitably means that they’re using chemicals that you shouldn’t be breathing – especially if you’re pregnant like Anna is right now.

Sure, sure they’ll say they use ‘green’ or organic poisons and junk like that – but of course we all know there aren’t any kind of ‘national standards’ that truly classify anything as green – so that doesn’t mean it’s green at all (again, whatever that means) – plus the fact that there are still serious chemical compounds in the mixture that this particular company uses – stuff that is definitely not green, not organic and absolutely poisonous to insects, rats, and humans. Nevermind the pest control guys’ arguing with Anna over how it’s safe and she doesn’t need to leave the house… because he read the informational “fact” sheet provided by the pesticide company. Sure.

It’s been fun having Anna over and hanging out.

Yesterday, Leah and I went to a party over at one of her “work” friends. I say “work” because this friend Lauren works for the Georgia… Restorative Justice Project? Program? (The key part is Restorative Justice) – which is actually where Leah is doing her GRA graduate work-study portion. It was fun. Good food, nice people – but more distinctly – it was a new and relatively, different circle of friends.

Several Lawyers, Social Workers (in the broadest sense of the term – which includes much more than simple case managers – ask Leah and she’ll make sure you understand that being a ‘Social Worker’ is not simply confined to being a low level case manager.)

And before you allow the simple term of Lawyer to cloud your impression – these were public defenders and also a nice couple who works with inmates on Georgia’s death row. Not only the inmates themselves, but their families and how to deal with the issues involved with both the prison experience of visiting a family member on death row, and obviously all of the emotional difficulties and challenges inherent with that situation.

Seriously. Awesome conversations. We even found someone with whom we could have a conversation on the current events of the political goings-on in Nepal recently. That was an interesting surprise.

(Here’s the short run-down of relatively recent events in Nepal: For a long time it was a monarchy. Then the prince, who was mentally ill – went REALLY mentally ill and massacred the rest of the Royal Family; King, Queen, and others – all except the King’s brother – who then ascended to the Throne. Then this new King did away with their Parliament – which brought dismay among the people. Enter the Maoists party – who although were not in outright war with the new King – they were akin to a rebellious terrorists group who halfway attempted to work through political channels. Jumping forward, all of a sudden, the King stepped down and the leader of the Maoists party was elected Prime Minister.

Mind you, over the past decade, a few thousand people did die during the struggle/terrorists acts between the Maoists and the new King. The issues now are whether or not the new Prime Minister will keep to his word and work ‘for the people’ as the Maoists claimed to be before they got into power – or if they will bend to the strong wills of their neighbors – China or India. Nepal is in between the two giants, and their problem is compounded by the fact that they’re a land locked nation.

Now YOU TOO can have an indepth and informed conversation on the current state and recent history of the once Mountain Kingdom of Nepal.

 I still haven’t found a new job. I haven’t been on an interview since I was let go from my last one. (I went on four interviews right before I was let go – but none since.) Which reminds me – I have to do my weekly filing for unemployment…. done. It’s pretty simple once you sign up – apparently. I just login - click Yes, No, No and Submit. Hopefully I get that check soon.

Hopefully I get my next great job soon. In the meantime. We’re doing covert ops for the FBI/CIA/NSA - name the government agency and I’m working for them… I’m not quite sure what I’m talking about here. But clearly I have a plan and it cannot be mentioned in print - so if you ever see me in real life, we’ll talk about it sometime.

We had plans to go to a second party last night but the cold that Leah had been keeping back all day long broke the dam and so she rapidly went downhill once we left the first party. Rapidly. So we went home and stayed home.

This morning she’s in bed and finally sleeping (it’s actually almost noon now) – so I’m here, typing away, procrastinating on doing my homework/ assignments/ writing/ cleaning/ everything. But look at that photo up above. That’s the grilled salmon that our new friend Doug grilled up last night. I have video of it… somewhere.

I should get to work on something. Thank you.