As the New Year has come and is well on its way, I still have not decided what I would like to accomplish during this year. The last several years have been easy with finishing graduate school and trying to survive all of the papers, classwork, working, etc. that goes along with it all. But being as I finished last Spring, I truly have not identified a new resolution. I guess I could still look at losing weight, getting into shape, etc., but truly those just bore me. It is one of those things that I know I need to do; however, I don't have a desire to do so. In that sense, I would just make the resolution and then break it. So, I guess I will continue on and identify a New Year's resolution sometime during the year, though I guess it won't truly be a New Year's resolution then!!
It is the time of year that I have begun my weekly pilgrimages to Richmond. The Legislature is certainly different this year than it has been for the past several years. There are very few bills being put forth that truly have any impact on anything. For the most part, eveything is specifically focused on the state budget crisis. We received another disturbing report this week that the deficit in Virginia may be closer to 4 billion. That is another billion on top of cuts that have already been identified. My agency completed it's budget this week with a 10% total reduction. Being as we are mandated by VA Code to provide all of the services we do, this ought to be interesting as this process continues.
I will be spending most of the coming week in Richmond. I have to be there from Tuesday through Thursday as we meet with our Legislators and try to keep our face off of the radar. This is one of those situations where you just want to stay out of the crosshairs of the legislature and protect what funding you already have.
Other than the "fun" at work, everyone around home is doing well. Shatlyn is participating in Destination Imagination through school and we have to travel next weekend to Abingdon for their competition. Then there will be another one in March and then April. The group has written a play about Romeo and Juliet of course with the updated teenage take. It should be relatively entertaining!
I have been working on a project of scanning some older pictures into the computer. I never really thought about it, but we take more pictures at Christmas than we do the rest of the year combined I think.
And on a final note, I hope everyone enjoyed the historic inauguration this past week. Whether or not you voted for Obama or agree with his politics, this was a historic situation and there is an optimism in people that I haven't noticed in many years. Let's hope that things improve and people are once again able to meet their basic needs.
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