DC Traffic

  I am not too fond of traffic. In reality, who really is. DC is full of traffic and cameras. Or as the police call them, safety cameras. I've had the "pleasure" of having my picture taking a few times. (I'm embarrassed to say how many times). I know those cameras pay themselves off really fast to offset the cost of their purchase.
  One day I was watching Fox News and they had a segment about apps that let you know where cameras are located in the city. There are apps for smart phones and for portable GPS. Personally, I have a Garmin (it's the only way I can learn my way around the city), so curiosity got the best of me. I went online to the Garmin website and downloaded a free trial of a safety camera software.
  That very afternoon, on the way to pick up my daughter from school, I tested this software to see how accurate it really was. Well, it was very accurate. My GPS beeped just about at every corner that I stopped. It caught the cameras that I knew were there and the ones that are hidden from sight. I was amazed of how much it beeped. On the way home, my daughter couldn't help but to ask what the beeping was because the GPS was going off so often. I guess that my solution for driving in DC is to go below the speed limit. I wonder how long I can get away with that until others drivers start honking their horns at me angrily?
   Can't wait to move out of the city. I'm going from one extreme to another. DC to Mississippi. Going from too much traffic to barely any. No more fighting to merge into lane. No more driving 45 min for a distance less than 10 miles in rush hour to take my child to school and bring home (no school bus). Yay!!!

I'll keep you posted on my adventures. Enjoy the rest of your week:-)

Natural Disaster

As everyone knows by know, Japan was hit by the biggest earthquake in its history. The search for survivors continue while the death toll rises. This tragedy saddens me and it was just last month that New Zealand experienced an earthquake as well. Have people forgotten about Haiti? They are still trying to recover. Just because it is not in the news it does not mean things are better. But as far as broadcasting goes, right now Japan is the current interest.
It's funny how that works. Seeing these events occur I can't help but wonder, what is going on with Mother Nature? Should the rest of the world be afraid. I'm not one to panic, but I would like to plan as much as you can. Not that you can really plan for these sort of events. They just make me scared for my family. With these disasters, I can't help but remember movies that I have watched in the past such as "2012" and "The Day after Tomorrow".
Is the planet trying to warn us? What can we do? Gas prices and the stock market was affected by Japan's devastation. Our country is already broke. There is an unknown future. These things make me question if the scenes in the movies will soon be a reality. It would be a survival of the fittest. The nitty gritty.
My prayers go out to the country of Japan. They are still living in the fear of aftershocks and a leaking nuclear plant. The fear of radiation is being felt in the nearby villages.

I have personally seen the good the red cross can bring to isolated places that are under unfortunate circumstances. I encourage everyone, if you can, donate to the red cross.

Out sick

As a parent one tries their hardest to keep their children in the best health. These tries come in the form of fruits, vegetables, exercise, and vitamins. But the one thing you can't fight is the never ending bugs that circulate their schools and/or daycares. Every day that I pick up my daughter from school, I give her hand sanitizer as soon she is buckled in the car. Though that only stops the bug from coming home. What about in school? Some parents still send their kids to schools knowing that they are sick. There starts the circulation cycle. My daughter is out sick for the second time this year. She has always been a healthy child, up until the daycares and schools. Maybe the schools need to better sanitize their classrooms. How often do they really clean the rooms? The first time my daughter got sick, it got so bad that she had pneumonia. Now I live in the fear that she might get it again. I can't follow her around at school to make sure that she doesn't put her dirty fingers in her mouth. She is a thumb sucker. All I can do now is load her up on vitamin c and try to improve her immune system to help fight the invading germs. I'm off to the doctors office and pray it's only a cold.

My First Step to Becoming a Better Writer

I admit that I am not the worlds most perfect writer. Though I do try. I realize this with the various rejection letters from agents and publishers. Also, I ignore them and blame it all on the economy. On my down time, between semesters, it is very relaxing to me to write a story. Getting lost into the characters and the plot. So, my first step to improve my "craft" is enrolling in a class. This semester I enrolled in a Intro to Creative Writing class, it made sense since I am an English minor. I'm looking forward to what I can get out of this class; to perfect or improve my writing. It is important to me to learn how to put my ideas in writing accurately and to improve my vocabulary in order to provide great descriptions. I am, very much, looking forward to this class. Wish me Luck!  :-)