I watched Governor Sarah Palin's speech last night, and in my opinion she did a good job of presenting herself to the American public and showing us exactly why Senator John McCain picked her as his running mate. I think he picked her for the right reasons, and with her behind him, I am even more firmly in John McCain's camp. Choosing a woman for his running mate also solidifies the respect I have for McCain, as Obama had the chance to choose a woman as well, but backed off and chose Biden instead. I haven't been fond of the media's attacks of Palin either, as to me, the fact that her daughter is pregnant and that she is the mother of five children including a special needs child shouldn't be factors as to whether or not she is a capable vice president. To me, no one ever questions the parenting responsibilities of male candidates, so why should the fact that Palin is running make her susceptible to those questions. After all, fathers are just as important as mothers when it comes to raising children. I also enjoyed McCain's speech tonight, and I am confident that he is the right choice for our country, based on my own beliefs and his experience as a POW, a soldier, and the time he has spent in Washington so far.

In other news that has nothing to do with the politics of the election, I'm convinced I'm being dragged along another path when it comes to a certain male in my accounting class. He sits next to me in the lecture hall, and though we have yet to have a conversation that goes beyond "Could I borrow your book?" and "How are you, have you talked to anybody else who has taken this class?" I think there's the potential for something to be there. As I have only just completed by second week of the new semester, I'm going to sit back and see where it goes. After all, the semester is four months long, and that's plenty of time to start with the small conversations and possibly build up to the bigger ones. We'll see though, especially since being the person I am, I have yet to find out his name. Heh.

I've been reading Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counter-Terrorist Unit by Col. Charlie Beckwith, and though it's been helping a little bit with the two soldiers that are characters in the novel I plan on writing for NaNoWriMo, it's a little counter-productive as well. In the book, Col. Beckwith talks about the year he spent with the Special Air Service (a British elite special forces unit) as part of an exchange program the U.S. has with Britain. The exchange program is what has both been giving me ideas and causing problems, as the exchange program is only for officers, and the character that is a colonel in my novel already has most of his back story written, and working the exchange program in would be difficult. Getting him to the officer level took an hour alone, as I didn't know there are four ways for a soldier to become an officer within the Army, and three out of the four weren't possible for my character. Figuring out the fourth was the easy part, but there were still a lot of details to iron out, and I'd rather not make a new knot in the history, so I'll probably wind up leaving the exchange program out. Though, as I'm not entirely sure where my novel is going to go this November, I won't be surprised if it makes it in there somehow. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm kind of looking forward to having the house to myself tomorrow as I don't have to go to school again until Thursday, but on the other hand, I'm ready to go back. I'm sick of sitting here at home and working on the same assignments I've been working on since Thursday. Plus, I'm ready for the discussions in my English and Philosophy class, and though Accounting is pretty boring on the whole, I'm eager to get back because something special happened on Thursday and I'm anxious to see what comes out of it.

Lunch with Jeff was exactly what I needed today. As it's Labor Day weekend, hardly anyone was in church today, and when it came to my clan (we usually take up at least two pews when we're all there) I was the only one that showed up. Mum got called into work this morning so she wasn't able to go, and from what I gathered, everybody else just opted to stay home, which meant I was in the pew all by myself and also responsible for making sure our pastor got paid, and the couple of other people that Mum was supposed to pay got their checks as well. The service itself wasn't too bad, and I enjoyed the message, but I do have to say, my favorite part was when it was over so Jeff and I could started with our lunch. We went to Applebee's, and as it was just me, him and his wife, Lisa, I actually got to talk for more than a couple of minutes today. I talked to them about the Disney College Program that I'm trying to land a spot in this semester, how my classes are going so far at school, and of course, NaNoWriMo. I have a feeling he'll be asking me every week how the word count is coming along, and he said that if I make it and print off my novel, he'll read it. I'm not so sure about that last part, but I figure I'll wait until November is over before I make any decisions, as I might love my novel so much I'll want to take the time to edit it and look into getting an agent to get it published. On the other hand, I could hate it, and swear that it'll never see the light of day. We'll just have to see on that one.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to get the chance to sleep in this semester, as the past three days I've been woken up before 9:00 am for various reasons. Today, it was because Mum got called into work, so of course she had to wake me up to tell me she was leaving. Instead of being able to go back to sleep though, as I wanted to, Dad started calling, as Uncle Ken locked the keys in the Tahoe last night, and he needed to get his medicine out of it. So, as I was the only one home all day and had the time, I had to drive almost 300 miles today, as Dad, Uncle Ken and my brother are up in Glennie camping for the weekend. The drive wasn't too bad, aside from the fact when I hit the construction zones on Northbound I-75 (particularly at the Zilwaukee bridge), traffic was really heavy and bumper to bumper the entire time. I got up there around three o'clock, so I wound up hanging out at the campsite until dinnertime and drove back after I ate. The trip back was better than going, as Southbound I-75 wasn't as congested, and there's just something about coming back to more civilized areas that makes the drive go by faster. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a somewhat relaxing day, as I'm exhausted. It shouldn't be too bad though, as the only things I have planned are attending church in the morning and going out to lunch with Jeff afterwards. So, as long as my grandma doesn't talk me into mowing her lawn tomorrow afternoon, I should be golden. *crosses fingers*

I start classes in the morning, and I'm on the fence about it, as on the one hand I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things at school, and getting out of the house on a more regular basis. School starting also means that Nanowrimo is right around the corner and the interviews for an internship with Disney. On the other hand, I'm not looking forward to plowing through seven novels (two of which being Dicken's Hard Times and Frankenstein) and the rest of my general education requirements, plus all the homework that I know *someone* will make me sit down and do all day Wednesday. Though, to my credit, I'm starting out slightly ahead in my English class, as I've been reading the first book on the list since yesterday, so hopefully it won't be so bad.

In other news, I learned something new about myself today while talking a friend over AIM about television shows. I've never noticed before, but for me to get interested and stay interested in a show, I have to watch it from the beginning, otherwise I quickly dismiss it or lose interest altogether and don't bother trying to watch it on a regular basis. I should have realized this a while ago, as when TV Land aired Bewitched I caught every episode since I started from the pilot, and that has also been the case with Army Wives. However, the other couple of shows that I enjoy, I don't watch on TV, as I never caught them from the very beginning, and don't like to pick something up in the middle of a season, or even after it reaches Season 2, unless I've had a chance to watch all of Season 1 first. Heh.