I am cited in a book!

Andy was smart enough to use the new feature on Amazon to look up his name and my name and Becca and MB's names to see if we'd been mentioned in any books and one of my El Paso Times articles was cited in Fronteras No Mas: Toward Social Justice at the U.S.-Mexico Border . I don't even remember the article, but I think it is exceedingly cool that I was cited in a book about the border (one of my main areas of interest). Of course, I have no idea if the author used my article to support her theory or to show what a stupid newspaper the El Paso Times is so perhaps I shouldn't be cheering yet. I am supposedly supposed to be able to see the actual page my name is on in the book on Amazon, but I don't think they have that feature working properly yet.

Anyways, this news that my name is in the endnotes of a book because of an article I wrote makes me think two things: 1) There is hope for me yet and 2) I should get a job doing things like writing newspaper articles that matter again. (Did I know that what I was doing mattered at the time?) I am still enjoying my PR/Communicator job and don't think I need to work for the MAN again yet. So I need to get freelancing fast. But getting started is scary.

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I voted in person today for the first time ever. Until now, I had always just mailed in an absentee ballot during presidential or gubernatorial elections. Today, I went to the polling place and acted clueless and got to use a touch screen voting machine. The whole process was very cool. I don't think I necessarily felt like I was making a difference when I cast my vote, but I did feel like I was doing something important, even if it was just increasing voter turnout... or exercising my right to vote so that it can't someday be taken away.

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Oh, I also want to complain for a minute. I think it is abhorrent that it is nearly dark when I drive to work and almost completely dark when I drive home. I can't wait until Spring and daylight savings time.