Christmas is coming! It's this week. I'm not sure if you've noticed yet. Have you seen any Christmas ads on TV yet? They're so hard to spot... 

Even though the ad industry and every single retailer shouts "CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!! BUY OUR STUFF!!!!!" starting in October every year, Christmas always manages to sneak up on me. This is especially surprising considering I work at a church full-time. 

Well, it's not like I'm surprised by Christmas. I guess I'm just always surprised that it's already here. Every year.

It didn't used to be like that.

Because I am impulsive and have no patience, I bought my own Christmas present last week. This is also because at 9 months pregnant I have lost the will to live. Okay, that's dramatic. Let me rephrase. At 9 months pregnant I feel like I have been pregnant forever and there is no end in sight. My brain knows that there really is an end - my doc won't let me stay pregnant forever, nor will this kiddo currently doing his best tippy-toe to finger-tip stretch from pelvic floor to rib cage. But I don't know WHEN EXACTLY this joyous time called pregnancy will end, and that makes it harder to endure. 

Warning: this is lengthy.

I saw an “info”graphic on facebook the other day that really got under my skin. To the surprise of no one, it was about politics. More specifically, it was about prosperity politics. Entitlement on behalf of some people who believe that government assistance is akin to stealing from the hardworking and giving to the lazy. It proclaimed these “5 truths no one can disagree with” –

1. You can’t legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must give without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody what it does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
5. When half the people get the idea that they don’t have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they’ve worked for, that is the beginning to the end of any nation.

I just love it when people get science. I mean, really get science. I love it even more when people make outrageous – or even small – claims about issues they clearly know very much about, because they just get science, in the way Creationists understand science. You know?

It seems much of the country (sadly, much of the voting population) is misinformed about some very basic things they should have learned in 5th or 6th grade. You know, in “Human Growth and Development.” At the very least, this should have come up again in a high school health class. Ultimately, one would hope that before forming solid opinions about these issues or, for example, taking a case to the United States Supreme Court over them, one would do a little research to make sure one has their facts straight. A little background reading.

The Door County half marathon was yesterday and, despite an ominous weather forecast, things went just about perfectly. The weather, the shade, and the hills (because what comes up must come down), all combined to make a truly great race experience. Woo! The course is hilly, but not crazy. It’s absolutely beautiful. You’re in the woods and on the coast – what more could you want? Unless you want streets crowded with spectators, in which case maybe this isn’t for you. But I’d challenge you to try it. Stinkin’ awesome.

Oof.

That’s about all I could manage to utter after watching the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother” on Monday night… at least for the first 5 seconds, until I erupted in a wild mixture of angry “WHAT THE HELL?” exclamations and tearful “That was PERFECT!” sobs.

Spoiler alert: I’m gonna blab about some big finale shockers here, so if you’re still waiting to watch you might want to come back to this one later.