A Life Update
by Sara on July 29th, 2009
Hi everyone,
I apologize for my drought in posting lately; I’ve been a very busy girl!
Here’s a few things I’ve been doing lately that have swept up all of my time:
1. Traveled to Lincoln, NE, to visit my friend Jessica over the Fourth of July. Who knew that Lincoln had such wonderful chocolate, ice cream, popcorn and antique stores?
2. Watched the Sioux Falls Canaries in action 2 or 3 times this summer. I have at least one more game to attend, starting next week!
3. Baseball, baseball, baseball. Brian’s team (sadly) lost in regionals, so their season has ended, therefore marking the end of my brother’s career in athletics (he’s decided not to play in college – he’s heading to South Dakota State University this fall to probably study engineering).
4. Softball – Jordan’s team sure is fun to watch this year! On to the playoffs!
5. Jason Klam profile piece – many, many edits, and I have a few more to go before it’s ready to try and sell. I’m really excited about the way it’s turned out! :)
6. Work, work, work – ACE sure has been keeping me occupied this summer! In less than two weeks, the rest of the staff and I will be heading to the annual ethanol conference and trade show event! This year, the event will be held in Milwaukee, WI; I’ve never been there, so I’m excited to experience life in Milwaukee for a week!
7. Friends! I have been on many a dinner and coffee date in the past two months; yay for having time to spend with friends! :) That’s one benefit to not being in school anymore = free time.
8. Omaha Zoo! Jordan and I made our annual summer trek to Omaha, NE, last weekend to visit the wonderful Henry Doorly Zoo – yay for penguins and giraffes, boo for big crowds of people :/ It was a great day, though :)
9. As of Monday, July 27, Jordan and I have officially been together for 2.5 years! We celebrated by spending a few hours eating, drinking and chatting at Old Chicago, one of our favorite restaurants in Sioux Falls. It’s hard to believe that 2.5 years have passed, but I’m excited to see what’s next for us!
10. Thoughts of law school have resurfaced, yet each day, I go back and forth between the prospect of a law degree and the excitement I feel at pursuing creative writing. I don’t plan to attend graduate school until the fall of 2011, so it’s a good thing I have plenty of time to figure out where my heart truly lies!
Well, I hope that explains my lack of blog posts in the past few weeks; here’s to enjoying the last shreds of South Dakota summer!
-Sara
Oh, Sarah Palin
by Sara on July 8th, 2009
Check out the most-emailed article on the New York Times web site today: Maureen Dowd’s column, “Sarah’s Secret Diary.”
I have to admit that as a Democrat, I was thankful for Sarah Palin’s mess of public speaking catastrophes this past election cycle. But at the same time, there’s something about her that mirrors how I feel when hiding my eyes during the Saw movies: it’s horrific, but I just can’t stop watching.
Click here to read Dowd’s column.
4th of July 2009
by Sara on July 3rd, 2009
Hi all,
I’m headed to Lincoln, NE to visit Jessica, a friend from Augie, and her family. I’m looking forward to a three-day break from life in SD; what are you doing over the 4th?!
Remember the men and women serving to protect the freedom we’ll be celebrating this weekend; thank you, soldiers, for all that you do!
-Sara
Poverty in South Dakota
by Sara on July 1st, 2009
The Argus Leader today included an article which states that one in six children living in South Dakota are poverty-stricken, according to the state’s poverty line figures.
I spent the fall of 2008 studying poverty in the Twin Cities, and as South Dakota is second in the highest number of children in poverty, Minnesota is first.
The article discusses the “cliff effect,” or what David Hage calls in his book Reforming Welfare by Rewarding Work, “the slope,” a theory which states that as welfare recipients obtain jobs, they lose their eligibility to continue to receive welfare benefits and support, therefore inhibiting their ability to provide for their families. That’s why the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) was so influential in its early stages, because welfare support was not taken away from those individuals and families who obtained full-time employment; it was increased.
I could talk forever about poverty in Minnesota, because I’ve spent the last year of my life studying and writing about it. But what about poverty in our own backyard?
Read the full text of the article here.
-Sara