I have a lot to catch you all up on. I don’t even know where to start, so here is a sloppy, quickly-written bulletin post:

1. The government shut down. What the heck? Are we for real here? So sad. If you are wondering what has been affected by the shutdown, click here.
2. Spry, my literary journal, held its first reading in Boston, MA. It was a fantastic evening. Briefs, the Spry blog, will have a post up soon about the event.
3. We met a fun and awesome accordion player from Berlin who happened to stop by the event. Here is his post about meeting us, but the Spry blog will also have a post about him this week.
4. The Red Sox are in the playoffs, and I will be attending a ALDS game!
5. Mr. O and I both celebrated our birthdays last month.
6. I’m going to PaintNite this week with some of my girlfriends. I can’t wait to show you my artwork!

My plan is to put aside time to try to get some of these stories on the blog.

Update: I needed to include the following video on this post. Honestly friends, this is what our country truly believes. I feel very fortunate to live and work with benefits, such as health insurance, in the state of Massachusetts. Much of what is in the Affordable Healthcare Act is already in place in Massachusetts. There are no preexisting clauses, all companies with a certain number of employees must offer health coverage, etc. I’m not going to argue politics here, but I’d love for everyone to put politics aside and do some research. When was it that people stopped researching things and started adopting what they hear from others or making assumptions. I know you’ve probably seen this video a bunch of times today, but I honestly can’t help but reposting.

Before I say goodbye (for the second time), I’d like to redirect you to my friend Becky’s blog from today. She talks about the government shutdown and shares her thoughts so eloquently. I fully stand behind her post.