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In our house, the schtick goes like this.
“I had a thought.”
“Sit down, relax, maybe it’ll go away.”

Being part of NaBloPoMo is a little like that; random thoughts keep poking their way into my tiny brain hoping for a brainstorm that will become the daily post. My rambling train of thought has travelled this route today.
State testing started this morning. I dressed for the occasion in my new sweatshirt from Wireless.com. Teachers loved it; students didn’t notice. They were too worried about their pencils being sharpened and having time for a healthy snack.
I got my annual flu shot after school. Ow! Worthwhile, though, better to have a sore arm for a day or two than to get influenza.
So the flu shot got me thinking about the potential for a pandemic again. If a true pandemic begins, I expect to have enough time to stock up on bottled water, canned soup, and all the generic meds I need for my medicine cabinet. The freezer has stayed pretty full lately; we’ve been good about restocking whatever we use. This isn’t pandemic panic behavior; it’s school year sanity.
But then I watched the evening news, and I realized that the potential for a pandemic, no matter how real, is not immediate. Tomorrow’s election is. The results of this mid-term election, especially in my state, will have a direct impact on me and my family. Legislation already in place, proposed, and under consideration, will have a heavy impact on me, my children, and our way of life.
It’s not too strong a statement to say that if this election goes the wrong way, my income could go down, my health care expenses go up, and my workload increase.
If this election goes too far in the wrong direction, La Petite’s tuition could rise again, her loans could get more expensive, and her chances of working through the summer could diminish within a dwindling local job market.
If those elected do not understand disabilities, Amigo’s specialized education services could cost the district more and more money out of an already shrinking pot, making those services more and more difficult to obtain.
And so it goes; tomorrow, sore arm and all, I’ll go in to school and prepare for day two in a two-week testing period. I’ll do it right and make sure No Child goes Untested. Then I’ll go to the polls and cast my vote for the candidates who are least likely to leave me behind.