In the words of President Bush "It's hard work."

I promised Hillary a blog weeks ago, so here it is.

This might be a bit effed up, considering that President Bush was referencing the Iraq war, and I'm referring to getting the CA Legislature to spend money on decidedly unsexy higher education, but my job is hard. I've just returned from 8 days "in the field," (I'm not a field organizer, mind you.) and my brain is completely fried, so that's why the previous was a run-on sentence. Watch for more.

Anyways, I've long contemplated writing about work. I'd include code names for the students I work with and mix up the campuses so it's less obvious. I'm no con-woman, however, and this type of ploy has backfired on too many before me. In the past 8 days I've been at San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. I love my job in Sacramento, but it doesn't allow me to be on campus much, so I was grateful for the opportunity to get out of the office. Santa Barbara is my favorite campus, if only because I went there, was involved in the community and most importantly still feel like its home. The rest are equal in my eyes, sort of like how mothers feel must about their children. I spent the past week doing the best I could to help prepare the amazing students I work with for a long and arduous fight for the budget and the California Dream Act ahead, and I'm not sure if it will change the outcome of this year's legislative cycle. I knew how hard it was to accomplish anything before I got to Sacramento, but I wasn't prepared for how hard. Nowhere near prepared. When I took this job, I called a friend who responded "It's going to be harder than you think." I said "thanks, asshole." Now I know he was at least sorta right.

Today I was asked by a colleague if I blogged, and I said "sort of." I worked with her on the CA Dream Act, SB 1, and she was starting a post about it. I can't post about the bill, because I'm still mad as hell about the veto. I take my work seriously and attribute a lot of losses to personal failure, so I'm sad. That bill is so insanely important, and I feel is more deeply each time I hear the story of another undocumented student who has to work harder than most people can understand to pay for school a quarter at a time. It's ridiculous that financial aid access wasn't included in AB 540 to begin with, but that's another issue.

I'm tired, and not sure if any of this made any sense. Off to watch Grey's Anatomy-don't judge me.