First of all, congratulations to my friend Charis on buying a house and on her current romantic pursuits. And on posting three times in one day. =)

Now, down to business. You may have noticed that it's been a few days since I posted. That's because I've been busy figuring out my political views and deciding on what health insurance to get.

For those of you interested in the political views, I'm a social conservative and an economic libertarian. As for foreign policy, I'm still deciding between "ignorant" and "apathetic," and I suspect that it's a mixture of the two. (Perhaps correcting the ignorance would also correct the apathy.) On my Heritage Foundation application, however, I put "libertarian."

I finished answering essay questions and submitted my application shortly after 2:00 this morning. I wasn't happy with the quality of my answers, and I'm sure that my lack of leadership positions and of political experience had already put me at a significant disadvantage, so I'm not optimistic about my chances of being accepted. But that's all right--maybe by summer I'll have a great job that I won't want to leave anyway!

As for the health insurance... I have another couple weeks during which I could elect COBRA coverage, which is quite pricey, so I spent some time with my "financial advisor" (my grandpa) last night going over a couple different plans. I decided on a plan with the South Carolina Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough. If I signed up today, my coverage wouldn't start until Feb. 15--which is a day or two too late. (With my luck, the one day between COBRA and my new coverage would be the day I got hit by a semi or needed an emergency appendectomy.) So it looks like I'll be getting a short-term plan through State Farm before switching to Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

My other excitement yesterday was sitting in Barnes & Noble for an hour, listening to clips of music. I was impressed with the little bit of Il Divo that I listened to; as soon as I can justify buying a new CD, I plan to get one of theirs. I listened to a little Michael Buble as well, but I think his stuff has the potential to get on my nerves in a hurry.

Well, I think I'm going to go find some warm-ups and a sweatshirt and hit the stationary bike. (I've eaten three Pop-Tarts today--that's approximately 600 calories--so I'm thinking that some exercise is in order.)