The 40th Hour

Hopefully my life will get back to normal soon. The legislative session must adjourn on Monday as stipulated in the State Constitution. The Legislature and the Governor must pass a 2 year state budget and there were big questions about whether not that would happen because none of the parties could agree on how to solve our $4 billion budget deficit. Well, the Governor took the ball to his side of field yesterday by claiming that he would not call a special session if the Legislature did not agree to a budget solution and instead he would line item veto budget bills sent to him and use a process called unalottment which is available to him July 1st to balance the budget.

This has been an exceptionally long session for me with a lot more hours put in than I expected. I feel like I'm in the 40th hour of a 48 hour bike race. I think it's hard for most of my family and friends to understand what this time of year is like for me. in case you were wondering.....I work all the time. I looked at my calendar and I've worked every Saturday for the last 4 weeks and for the last 3 weeks I haven't really had a day off. And, the crazy thing about this I never know from one hour to the next what my schedule is like. Last Saturday I went to the Capitol at 9:30 am and left on Sunday at 6:00 am and the last several weeks I've been at the Capitol until 1:00 am a lot. To my friends and family who ask me to do things this time of year, thanks for putting up with my common refrain "I can't, I'm working."

Session is a lot like an endurance bike race, only the stakes are much higher -- you have a chance to do good things for people. You prepare for months, your work hard and tough out the rough spots, become very weary at the end and can't imagine how you will be able to finish. Afterwards your swear you'll never do it again. A few days later, when you are rested, you look back at what was accomplished and think to yourself "that was worth it."