I’m sitting here at my computer and listening to President-Elect Barack Obama’s first press conference since the election Tuesday. And, I’m sitting on the edge of my chair. This disaster of an economy has left my family and my business shaky, scared and wondering what 2009 has in store for us. So, naturally, the President Elect’s messages are really important to me. Good start. He says that the economy is the first thing he’s putting his efforts into. Exhale.

I’ve been reading so many people lately who profess their hatred for Sarah Palin. Many of these folks are women, whom I consider to be intelligent and excellent writers. Now, hate is a very powerful word. It brings out all sorts of venom. It’s a word I try very hard to not use, and try equally as hard to instill its true meaning in Little Bug. And, quite honestly, it’s difficult to hate someone you’ve never met. I don’t hate Sarah. I just don’t admire her. And, therein lays my problem.

For someone who has built his campaign on change and hope, Barack Obama’s choice for Veep is just uninspired. I heard about it soon after midnight on Twitter. Joe Biden…Really! If memory serves me, he’s the Presidential candidate who had to drop his bid when it was revealed that he had plagiarized work while a student at Syracuse University Law School. SU resonated with me, because I’m an alum there and I was embarrassed when this all came so publicly to light.

News came yesterday that the aching in my arm can stop…with surgery. Seems back in November when this ailment first presented itself, I actually tore a rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I don’t know how or when, but I did.

Manseau, as in a resident of Le Mans, France. Pronounced MAN-SO. I added that name almost 21 years ago. But how I ended up with the hyphen in between is far more interesting. At the time I married my husband, Tom, I was a reporter at a national newspaper and had established a byline – the Holy Grail to reporters – of Laurie J. Storey. That byline was everywhere and people “knew” me by it. (They didn’t actually know me, but they felt like they did because they read my articles.)