Mister Chairman

I know most of you know this already and I'm probably posting simply for the sake of record keeping - but over the weekend I was appointed to be the Chair of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party. It is a very large responsibility of which I am not taking lightly. The convention went well and I was voted in unanimously (no one ran against me) into the position by the central committee of the County Party (approx. 700 people...not that many showed up).

For those of you not in the know the position of Chair is the leader of the County Democratic Party. I am responsible for coordinating efforts of the campaigns in the County come election time to get out the vote or GOTV. Essentially it is my job to raise money to make sure we can encourage our voters to go and actually vote for our Democratic candidates. It is also my job to maintain our Party structure. We have neighborhood leaders called Precinct officers, then we have Legislative officers which are over House Legislative districts. Then we have the Executive Committee which consists of 7 people (only 5 right now because of the resignations). I am the head of the Executive Committee. We held our neighborhood caucus meetings at the end of March and that is when all those people were elected. Then we had our convention on Saturday. We will have on more convention in April. Since I am finishing the term of the past chair we only have a year left. I hope to do a lot in that time and will decide later if I am going to run again.

You may have seen us in the news lately...here are some stories...

http://www.sltrib.com/utahpolitics/ci_8969114

http://www.sltrib.com/utahpolitics/ci_9055158

http://www.sltrib.com/utahpolitics/ci_9071222

Another exciting thing about being Chair (and a unnerving thing) is that I got to do a couple of interviews. Here is one I did on the radio:

http://www.kcpw.org/article/5867

Anyway I'm nervous and excited. I want to do a good job. So I have officially decided that I will not be teaching next year. I am moving on. I will be attending graduate school in the Fall and being full time Chair to the Party.

Thank you for all your kind words and support and I am excited to get to work!

The Incredible Shrinking Me....

BEFORE

Okay a while back I promised I would do a blog entitled Lily's diet plan and my diet plan. Well instead of showing you Lily's diet plan (aka vomit spurted throughout the office) I will just stick with mine.

4 weeks ago the counselors at my work decided they were going to start a Biggest Loser competition at the school. This was my chance. I had really been wanting to lose weight prior to my Europe trip this summer, but I just couldn't get the motivation to do it. But this was just what I needed. We put in 10 bucks each (to be split by the highest male and female winner) and began the diet. To date I have lost 17.5 lbs!!!

I know it is just the down on the roller coaster of diet life, but hey, you don't enjoy the drop on a roller coaster because you fear the rise. Enjoy it while it lasts. Of course the goal this time is to keep it off, but so far I have been unsuccessful at that.

Back to the contest. As of week 3 I was the highest loser for the week and 3rd overall (there are some men at this school who I swear have picked up the habit of inserting their finger into their throats).

Anyway I thought I'd share this news with the blogger world and maybe use the motivation of having lots of people know has incentive to keep going and keep it off.

Today was our weigh in at the end of week 4. I only lost 2 lbs but that is better than nothing.

Here's my plan. Try to keep my calories at about 1500 a day - no more than 2000. I work out for 45 mins every day on the elliptical (try not to take off days, but sometimes my schedule forces it). On weigh in days (Wednesday's) I can have a high calorie meal...usually I choose Cafe Rio.

I am all about food alternatives. Here is a website with some great alternatives to your higher calorie favorites.

www.hungry-girl.com

I'm in!!!

Dear Mr. Clark:

On behalf of the Urban Planning Program's Admissions Committee, congratulations on being accepted into the Masters of Urban Planning Program at the University of Utah.

Well folks, I've made it in to the school. It is very exciting! Soon you'll be able to call me Master Clark...oh wait...what? Oh I'm being told there is no special title that goes with a master degree. Hmph...well anyway exciting none the less. Thanks to everyone for your support, I really appreciate it. You were all very encouraging and positive and that was very nice. And if it goes wrong then I'll be sure to blame you.

Also sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things have been super busy. In the meantime however, please enjoy some pictures of my yard. I love spring!