Uncategorized | The Senator's Wife

Recently, my senator showed me a sampling of mail that he receives at the Capitol. I think he was worried I wouldn’t have enough material to write about.

Anyway, in this stack of ‘stuff’ was a cheat sheet. Not just your normal cheat sheet, but a list of acronyms for the numerous agencies and institutions they deal with on a daily basis down at that marble palace.

Here are a few of them:

ODOT = Oklahoma Department of Transportation
ABLE = Alcohol Beverage Law Enforcement
CLEET = Law Enforcement Education & Training (Huh? How do you get that from CLEET?)
DEQ = Department of Environmental Quality
OSEEGIB = State Employees & ???? ( Guess they didn’t get that one either!)
LSB = Legislative Service Bureau
COGS = Local Government Jurisdictions ( Seriously, who thinks up this stuff!)
DOC = Department of Corrections
OTC = Oklahoma Tax Commission (duh)

And, my personal favorite:

BS = Talk you hear in committees

Next week I’ll post about the swearing in ceremony at the Capitol. That should be a real treat.
Love, the Senator’s Wife

Roughly sixteen years ago when I first met my senator, I had no idea he was remotely interested in politics. He was a small businessman who liked to volunteer in the community. He lived in a “batch” pad, had lots of friends and seemed to be a part of most every non-profit fundraiser or civic event in town. It was not long before he involved me with some of these philanthropic adventures. My senator had me manning a booth at our local arts festival and attending black tie events.

We ran a 10K race together, back when we both looked good in spandex.

And, he even got me to ride on a motorcycle! (Shhhh, don’t anyone tell my dad!)

Regardless of all the quality time we were spending together, conversations about politics were just not discussed. And, believe it or not, it was a welcome relief to this political junkie. I mean, what if his political opinions were vastly different from mine? After all, I had just returned home from Washington D.C. having spent several years working “inside the beltway” . I had campaigned for our state’s senior U.S. Senator back when he was Governor. Yes, I was only seven at the time, but politics had always been my sport and I had some serious political opinions. This good looking, businessman, ‘ not yet senator’ was a breath of fresh air! Besides, I am sure he knew that anything remotely related to politics would be a horrible way to converse on a first date!

To be continued…