A New Morning; A New Country; and Our Fifteen Minutes of Fame!

I am stunned. Even though I thought this might happen, it still rocks me. Did he really just win? This victory belongs to me, dammit. Obama said it himself.

His speech last night, well, what can say? I cried a little and was moved and inspired and felt like I need to go out and volunteer and pay my taxes and not complain. I loved that he acknowledged gay Americans. In my little dream world, I imagine he was a little silent about this ever-growing and often ignored or avoided segment of our population for most of his campaign for fear of scaring off the homophobic, who are, sadly, another ever-growing segment of our population who sometimes have a louder bullhorn. But then, in his first speech, he mentions gay Americans (and straight, to be fair). That is kind of a big deal, people.

When Joe Biden came out at the end, I had this moment of Wow. I can’t really explain but suddenly I thought, I like this guy. I barely paid attention to him during this ultra-long campaign, since there was so much focus on Palin and Obama and McCain. There is a little swarmy on him for some reason, but still, I looked at him and though he could grow on me.

Speaking of Palin, I am afraid that McCain’s loss will be blamed on her. This is the second presidential campaign that featured a female VP to fail miserably. This is not good for women. If they won, I always said I will focus on how great it is to have a woman in the White House (annex). I may not agree with, oh, anything she says, but love that she made history in her own way, and helped fifty percent of the population (that’s us women) in doing so.

However, Obama’s speech did have that committee-written feel to it. I think all speeches should be delivered from a sitting position, with feet up on an ottoman. I loved what he said, but, like all speeches, it just had that sort of memorized soliquy feel. I love off-the-cuff. I though McCain did a great job on his speech. When he tried to hush the booing crowd, I though, this is a great man.

I learned a lot in this election. I also learned that I need to lower my expectations. Me, I just want everything: I want the poor happy, the rich happy, the in-between happy. I want social programs that work and tax benefits that are fair. I want a strong military and money spent on security. I want Medicare and Medicaid to work and I want all Americans to have health care (I am not sure socialized medicine is the way to go, but we need to figure it out already). I want social security to do just this: Provide security. I want fair minimum wage. I want educational equality. I want roads and stop signs and police officers and want to know that if there is a fire in my apartment, a fire truck and able-bodied men and women will be there within two minutes. And, if possible, I want to pay not taxes and make no sacrifices. Is that too much to ask? I loved this quote, uploaded by a friend of mine on Facebook: "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." (Gerald Ford)

On a fifteen-minutes-of-fame note, I walked over to Roc Center with the girls this morning to see the ice rink map. We were on the show! Al Roker came over to me and asked me what the girls names were. Of course, I fumbled it! And then a producer came over to me and asked if I wanted to be on a trivia segment with Kathie Lee at 10:30. I said yes, why not, went home (I had an hour to get ready), felt like I was going to throw up and called Nicole for back-up support. I am not the type that relishes that sort of attention: I can’t even open presents in front of people! Nicole left work to accompany me…and she ended up on the segment too! Kathie Lee talked to us off camera for a while and she was very nice. Sadly, we got the question wrong, but I say it was a trick question. I wanted that damn gift card! More on that later…

I just spell checked this and had to add “Obama” to my dictionary. Wow.

Pictured above, kimono pajamas are adorable as well as dangerous. This is what Avery looked like one morning when she woke up. Not only does it look uncomfortable, it looks like she can choke herself. So these pajamas are relegated to lounge wear. So be careful, because I never thought of “kimono pajamas” as “killing pajamas.” Also pictured, pride flags. Go America.