Monday, January 19, 2009

We're getting a new president and...

it's all so exciting!

Last night I watched the Obama Inauguration concert on TV, and I have to admit that I get a little choked up when people sing patriotic songs. Pardon me, but I still love* "This Land is Your Land" do, do, do, do, do This land is my land,

From Cal-i-for-nia to the New York is-land,

From the redwood fo-rest to the gulf stream wa-ters,

This land was made for you and me.

Sorry. I couldn't stop myself. (Tell the truth. You sang it just now, too, didn't you. Yes you DI--ID. And if it plays over and over inside your head all day and into the night so you can't sleep, please don't be mad.)

In all this excitement, I feel sort of like a little girl on Christmas Eve. The glitter, the lights. And soooo much hopeful anticipation! If only for a moment, all the possibilities are still . . . . . . . . possible.

Yet, I'm old enough to know that all our hopes can't be realized and all our dreams can't come true in this one. new. president. And they shouldn't be expected to because it's not JUST about him. Listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890409

Still, I'm REALLY excited! And I don't want to be disappointed.

So, in the spirit of it all, I'm going to start this era out with all my old patriotic tapes and CD's and have a big, loud celebration right here at the homestead. All day long. While I do a Martin Luther King Day community service project** centered around organizing some drawers and a closet upstairs.

And from now on, I'll walk instead of drive whenever I can. I'll recycle. I'll exercise, and eat out less. I won't procrastinate. (Lola Fallana, the long-ago-promised box is on its way!) I used to do all these things, but I got lazy.

*Do you want to know why? Because I think of all the ESL kids I teach--the Anas and Joses, the Alejandras and Jesuses and Cesars--and I want them all to be happy here, to feel like it's their country, too, and to see a future that's brighter than the one their parents had which compelled them to come here in the first place. And to not have to hear any more hateful remarks that demean them or tell them to go back where they came from. I want them to notice that we elected a president with skin the same color as theirs, not the one that dominates my little town. And then for all of us to forget about skin color entirely.

** I use this term loosely. :>)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Raise your hand...

  • if you knew there were lots of Osmonds in Utah. Check it out, brothers and sisters. And lots of other IMPORTANT FACTS YOU, TOO, SHOULD KNOW about our state. Thank you, FMG, for forwarding this from Marc, and Marc for sending it to both of us.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/215400/january-06-2009/better-know-a-district---utah-s-3rd---jason-chaffetz

  • if you love Portland. Me! I do. I do. I visited there this week via this 1000-piece Eric Dowdle puzzle.

  • if you remember that little bench in our back yard. I couldn't find it this morning.
  • If you know how to get rid of this huge space below:

POST. SCRIPT. Thanks to niece Jaime Escalante for helping me remove the huge space. See? It isn't huge any more. Jaime is a newlywed, you know. A practicing midwife, newlywed, computer smarteee.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

It's Still Snowing!

Something else I might have done if my husband weren't home last night is hop in my little all-wheel drive vehicle at about 9 p.m. and go for a short spin all by myself around our quadrant of the city, just to watch the snow fall. And hear the silence of it.

I like the sound the tires make on unplowed roads. How light out it is. And muffled. I like that the few cars around have slowed to a crawl. That someone is shoveling a driveway at nearly every other house on nearly every other street, even as more snow comes and covers them all over again. I like that visibility is only about 1 block. And that a small group of folks are knee-deep walking around the corner.

Just to be daring, before I turned in for the night, I might coax the gas pedal to rev me up to a modest speed at which I might suddenly hit the brakes. I might fishtail! Or do a 360!

Nothing might happen.

But it could have.
Maybe 5 mph is too conservative a speed for thrills.
Have YOU ever done anything this wreckless?
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