Yes We Did and Now We Will

Note: this photo was from Election Night
Inauguration Day was a spectacular day for me. I was glued to the TV almost all day and all night. Many parties to attend but I ended up going to my best friend's store and watching on a big screen. This is the friend that was supposed to go with me, 40 years earlier, to Nixon's counter inauguration by bus courtesy of the SDS. We bailed at the last minute after reading my horoscope in Eye Magazine that told me to avoid violence that week. (PS one of my fellow SDSers was beaten by cops in a park in DC)..............
Anyway; the thrill of watching this man take the oath of office while seated next to my long time best friend plus being around other Obama supporters was "the bomb".
We did it!
And now the work begins of recapturing the country and making it great again. I have already heard from the Obama people and am so curious to hear what plans they have for us who are ready to get to work.
I have had friends already dissing Obama and I guess I am taking it too much to heart. But when you did phone banking, baking, canvassing, donating money and time; it is hard to hear those who can't even let the man have his 100 days be so negative. I have plenty of friends who aren't
Democrats so I don't honestly think I only want to surround myself with like minded friends; but this has pushed my buttons.
But overall, I am glad I got to live to see a politician who really meets what I have looked for my whole adult life to believe in. I am sure there will be mistakes made and failures to endure; but this next four years should see a return to the kind of country I can be proud of!

Two days............

I sit here on Sunday morning, January 18th, after a full day on Saturday of watching Obama, his wife and Joe and Jill Biden, take the train to DC. The massive crowds by the train stops waving and the speeches and just the enormity of it all; have given me such great hope and great joy. This president is unlike any we have ever known. I am so glad and proud to have participated in his campaign. Everything from baking biscotti for that early bake sale in Oberlin, to canvassing my neighborhood to sending money to the campaign.
I felt the stirrings of getting into the political arena during the Clinton years after a long dry spell after campaigning for McGovern and being so beaten up doing it. I finally took the plunge into campaigning for John Kerry in 2004 after being so disgusted with Bush's first term. Ashland didn't have much going on so I went to Mansfield and made new friends who thought like I did. It was invigorating but of course the outcome was failure and everyone just went home. End of story until the Obama campaign. He and his team have it so right. We worked from the ground up; starting in our own neighborhoods. And now that the campaign is over, OUR work, along with his; is just getting started. I am excited, scared, happy and touched to be a part of the biggest challenge any of us have ever faced.....two days and I will for the first time fly an American flag on my home.

Dad's coat

We all have too much stuff, don't we? I don't like to think of myself as a pack rat (yes I am keeping that for a 1/garage sale, 2/ sell on Ebay, or I will want and/or need that someday...

Well I am trying to lighten the load and have targeted certain rooms to start. The first target spot is a closet in one of my spare rooms where all my coats (40 plus) reside. Some are vintage, some are new and one thing I noticed when I took a very hard look was that I own way too many black coats that are very similar. So the cleansing of the closet happened before Xmas. I took a few vintage coats to the Beachland vintage store where I got a few bucks (to maybe buy more coats, lol!) A few were not vintage, didn't fit and were sent to the Goodwill. In the last back part of the closet was the last coat my dad ever bought for himself; a sporty London Fog leather bomber jacket. He wore it a few years before he died and who knows why I kept it. I guess just because it was his. When my beloved dad died mom and I gave all his clothes to charity; with the exception of this coat and I also kept his tweed jacket with the suede patches on the elbows and I will always keep that. He had it for years and when I look at it I can visualize him in my mind. Plus it is older and don't think many others would want it. But this leather jacket was hard to figure out what to do with. Too nice to just dump at the Goodwill and what if some idiot sleazebag bought it. Didn't know of anyone who it would fit that I would want to have it. I finally called Associated Charities and found that they have a clothes program for people who need nice clothes. They fill out forms and then get to "shop" for what they need. Marilyn assured me that they screen their people and she told me if I wasn't ready to let go........she sure would understand. But hey, after 11 plus years, I think the time was right. I typed a small note and tucked into the inside pocket saying that the former owner of the coat had been my dad and he was a great and kind man and hoped whoever got the coat would wear it in good health. I didn't cry as I handed the coat to one of the workers but thought to myself that my dad would be pleased with what I had done that day...

Letting go of the hurt........6 years later

For any of you out there that know me, really know me; you know my mom had it in for me from the time I was a young woman almost till her death. She finally died at 55 pounds, after lying in her bed for over 6 years. It was not a pretty death but she struggled to die. Finally days before her death, she said she loved me and was proud of me. Words I had waited to hear for decades.
I wondered for years what I had done, or not done to make her not love me and be so mean. I shrugged it off to most and drank alot to hide the pain. I had a father who adored me and I sometimes wondered if that drove her to her hatred but that just didn't seem like the reason. Dad died 6 months before her entry into the nursing home.
The DAY of my mom's gravesite service we had a luncheon at a nearby hotel for her friends and family. As I made my rounds thanking those who showed up her best friend from her younger days asked if she could speak with me. In what now seems a brief time; she unraveled the tale to me that gave me that "aha" moment. Seems my mom had a boyfriend before my dad and they had parted. She met my dad and they married ( I often thought my mom married my dad cos he was a good guy and she knew he would always provide for her). Shortly after their marriage my mom was stricken with polio, told she could never have kids and then had me. Apparently sometime after both of those incidents the old boyfriend came back in the picture. My mom couldn't leave, supposedly cos of me (that old what would the neighbors think). She must have spent time with him and at one point got stuck in a storm and had trouble getting home. The friend said this is when her drinking escaladed and her fear of storms began.
I thought back to when I was getting my own divorce in the mid 70's and that was when her dislike of me gathered strength. Now I know why.
I truly believe that she felt I stood between her and her happiness. At first I was hurt and mad but as time as gone on I truly feel sorry for this woman who stayed in a marriage she didn't want; or wasn't able to be with the man she thought she loved.
She had told me his name while she lie in her nursing home bed. I had been telling her my success in finding an old friend via the net and she wondered if I could find her friend. His name is out of my mind (I am sure I have blocked it). At the time I just blew her off partially I think as I didn't want to disrespect the memory of my dear dad and also not knowing the full extent of her involvement with this mystery man.
For years I had dissed my mom or was only able to remember the bad. Now I am remembering the good things she did for me and also having some empathy for a woman who had so much to struggle with and I am glad that I can think of her with some love. Letting go is a wonderful thing!

My first Blog

The world of blogging is pretty new to me with the exception of some that I have done thru myspace.
This first blog finds me one day away from the last day of 2008; a heady time with my 59th birthday coming up soon and also the glorious January 20th where we will see Barack Obama sworn in as our Prez and the evil Bush sent back to Texas! Maybe we can get back on track again. A year of big changes and I am eager to see what is in store for those of us who care to help right the country!
Peace