OBAMA! OBAMA!!

Are we happy, or what!! See the smile on my face :)) ! We are living through one of the most defining moments in our nation's history. I keep getting teary-eyed whenever I watch and re-watch bits and pieces of yesterday such as the one below.



Isn't it inspiring to see them like this? They seem so solid and so in love.

Barack is quite an orator, isn't he?

Beyonce is so beautiful. I saw the movie Cadillac Records (I highly recommend it) in which she plays Etta James, the original singer of 'At Last.' Beyonce played Etta so well; she's a terrific actress. (I feel about Beyonce the same as I feel about Dolly Parton - great voices but I prefer to see them on screen.)

When I went to vote in November, I took my 12-year-old daughter, Hannah, with me because I knew it would be a time in which she would want to have memories. When it was our turn to take our ballot to a standing table to fill in the 'bubbles' with our pen, I let Hannah do it. I wanted her to be able to say that she filled in the ballet bubbles for the first African American that was elected to the highest office of our land.

And, again, yesterday I took her out of school to watch the inauguration. They weren't going to officially broadcast it in her school; it was up to each individual teacher and I thought it was too great a moment to miss. I'm not sure what she will remember but I know she will at least take away the importance of the moment.

Even though I was only 4 1/2, I remember when John Kennedy was assassinated. I remember that my mother screamed at the television and then ran to her bed face down sobbing and sobbing. I have a memory of her hugging me but I'm not sure if that really happened or if it was something that I wanted to happen. Then I remember watching the events unfold on the television with her after she was able to leave her room.

If I had it to do over again, in hindsight, I would do things a bit differently as far as the months and months before the election. I would have attended as many cities and stops where both Obama and Clinton were speaking. I would have done everything to get close, to get an autograph, to pick up something that they dropped, to grab some 'thing' that would hold special meaning later on. This moment is only going to be a 'first' once. History was going to be made one way or another. And if it had been Hillary who won, all the pride and happiness I am feeling right now with the Obama win I would still be feeling with the first woman to be elected, probably a bit more personally.

I'm proud that I helped elect this man. I'm happy to see so many African Americans beaming and crying with joy. We broke down a barrier. I can't believe it has happened in my lifetime but I'm OH SO HAPPY it did!

A budding poet

Pride gushed through my veins with force the other day when my daughter, Hannah, shared a poem with me that she wrote for her language arts class. She said it was no big deal, that she threw it together in 4 minutes before class when she remembered it was due. Her name was mentioned in the afternoon announcements along with a couple other kids whose poems also caught their teachers' attention. Hannah's teacher wanted to have it published in the school newspaper but Hannah says she told her no, she didn't want it published.

So I thought I would publish it here. Her teacher gave her a "WOW! 10/10A."

Middle school
Above five, beneath nine
After innocence, before responsibility
Through the small doors, across from the big doors
That lead to confusing turns
Toward success

I discovered Discover!

When I was young, I used to like to lay on the front lawn at night and contemplate the night sky. Where I grew up there were no street lights so it was easy to see the Milky Way and all the constellations laid out before you, making it easy to ponder and wonder. I would look up and say "For every star there could be an Earth orbiting around it - a planet at just the same distance from its star as we are from our sun. There could be more people out there."

In the February issue of Discover magazine there is a short article that I find fascinating, First Light for Alien Worlds. Here is part of what the article says:

Achieving a feat that seemed impossible not so long ago, a team of scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope captured the first visible-light image of a planet orbiting another star. On the same day as this announcement, last November 14, came the report of a related breakthrough using the ground-based Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii, with which astronomers captured the first infrared image of three planets orbiting a star. A week later, another exoplanet candidate was spotted in infrared - this time by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope - orbiting the hot, bright star Beta Pictoris.

I just wish that more could be discovered during my lifetime. I wish I could know, before I die, that what I think is logical is, indeed, fact. How thrilling it would be to find out that there is life similar to ours within the Milky Way! Can you imagine how that could change the priorities of people here on Earth! Maybe we would start focusing on working together to obtain more knowledge of and work toward communication with those beyond our Earth.

And to think that I am not a fan of science fiction novels or movies.