One Year Later

Last year on this day, I was in Washington, D.C. attending one of the greatest events of my lifetime, the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States. As I reflect upon the past year, my enthusiasm has not waned and I am still full of joy when I think about the enormity of that victory.

Now, a year later, the safely Democratic seat in Massachusetts has been won by a Republican. To quote the New York Post's headline it was a "Mass kicking." The most disheartening part is that it will give the "Obama Bashers" more fuel.

In reality, the Democratic candidate was not the strongest. Anyone who thinks a Boston Red Sox player is a Yankees fan. That is just unheard of for someone who lives in Boston. And, as we know, sports knowledge is totally American. I just learned on The View that he posed for Cosmopolitan. He was almost nude, but it was a great picture--a hot Republican (how strange is that?).

This is one of the great ironies of life and I'm sure that Ted Kennedy is turning over wherever he is.

No matter what, I have not lost hope. I still believe that a change is on the horizon. I still believe that the health care plan will still prevail. The people who are making these decisions are the persons who "have theirs." Everyone else should be able to get what they have! As Whoopi said on the View (my research base),
"Give me what you've got!"

"Somewhere in the World There is an Eye Like That"

Today in my drawing class our task was to draw eyes. We had to first draw them from memory without looking at a drawing of eyes. When I first began, as usual, my drawing did not resemble anything which could be easily recognized. I thought my eyes looked like little balls wearing hats. Nevertheless, I was proud of what I had done because at least, to me, it sort of looked like an eye.

The lady next to me heard my laments about one of my "drawn" eyes and told me that she also takes a Japanese drawing class. Her teacher always tells them whenever they draw an eye,a mountain, or whatever, that "Somewhere in the World There is a _____like that."
Using that mantra, I felt the freedom to continue my creative endeavor.

On a grander scale, it once again reminded me of the diversity of the world. Somewhere in the world, there is a person like that, a thought like that, a mother like that, a child like that, a "whatever" like that. Just like I enjoyed my "eye drawing," we should be excited and enjoy the "drawings" that our eyes see!

DSMM, DDMM, DISNEY

Before our first grandchild was born, one of my erudite friends sent me an article from the Knoxville newspaper which was written by a very witty new grandmother who writes for that paper. The entire article focused on what grandmothers should be called. She favored DSMM, and DDMM, (daughter's son's mother's mother; daughter's daughter's mother's mother). I rather fancied that and announced that I wanted to be called that when our grands came into the world.

Of course, as we all know, the best laid plans don't always work out as we thought they would. I am called grandma, g girl and the latest, gram gram. They all sound wonderful.

I found out just how wonderful it sounds as we spent our first Destination Christmas in Orlando at Disney World. We had tickets for five days--that is no joke. Even though I only did four parks in four days, it was great exercise. The weather was lovely and being there with our daughters, their husbands and the three grands was great--three generations in the same place for a week. Santa stopped by our Christmas tree there, the house was great and nothing was broken :-). We are trying to think of another warm place for our second Destination Christmas next year. It made me happy to be a DSMM/DDMM.