God bless you and your family, Senator Kennedy. There will be a candle in my window tonight, without a doubt.

The Dream
Shall Never Die

Tonight, please light a candle
in your window
to memorialize Senator Kennedy.

How many times in one 18 minute speech can I get the chills and tear up? And eventually shake with quiet sobs? Love this man, love this man. Love his wife – just love the whole family and what they stand for and the lovely cohesiveness of their whole clan, mother-in-law included. It’s a great time in American history – a beautiful and great time. That I should be in the most conservative and racist and homophobic place I’ve ever been in during this incredible time is quite curious. Quite curious, indeed. Makes ya wonder, maybe – what lesson God wants to teach me or something like that, you know?

That I should have had the most incredible fortune to travel to Washington DC this year with my daughter – my first time ever being there – in this most gorgeous of times – well, that is nothing short of a beautiful gift from God. No, I did not meet any of the Obamas, nor the Bidens, but, just being there – in the city that seems to have been ‘returned’ to those of us who for so long have felt alienated from it. Well, that was simply amazing.

See, that was the first thing I told my mom on November 5th. I said, “Mom, it feels like the government is back in the hands of the people again.” And what a beautiful feeling that was. And that is why I titled this post as I did. One of the first things that Obama said to those gathered in the White House to celebrate LGBT Pride Month was,

“Welcome to your White House.”

And here it is, the speech, which was more like a friendly address, that gave me a million chills this morning:

One of my otherfavorite lines from President Obama’s address:

“We are all witnesses to monumental changes in this country.”

Thank you, President and Mrs. Obama – from the bottom of my heart!

P.S. You can see the video and read about the first-of-its-kind LGBT Pride Month reception on the official White House blog: Celebrating LGBT Pride Month

Well, more like – CNN made me cry. Well, I think I’ll say it’s both CNN and Obama’s fault! See, by Wednesday, I thought all the crying was over. The announcers and news people kept talking about how on Wednesday it was back to the grindstone. It was all fun and games and celebration on Tuesday, but, on Wednesday, Obama would have to get to work.

And actually, ‘get to work’ is exactly what he did! The problem was that I opened up the CNN website and there on the homepage was this picture:

It was the first time I saw Obama sitting at ‘the desk’. A black man.

A black man.

See what I mean?

Now look, I have half a brain – heck, maybe even 3/4 of a brain. I’m not going to endorse, support, or vote for, some half-wit black man just to get a black man in the Oval Office. That is absolutely not what happened here – so let’s not get started on that tangent. (Yes, I’ve gotten that from my husband several times – I’m getting a bit sensitive about it.)

It’s just like he said in his speech – his own father couldn’t eat in certain restaurants. Wow. Just wow.

And to tell you the truth, I don’t even know if I was allowed to take that photo. Eeps. But could I resist? No way. If a CNN dude happens by and tells me to take it down, I definitely will, but, I’m keeping it for my private collection, just to open up sometimes and look at. Just looking at it fills me with all of the hope Obama talks about.

Politicians weren’t the only ones sweating with nervousness on January 20th! No sir! There were some DC geeks who were probably exhausted and very stressed. They were tasked with completely updating the Whitehouse.gov site and making the changeover right at 12pm, DC time. It went from the ‘George Bush Whitehouse website’ to the ‘Barack Obama Whitehouse website’ right at the moment our new leader was sworn in! (Actually, I think the swearing in ran five minutes late, if I heard the announcers correctly.)

My geek flag was flying high witnessing this and picturing the room in which the magic changeover was occurring! I think I was picturing a scene from Jurassic Park – you know that computer room, and how the dishonest guy was freaking out, or later when the cigarette-smoking guy was freaking out, trying to get everything back online. I was also thinking of some of the episodes of RockStartup, when the team at PayPerPost was undergoing big upgrades and they were all stressed! And I’m sure there were dozens of other movie parts stuck in my head, but, I was definitely picturing the scene – with geeky joy and excitement!

Here is the George Bush Whitehouse website:

(The funny part about this is that I actually still have this page open!! I opened the ‘new’ site in another tab, because, I wanted to keep the GB version live for a little bit. A little bit has since turned into days and I haven’t restarted my laptop since! I usually restart my laptop at least daily! And I have no idea why I am so stuck on this. I get really sentimental about things, is all I can come up with – only, that’s super silly, as I actually voted for Obama! LOL!!)
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Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have made a really cool video all about how singular American citizens are going to PLEDGE to help Obama – and the nation – out! You’ve got to watch it! Here you go:

The company founded by Ashton, Catalyst Media, teamed up with MySpace to produce the video and encourage community service. There is a MySpace profile all about this movement, called The Presidential Pledge. You can go there now and send them a friend request! They’ve asked that people make their own ‘I Pledge’ videos, too. There are instructions on the Presidential Pledge MySpace page on how to include your own videos!

Ashton was interviewed by Us Magazine and said,

“We are honored to be working with MySpace to rally the entertainment industry to answer President-elect Barack Obama’s call to service,” said Kutcher in a statement. “The Presidential Pledge is a platform for people across the nation and throughout the world to make a first-person commitment of service to our new president, articulating a specific intent or action to become an agent of positive change.”

I really wanted to post the text of President Obama’s speech here on my blog, but, I just could not find anywhere if that was legal to do so. Instead, I’ve decided to, first, link you up to the text, via CNN, and second, post the video, via YouTube. I love that on YouTube, the Whitehouse Channel actually tells us that “This video is public domain per White House copyright policy.” Very handy, indeed, for those of us worried about such things. I could not, however, find the same for the text of the speech.

(And the really cool thing is that YouTube makes it super easy to download some of their videos [this one included] now! I know some people [maybe super hackers - ha!] already knew how to do so, as I’d seen them, but, most of us didn’t know how to do that!)

So you can find the text on CNN here: Obama’s Inaugural Speech

And here is the video of, hands down, one of our nation’s most incredible inaugurations!

It was absolutely an incredible day, that is for sure! And I believe, it is going to be an incredible four years! I’m truly excited and definitely filled with hope!