5 posts tagged “obama”
For those of you living under a rock, today was the Inauguration of President Barak Obama. I was lucky - work let us all gather in one room and watch it together. It was way cool to hear a room full of people that I know to be of all different polical persuasions cheer and clap as he was sworn in!
If you missed his GREAT speech, you can read it here. I particularly like the part where he talks to those that former President Bush would call "the evildoers":
"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."
I can't get over what a wonderful speaker he is and obviously a great speech writer. I sincerely hope that all of that translates into his politics. I'm so proud to be an American today - we've finally come past color and have selected someone based on their merit!
Ok, I know it's a few days late, but apparently I've been really bad at blogging lately! Here's the 2008 recap:
January
- January 1st: Shadow breaks my nose. Happy New Years!
- January 13th: I get smacked in the nose again at a CERT drill and realize that my nose really is broken.
- January 17th: I started EMT school - so exciting!
February
- February 28th: My first of many encounters with the neighborhood turkies.
March
- March 8th: Houseboat weekend with Brigitte and Amber!
- March 15th: Mather Air Show Day One: lots of patients to practice on!
- March 16th: Mather Air Show Day Two: more patients!
- March 26th: My hospital rotation - a life changing experience!
April
- April 18th: Rivercats baseball game with Dad, Brigitte and Amber
- April 19-20th: CERT Mobex - disaster drill in Clovis
May
- May 10th: Kati graduates from UGA - Mom, Dad and I flew back for a fantastic weekend in Georgia!
- May 13th: NREMT exam - I passed and am officially an EMT!
- May 24th: EMT party - absolutely hilarious - everyone came dressed as some sort of victim... it was great!
June
- June 10th: Metro's CERT team is called up to help out with the local grass fires
- June 21st: Saved my first patient at a CERT event
July
- July 14th: Visited my customer in Houston. Hot and sticky. Ate more steak than a girl should!
- July 20th: Kati moves home from Georgia!
August
- August 8th: Joanna and Chris come to visit!
- The rest of August - Kati and I go to Germany, France, Italy and Greece... it's the trip of a lifetime!
September
- September 14th: Met Mike! :)
- September 24th: Had a close encounter with a tomato hornworm. Had to call Julie in for backup.
- September 26th: Went to the Neil Diamond concert with Kati!
October
- October 9th: Went to the New Kids On The Block concert with Julie, Mindy, Amanda and Chris.
- October 16th: Selected for the Sarah Weeden jury - little did I know it would last two months!
- October 31st: Halloween party!
November
- November 1st: Went to the Madonna concert with Adam and Eva!
- November 4th: Barak Obama is elected president
- November 26th: Thanksgiving vacation at Lake Almanor
- November 15th: Second Annual Friends Thanksgiving!
December
- December 11th: Sarah Weeden trial ends
- December 30th: Kings game with Mike
- December 31st: Mike's New Years Eve Party - LOTS of pig!
All in all, I'd say it was a fantastic year! Who can complain?!
Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! Mike's party was a blast - they roasted 120 pounds of pig! It took four of them just a few minutes to cut it all up (lots of practice apparently!). Here's a picture of the pig on the spit:
It was insanely delicious! The party was a blast!
As you probably know, today is my birthday. It's been fantastic... it's 2:30pm and I'm still in my jammies! I've watched a bunch of episodes of "ER" (thanks Mike!) and some "Friends" reruns. It's been wonderfully relaxing!
Ok, Reverend Jesse Jackson cried.
Enough said!
I know it's been forever since I last blogged... life, as usual, has been a crazy whirlwind.
Jury duty has been going well. I can't (and won't) blog about the trial, but it's been super interesting! There are times that have moved frustratingly slow (I get the point, but REALLY). I will not blog about it once the trial is done (not even sure if I'm allowed to), but if you want to know, ask me (AFTER the trial is done, of course!). The other jurors that I'm working with are really great and we're always joking around and trying to have fun in light of a tough situation. The other bad news is that the courthouse is three blocks from the mall, so it could potentially be very expensive jury duty! :)
I also exercised another of my civil liberties today - I voted! Kati and I went to the polls together at 7am when they opened. It was fun to have someone to go with and I always love actually going to the polls. As we all know, I'm not great at waiting in lines, so we were lucky that the line wasn't very long. I'm proud to say I voted for Obama and I'm hoping that tonight he wins! I'm not gonna lie - I also love going to the polling place so I can get my sticker, which I proudly wore all day!
This weekend was pretty busy too! On Friday Kati and I had our Halloween party, which was a total blast. People came up with some seriously great costumes! Email me if you want pictures!
On Saturday I drove up to the Bay Area to see Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour with Adam, Eva and Catherine. We had such a fantastic time! As always, Madonna was amazing - it blows me away that she still puts on the energetic shows that she does and that she is in better shape than half of her dancers (who are probably half of her age!). Here are the four of us at the show:
Here's Eva and I... note our really cool glow in the dark necklaces!
I'm spending the rest of tonight in my jammies on the sofa, switching back and forth between the election coverage and just about everything on my DVR. Woo hoo!
I was listening to the radio this morning on the way to work and the DJ's were discussing the upcoming presidential election. They were talking about the candidates and polling callers. For the entire drive the one thing that really stuck with me is that they did not talk about the candidates politics AT ALL. Instead, the conversation revolved around whether or not America could and would elect a black man or a white woman. What's worse is that I can't really remember ANYONE talking the issues. All I've heard is Obama is black and Hillary is a woman. I can't believe that in the year 2008 in one of the richest and supposedly most enlightened countries in the world, we still resort to prejudice and racism.
Let's look at the woman thing first. There are countries all over the world that currently have female leaders:
- Ireland: President Mary McAleese
- New Zealand: Prime Minister Helen Clark
- Finland: President Tarja Halonen
- The Philippines: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
- Mozambique: Prime Minister Luisa Diogo
- Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel
- Liberia: President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
- Chile: President Michelle Bachelet
- Switzerland: President Micheline Calmy-Rey
- India: President Pratibha Patil
- United Kingdom: Queen Elizabeth II
- Denmark: Queen Margrethe II
- The Netherlands: Queen Beatrix
- Canada: Governor General Michealle Jean
- St. Luca: Governor General Dame Perlette Louisy
- Antigua & Barbuda: Governor General Lady Louise Lake-Tack
That doesn't even include past powerful female leaders such as the United Kingdom's Margaret Thatcher. Why is it that America finds it so hard?
Now on to the black thing. I'm amazed that people still see the color of someone's skin. Let me ask you this. When I introduce you to my sister, do I say "This is Kati, my white sister?" No, of course not. So why on earth do people refer to Obama as "the black man running for president"? Seriously, it infuriates me.
I'm not saying that people should vote for Hillary just because she's a woman or for Obama just because he's black, but I can't believe how many people will actually NOT vote for them because of it. Haven't we proven that things like that no longer matter? All of this infuriates me. It makes our nation look stupid and ignorant.
