Girl Power

Being the political junkie that I am, Thursday was quite the day. Even though I was at work, I used the CNN Pipeline service to stream the audio and video from the House floor so that I could watch the historic events unfold. First, the vote for the new session’s Speaker of the House. Then the announcement of the winner. Then the passing of the gavel to the first ever female speaker, Nancy Pelosi. Political party affiliation aside – that was really something wonderful to watch. I loved how she gathered all the children who were in the chamber to allow them up on the podium with her, letting them touch the gavel. I was thoroughly impressed with how calm she was surrounded by all those kids of varying ages. Especially her own young granddaughter holder a very obviously newborn baby right there at her feet! She was totally calm and even banged the gavel to open the session, swore in the new members, and accepted a few motions from the floor! The children were all remarkably well behaved too, but she truly dealt with the visual chaos at any rate without batting an eye. Of course, she’s raised 5 children and has more grandchildren than I could count so of course it’s everyday stuff for her. Which is why is about damn time that a woman rose to that position of power!! Who else will be able to handle the bickering of the children…errr..congresspeople better? Anyway, I was beaming with pride as I watched it all unfold. A woman as speaker, a gay representative chairing a committee, black representatives chairing committees. It’s time to move this country *forward* and I am optimistic for once that it can happen. My fingers are crossed that this group does not fall prey to the temptations that led to the downfall of the GOP.

Oh that CNN Pipeline is addictive though! Watching house and senate floor daily activities, plus two other channels for whatever else is unfolding around the world throughout the day. Dangerous I tell you!

The DVD from Nick’s play has finally arrived. I am in the process of ripping the two songs of his into a format that I can load onto YouTube so that I can share it with everyone. Of course I have already watch ed it three times! I hear more flaws in his singing now, but I still say there is something there that is also quite special. He has a great stage presence and with more lessons has a really cool rock voice. He definitely gets his heart into the songs. I’ve been trying to catch up from being gone during the break. Took down outdoor decorations on Wednesday, started to get the inside cleaned up today, got the HD receiver for my TV and hooked that up. Then my parents showed up so we could go out to dinner for my birthday but first I got my mom up and running with online bill pay. I’m impressed with how computer savvy they are getting! Dinner was very nice. Oh my can my little guy TALK! He yammered non stop in the car both ways. On anything! One thing I picked up is that he is much more aware now of events outside of sports. He talked about the three big deaths over the break (Ford, Brown and Hussein). He talked about the shooting death of the Broncos football player. Of course he also talked about the Chargers, and Hawaii and his video games! But it’s cool to see his mind expanding to understand that there is a so much more going on all over the world – even if it is not always so pleasant. A mute button would not be a bad thing though!