Time Flies!

My kids had Veterans' Day off from school. There was a lot of rain, and I woke up on Wednesday morning to a notice that school was closed because of flooding. Not only did it close that day, but the following. The snow level was so high that it, atypically, rained instead of snowed in the passes, which caused the rivers in the lowlands to flood. None of the schools were flooded, thankfully, but three of the schools in the district had parking lots full of water. If the buses can't get through, the schools are closed.

Then this week, the kids were home half days for parent-teacher conferences. My middle-schooler starts school at 7:30 a.m., so half day means she is home by 11:30 a.m. my younger one had "Nutcracker" on-stage rehearsals two of the days, so she didn't even go to school. Thursday and yesterday were no school days, natch, for the holiday.

All this weekend my younger one has "Nutcracker" performances in the evenings, which means I spend a lot of time packing snacks. (And do I have that down to a fine art!) My wonderful husband does the driving, allowing me to stay home.

Last night my older one had a sleepover, so I was home, alone, with the dog, for three hours. I was kind of lonely. Even after all that togetherness.

However, that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to Monday...

Hillary for SecState

It is no secret that I have been a big Hillary Clinton fan since she ran for First Lady. When she ran for president, I gave more to her campaign than I have ever given to a presidential candidate.

I wept when she lost the nomination. I thought she would be an outstanding president, and I still do.

One of the reasons it made so much sense to me that Hillary Clinton be president at this particular point in time is that the U.S. has been in such desperate need of re-establishing its standing in the world. And that Hillary Clinton, already well-connected and well-respected from her years as First Lady, had the street cred to almost instantly restore our standing as Leader of the Free World.

Now there are rumors that Hillary Clinton, who flew to her hometown of Chicago today, is being considered for Secretary of State. She would be an excellent choice, for that very reason.

Whether or not she will take it is another question. Universal health care, a career-long goal of hers that was shot down so painfully by the Newt Republicans bent on destroying Bill Clinton and his administration. Already commentary has been floating around the Internets pointing out that Hillary would be ideal for spearheading the health care reforms Obama has pledged to put in place.

Obviously, wherever she serves, Hillary will excel. But there is no doubt that she would hit the ground running and do us proud as Secretary of State.

The Answer Is Blowing In The Wind

In the novel Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Heidi goes to sleep to the sound of the wind in the towering trees on the mountain where she lives with her grandfather. Later, she is so homesick for the sound that she sleepwalks searching for it.

We don't live in the Alps, but we do live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Washington, and we have the same kind of towering trees. The trees are so tall that even when there are strong winds, we are protected from the worst of them. The sound is a comforting kind of whoosh and swoosh, and the winds, when they do reach us, carry with them the freshness of the mountains or the ocean, depending on the direction they come from. In the fall and winter, there are times when I can smell snow, even when it is falling many miles hig and far away.

When those winds come, our dog, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, on the short side, puts his nose to the wind and sniffs. When the wind is stiff, he sits solidly on the ground and points his nose to the sky, his ruff blowing back, his eyes almost closed in concentration.

What does he smell? Is he smelling the ducks living on a lake ten miles away? The neighbor's dinner cooking next door? Does the wind carry exotic smells from Hawaii? Or, like Pigpen's possible ancient Egyptian dirt in his grime, remnants of life long ago?

Whatever he smells, Collin always looks deeply satisfied when he is finished, as if he has just completed a job well done. His contentment is deep and tangible. He moves on to the next thing without seeming to linger on the moment. But the moment lingers with me, leaving me to wonder.

Freedom Restored

Earlier tonight, I accepted an offer to sign a congratulatory message to President-elect Obama from Washington State Democrats, and to contribute election day experiences.

As I recounted the excitement and energy in the air at both the primary caucus and on Tuesday at my polling place, I found myself looking at a photo on my desk. It is a picture of my daughters on a bench near the White House, taken on our Spring Break trip in 2007.

It reminded me of the video I have seen of the celebrations amid the fortress surrounding the White House, and I flashed a vision:

I saw the barriers and chain link and forbidding signs gone, and a long line of people waiting to enter the people's house. The White House is gleaming in the sunlight. The Obamas stand straight, tall, proud and welcoming as they greet people on Christmas Day.

Because even though the White House as the symbol of freedom and democracy is still a target, it belongs to us. We have elected a president who understands the freedoms we have lost, and that they need to be restored. He understands that this nation does not need a paranoid presidency, but a brave leader who by refusing to hide, faces down the enemy and inspires courage in the nation.

Raaaahhhhmmmm!

(I borrowed that from Rachel Sklar.)

I am smitten with the abrasive, tenacious Rahm Emanuel.

He's a ballet dancer and the inspiration for Josh Lyman on "The West Wing."

How can you not love that?

Obama Wins

Last night I had what I promise was an absolutely brilliant entry on Barack Obama's win -- and then Blogger lost it.

But let me just state the obvious anyway: I am thrilled.

And for more reasons than because I think the country elected the right man for the presidency.

Last night started a unification process that has been long overdue in this country. Even before Barack Obama took the stage to thank his supporters, John McCain had already started the ball rolling with a magnificent concession speech. When he finished speaking, my husband and I looked at each other and said, "There's the John McCain we thought was running! Where has he been?"

Barack Obama's speech was equally powerful, and clear in its message -- that he understands that the right road is the hard road, and he's ready to take it.

Shortly after the speech, even though it was late, my dad called me and said, "I never thought I would live to see a black man elected president. I'm just glad I was, and I'm glad you were here, too."

That statement, echoed by so many other people of his generation last night and today, is powerful, and sums up what, for me, is the real American dream -- to create a better tomorrow for our children. My dad wants it for me. Whoopi Goldberg's mother wants it for her. I want it for my children.

Barack Obama wants it for his children. All along he has taken the position that it is possible, and now he has the power to try to do something about it.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whose meltdown I shamefacedly confess I was looking forward to, said this morning that she is happy, and happy to belatedly jump on the Barack Obama bandwagon, because she finally gets his message.

I don't envy him -- he will inherit a tough economic crisis, two wars, and a huge list of expectations from hopeful supporters. Fortunately, he seems unruffled by all that, and instead will plunge in and devise solutions. We may not like them, but we can be sure he will not shy away from solving them in the best way.

Waiting Is Difficult...

On Sunday, in church, we heard about God's promise to Abram that he would make him a great nation. The focus of the sermon was on the failure of Abram and Saraii to be patient enough.

In an art song I sang years ago, the words went: "Oh rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He will give you your heart's desire."

Why is waiting for something important so difficult? We want to know right now who wins the election. And, by all accounts, we will know by morning at the latest. I can't wait 24 hours?

Abram waited until he was 99 to become a father. And when this country was founded, it took weeks to learn the results of an election -- a new president did not know he had been elected until the Electoral College vote had been taken and reported to Congress.

I am trying right now to be patient. If John Adams could be, then so can I.

I am a putz

I just realized -- the polls here opened at 7 a.m., not 8 a.m...

Obama cheating on his ballot?

I was watching footage of Barack and Michelle Obama in side by side carrols filling out their ballots today in Chicago (kind of like watching paint dry), when halfway through, Barack pokes his head up and around the barrier, and appeared to be looking at his wife's ballot.

You don't do that! Ballots, even husbands and wives', are secret!

Washington Voters Vote

I just heard that the state of Washington is expecting an 85% turnout!

I Voted Today

The polls opened this morning in Washington at 8am (11am EST), just as I was trying to coax my third grader out of bed in time to eat breakfast and catch the school bus.

At 8:30 a.m., after watching the school bus drive away, I intended on going right to vote. But my husband, who had an unexpectedly free morning, invited me to go to breakfast.

So after an unintentionally leisurely breakfast (great food but slow service) we went our separate ways.

I vote at a megachurch with seven other precincts. Huge parking lot, plenty of space. Typical of this part of the continent, it's all big hills, with the church set at the bottom. Usually I can park in the parking lot closest to the entrance. Today, I had to park one hill up. When I entered, it wasn't as busy as I expect it to be -- the registration tables were one deep, and all the carrolls were filled. There is one electronic machine, and there was a small handful of people waiting to use it.

The tables had the names of the precincts on signs hanging on the front. The problem was that the people signing in blocked the signs, so there was some good-natured neck craning and shuffling back and forth. I was #20 in my precinct -- usually I am #1 or #6, so I was pleased to see the active turnout. I live in what I think is the most apathetic precinct in my legislative district, so that was exciting to see.

Once I had my ballot, I had to wait a couple of minutes for a carroll, but once I was in there I voted quickly. We had a lot of county initiatives and unopposed judges on the ballot, which took a little longer. On our ballot we are required to fill in an oval to the left of the candidate's name, like taking a standardized test. I confess that I teared up when I voted for Obama/Biden and for my neighbor, Darcy Burner, who is running to unseat our incumbent Congressman.

As I was leaving, I saw Darcy, so I stopped and wished her luck. From the time I arrived to the time I was driving out of the parking lot it was fifteen minutes.

I love voting!

Who Are The Undecided Voters, and Should We Care?

According to polls (which, after 2004, I am inclined to view with skepticism), the number of undecided voters is dwindling. But there still are some.

The question is: should we really care who they are?

We can speculate of course, and we all have our own theories. Mine, much less informed than the people paid to write these types of commentaries, is this:

Undecided voters are people who don't think that there is any point to voting. They are also people who are cynical enough that they think there really isn't a demonstrable difference between the candidates. Stuffed in that small percentage are also the people who are still waiting to hear how the candidates will deal with a very real problem they are having. I expect there are a few who are conflicted because they feel a strong compulsion to vote for a woman (Sarah Palin), but like Obama's message better than McCain's. I expect there are a slim number of Republicans who are unhappy with the McCain-Palin ticket but don't want to vote for a Democrat. And there are likely a few people who want to vote Democrat but have a difficult time voting for a black man.

We can ask: how big an impact will that have on this election? It is reasonable to expect that a percentage of undecided voters will end up just not going to the polls. And there is really no way to figure out which candidate those undecided voters will select when faced with the choice in the privacy of the voting booth.

But the real question is -- is it worth it for the candidates to try figure out what those people are waiting for? Or will voter turnout be so large that a small percentage of undecides this year will not decide the election?