Involvement

As you know I normally try to avoid politics on this blog. I'm just not a huge fan of them. I work too close to the capitol for my tastes and I know too much about the ways in which politics operates to enjoy them. So why did I spend a good chunk of my morning watching the inaguration?

Because I'm excited about our new president. I'm excited about his vision for this county and I'm excited that everyone else is excited. There were several million people in DC today, a turnout that is well beyond any presidential inaguration that we have seen. There were people who stood there in the freezing cold waiting to hear our president speak. Waiting to see him sworn in. And they are excited. There are tears and cheers when this president speaks. He has great charisma.

And more than anything, he makes people feel involved. Today we saw a president who said that we need to help him make changes. It was not just about what the high government officials can do but about what the people should be doing. He won the election because he got people involved. Even his "Yes We Can" theme features one very big word "WE". For a long time I have felt like government didn't really involve the people. It was representation without any real representation. But today I feel like I could actually make a difference. I feel like I have some control on what happens. I'm excited and inspired. And that doesn't happen with politics very often.

Christmas excitement

I should be wrapping gifts right now. They are sitting unwrapped right next to the scissors, rolls of tape, and brightly colored paper. At least I've bought most of the gifts. This year has been odd. I'm really excited about Christmas but I haven't been incredibly excited about the consumer side of Christmas. I'm not a huge shopper but normally I love present buying. This year I just can't get into it. But I'm still excited about getting together. 

My family is huge. I'm one of five kids and when we, along with spouses and children, get together it is dangerous levels of family. And a little chaos is good for me occasionally. I'm incredibly excited to see everyone. Susan Sarandon did a movie many years ago called "Safe Passage". The movie is a pretty good drama but what I love about it is it shows the chaos of a big family well. We are normally all talking at the same time, and a couple of us will be quoting movies (not often the same movie). It's madness but in a good way. :-) 

We only buy for one family member now so shopping is much easier. I have one member of the family who was drawn for me. I'm to fill a stocking for that person. They will then open my gifts and try to guess who gave them the stocking. It's a fun game and buying gifts for everyone would make me go broke. Us kids all said that stockings were our favorite part of Christmas. We would all wait in the living room, normally from 4:30 or 5 in the morning until our parents woke up at 7. Then we could rip into our stockings. And then after that we hit the presents under the tree. But the anticipation of opening those stockings is one of my favorite Christmas memories. We would all be camped out on the couches, with the younger two relegated to the floor. And we would talk in whispers and peek at the stockings. I was magical. 

So I really should be wrapping those gifts. But instead I'm doing what I do every night lately. Playing WoW. Tonight we took on Halls of Lightning. I'm only 78 so this was a tougher instance than I've done before. Luckily I'm running with four very experienced level 80 guild members. We cleared every boss up until the last one. I died quickly on Loken and the others went down slower. But it was a wipe. As we reentered the instance we hit a lag spike. No one could move. I was kicked off the game and when I reentered the instance it had now reset. Grrr. Too late to continue tonight.