I'm baaack.....

Lately I've found myself composing blog posts in my head while I'm taking a shower (one of the first signs of insanity in the 21st century). I've also found myself following several political bloggers that impress me (especially Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station), and while I have no illusions about joining such illustrious company, I do feel the need to voice a few opinions to someone other than my shower head.

I'm also trying to write more regularly, and I don't always feel like working on my hot mess of a first novel, so I need an excuse alternative outlet for my words. I also need a better name for my blog, a better layout, and probably a better platform. All in good time.

In the meantime, I hope someone enjoys my bloviating. My shower head is already sick of listening to me.

The more things change...

So I'm doing some research for the quasi-historical novel I'm attempting to write.  Note for the uninitiated: "research" is a euphemism for, "avoiding writing."  Anyway, as part of my, ahem, research, I'm going through old newspapers for this area so I can write an excerpt of an article in the right style for 1910 and also describe what else my character might see on the page.  See, research?

Anyway, during my research, I run across this gem from the July 1, 1910 issue of the Coconino Sun:

And here we are more than a century later, still kneeling and wailing.  And the cost of living is still too high.

Christmas cards

I just finished about 30 Christmas cards. No, I'm not looking for a pat on the back. If I really had my act together, they would have been done two weeks ago. But at least they won't be New Years cards.

I had planned to send the family Christmas letter via email this year, but today I decided I really wanted to send old-fashioned snailmail cards. That's odd for me, because I usually find Christmas cards to be a chore. This year, though, I approached it differently. At each step - looking through my address book, addressing envelopes, writing notes in the cards, and even putting stamps on - I thought about each person, picturing them, remembering stuff we used to do together. Yeah, I know - cheesy, huh? But it was nice to remember and to feel connected to each person for those few minutes. I guess I'm missing those connections since moving to SoCal. So if you get a card from me, please know that while I was preparing it, I was thinking of you and probably remembering something funny and/or stupid we did together years ago. Yeah, that thought ought to brighten your holidays. You can thank me later.

Morbid sense of humor

So we're driving around San Dimas last Saturday, running errands, when we pull up behind this SUV at a traffic light:



Check out the license plate. In case you can't tell from the blurry cameraphone photo, it's a personalized plate that reads, "TOETAGN." But that's not all! The license plate frame reads...



wait for it...



"Hug a mortician... while you still can."

Yes. Really. I laughed for the rest of the day. Let's hope this witty undertaker parked in back of the funeral home, as I'm not sure grieving relatives would find it as funny as I did.

Preserve us from errant golf balls!

In case anyone ever wondered whether California's reputation as The Nanny State is justified, I give you the following paragraph from the Statewide Buyer and Seller Advisory, part of our home-buying paperwork:

18. ERRANT GOLF BALLS: Buyer and Seller are advised that if theProperty is located adjacent to or near a golf course there is apossibility that golf balls may damage the Property or injure personsor pets on it. Additionally, persons playing golf may enter theProperty to retrieve errant golf balls or for other purposes. Brokerrecommends that Buyer investigate the possibility during Buyer'sInspection contingency period. Brokers do not have expertise in this area.

Fortunately, our soon-to-be home is nowhere near a golf course, so we should be safe from errant golf balls and their equally errant pursuers.

A Father's Day Scene

Long time no post. I have a good excuse--relocating to another state and starting a new job--but I'll explain that in some future post. Right now I want to share something I witnessed this morning that reminded me of what it means to be a parent.

I was leaving the library at City of Hope (that's the new job I mentioned) this morning to go to lunch. There's a small pedestrian-only street running past the library. Sitting on the curb were a father and son, the boy maybe 6 or 7 years old. The father could have been AnyDad, sitting next to his son as they raced a remote-controlled car up and down the street on a lovely Southern California day. As the little boy watched the car zooming around, his eyes sparkled with delight, despite the nearly bald head and face mask that marked him as a cancer patient.

Of course I pitied the child. It's bad enough to get sick when you're an adult, when you've lived a bit and can have some perspective on what's happening to you. But, as a parent, my heart broke for the father. I cannot imagine the pain and terror that man has endured, fearing for his child's life and watching him suffer through treatment. But as I walked past them, playing there on the curb, I felt privileged to see what must have been a stolen moment of normality in the shadow of a high-tech cancer hospital.

To me, that little scene captured the essence of fatherhood more than all the Father's Day cards Hallmark can print.

Johnny B Goode covers

Yesterday the husband and I were listening to Chuck Berry's classic, "Johnny B Goode" courtesy of Taco Del Mar and wishing it could be re-recorded with today's sound quality and maybe with crunchier guitars. Then one of my Facebook friends (hi, Kevin!) posted a couple of cover versions, so I decided to visit that fine cultural repository known as YouTube to see what other versions I could dig up. Probably everyone has heard Elvis's version and the one from Back to the Future, but did you know that there are several reggae versions? And Tom Jones once covered this song? I'll spare you both of those, but here are a few that I thought were particularly good, capturing the energy and spirit of the original but a little heavier and rougher.

The best version I've ever heard, though, was courtesy of a bar band at a frat party when I was about 18. It may have been the mood and the venue, but it was just perfect.

Green Day:


AC/DC (with Bon Scott) and Cheap Trick:


A couple of guys from Switchfoot:

Headline of the week: 10 Things Corporations Can Learn from Pro Wrestling

Sam Ford at Fast Company wrote a gem of a piece: 10 Things Corporations Can Learn from Pro Wrestling. The headline is nearly as attention-grabbing as the oversized mouthpieces of the WWE, but the content actually has some substance. I'm trying to work in a wrestling analogy, like seeing The Rock on Saturday Night Live and discovering that there's a little more to him than just what he's cookin', but I'm too sleepy to come up with anything good.

Anyway, back to the article: There's lots of sound advice here for businesses, nonprofits (yes, including libraries), and even individuals attempting to market themselves in a competitive economy. My favorite quote:

Brands who have active audiences online have probably learned the hard way how often passionate customers will tell everyone around them, and the brand, what they think. The key is to understand that this feedback is crucial and, if anything, should be encouraged, if your goal is to develop a long-term and transparent relationship with your target audiences.

In other words, don't be afraid of feedback - even negative feedback. I work with a Vendor-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named whose staff usually become very defensive (and sometimes downright unpleasant) when anyone suggests their products are less than perfect. I wish they could understand that candid feedback is a gift. Someone is taking time out of his or her overscheduled life to tell you how to make or do something better. Whether you're selling a product or just trying to do your job better, the appropriate response is a heartfelt "thank you." Then analyze that feedback and try to make use of it. If someone is unhappy, they're going to tell someone; if you're lucky, it'll be you. Usually they just tell 20 of their closest friends or post a negative review of your product.

There's lots more good advice in the article. Definitely worth a read.

How to Pack for a Beach Trip in the Pacific Northwest

Tomorrow I leave for four lazy, relaxing days in Seaside, so tonight I'm packing. Well, at the moment I'm procrastinating writing, but I'll be packing shortly. Because I prefer wasting time writing to packing, I'll explain to my California friends--and anyone else who lives where beaches are warm and sunny as God intended--how a Northwesterner packs for a trip to the coast. Here's what most of the world packs when going to the beach:

• shorts
  
• tank tops
  
• sunglasses
  
• swimwear
  
• flip-flops
  
• sunscreen
  
• a light jacket for chilly evenings
  
• boogie board or other fun thing to use in the water
  

Now, here's what we Northwesterners take:

• jeans
  
• long-sleeved t-shirts
  
• sweatshirts
  
• rain gear
  
• hiking boots
  
• movies, books, or other indoor activities to keep us busy till the rain lets up and the wind drops below 60 mph
  

The fact that I'm taking sunglasses, a swimsuit, sunscreen, and flip-flops can only be explained by one (or both) of the following:

• Old habits die hard (I'm a native Californian)
  
• The triumph of hope over experience
  

See y'all next week.

Today's spam subject line is...

Today's spam subject line is:

Conjugate like a hero.

Which hero? Grammar Man?

Hmm... come to think of it, Grammar Man is a great idea for a superhero. He could swoop down to punish all the apostrophe-abusing, word-misusing, preposition-misplacing evildoers out there. Does anyone have ideas for a costume or weapon of choice?

Things I've Learned Recently

I was cleaning the bedroom tonight (try not to faint from the shock) and found some draft blog posts I scribbled out at various times over the last few months. Sometimes when I'm stuck waiting somewhere and didn't bring a book, I'll grab a scrap of paper and start writing. Then I bring the papers home and put them down somewhere "till I can get to them." Months go by, and they get buried under other things to which I plan to get. Then by the time I unearth them, they're way out of date. This time, though, I found some I can still use. Here's the first one:

Things I've Learned Recently

1. It's impossible to sneak up on someone while wearing flip-flops.
   
2. No matter how much you pay for health insurance, your money buys you the right to wait over a month for a doctor's appointment, sometimes while in terrible pain.
   
3. It takes 2 people to catch a skittish chicken, and the process involves lots of swearing.
   
4. Sometimes we don't recognize the major turning points in our lives till later--sometimes years later. A corollary:Major events in our lives sometimes hinge on small, mundane decisions. And a corollary to that: Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes it's a really trivial or lame reason rather than a grand, cosmic one.
   
5. We'd all be better off with more conversations and fewer assumptions.
   
6. 5-day-old pizza is gross.
   
7. Most hour-long meetings could be replaced with a couple of paragraphs of information that would take about a minute to read. But since we're all inundated with information, we need to hold meetings to get people's attention.
   
8. Most hour-long conference presentations could be replaced by a few well-crafted PowerPoint slides that would take less than 10 minutes to read. But since we're all inundated with information, we wouldn't bother to read them, so we need in-person presentations to get our attention.
   
9. Despite all the high-tech medical advances, many doctors are still baffled by--and uncomfortable hearing about--pain.
   
10. Emotional energy is finite.
    
11. When life kicks us in the butt, we can laugh or cry. Crying usually makes more sense, but laughing is a lot more fun.
    

Then and now

25 years ago today, I graduated from high school. I can't quite wrap my mind around the idea that it's been that long, and I'm sure if you'd asked me that night what I thought I'd be doing in 25 years, I would have had no idea. I remember that I couldn't imagine a life beyond school, so I guess it was a good thing I was college-bound. It freaks me out a little to think how much my life--and I--have changed in the last quarter century.

Then: Scrambling around trying to get all my graduation stuff together and plan my post-graduation partying.
Today: Scrambling around trying to get errands done and move furniture so we can have our new kitchen floor installed.

Then: Driving around listening to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" and being overemotional about leaving high school behind.
Today: Sitting around typing a nostalgic blog post and being overemotional about it having been 25 years since my high school graduation.

Then: Trying to a) figure out how I felt about a guy in my life and b) get the nerve to let him know once I figured it out.
Today: Glad that that guy is back in my life as a good friend, even though he's many miles away.

Then: Wondering who I'd stay in touch with and who I'd never see again.
Today: Marveling at how many people I've gotten back in touch with (thank you, Classmates, MySpace, and Facebook!) and how much we still care about each other, even though we hardly ever see each other in person.

Then: Looking forward to college with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
Today: Looking forward to another work week starting tomorrow. My life is much more predictable now, with fewer huge changes, but that's mostly a good thing. I do wonder sometimes what the next great adventure will be, but the status quo is pretty good.

Then: Needing a bigger box for my record collection.
Today: Enjoying the bigger hard drive I just bought for my MP3 collection.

Then: Wondering when my parents would join the 20th century and get a microwave.
Today: Thinking about replacing the microwave they bought a year after I graduated, which we're still using.

Then: Planning what I would take to my new dorm room
Today: Planning what I will put in my currently-being-redone kitchen.

Then: Marveling at how long 4 years sounded when I was a freshman and how quickly it went by.
Today: Marveling at how long 25 years sounded when I was in high school and how quickly it went by.

25 years ago, I was 17, on the verge of becoming an adult but clueless about life, relationships, and pretty much everything else. 25 years from now, I'll be 67, probably just starting my retirement years and contemplating the end of my life at some (hopefully distant) point. So I'm more or less in the middle, between the beginning of my adult life and the beginning of my "golden years." I guess that means I'm truly middle-aged. *Sigh*

Star Trek Mad Libs - How Nerdy Can You Get?

I've loved Mad Libs ever since middle school, so as soon as my son got old enough to appreciate them, we bought a stack, and the hilarity commenced. My son is a Star Trek nerd, so awhile back he asked me if there were any Star Trek Mad Libs. As far as I could determine, there weren't, so we did what any self-respecting nerd family would do: we made our own! Dear Son has a book called The Star Trek Compendiumthat includes summaries of all the episodes of the original series. I Mad Lib-ized one of the summaries, we filled in our own words, and the results were hilarious. In case you, dear readers, would like to share the fun, I've included our homemade Star Trek Mad Lib below. Just copy it into a blank document, get your friends to suggest some words to fill in the blanks, and prepare to laugh. Helpful hint: It's especially funny with lots of potty-mouth words. Have fun!

Balance of Terror

Stardate _________ (number): The Enterprise is ____________ (verb ending in –ing) along the Romulan ___________ (adjective) Zone, a border between the Federation and the Romulan _____________ (noun). As Captain Kirk is performing the wedding _____________ (noun) of crewmembers ______________ (name of person - female) and _______________ (name of person - male), an Earth outpost announces that it is under attack from the Romulans. Kirk witnesses the destruction of the _______________ (noun) but is helpless to __________ (verb). The Romulans have perfected a/an _______________ (noun) that renders their _______________ (plural noun) invisible, and Kirk reasons he must _______________ (verb) and _______________ (verb) the enemy _______________ (noun) before it can return home. To the surprise of all, _______________ (plural noun) intercepted from the Romulan _______________ (noun) reveal that they look almost exactly like _______________ (nationality – plural), which causes Lieutenant _______________ (last name of person in room) to express his distrust of Mr. Spock. When the Romulan _______________ (noun) is finally cornered, he _______________ (verb ending in -s) his _______________ (noun) rather than surrender—and _______________ (same last name of person in room), whose _______________ (noun) has been saved by Spock, realizes his prejudicial attitude is _______________ (adjective).

Facebook ads are funny

I'm in Denver for some meetings, so I'm accessing the internet from my hotel. I log into Facebook and accept a gift someone sent me with one of the *many* Facebook gift apps (Do we really need so many? But that's a rant for a different post.), and I see this:



Now I've been in Denver since last night, and I've spent almost all that time in my hotel room, so I find it hard to believe that 2 people here have crushes on me and 3 people hate me. I suppose the room service person might hate me, because I was short of cash and didn't tip as well as I normally would. And maybe one of the loud pot smoking guys I passed on the sidewalk last night has a crush on me (weed does strange things to some people), but somehow I doubt it. Does anyone ever click on such ridiculous ads? Even their target audience--teenagers--are probably savvy enough to recognize such obvious BS. But then I can't understand how spammers make any money, but they must. Apparently H.L. Mencken was right--No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. *Sigh*

Byron Hot Springs and other New Years fun in California

I've been really slacking on my blogging lately. I'm blaming Facebook. Anyhoo, when I haven't been working or Facebooking, I've been traveling. We were supposed to go to Crater Lake over New Years, but our workhorse SUV got damaged from driving in the snow and ice of Christmas week. Our temporary replacement rental car wouldn't make it over the snowy passes, so we (by "we" I mean "I") decided we should go to California instead. Specifically, we (by "we" I mean "I") decided we should go to my lovely (ahem!) home town of Tracy. It's a *long* drive from Portland--about 10 hours for normal people and 12 hours for my family, because certain family members (I'm talking to *you*, Tony) are incapable of making a bathroom stop that takes less than 20 minutes.

Goodbye Oregon, Hello California!


Mount Shasta from the car window:


We did finally arrive, late in the evening on New Years Eve. I headed out to a party (Hey, it was New Years Eve. So what if I'd been on the road for 12 hours!), then over to visit a friend, finally dragging my exhausted butt back to the hotel at about 3 AM. We spent New Years Day in San Francisco and San Jose, exploring Fort Point (SF side of the Golden Gate Bridge) and the Winchester Mystery House. Fort Point was beautiful but windy and cold. The Winchester Mystery House is interesting but a bit too expensive for what you get. Still, it was a fun trip. Here are a few pics:

Golden Gate Bridge from near Fort Point:


Plaque in front of the Winchester House:


Friday was, "Janet plays with her friends day." First was breakfast with Diana. Then I headed out to Byron Hot Springs with John and his daughter. If you haven't been out there, I highly recommend it. Byron Hot Springs was a 5-star hotel and hot springs resort, a playground for the wealthy from about 1870 through the 1940s. Eventually it closed and was abandoned. The ruins are still standing in what is now a cow pasture. The building is reasonably safe if you look where you're going (i.e. don't step into the elevator shaft or any of the many holes in the ground - and watch out for cow patties even in the building), and it's fascinating to explore. Even the graffiti is interesting. There's also an abandoned house on the property, plus the remains of a couple houses that burned down long ago. I think it would make a great setting for a low-budget horror flick or music video. It was so cool that I went back again later in the day, this time with the family. You can get a sense of the creepy vibe from some pictures:

Front and side of the old hotel:


Stairway into what was probably the lobby:

(That's Tony and Corbin in the doorway and Jerry on the stairs)

Jerry sits on the main staircase:


Anyone need a potty break? Or a broken potty?


Some positive graffiti:

Yes. Yes they are. And this trip provided lots of evidence of that.

Creepy hallway:


Elevator shaft. Lookout below!


Kitchen and lobby area:


And then there's the surreal--how about a cow grazing among the palm trees?


If you're interested in the history of the place, there's a book about it, which I have ordered from Amazon but not yet received. There's also a short blurb about it in the Wikipedia entry for Byron, CA and a page about the site's use as an interrogation center during World War II. The current owner is a wealthy developer with plans to restore the place to its former glory, according to this article on SFGate.com.

Saturday we headed back to Portland. Apparently the family learned how to speed up their bathroom stops, because we made it in only 11 hours. Let's hear it for efficiency!

Can I go back now? I'm tired of the Portland rain! Maybe I could camp in the old hotel...

Shopping in Absurdia: Holiday Edition

So I was slogging through Target today, along with what seemed like most of the population of greater Portland, trying to finish my Christmas shopping before it starts snowing. I was loitering in the electronics department, waiting for my husband to stop being mesmerized by the DVDs, when I noticed an adorable little girl. She was probably about 5 years old, blonde hair, blue eyes, pink jacket, fluffy white hat... the very image of little girliness. Then she looks at her dad, reaches toward the shelf of DVDs, and says, "How about this zombie movie?"

It was all I could do to make it to the next aisle over before howling with laughter.

Omnivore's 100

Wow... I've gone a whole month without posting. I think that's a record for me. I have a bunch of ideas, but I haven't been very motivated lately. Thanks to FKV, though, I have some space filler - the Omnivore's 100 meme! Here we go:

Omnivore's 100
My score: 26. Not too bad I guess. There probably should be more stuff on the Won't Eat list, but I don't know what some of these things are. I need to get out more.

Bold=things I've eaten.
Italics=stuff I won't eat.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros Yeah, I know - What's wrong with eggs? I dunno... I just don't like 'em.
4. Steak tartare Janet's First Law of Food: Meat must be cooked, at least a little bit.
5. Crocodile I'm cheating a little - I've actually had alligator, not crocodile, but I say that's close enough.
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari Yuck. But I've eaten it.
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses - Huh??
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes I won't even touch the stuff made from grapes.
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream *Yum*
21. Heirloom tomatoes *Major yum... especially right off the vine, still warm from the sun.*
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras Ewwww...
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese All kinds of gross
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters Tried 'em, didn't like 'em.
29. Baklava YUM YUM YUM
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut Gross!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea Not into cream or tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects NO NO NO!!!
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk Not a milk person
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more I'm a cheapskate... and not a drinker.
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut Mmmm...
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV OK, so I'm boring and don't drink.
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads Nahhh... and I'll even skip the suggestive comments.
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake Can I have some now?
68. Haggis I think not.
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare Does rabbit count?
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish Blackened... yum
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Musical error messages and fundraisers

Today my friend Mo emailed me this great downtime message he came up with. The lyrics are from "Epic" by Faith No More, which, much to my embarrassment, I didn't recognize. That proves that Mo is way cooler than I am, but I digress. Anyway, Mo also came up with some great ideas for OHSU fundraisers starring various 80s bands:

Bret Michaels, for the Oregon Poison Center
Billy Squier, for the Oregon Stroke Center

That inspired me to come up with a few more for OHSU and beyond:

• Warrant for the Public Safety Dept.
  
• Anthrax for Infectious Diseases (not sure of the exact dept. name)
  
• Def Leppard and Glass Tiger for the Oregon Zoo (with a special guest appearance from Whitesnake to fund a new reptile house)
  
• Firehouse for the Portland fire dept.
  
• Great White for the Oregon Coast Aquarium
  
• Faster Pussycat for the Oregon Humane Society
  
• Guns ‘N Roses in a joint fundraiser for the NRA and the International Rose Test Gardens
  

And Mo countered with:

• Quiet Riot for the Oregon Hearing Center
  
• Ratt for the Primate Center
  

My response:

• Ratt for Laboratory Medicine
  
• Black ‘N Blue for a domestic violence shelter (yeah, I know - I'm tacky)
  
• Kiss for some oral health dept in the School of Dentistry
  
• And add LA Guns to the NRA one and Def Leppard to the Oregon Hearing Center one
  

Yeah, I know -- we shouldn't quit our day jobs. But c'mon... it's Friday. Everyone needs a little silliness on Friday.

I'm a hopeless Harry Potter nerd

OK, so I'm listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks for what must be the gazillionth time, and I noticed an inconsistency (yes, there are a number of inconsistencies in the series, but I'd never noticed this one before). In Chamber of Secrets, Ginny's eyes are described as green (last track of disk 1 at about 1:10 if you want to check for yourself), while in Deathly Hallows they're described as brown (when Harry notices that Mrs. Weasley's eyes are the same shade of brown as Ginny's).

Yes, I am a nerd. Yes, I need to get a life. But if I could only learn to use the Imperious Curse on my co-workers, my work days would be so much more fun.

Making history on Election Day

*I wrote this piece earlier this evening but am just now finding time to post it.*

As I write these words, election returns are coming in fast and furious, and it looks like Barack Obama will be our next president. No matter which candidate you support, there's no denying that this election has been a groundbreaker. I started to say that it marks a turning point in our history, but it's really the fruit of many turning points in our history, the result of battles large and small fought in the streets, in schools, in courtrooms, and even in families, all of which add up to 40+ years of social change. Without the civil rights and women's movements, we could not have had an election season that featured two women and an African American as serious candidates for the two highest offices in the land. I know we have a long way to go to reach full racial and gender equality, but this election clearly shows how very far we've come. That is something to celebrate on this historic election night, no matter which candidate wins.

My parents were older than average (39 and 45) when I was born 41 years ago. Both of them grew up in an era when an election like this one was unthinkable. My mother was and remains open-minded, but my father was an unreconstructed Southerner deeply prejudiced in just about every way a person can be prejudiced--and a diehard Democrat. To him, the Republicans were the party of the wealthy. I don't think he ever forgave them for Herbert Hoover, whom he blamed for his and his family's suffering during the Great Depression. Dad died 22 years ago, but I wish he had lived to see this election. I would have enjoyed watching him figure out how to vote for an African American, because I'm pretty sure his political beliefs were stronger than his racism. (And no, I don't think there's anything funny about racism, and I never could abide my father's beliefs. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't have found his internal struggle entertaining had he lived to cast a vote this year.)

I'm looking at my son, who is watching the election returns with me. I'm delighted that, to him, it will be perfectly normal for African Americans and women to run for president. When I explained to him why this election is so significant, he was confused: He doesn't understand why anyone would have a problem with a president who wasn't a white male. I've never understood that either.

As I was thinking about how to end this post, CBS News announced Obama's victory. That seems like a good ending to me--and hopefully the beginning of a new era in our nation's history. God Bless America.