President Obama

I took the day off to stay home and watch all the inaugural events. I wish I possessed the eloquence necessary to really explain how this event has affected me, but I don't. I've been back and forth between teary-eyed with joy and crying overwhelmed all day at the thought of having our first minority President. As a child I never really had many Hispanic historical figures to look up to other than Cesar Chavez with the farm laborer rights movement. As a minority, I connected most with African Americans such as George Washington Carver, (thank you for peanut butter!) Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the civil rights movement, etc.

I'm lucky that I never considered that it wouldn't happen in my lifetime. But to see all the men and women who had lived through segregation and fought for equal rights and lived to see a day they never thought they would see was inspiring.

from Reverend Joseph Lowery's prayer:
"when black will not be asked to get back
when brown can stick around
when yellow will be mellow
when the red man can get ahead, man
when white will embrace what is right
that all those who do justice and love mercy say "Amen"
Say Amen.
Amen."

I woke up today to find my goal for wheelchair met! But my hubby still needs a little help.

And I'll wake up tomorrow knowing that President Obama's got my back!





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Practice makes perfect

My co-worker asks me every Monday if I practiced my running. I like that. If you want to play the piano well, you practice. If you want to improve your swimming, you practice. If you want to stand on pointe, you practice.

It's a great concept. I'm running a half marathon this Sunday. Even though I haven't practiced as much as I should have, I feel I'm going to do fairly well. Besides, my focus for this run is fund raising for The Free Wheelchair Mission. I'm excited that we've raised almost $2000! I'm excited that this year has gotten off to a fairly fit start (compared to most). I'm excited that I get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge in July. I'm looking forward to running Long Beach in October and becoming a California Series finisher. I'm looking forward to The Big Cat Challenge in December and a possible 20 miles....

I shaved almost 2 minutes off of my fitness test at Bootcamp tonight. My right knee's a little swollen, but I'm going to survive :)

Outlook: Great

Today is a really good day. Nothing in particular is making it stand out. I'm just feeling like things are looking up. Maybe it's the excitement of the inauguration on Tuesday. Maybe it's the nice weather. Maybe I'm excited that our half marathon is 16 days away and I'm more than halfway to my fund raising goal. I'm definitely infinitely grateful for being gainfully employed. I'm not sure what it is, or which combination of good things it is, but I'm not going to question it.

I'm just going to soak it in - and next time I feel drab, I'm going to reread this post and see if I can bring back the feeling of comfort I AM today.


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