…I am glad that Obama closed Gitmo.  I hope we can successfully end the war in Iraq in such a way that we don’t leave them floundering or vulnerable to Al Qaida.

Expanding

I have been reading several people for several years, and have gotten to know others just through the comments they leave.  Today I decided to subscribe to some of the commenters that I feel I’ve gotten to know through others’ blogs.  So if you’re wondering why I’ve subscribed to you, it’s because you’ve commented often on someone else’s blog that I subscribe to

Also, some of you I may have subscribed to with my other entity, SherylM

I have done a lot of MySpace karaoke. I listen to a lot of people. One lady in particular seemed to be very popular, so I listened to her and left comments. She listened to my stuff and left comments. We became fans of each other (believe it or not I have 44 fans LOL)

Anyway, one day I looked at her karaoke profile and saw she was from Michigan, so I went to her MySpace profile. You had to be a friend to see her profile, so I sent her a friend request.

Then I emailed her and told her that I grew up in Smalltown, Michigan, and told her where it was in relation to BigCity, Michigan.

Turns out she lived there for 20 years, from 1978 to 1998

So I told her where I lived and some of the places I worked. Turns out a lady I worked at a club and her son (who was the bouncer) was her aunt and cousin. Her brother played in a band there. So then I started talking about the members of the band, and one of them was another cousin of hers. Then we talked about the long list of mutual friends we had in the late 70s but we NEVER MET. I wonder how many times our paths crossed and we didn’t even know it. We lived 2 miles apart.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I had served her drinks at the place I worked as a cocktail waitress.

Unbefreakinglievable

Unbelievable.  One of the featured weblogs is about someone who is very pretty complaining because they are too pretty.  They say men ogle them and leer at them and all the other negative things you could think of that very pretty women have to go through. 

They do have a point.

I am a plain jane.  I like it.  When men have been attracted to me, I know it’s because they actually LIKE me, and not because I’d make great eye candy.  The only thing I might want to change is to be thinner.

I work for a pretty liberal organization.  I learned a long time ago, especially at work, to keep my political views to myself.  We got a 2-hour break from work today to watch the inauguration ceremony.

I have high hopes for President Obama.  I hope his inexperience works in our favor, in that he’s not tainted by “this is how we’ve always done it” and that the world looks on him as a worthy leader of a new generation.

But geez – $170 million for festivities?  I realize this is historic.  It took too long to happen (MLK hoped for it to happen in less than 40 years or in less than 25 – it took 44 from the time he said that.)  And maybe it was worthy of all the pomp and circumstance.

I still want to know who is paying for it.

I have today off.  This is the first job I’ve ever had that got MLK day off.  I’ll take it

I wonder how he would feel knowing a true African-American (1/2 African, 1/2 white- Eurpoean/American) was elected president.

I hope this will be the beginning of the end of racism and bigotry.

Has there ever been this much celebration before an inauguration?  Maybe I’ve just never paid attention, but this seems pretty extravagant.  I wonder who’s paying for it.

MIL is here this weekend.  Mac bought two tickets for Wicked and took her today.  (I went a couple weeks ago with my sister.)

I really get along well with my MIL. I wish everyone could have the same type of relationship with their in-laws

We have a long weekend coming up.  I get off work in a few minutes (2 hours early) and have Monday off.  My MIL is coming for the weekend because Mac bought her tickets to Wicked for Christmas.  The two of them are going tomorrow.  I’m not going because when my sister came to visit, I took her.  They are leaving Chicago after Jan 25 and though it was easy enough to get two tickets, getting three together is nearly impossible.

I will probably spend the time playing World of Warcraft.  There’s a change.  LOL

My desktop tells me it’s 9 degrees below zero in Chicago.  My sisters, who live in eastern Michigan, are complaining about the cold.  They’re having a freaking heat wave compared to us!  It’s 1 above 0 there.

I heard it was 40 degrees warmer in Anchorage, Alaska this morning that it is here in Chicago.

I made it into work today.  My train was 20 minutes late because of frozen switches.

Aren’t midwestern winters fun?

I got to the train station this morning just as the train was taking off.  That was the last express train, so I called to tell the CEO that I would be taking the local train because I just missed my regular train.  We had a snowstorm last night and the roads were nasty.  It took me about 40 minutes to drive 6 miles.

Turns out the local train (and all other trains going either direction) was held up because some guy asked the ticket agent about security on the train, and whether or not they had metal detectors on the train.  The agent got suspicious but didn’t see where the guy went.  He called the cops, and because he couldn’t tell them whether he was heading to Chicago or to Aurora, they stopped all trains, evacuated them, and searched everyone.

Turns out it was a Secret Service agent.  Dork.

Anyway, I called the CEO again and told her I would just work from home.

Good thing, because I would have been 3 hours late, and getting home would have been a nightmare.  An Amtrak train derailed at Union Station and all trains were stopped for two hours (I think) stranding 30,000 commuters.