New Day, New POTUS, Simple As That

From the time I was a very little girl -- seriously, from about the time I started reading -- I read biographies. I remember a series of biographies written especially for kids and I would devour those things. Every week at the school library, I'd take one or two home with me. I'd read them over and over. Sometime in the 5th grade, the librarian joked with me that those biographies would collect dust when I moved along to the 6th grade and she showed me that I was the only one who ever checked out about half of them, and my name was there four, five, six times.

In middle school and early high school, I was the typical adolescent -- movie star struck. I still read a lot of biographies (and at this point I moved on to classic literature as well) but the bios tended to be of celebrities, as opposed to the Virginia Dare, Betsy Ross, Sacajewea, Clara Barton books of my youth.

But during that adolescence, Watergate happened, and Watergate was THE topic of conversation at my grandparents' house, where I spent a good deal of time. My grandpa put his cassette recorder by the television and taped the hearings, then would listen to them again in the evening and on weekends. He made me want to know, he made me want to care about politics. I took an interest in this Gerald Ford guy, and followed the 1976 election closely, and the 1980 primaries, still too young to vote and unsure yet of any ideological leanings, I knew that there was something about that George Herbert Walker Bush guy that I liked. I went back to the nonfiction section of the school library and started taking out the books on history and biographies on presidents.

In my sophomore year of college, I needed a speech topic, and I couldn't come up with anything. I met with my professor who asked me what my favorite classes were outside of the writing/English classes. I said history and politics classes. She asked what I liked best about history, and I said the presidents. She told me to pick a president, someone from before FDR, learn about him, and present a speech that would make the case why we should know about this president (and not any of the usual suspects). I picked Theodore Roosevelt, and once I started learning, I couldn't stop. My office is filled with books about TR.

But my library is filled with biographies of almost all the presidents, as well as the first ladies, and tons of general reference books and anecdotal books and books about other political figures who influenced these presidents. It is an insatiable passion of mine.

And it should be no surprise that when primaries and elections and inaugurations come around, I'm in my total element. I've tried to talk to people about primaries and elections and inaugurations, but it's difficult. People are too passionate about their ideologies. I have my ideologies, to be sure, and I struggle at times to see the other person's point of view. But I don't really watch presidential politics like most people I know. Let's just say there aren't a whole lot of things that surprise me about a candidate or his administration.

I love inauguration day. I've watched every one since Reagan 1984, taking vacation days when I had to. I used to tape them all, too, until Bush 2004. I watch from early in the morning, when they attend church services, to late in the evening, through the balls. I think it should be a national holiday, to celebrate this greatest of American traditions. I've watched when the guy I disliked was sworn in; I've watched when the guy I voted for was sworn in.

So what did I see yesterday, beyond the pomp and circumstance and the unusual historic relevance of this election? I saw a new president faced with the task Lincoln had before him -- to reunite a severely divided nation -- and faced with the task Grover Cleveland and FDR and Ronald Reagan had before them -- to fix a nation that seems to be imploding -- and the task of Richard Nixon -- to end an unpopular war -- and the task of Theodore Roosevelt -- to put greed in check. This would have been the task that fell to whomever won the election. I also saw a vitality and youthful exuberance I've never seen before in an inauguration (and remember, the Clintons were about the same age when they took office in 1993). It had little to do with the crowd, but with Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden themselves.

The biggest takeaway? What I take away every four years -- that the exchange of power happens smoothly and that even if the opposition doesn't like it, well, they have a chance to change it in the next election.

So it is now 2009

Workwise, 2008 was a very good year. Heck, it wasn't so bad on the personal side either, although there were some moments there toward the end that were a little hairy.

I don't know about anyone else, but I always feel a change -- mental? physical? emotional? -- when I hang a new calendar on the wall. I love the new calendar feel. I take the cellophane off (note to calendar makers: can you get a little more ecofriendly with the wrap?) and page through it. Not so much to see the pretty pictures, but to see the blank dates.

I'm a calendar obsessive. I have them all over the place, including three in my office -- two appointment calendars and a wall calendar where I track deadlines. Actually there is a fourth, from 2004, I think, that has beach scenes. I keep it around because I like the pictures. I keep my old calendars, too, which probably tell more about me and my life than any journal I ever kept.

I love the blank dates. To me, they represent hope and the openness of the future. I get a thrill every time I write something into one of those big blank spaces. It means something good is happening -- a deadline, lunch with a friend, LASIK surgery.

But sometimes the blank dates are scary. No deadlines. No interviews. Nothing on my plate, what will I do? You know the answer to that -- go out and try to fill those blanks, that's what!

My calendar is looking pretty good right now. There are interviews scheduled and deadlines all over January.

I can't wait to see what else 2009 brings.

Back to Work

It was a Thanksgiving miracle. I finished all my work by Wednesday afternoon -- well all the work that had to be done. I was able to kick back and enjoy the holiday weekend. I was able to start on Christmas cards, visit friends, start the first of the many cleaning and uncluttering projects I have, read a book, catch up on email, all without thinking "Oh I need to be working on XXX."

Back to the deadlines and work this week. But not too many deadlines to deal with so far in December -- although I do get hit with four the first week of January, plus LASIK on the 15th of that month. But it's not crazy busy that I can't do some serious marketing and take some afternoons to do Christmas shopping when the stores are less busy.

Flexible to a point

My book group met to talk about Eat Pray Love -- my book pick. This was such a wildly popular book that I was interested to hear what my friends thought. (I read it in January and didn't read it again for book group, if that tells you anything. The book I wanted to pick wasn't out in time.)

The conversation turned to the idea: if you could take a year or four months or four days for that matter to disappear and do what you want, wherever you wanted, to completely indulge in YOU, where would you go and would you go?

Which led to the conversation that only one person in the room had the luxury to pick up and go like that -- and they all look at me. "You're a writer," they said. "She's a writer. You guys can do things like that."

Hm. I know someone personally who did one of those types of retreats from the real world and wrote about it. And this person and Elizabeth Gilbert had two words in common before they left.

Book contract.

Look, if a publisher wants to pay me to do my dream retreat -- follow the life path of David Copperfield (the Dickens character, not the magician) -- I'm all for going. Or to attend Mass at all the great Cathedrals of Europe, I'm up for that, too.

But without the book contract in hand, I've got to still come up with a way to pay the bills, and that's with my regular freelance work. And I can't do that if I'm ignoring the real world.

The real world doesn't go away, either, as the people I know found out. The whole family went on that retreat away from the world, except they had to rush home at one point when a family member died in a plane crash.

Anyway, that discussion at book group was one more reminder that freelancing is a real job, even if there is flexibility to it. Yes, I can do it from anywhere, kind of. I was able to write an article in a friend's spare bedroom in Alabama and did interviews from hotel rooms in Maryland, and who knew but me? But seeing how hard it was to juggle interviews with people traveling in China and how spotty the internet connection was in my one hotel room, freelancing wouldn't be easy to do from the road for long periods of time.

Besides, I'd miss my husband . . .

A Moment of Politics

Those who know me know that I love politics and political history more than the average bear. I study presidential politics for fun. I studied political science with the idea of getting a graduate degree because I think studying politics is fun.

Yeah, I'm opinionated. I've never met a person who isn't. And yeah, that shapes the way I look at the world and my politics. But I try to be fair, really I do (and I also try to avoid talking about politics when I think it can get ugly).

My candidate didn't win last night. That's because my candidate, the person I really thought would be the best president, wasn't on the ticket. I voted though because that is my civic duty and I had to make a choice one way or another. And even if I didn't circle the ballot for president, there were other important choices for my state that I had to make.

Today, I'm hearing a lot of talk about hopeful possibilities and a lot of talk about fear. You know what folks? It is rare when we can guess what is going to happen. I do know that the 44th president isn't going to be able to change abortion rights or take away your guns or wave a magic wand to fix health care. Some of the things social conservatives worry about will happen on the state level and then maybe go to the Supreme Court, which is going to be shifting right after four years unless there is a mass of replacements needed. A Democratic Congress doesn't mean agreement (see 1993/1994). To throw oneself into a tizzy over which candidate won is time wasted. First, maybe we should take time to rejoice that we had an election without scandal. That in and of itself speaks volumes. Second thing, take the time to really educate yourself about the way government works. It helps you understand the big picture and also the importance of your state politics.

Today is a day to look forward. As I read a few places, change isn't always good. No, but change can be exciting because it means the possibilities are endless.

The World Outside My Office

My office has been quiet lately. Some things have changed in my work world, and I'm not quite as busy as before. I've been pumping up the marketing efforts (anybody need a great writer?).

On the other hand, the downtime came at a good time. My attention has been many other places lately. All summer, as I watched my beloved Phillies play baseball, my husband would ask, "Is it October yet?" meaning that he was waiting for baseball season to be over. Well, it is October, and the Phillies are still playing. Game 3 of the World Series will be on my birthday. It doesn't get much better than that.

But it is also football season, and football Saturdays rule this household. I can't quite explain the beauty of tailgating all day Saturday. Even some of my friends who enjoy tailgating don't understand how I, the anti-morning person, will crawl out of bed at the crack of dawn in any weather to sit outside with 100,000 of my closest friends, eating sausages from the grill and drinking a few adult beverages. But to me, it is almost like a vacation. I carry no mental baggage to tailgates. I refuse to discuss work. I don't think of problems in my life. I really truly live in that moment, for that day, and nothing else. We'll watch football on tv and then head to the stadium to watch football then back to the parking lot to watch football. It is pure bliss.

Then there is the Thesis of husband's, my essay class, which needs more attention, the impending trip of mine, the impending visit by the daughter and grandbaby.

With all this life going on, I'm grateful beyond words for the work I have, but equally grateful that I'm not in the deadline hell of September.

Mixed Bag

That's how it's been around here lately. A mixed bag. Work is good. Work is frustrating at times. Life is good. Life is frustrating at times. That's how it goes.

Today has been an unusually quiet day. It almost feels like the day before a holiday weekend. My email box had a flurry of busyness in the morning but has pretty much stopped now. No interviews scheduled. No phone ringing. I was able to get caught up on marketing stuff, and am working on a larger project today. And watching the birds outside my window. With fall coming, the landscape at my feeder has changed considerably. Not just the species of birds showing up but also in the look of my regular birdie friends who will be around all winter. They are all puffed up and fuzzy in their winter feathers. A woodpecker has begun to show up at the feeder. It's beautiful. I'd never seen a woodpecker that close up before. The blue jay has returned, too. He is beautiful, and every time I see him, I think of an old friend, Terrie, who passed away from cancer. She was a birder and during a visit with me and another PA friend, a blue jay perched in a tree outside the window of the room we were in. Terrie had never seen a blue jay before and you could tell it was a highlight of her visit to the east coast.

Yesterday I made that always tough decision to part ways with a client. It was evident we were no longer on the same page, and an incredibly rude email sealed the deal that had been spinning in my head for a couple of weeks. I always get nervous about moving on, but each time I find that something better has come my way. And in fact, since sending that letter, I got two positive emails about potential work opportunities.

Now to get a little something done before happy hours arrives.