WHAT A FEELING!

I'm singing so much these days. Last night taking a reprieve from Edith Piaf to Nina Simone, Wild is the wind. We've had it in Hollywood for a few days. Its cool. Its rainy. Its rare. Its beautiful. It was the wind of change coming....

I love that I live in a neighborhood, so green and pretty, while also being close to the thick of things, where I could walk a few blocks to Barack the vote!

I walked along with Callie, singing aloud "Star Spangled Banner." See, I live in Hollywood, so no one would think I am crazy... LOL. Besides, I find singing aloud while walking to be a bit old fashioned, no? And you know, I love LA because they let me bring the pup inside with me to vote. I mean, how cool is that?!

Back to the point. When I got to "the land of the free, and the home of the brave...." That part struck me. How brave it is for my friends to come out to their families, to want to have the same rights as heteros in marrying the person they love most on this earth.

I thought of the 1960s in Virginia. Where the white aunt I never knew (she passed away when I was small) had to leave the state to go to another in order to marry the black man she loved (and eventually bear his children).

This was 1 generation ago people. And doesn't it seem so disgusting? Is it really any different the way mixed races couples were discriminated against in comparison to this? So I voted the right way "no" on prop 8. Sadly, we were defeated. I do think the way these props are worded is also confusing to people. Does no mean no or does it mean yes?

But onto Obama. The best fantasy come true a human could have last night!

I am a mostly good southern woman. I have heard so many stories passed down from my grandma and my mother and my other relatives. Stories of the the civil war in Virginia, my grandmother's relatives and their involvement, that a pound of bacon was $100 once the Yankees cut off our supplies, of holding civil war relics my grandpa discovered around town while I was a child, the tales of my own mother going to prom with a well-to-do "Hispanic" boy (ohhhh it was scandalous. But ohhhhh honey, was he so proper and MUY CALIENTE!!! in those photos), my mother and aunts tales of the different water fountains for whites and "coloreds", what they experienced in their young lives seeing dreams created and the murdersof living saints they thought would carry their country out of that disgust. My own father having to fight in a war which he did not believe in. I thought of little things like how I was raised to NEVER litter (before anyone was thinking of all those papers and cigarette butts ending up in the ocean). I think of the photos of the Beatles my parents had on their bedroom wall--they were only in their early 20's when I was born. I thought of the advantages I had. The violin lessons, the ballet, exposure to arts and culture but all with an appreciation and understanding of others who may not have these things. How all of this, the politics, the history of the south, the music, my schooling, my family, how it all affects me to this very day.

I always get tears in my eyes when I hear recordings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Maybe its my hippie or black spirit from another life. I am not so sure. But to live in this historical moment. To have marked obsessively on that card my vote for President Obama. I just, well, its like living in that dream MLK, Jr talked about.

I believe so much in the good spirit of change which will happen.

I am more motivated to live my own life for each day, with hope, with positivity.

I am excited to see Americans become proud again.

And look forward to seeing soldiers return to our soil.

I feel so fortunate to be alive......

I hope you appreciate it as well.

Love your fellow Americans. Love the people of the world.