Black President - Check! Puppies - Check! Let's See, What's next? Oh yes, Gay marriage!

Barack Obama beat my friend Terre to the punch as you can see from this piece in the AP:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUTTS_LIKE_ME?SITE=TNJAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

The Obamas will have a shelter dog!

In the meanwhile I hope to be part of another movement on Tuesday to oust another administration whose impact though not far-reaching like that of the Bush Administration has been devastating to public education. My old college - The College of Marin currently has the most corrupt and incompetent administration and this coming Tuesday, at 5:30 PM, my beloved colleagues will hold a job action to protest the refusal of the Board of Trustees to negotiate their contract which they have been without for 17 months. If you are connected with the College, I urge you to join us outside the cafeteria entrance to the Student Activities building The Musician Action's Group will be performing and I have a renewed sense of optimism that change can come even to Marin where they appear to hate change so much they wouldn't even send me a custom written retirement letter. I got the same one al the 65 year olds got which went something like this:

Dear Carla,

Congratulations on your retirement! We at the College of Marin are so excited about what is in store for you.

Maybe it was custom written and they just hated me that much. They are excited about what's in store for me? Wow. The HR administrator - let's just call her Linda Beam ....because that's her name ....responded to my complaints by saying she was sorry I "took the letter the wrong way." You can't make this shit up. By the way there were only 5 other retirees so, you know, they weren't swamped.

It's a new day though and people are believing that they can be instruments of change.

Meanwhile, I am learning that change often comes whether we want it or not and I'm trying to ride bigger and bigger waves of change without wiping out on the rocks.

I used to be 5'8" with long legs. As a guy I adore said to me "you're long and tall and that's not all." Now I'm 4 foot something with fat wheels. I used to be a half decent cook, now people serve me food. I drop my fork at least once per meal and drink beer from a straw. My bedroom used to be this lush romantic space now it has a commode and a walker and a wheelchair parked by the bed which boasts a bed rail. I had an impeccable home, now chunks of plaster have been knocked out of the wall by a maverick wheelchair driver and the carpet is stained with the many drinks I've dropped. The orange carpet is long gone. SInging gets harder, getting in and out of cars, the shower, the commode all tougher and my energy is limited.

Change comes like it or not. The cure is more change. Every time I do something new I feel powerful to tackle this, be it go on an excursion, start shopping for a pet bird or striking up a conversation with someone new and learning something cool as a result. In those moments it's delicious to be alive.