I know, I know, I'm neglecting this thing again. Went to California and never checked back in again. I'm a bad blogger. My best offense is to blog every day - if I leave things go a few days, it's very hard to get back on track.

I'm blasting Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" right now. They played it during a lot of Barack Obama's campaign appearances and it's a song I've loved for a long time and now it has more significance than ever.

I've been completely emotional since Barack was elected on Tuesday night, alternating between complete euphoria that my country would actually look past color and elect the most amazing candidate we've had in my lifetime, and being completely choked up seeing and hearing the reactions of African-Americans. This is so huge. Seeing people who marched with Martin Luther King with tears streaming down their faces right after the election results were announced is unbelievably moving. I so wish my mother were here to see this. She was on board early, years ago, with Barack, and saw his potential and really talked him up. Hard for me and Lisa not to think of her on Election night as we sat watching the returns come in with the girls, Kerry and Justine, whose interest along with Lily and Jack's as well, thrilled me.

I got the nicest short note from my friend Pete in Munich - "Glad to see that the world can rely on Americans, and not just a few Americans." Boy, did that make me feel good because when I lived there I felt so much that I was being judged by a lot of Europeans because of my godawful Red State fellow citizens who followed Bush blindly. I kept explaining that where I came from the majority of people didn't think like that. I must have explained Blue State/Red State twenty times.

Michelle Obama got completely excoriated when months ago she remarked "For the first time in my adult life, I'm proud of my country" and I totally understood her and today feel the exact same way.

Lots more to post, but not a lot of time. Missed you!