Dead wood: literal and figurative.

Have you ever had a day that felt like an entire week? Because I did yesterday. It was like some vengeful god (with a good sense of humor) decided to treat my six-year-old daughter to extreme versions of her two favorite things: politics and severe weather. Gabi likes severe weather in theory, but not so much in practice. So when a bizarre wind storm struck last night, knocking down trees in our neighborhood and ripping out power lines, it was the capstone to an exhilarating day. Was all of this heavenly wrath due to the remnants of hurricane Ike, or was it a cosmic reaction to the fact that Eric Wasserman has finally started blogging? I suppose that time will tell.

Here's what our driveway looked like last night, before it got dark. We spent a lot of time sending text messages, worrying about the contents of the refrigerator, watching pieces of dead (and live) wood crash to the ground, and dancing to 80s music in the living room. The strange thing about the storm was that it wasn't raining--just really high winds. I can't even imagine what it was like being in the hurricane, and not its aftermath.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I took Gabi to her first ever political rally. She's already met politicians (Rahm Emanuel growled at her--playfully--in the Jewel when she was a baby), but she had never been to anything like this before. It was an Obama rally in Ellet with Hillary Clinton as the big speaker. Here's what the line looked like. I should mention that it was 80+ degrees out there.

Some really nice people shared their spot at the top of the bleachers with us, which made this so much better for Gabi. Her third favorite thing, after severe weather and politics, is complaining, and there were many moments where I wondered why on earth I dragged her to a rally.

All of those doubts totally dissolved when I saw the look on Gabi's face the moment Hillary took the stage. I should say that in the past I was never a big Hillary fan, and couldn't see why she inspired people so much. I didn't feel this girl power bond with her or anything. But seeing her in person, in Akron, really changed my mind. When I saw her in Ann Arbor in 1992, I wasn't smitten. Maybe I've evolved since then, especially now that I'm an administrator and someone who hopes to aspire to big things in life. But man, did I ever get goosebumps when she spoke, even in a gym filled with 1600 people and no air conditioning. PS--that's Hillary in pink.

Last night, when Gabi was recounting the trip to my mom in our dark living room, she said, "Hillary was a really good speaker. She talked a lot about health care." At that point I realized that Gabi was actually listening. And that whatever happens in the election, she'll always remember this day. Perhaps the rally will even outlast the wind storm in her memory.