The Day I Got a Golden Ticket & Shook President Obama's Hand

What I'm Listening To: A Change is Gonna Come-Sam Cooke

Today was easily the top moment of my college career. Thank you so much Bryon Eagon. You are the best alderman that has ever breathed life. Because of this amazing, five-star gentleman, I got to sit behind President Obama and touch him. Or rather, half shake his hand. Twice. President Obama came to UW-Madison to rally support for the Democratic party and he has me, and I'm sure the majority of the 30,000 people that were in the area, convinced. I'll certainly be going back to vote in November. Some memorable quotes:

"You have to put the car in 'D' to move forward and when you want to go backward you put the car in 'R'."
"Americans don't come in second, we come in first!"
 "I had some friends that went to Madison and I used to come here all the time, but I won't go into detail about those times..."
"No you can't have the key! You don't even know how to drive!" (referring to "the other party")
"People like Tammy Baldwin, Tom Barrett, Russ Feingold and me got in the trenches, got our boots dirty and pushed and heaved while the Republicans just sat outside the ditch and looked down on us. Then when we finally, get somewhere, we get this tap on the shoulder asking us to hand over the keys."

As proof that I was there, about fifteen feet away from him (because I could have easily just watched CNN or read a newspaper to find any of those), here is a picture of us both (I am about 7 people in and wearing a long sleeved, red Wisconsin Badgers shirt towards the very left end of the pic)

 And here's another, smiling, close-up picture where you can clearly see me holding up my "Moving America Forward" sign

 I think that change is going to come if we all work for it. There are times that we as Americans tend to get disappointed, as the president was saying. This is probably because we live in a society where things are instantaneous and we need to have them immediately. We all have to remember that all good things take time. Losing sight of what is important is the worse thing that we can do as a country. The drive to be innovative as a country without leaving our fellow citizens behind in the process is a tough line to walk. But I'm hopeful that we can make it. YES WE CAN!

                                                                        (courtesy of Rob DeMeuse)

Let Your Shoulder Lean to Elephants or Donkeys? (Politics)

What I'm Listening To: Shoulder Lean by Young Dro ft. T.I.

"The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything"- Isabel Allende

I have a confession to make: I do not really follow politics or current events. Furthermore, the fact that half the time I don't know what's going on is simply appalling (health care, what? just kidding, it's not that bad....sort of...) It's not that I'm not interested in what is going on around me, it is just the fact that if I have to add one more thing to my 7:30am-2:00am day, I would really be nocturnal and less functional than usual. I catch the major points, like if something is truly catastrophic (how about that oil spill?) or if I just happen to catch the national or local news one night.

I'm a donkey. And there are all sorts of awesome reasons why: or the difference:

1) Donkeys look better than elephants
2) In a fight, the donkey would win because the elephant would tire itself out and die
3) Donkeys are more conscious of citizen needs
4) Elephants are too uptight. That's why they get old and wrinkly so fast.
5) A donkey could be a noble steed, but if you fell off of an elephant, you might break something
6) Donkeys forgive and forget. Elephants hold grudges and remember every last single thing.
7) Elephants are expensive dates. Just imagine how many tons you'd have to feed that thing! (can we say high maintenance?)
8) Donkeys aren't clingy. Elephants are all about the babies and the mating and super territorial.
9) You wouldn't have to lie to a donkey. If an elephant asked you if it were fat, I hope you wouldn't tell it the truth unless you want to be crushed or skewered with an ivory tusk.
10) Donkeys don't have weird, creepy appendages like trunks or huge dumbo ears. They are compact and you don't have to be embarrassed to take them anywhere

In all seriousness, yes I am democratically inclined, however, if a Republican has a good idea, I'm not going to knock it just because it happens from a Republican. I tend to vote more with ideas rather than parties, although I do claim the Democrats.  So essentially, on Thursdays, starting this Thursday, I'm going to blog about politics/current events. It will help me to be more involved, and hopefully crack you up at my ineptness in my forays into the political world (don't laugh too hard though). I am going to attempt to be neutral, but because of this post, you already know that my shoulder lean goes left.