The Inauguration and other things

I'm sorry this entry is way late, but that's how busy I've been planning the dance.

Well, it's official, we got a new president. And I like him, a lot. His daughters are our age. Not to mention, Harriet pointed out that he's kind of cute. Definitely not like the old guy that used to be president.

We were at school when it happened, so I caught a little of it on the TV at school. Luckily, Harriet's grandma videotaped it, so she, Kristy, and I watched it there after school. This means a lot for Harriet's grandma. You see, Harriet's grandma grew up in the South where blacks and whites had separate water fountains, separate bathrooms, and went to separate schools. She said she never dreamed all this would happen. I can't imagine not being at the same school with Harriet just because her skin is darker. It would be so weird.

Speaking of being president, I'm finding out that being class president is much harder than I thought it would be. I was checking out some ideas for the Valentine's Day dance... and there was a Chrissa flyer with stuff you could for her cards, and I was thinking about using some of those cut-out decals to decorate the gym. So I decided to suggest my idea to the school dance committee (that I mysteriously found Meredith had put herself on, despite the fact she claimed she didn't care about the dance) and she was, all, "That's so childish!"

Then I heard another voice, I was surprised to hear it. It was Mia's. Mia had been in the room but seldom spoke. "What about a winter pageant?" she asked. "Mix in snowflakes with the Valentine decorations." Hilary seemed to like it, but I wasn't sure, since it is a Valentine's dance. I felt like in hearing out Mia's suggestion I was giving in to Meredith. But I had to admit, Mia did have a point. Then again, Mia is biased. She's a competitive figure skater and still plays ice hockey.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

Sorry to scream that in big terms, but WOOOOOO HOOOOO! The guy I really wanted to win the presidency won tonight.

When they announced it, Harriet and I reached for each other and gave each other big hugs. Harriet's mom and grandmother were crying. Harriet's grandmother lived through segregation in Louisiana, it wasn't easy. Coming from Pennsylvania, from a white middle-class family, I cannot even begin to understand what they went through.

Rock the Vote (and other things)

Well, got a good bit to say now...

First, this weekend Vee went to this thrift store in the city and found me a Coconut hoodie and cap, and I decided to wear it to school yesterday. Megan assigned me to interview our school's newest student, Mia St. Clair, for the paper. I wasn't exactly looking forward to this interview, but she wasn't bad. She could seem cold, but she's ambitious, that's all. Very focused. She's hellbent on going to the 2014 Olympics. She enjoys ice hockey, roller hockey, roller blading -- anything that keeps her moving. With three older brothers, who could blame her?

Today school was out because of elections. Since Harriet and I are working polls at the local district, we spent the day out at our polling place. The atmosphere was unlike anything else I'd ever experienced. We decided to wear red, white, and blue. And, I'm digging Harriet's new 'do, kinda. It makes her look like a hippie.

I got to check out the new electronic voting machines they put in at my precinct. They're pretty cool, you check your ballots and then when you're done you press this button at the bottom that says "Cast Vote." Harriet and I had a blast talking to everyone who wanted to vote. It was kinda funny, after I'd spent upwards of a month on my class president campaign, I was on the other side of the political process.

And can you believe, I've just gone through an entire blog entry without mentioning you-know-who....

Progress

Well, we finally made progress on the dance front. But not because of Meredith, Natasha, or Madisyn. Neither of them have lifted a finger to help with the dance.

The school gym is halfway finished. We decided to go with the haunted house theme, with cotton balls and fake spider webs all over. I have no idea how it's all gonna shake out, but I hope it does.

I also signed up to volunteer at a local polling place for election day. All I do, really, is hand out flyers and write down stuff. Since I'm eleven, they're not gonna give me too much to do.

As for who I support, I'm torn. I like Obama, but think it's cool that a woman is in the running for VP.

And I'm still tutoring Kristy Van Dyke. She's a fast learner -- matter of fact, I think she's better in science than I am -- and I've been trying to get her to catch up to the rest of the class in the other subjects.

I also have no costume either. I'm considering just cutting up an old pillowcase and becoming a ghost.