Spitzer Shock

After several years of Republicanism under Gov George Pataki (OK; I admit it; I voted for him, but that would NEVER happen again!), I was "tickled pink," as Mom used to say, that we voted in a governor with great integrity and dynamism. By the way, my mother has been greatly on my mind the last few days........ Maybe because her birthday is the 28th of this month?

Anyway, the shock over the horrific fall from grace, by Governor Spitzer, is almost too much to handle. It takes a lot to shock me, but I am shocked. To humiliate his wife and daughters like that, together with the vast majority of New Yorkers who voted for him, just devastates me. And I don't even want to THINK about what he has done to the Democratic Party! One of my campaign buttons actually features Spitzer with Hillary in 2006. I will admit that he was beginning to get on my nerves with all his talk of bull-dozing his way through the people, who [he felt] "didn't know what was good for them." Hellooooooooooo. Who voted you in?

Spitzer has actually done something that Mr. Clinton never did. He broke the law. Prostitution isn't legal in our state. Now he's thrown it all away, and I am horrified.

Before I Move On......

Before moving on, I feel that I MUST address the events of 2007. After 5 months of hospitalization, Dad Klem was ignored to death by the hospital, staff, and nursing home portion of said hospital. Apparently, you have to be under 75 to warrant any kind of intelligent treatment, and Dad was way over the limit at 86. So it wasn't really necessary for hospital staff to wash their hands, donchaknow, and who cares if MRSA is a deadly side-effect of hospital life, anyway! I'm still so angry I could scream. He just got so tired of fighting to stay alive that he died on May 31st, 2007.

Other pieces of 2007 were pretty exciting. Diana Vitalyevna, my namesake, was born on January 30, 2007, in Moscow (see picture above, at one year old). I was privileged to be the photographer for the Russian Orthodox wedding ceremony of her parents in July! Held at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in St. Petersburg, I was super-lucky enough to bypass the usual tourist barricades and take pictures of a glorious Russian church service in all its glory. WOW!!!

December brought the usual St. Thomas trip, always wonderful and exciting and beautiful. We did, however, decide that this year we will go to Florida for 6 weeks instead of Charlotte Amalie for 3, just to do something different. So we'd like to take a cruise to (where else?) St. Thomas!

What a Banner Year~!

WHAT a year this is shaping up to be! My dance card is almost all filled up, and I am just soooooooo excited! Examples: (1) I'm campaigning for Hillary in Vermont, March 4th! (2) My beautiful niece, Kelly, is getting married in March, and has honored me by asking me to be her photographer. (3) I'm hosting a (first time for me!) bridal shower for my wonderful friend Michael and his bride-to-be, Renata, in April. (4) Michael's wedding is May 10th, the same day as my precious great-nephew's birthday. (5) Larry & I are planning a trip with 2 other couples to Yellowstone Park on our motorcycles at the end of May! (6) Our usual July 4th ~ a fun-filled bike weekend with our friends Gail and Wayne. (7) Mid-July (this is just INCREDIBLE!!!!) we may be honored with a month-long visit from our little (!?!?) friend Keishelle, now a teenager, whom we knew as a little girl from St. Thomas. (8) I will be flying to Colorado to stay with friends and attend (hopefully) the Democratic Convention in Denver. (9) Maybe a late-autumn cruise, if we have any money left at all! and (10) Instead of St. Thomas this year, we are going to buy a motorcycle trailer, truck the bikes to Florida, meet up with Megan and Chris, then tour the wilds of this southernmost state on our bikes! Don't you wish you were me?

Hillarity

Sooooooo....... Tomorrow I go to campaign for the best presidential candidate of 2008, Hillary Clinton. It would be so fabulous to have a woman in the White House! My mother, a housewife in the 1950's, told me I could do ~ and BE ~ anything I wanted, that it didn't matter if I was "just" a girl. However, Mom lied to me, as I found out when I entered the workforce in 1970. New York Telephone was, like, "You can't do that, Diana; that's a man's job." And they [literally] laughed at me. When I went to the bank to request a loan, they asked me if I was planning to become pregnant in the near future. Picture them asking Hillary that, now?! HaHaHaHaHa. Morons. Anyway, I truly love the fact that we can now nominate a black man to run against a woman, with the full knowledge that either one of them will be our next president! I still feel that Hillary is the best qualified, with political experience and Bill Clinton to back her up. Keep your fingers crossed, everyone!!