Thursday, July 24, 2014

Being Sick When Obama Comes to Town



While I lay on my bed most of the day yesterday, Sophie went off to her first day of Communicamp, Henry and Oliver went up in a World War II plane over Atlanta with my parents, and Obama came to town, grid-locking my neighborhood so that he could have dinner at Shonda's house. I'm not one of those folks who gripes and complains about the security apparatus that surrounds the president, figuring I'm just as complicit as the next American to have participated in this crazy system. I'm sort of grossed out by the money-making machine element of it all and feel sickened when I begin to think that it's all going to start again -- the right-wing crazies crying that we want our country back, the big Hollywood stars opening their mansions to the big donors, all the schmoozing, all the bullshit. But the traffic? The inconvenience of it? I admit it'd be nice if Obama didn't have to travel around in a line of enormous tinted windowed SUVs with the LAPD in full regalia, but what are you going to do? Then again, I wasn't in a car, inching down our little street, but rather sitting on the stoop, blowing my nose, still in my pajamas at 4 in the afternoon. I have a horrible cold, so horrible that I'm verging on a man cold, to tell you the truth, and need some sympathy.

14 comments:

  1. Oh, how I wish I could make you some chicken soup! Well, I could make it but it wouldn't get to you in a timely fashion.
    Man colds are the worst!
    Get well soon and please take care of yourself. Be gentle and kind to yourself, stay out of traffic. Drink lots of fluids.
    Looks like Henry's having fun, at any rate.

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  2. I have a cold too, and I'm a huge bitch about it. And we are channeling each other, because while I myself laid in my bed or the couch all day on Tuesday, Obama's helicopter went over my house SEVEN TIMES. And that was while I was awake, and not napping. I live a few blocks from the white house, but this was excessive. I guess this week, he's a man on the move.

    I just had veggie soup, and order you to do the same :)

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  3. It probably wasn't Obama, since he travels in a group of about 7 helicopters. There was some kind of testing going on, I think. I work 8 blocks from the Capitol, and there are times when traffic just stops because some big wig needs the whole damn road. And it's not just the Prez -- it's all of his cabinet types too. Sigh. But I don't regret living here. I used to live in LA, and nothing ever gave me the same thrill as seeing the Capitol every morning on my way to work.

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  4. Here is some big sympathy for you. When I'm sick, I just want people to say, "Oh poor baby!" and mean it. Then leave me alone to whimper. So I just want to say, very sincerely, "Poor baby!" Let's sit together on the door step and I'll hold the box of kleenex for you and fetch you your slippers (I'm beginning to sound like a Golden Retrieve). Just saying you have my sympathy and may you recover quickly.

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  5. I'm so sorry you aren't feeling well! Is it better to have the house to yourself when you feel that way or would it be better if O and H were there to baby you? Would they baby you? I'm not sure if my girls would, but I think I'd rather have someone there to listen to me whine if I felt that badly, just so they could sympathize a bit.

    Obama was here on Tuesday and while I didn't experience any of the traffic or craziness, the ritzy neighborhood where he held his dinner fundraiser said they would NOT pay for the extra police needed for his visit, that they were going to send the bill directly to the guy who hosted him instead of asking the taxpayers to foot the bill. I laughed out loud when they said that. I still don't understand why, in this day and age, we can't acknowledge the massive carbon footprint and waste of having the President fly all over the country for fundraisers. We wouldn't need so much freaking money if he just Skyped in and we wouldn't be ruining the planet so quickly.

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  6. oh hon, you have my sympathy, but i have to tell you i kind of want to cheer at the idea of you at 4 in the afternoon still in your pjs sitting on your stoop!

    great pic of henry and your mom?

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  7. Sympathy. Hope you feel better soon.

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  8. I'm sorry you are sick! Get lots of rest. Watch stupid TV or read brainless novels. Keep those pajamas on. After Columbine, Bill Clinton visited a school in my neighborhood. I saw him through the window of his car. Hooray?

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  9. OMG! A man cold is so much worse.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ

    Feel better soon.

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  10. Thanks, Lily Cedar! The words man cold in my post are actually linked to that much-loved video!

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  11. Oh, dear. Man colds are the worst. I am in Nebraska--but I send you love all the way from here.

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  12. Oh no! I hope you feel better and the man cold does not materialize.

    One does wonder whether it's really safer for the president to travel amid such an obvious display of security. Wouldn't it be safer to be incognito in a dark SUV, indistinguishable from all the other wealthy-ish people in the world?

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  13. Sending you some healing thoughts and lots of TLC.

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