The day after Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major political party finds me a bit groggy.  I didn’t sit down to watch last night’s convention coverage until 10:00 p.m. And by the time I’d sampled Katy Perry’s Fight Song and David Brooks’s fighting words (something to the effect that HRC would do better if she sounded less ambitious), it was nearly midnight before Hillary showed up on my screen. Though I was tempted to call it a night, I couldn’t turn in without seeing history in the making.

Until this campaign I was neither a Hilary fan nor a Hilary hater.  I knew she was smart and well-qualified for the job but her speaking style left me cold. I generally agreed with what she had to say but wished there was a little more poetry in her prose.  I didn’t think she was as duplicitous as her enemies claimed nor as angelic as last night’s white power suit might have suggested.

But I’ve spent a lot of time in recent years immersed in women’s history and I can’t help but be elated that a woman really could be the next president of the United States.  And not just a woman but this woman.  Her intelligence, her experience and her tenacity have won me over.  When she said that she was—“happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between.  Happy for boys and men, too—because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone”— it didn’t sound like political claptrap to me.  I’m happy that barrier has fallen.  I’m happy she’s still standing on the other side.  Happy to be “with her.”  And happy to be a woman in America—albeit a sleepy one.

Here are a few other history-making Hillary things I’m happy about.

Dominique Browning on Hillary.

Some historical precedent for Hillary’s white suit.

This video that salutes Hillary’s mother and other heroines.

Happy Weekend All!

Picking up from last Friday’s post—a mama racoon died unexpectedly right here beneath the floorboards of our home and her cubs went missing and that’s left me unsettled all week.

But there was also a happy circle-of-life surprise this week.  My niece Kristen gave birth to little Lila Sharon and all of a sudden I became a great-aunt to a baby girl.  And I thought about my own great-aunts and how delightful and mythic they were and when I closed my eyes and surveyed the world there was a bright pink dot of light out there that wasn’t there before and it made me very, very happy.

Then yesterday I found myself near Golden Gate Park late in the afternoon after a business meeting and decided to pop into the De Young Museum to see Vermeer’s “Girl with A Pearl Earring” rather than sit in commute traffic.  Alas, by the time I’d navigated my way to the museum it was almost closing time and they wouldn’t let me into the exhibit. So instead I headed across the concourse to the elegant Renzo Piano-designed California Academy of Sciences–which sponsors a rollicking Nightlife event every Thursday night–hoping to grab a bite to eat in its Slanted Door-outpost cafe.

Post chicken steamed bun, I slipped into the Morris Planetarium (geek alert) to hear two former astronauts talk about a space telescope they’re working on to track asteroids in order to keep them from destroying the earth. Goes to show you just never know what’s coming your way (unless you have a super cool space telescope).

Here are a few other unexpected delights from this week:

1.  This TED talk (like the one I heard last night) about the B612 Foundation’s plan to track asteroids.

2 . Canadian photographer Amy Friend’s light-pricked photographs.

3.  Bird prints folded into exquisite paper sculptures.

4.  A whimsical video by Wes Anderson for Prada Candy.

5. Maureen Dowd’s tribute to Annette Funicello, Lily Pulitzer and Maggie Thatcher.

6. Which is another good reminder to make hay while we can.  This Work Manifesto Print reminded me that “the world is your playground, not your prison.”

Happy Weekend!