Trip Like I Do

Today was a neat day.

First of all, both my boss and my co-worker were out of the office for half the day. I work so much better alone, it’s not funny.

Barack Obama arrived in Honolulu today too. He’s not here to campaign. He’s here to vacation and visit with his family. The only official event that was announced previously was a $2,300 a plate fundraiser. Ooof. I think I would have liked to have gone to that, but I just can’t afford to pay $2.300 for a dinner. Oh well.

Although an announcement went out Thursday afternoon that Obama was going to hold a small rally right after he got off of the plane on Friday. The announcement came out really late Thursday afternoon and was going to be held in a relatively small beach park near the airport. I kind of wanted to go to that, but I realized I would have needed to take half a day off from work, and I just didn’t want to do that. Oh well.

The authorities closed the gates to the parking lot a little after noon though, so I definitely would not have made it. All of the local TV stations decided to cover the event though, so I did get to see his speech from air conditioned comfort. Wheeeee!!!

I find political figures pretty interesting. I mean, the really well known ones are usually pretty eloquent and can really make you feel like they really will be an instrument for change. I found Obama’s speech to actually be quite motivating and to be honest, I was never really riled up about the man before. Mostly because I am just so sick of our Republican president and I just want a Democrat in the White House and any Democrat will be better than a Republican.

The really good politicians also know how to put on a really good game face where their public persona is imperceptible from their private one. Now that is what I find really interesting. It’s also something that I am trying to figure out, so I can use it in my own life. I mean is it a skill that it learned on the fly? Or are there coaches that work with these people?

I am curious about it, because it sometimes feels like a challenge to a blogger. Yea, like I am some kind of interesting blogger, but I can dream can’t I? Personally, I sometimes find it hard to draw the line between public and private and although I am truthful in what I write, I also wonder if I shouldn’t try to work on some kind of bad ass online persona, so I can keep myself private, yet remain public? Ow, brain hurt - just kidding.

It’s just that now that I find myself in situations where I am becoming a little more public in a small circle of players, I wonder how much I really should write, even though I started this as a sort of catharsis about what is going on in my life. I find myself slowly but surely keeping more and more to myself as I find that some people whom I don’t want reading this - are, and I am finding that I really have no idea who exactly stumbles across this little piece o’ me on the world wide web.

Any thoughts on this issue are greatly appreciated.

Anyways, part of my interesting day at work was that I asked my boss if she could tell OCD not to make business calls from home, since I just didn’t feel it was appropriate. OCD previously would call the printer that we used for a publication - from home. We found out yesterday that she called our computer people yesterday about an issue that she was not assigned to take care of or look into. Who knows who else she has been calling from home? My co-worker and I have have both told her she shouldn’t be making those types of calls from home, that she needs to make those calls from the office - especially since she doesn’t work for us anymore and she is such a lame-o volunteer.

My boss also decided to just toss out the stuff in the boxes that OCD left in the office. I went through them this afternoon and got it all ready for recycling and what I found was quite interesting. She had work in there that was from January 2007 that she never completed. She had all kinds of papers in there that should have been filed in our central files as well.

I also watched most the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing today. I was completely impressed and thought the Chinese did an amazing job with their ceremony. Most of the previous opening ceremonies I have seen on the television have been pretty boring, but this one was just amazing. It was like the Chinese were telling everyone that they are a Super Power and you better watch out. It was subtle, but pretty in your face. While I was watching, I also couldn’t help but wonder how much it cost to put on. They had tons of fireworks all over the city, they had this amazing LCD screen that must have been a quarter of a mile long. I am also really curious about how much energy they used for this opening.

Anyways, I headed to the gym while the Parade of Nations started so I could start my Olympic Challenge. I kicked some butt at the gym actually and I am wondering if I should up my challenge by another 50 miles. I actually went about 36 miles today. Can I get a woot woot? Well, until I decide I am going to try to keep a ticker going on my posts to show my progress.

Today was one of those days at the gym where I was glad that I got that Zen Stone Plus mp3 player too. Why you ask? Well, unlike the iPod shuffle, the Zen Stone Plus has a built in radio! Yay! I could listen to the Olympic commentary while I was working out! Yay!!!

Ooof. I am tired right now. I should have cleaned a bit tonight, but I am just too pooped. I think I am going to go to bed in a few minutes and just get up early tomorrow.