Obama is in Seattle!

But unfortunately I can't go see him. Damn! I'm still on a 24-hour "anesthesia watch" which includes stuff like constant supervision (though I defied that and sent Tom to work) no driving, and no physical exertion. (Does holding a sign and chanting "Yes We Can!" fall under physical exertion?) I guess I'll just have to watch him on TV, maybe holding my yukky, red, swollen eye open!

Fortunately, my politically passionate and astute son ditched school this morning with a few friends to head into the city and see Obama -- but I have a feeling he's one of the throngs of people who were turned away once Key Arena filled up.

As I watch the excitement America's youth has for this year's election, I am SO heartened (especially in light of what I posted a while back about "18 in '08"). But I'm also really worried that all the youth passion and involvement won't translate into votes at the polls. I agree with Richard Dreyfuss' assessment (see video in link above) that youth expect instant gratification and they expect to express themselves on their computers. The idea of driving to a polling place and actually voting is something that I think really needs to be emphasized. I think we have to "warn" them that, while it's great to be inspired by a candidate and to make awesome videos about them, the critical piece of the youth vote is that, well...that YOUTH MUST ACTUALLY VOTE! My four 18 to 23-year-old "kids" are all excited about this 2008 campaign, but I had to practically force them to actually register to vote -- and that was even an online thing!

Tomorrow the Washington State caucuses will be held and you better believe that our entire family of six voters will be there!

OK, actually five of us; Elisabeth is back in the States from Germany, but had to fly directly to Atlanta for a work conference. She said that it was really hard to leave Germany, that she sooo loves it there, and it was especially hard jumping right back into her "hot-shot" career when she'd rather be traveling the world -- as all 23-year-olds should!

I feel a very positive "crisis" coming on for her. As I told her, we should all be so lucky that the world is our oyster. How often can we decide to be anywhere we want and to do anything we want? I implored her to to just revel in this time -- though I know that's easier for a 51-year-old to say than for a 23-year-old -- especially one who likes everything planned and organized -- to do!

And that's all I can write without needing to rest my eye...