Happy first birthday Jasmyne Rose!!!!!!

My baby girl turns one today, she's got a stack of presents and I've been cooking all of yesterday (and shall be cooking again during her nap) for her big family party at my folk's house today. I will post lots of pictures.

9/12 March on Washington DC

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If you've been watching the news lately, you probably haven't heard about the 9/12 March. Well you might have... you know, the giant KKK rally? Where "thousands" of "conservatives" marched on the Capitol in Washington DC to like, oppress black people and kill puppies and whatnot. What actually happened, was over a million Americans marched on the Capitol in Washington DC to protest socialism, health-care reform, Obama, his 32 czars, Nancy Pelosi, the media, and foreign aid. Well, I was there and I got pictures to prove it.

Nothing could have been more fun than going to DC last week. I was at my parents house on Wednesday night, and we left on Thursday morning for a 7am flight, which Jazzie didn't much appreciate. We arrived at the airport at around 630am and realized that Jaz had peed through her entire outfit and onto my mom's shirt. I didn't even have an extra outfit in the carry-on bags, since she hasn't done that for months, so she went on the plane in just a shirt and her diaper cover. She didn't cry or whine or annoy anyone on the plane, she mostly slept and nursed and played quietly. We arrived at Reagan Airport in what is apparently Virginia at around 930am and jumped on the Metro to our hotel in downtown DC.

We got to the hotel and were told that our rooms wouldn't be ready until around 3pm. Jaz ate some oatmeal and some raisins and Cheerios at the airport, but she was a little grumpy because she usually eats a whole bunch of fruit for her meals (watermelon, blueberries, bananas, grapes, mangoes, avocado, papaya, etc). So we dropped off our luggage with the hotel folks and walked the 20 blocks over to Whole Foods. She slept the whole way over in her stroller, and when she woke up we already had her food ready and baby felt a lot better after eating her normal stuff for lunch. On the way back to the hotel, we took a cab because we didn't want to walk 20 blocks back with big grocery bags which was exciting for Jazzie.

We got tired of hanging out in the lobby, so I walked the stroller into Chinatown for no apparent reason. I learned that Newports were about ten bucks a pack in downtown DC, which is fucking sick, but I found a homeboy on the street selling Newport packs for $5. You can bet your ass I bought those. I got back to the hotel at 4pm (an hour after our room was supposed to be ready) and they told me it would be another 45 minutes. Hells to the no. I spit game until I got us different connecting rooms that were available immediately, and we went up to the 7th floor. Lucas showed up around 7pm and we went to eat at a nearby steakhouse but they had an "indefinite wait time" which was shit so we had to go to a sandwich shop instead. Jazzie had her food, but I can't eat at restaurants except for steak cooked in nothing and salad with no dressing (because of soy) so I didn't eat anything, figuring I'd figure out a way to have breakfast.

That night after Jazzie went to sleep, Lucas and I went out in DC. We had a great time, and we did finally get something to eat. :) DC is a real city, and we wanted to enjoy our time in it. The next morning (September 11) I ate breakfast meats cooked in butter at the hotel restaurant. Bacon, ham, eggs, and cheese on Whole Foods bread, basically plaque on a whole-wheat bun. It was delicious and filled with protein. We went to the Smithsonian Institute and looked at the animals, which Jazzie really enjoyed and pointed at a lot.

That night there were huge pre-Tea Party parties at the Hyatt, at our hotel, and in the streets. Lucas and I drank Long Island iced teas and talked to different people. We were compiling a list of all the different states that protesters were from, and the biggest group was from Florida (that we met) and then Ohio and Texas. Three of the necessary electoral states. :) :) The South in general was very well represented, but there were West Coasters and New Englanders as well. When I asked a Southerner what state they were from, they would scream it: "TEXAS!!" "ALABAMA!!" "TENNESSEE!!" "FLORIDA!!" but when you asked some of the others, they'd look down and whisper: "um, Massachusetts" "*cough* California *cough*" which I found pretty amusing. Another good night in the big city.

The next morning we were there for the march at 9am. Folks were gathering up at Freedom Plaza earlier, but Jazzie had to eat her breakfast first. There were so many people there, and they were all smiling and happy and talking to each other and us. The signs that folks were holding up were often funny and creative, and in that whole crowd I didn't see one single sign that used the words "black" "Negro" or "nigger." I also didn't see any black folks there protesting, except for the ACORN counter-protesters. I'm glad that the ACORN folks were there, because they were exercising their first amendment rights same as the rest of us. I think the black folks who were there, protesting against Obama, that shows some real courage on their part- awesome for them.

There was a helicopter overhead, so we started yelling at it "read the bill! read the bill!" but we were passing by a building with the first amendment written on the wall (ironically enough, the Museum of Journalism) so Lucas started chanting "read the wall! read the wall!" Of course, it's really easy to start a chant in a crowd like that so everyone quickly caught on. A woman with a loudspeaker was trying to read the text of the first amendment but signs were in the way, so I ran over to her and showed her my smaller sign which had it written. I think we accomplished a lot at that march.

Here are some signs that I saw there that I didn't get any pictures of for one reason or another:
"I got tired of yelling at my TV so I came here"
"We are exercising our first amendment rights, but if that fails, there's always the second amendment."
"Bury Obamacare with Kennedy"
"Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than all of my guns"
"THIS time we came unarmed!"
"Okay, I'm here, now where's my check?"
"Where will Canadians go for their healthcare?"
(held by a man in an Obama mask) "It's not my fault, it was the previous administration"



Oh, and we actually cleaned up after ourselves too. :)