I became a reluctant supporter of Obama only after Hillary threw her support behind him. But tonight, my reluctance melted away. I finally understand the enthusiasm of the Obama supporters. These words from Michelle changed my view:

“They’ll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming.”

John Mayer rocking at Merriweather

Thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Jenny from the Farm, I got my first taste of John Mayer last night at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland.

The night started with a traffic backup as I tried to get into the Merriweather parking lot. Next came the people backup as we tried to get to the gates. Jenny even got bumped by a distracted driver, literally hit by a car! It all happened when we were staring at the underage, drunk teenagers getting citations from an undercover police officer. The girls were bawling, just feet away from big jug bottles of rum and vodka. Boo hoo!

We finally got inside the gates and dashed to our seats, hoping to outrun the rain that started falling. Little did we know that the rain would follow us to our seats. Yes, for $70, you too can get dripped on at Merriweather! The center seating is covered by wood, but the wings are covered by industrial tent-like tarps. And apparently Merriweather owners haven’t done any maintenance. When the torrential downpour started, the hole above my head just started dumping rain on me and my seat. Luckily, there was no one in the seat to my right, so I sat there and covered my actual seat with a raincoat and umbrella.

The actual concert was great fun. I always pictured John Mayer as a mellow rocker, especially after my friend caught him in concert a few years ago opening for the Rolling Stones. She called him the most boring concert singer ever!

Well, John must’ve turned over a new leaf. He couldn’t stop rocking out. Literally, he kept running to the front of the stage just to show off his gleaming guitar and to do the usual lead-singer-with-guitar moves. And it helped that he was wearing a tank top, just to show off all his tattoos.

John Mayer even talks about it in his blog, saying he got the chance to fulfill his rock band dreams at Merriweather when he turned over the microphone to his backup singer/guitarist David Ryan Harris to sing the Van Halen oldie, but goodie “Panama.” John took his shirt off just for the song and proceeded to show off his underlying rock star persona.

Here’s a video of “Panama” from that night… just listen to the crowd roar when he takes off his shirt.

And thanks to John’s baggy, low-riding pants and slipping underwear, I got to see more than I bargained for… a little of John’s patootie crack during the song. I gotta say it made up for the $70 dripping wet seats.

Seriously, it was a fun concert and made me rethink my notions of him and his music. I couldn’t stop saying, “He dated Jessica Simpson?”

I gotta say I’m a fan now! Thanks Jenny for the introduction to him and his music!

Now, if I could just dress like Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte or Samantha… anyone want to treat me to some Manolos?

It is hilarious to see motorists come to a halt, just to let the geese pass by. Literally, traffic comes to a standstill for these geese, which most people consider a nuisance. But no one would ever consider hitting them with a car. Some motorists try blasting their horns to no avail. Geese just seem to be in their own world, living for the grass in the median strips of county roadways.

But I am still searching for love and the movie fed into that fantasy. Yes, I know it is just a movie. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are just characters as are their men. But there is still something to be said about romance, passion and friendship all found in that special someone who pledges to love you and be your partner in life. I want my own Mr. Big (plot spoiler warning: without leaving me at the aisle), Steve (plot spoiler warning: without the cheating) or Harry! But like the early Carrie Bradshaw, I’m still a single girl in the city, building my career and spending time with my friends. I hold out hope that my search for love will end much like Carrie’s in the movie… happily ever after.

Keswick offered one-on-one pours from one of the winery’s employees. We didn’t have to battle for attention or space at the tasting room. The employee knew his wines and the vineyards, giving us background on the owners and the site’s history. The vineyard also managed to keep its wines unique in flavor, focusing on quality rather than quantity. I purchased the Verdejo for its crisp, citrus flavor; the Trevillian for the smooth, berry finish; and the Norton wine, featuring a native Virginian grape in a deep red color and fresh taste.

And then there was Horton. My advice… stay away! We walked in, not to the sweet smell of wine, but to the owner’s cigarette smoke wafting from his ashtray next to the tasting room. While there was no charge for the wines, we quickly learned why… they all tasted the same. With 25 or so wines, nothing separated the first white from the second, third or even tenth wine. And the winery had absolutely no consistency in the labels. Every single one looked completely different, giving you no indication that the labels came from the same place. We kept tasting, hoping to find a gem in the mix, but the search yielded nothing that made us smile or want to buy. We walked out and didn’t look back.

We got to Barboursville Vineyards as soon as possible, hoping to remedy the bad experience at Horton. We found another gem, but while the wines tasted delicious, the crowds were a bit frustrating. The first employee, who poured the whites, kept asking us to step away from the bar so that others could walk up. This did not allow for any type of conversation or interaction with her. When we did try to engage her, she did not seem to be especially knowledgeable. In fact, she admitted that she really does not drink wine. Despite this, I must say that the Riesling was delicious, the right mix of citrus flavors and natural sweetness. The Phileo dessert wine was also a treat!

When we visited the second employee, who manned the red wines, she welcomed conversation and questions about the wines. She did not mind if we stayed by the bar, sipping and talking. Given that the winery’s winemaker and owner are Italian, I enjoyed the Barbera that she served and appreciated the Nebbiolo. Again, I walked out as the proud owner of three new wines for my collection. Barboursville helped end our day on a high note!

On Sunday, we visited Jefferson Vineyards, a nice winery nestled in the farmland near Jefferson’s home of Monticello. We had to wait for a spot at the bar, which took some time. Overall, the wines tasted nice, but nothing as distinct as our favorites at Keswick and Barboursville. We did not purchase any, but I would return and would happily purchase bottles at a wine store. A good end to the weekend…

To sum up:

1. My favorite – Keswick, for the overall experience and wine quality

2. Barboursville – great wines, but crowds and one inexperienced employee put this vineyard in second place

3. Jefferson – solid, overall pleasing wines

A very distant 4. Horton – if you like good wine, I advise you to skip this winery and spend more time at the other vineyards.

In the end, the weekend lived up to its promise… beautiful scenery, good friends and family, tasty food, and delicious wine! Cheers!

It’s almost as if my grad school classes kept my life at bay. I went out with friends and family during the semester, but I kept many of my week nights free for classwork. When the classes ended, the flood gates opened and I filled every night with something. It really didn’t matter what–dinner with friends, dinner with family, meetings or errands. I just had to get out and away from my laptop.

It has felt so good to have all this time on my hands and absolutely no homework. I feel as if I have finally caught up with friends. I even feel more productive at my day job because I am not stressing about homework assignments. These last few weeks have been–dare I say it–refreshing and fun!

But all good things come to an end. In my head, I have a countdown clock that is ticking its way toward Tuesday, May 20 – the start of summer classes. I’ve even gone so far as to tell my friends and family to get their quality time with me now. After May 20, I will go back to my couch, my laptop and my darkened house to do homework.

And when those days come, I will start two new countdown clocks… one that counts down to my vacation and another that counts down the end to my master’s degree program. Vacation = August 2008, Master’s degree = August 2009. I keep getting closer as each day passes.

Blogs, laptops, cell phone cameras and Blackberrys have all revolutionized journalism. I remember my first days as a tv reporter, dragging along a 3/4″ tape deck, a gear bag, a large 3/4″ video camera and tripod. It was slow and arduous. And then, we’d have to edit our video tape-to-tape. If you messed up, you had to just start all over! It was not user-friendly and it took a lot of money to buy the necessary equipment.

Today, I could go out with a consumer-quality video camera, edit on my Mac and post it on YouTube as fast as I could move my mouse. Cell phones shoot photos and video now that have been picked up by wire services and shared around the world… just think of the images of the train stations after the London bombing or the video during the Virginia Tech shootings. It puts people right in the middle of breaking news without waiting for the reporter to show up.

These advances in journalism have been invaluable. But I still think there will always be room for a reporter, who can get the source to talk, who receives training, who has the support of a newsroom and more. I do not want to see reporters and their publications or shows die away. I know viewership has decreased for tv news and readership has declined for newspapers, but we would be lost without our news. Citizen journalists cannot take their place and I hope they never will.

I think the traditional media and the new media can coexist. They should feed off of one another and support one another. I know I will continue to subscribe to the Sunday Washington Post. I will continue to receive the daily Post and New York Times online. But I will now be more apt to supplement my reading with blogs, alternative media and other sites.

Long live journalism in all its forms… I hope it is here to stay for a very long time!

But politics has always been a one-way conversation for me. The politicians shared their views. I listened, made my choice and voted. There was never a dialogue. The conversations came from within my family, in the form of arguments with my sister who keeps trying to prove her point until I cry “uncle” and agree to disagree. I have never written a candidate. I have never participated on a political campaign. I have been content to listen, make my choice and vote.

When reading “The First Campaign,” I kept thinking that Garrett (the author)  was right on target with his assessments about the changing face of politics and challenges facing our country and our future leaders. Yes, this nation needs to consider its domestic issues in the face of the globalization. Yes, people want to be more engaged in our government and its politics. And yes, politics is increasingly becoming a two-way conversation. Blogger Fusose Talks explains that it’s almost like politics is catching up with the at-the-time radical ideas of the “Cluetrain Manifesto”. Instead of “markets are conversations,” you can say in this current election that “politics are conversations.”

But what I want to know… why am I not participating? I’m still receiving the one-way conversations and I appear to be content with it. For a few classes, I’ve been asked to explore the online websites of candidates and dip my foot into the politics pool, but other than that, I am not a participant. Why? It’s a question I ask myself when I see my friends donate money to candidates, when my sister participates in a campaign, or a classmate volunteers to hand out stickers. Why do I still just sit back?

As I read “The First Campaign,” I wanted to say I have changed. I am part of the online two-way conversation. I am looking up candidates’ platforms online. I am blogging about my favorite. But I am not. I voted. I have argued my beliefs with friends, but that is where my politics have ended.

Maybe my “first [online] campaign” isn’t here yet. Maybe I’m still trying to find someone who inspired me to volunteer or maybe I’m not yet ready for the two-way conversation. I don’t know, but I am looking for the answers.

My former next door neighbor had her home on the market for ages and no one was biting. She learned about the St. Joseph secret and set about burying him in her yard. I had never heard of such a thing, maybe because I’m not Catholic. Or maybe because I had never had to sell a house before. Who knows?

All I do know is that she had to bury the little figurine a certain distance from the house and in a certain position for it to work. At first, I thought she was a little nuts. Come on, how could a little figurine make a difference?

All I know is that her home finally sold! I don’t know if it was the figurine, the homeowner’s own prayers, or the fact that she lowered her asking price. Regardless, the home that had been on the market for months finally sold.

So AZBrannocks… get thee to a shovel and put your Saint back in the ground. You’re not selling now, but if you ever choose to upgrade, you’ll want the luck of the Joe working for you! When I finally put my place up for sale, I’ll be rushing out to the nearest Catholic store for my own special Saint statue