Beside

I'm sitting curled up with lots of pillows and Sprite in a wine glass with lemons. You could put old bottled water from under the seat in your car into a delicate wine glass and - bam - pretty enough for Pinterest!

C-SPAN is telling me about the future of the war in Afghanistan. I'm going to change the channel pretty soon, because politicians looking bored while commanders present their plans are about to make me cry, and Amy Winehouse already did that last night for no good reason.

I recently finished Laura Bush's Spoken From The Heart, and it resonated deeply within me. First Ladies have a certain elegance and slight celebrity from their spousal association, and I can't help but love them... (except for Hillary Clinton... partly because my mom disliked her and partly because I am wildly jealous of her career).  I think that Michelle Obama is charming and beautiful and stylish and oh-so-smart, no matter what her politics are. And Mrs. Bush has a special place in my heart, because her husband is my forever-president, despite his flaws. If I ever wake up from a coma with memory loss, I'll probably be in 2006, with ol' W still in the Oval Office. Anyway...

Laura Bush's memoir flows like a river. You can almost hear her speak the words in her slow, soft drawl as you read them, and I was moved by the motif of sight/blindness that she used as metaphors for many life experiences. I cried as I read about how her mother lost many unborn and newborn children and how she longed for siblings to play with. I smiled with nostalgia as she mentioned her college days and her small apartments. She was gracious toward political opponents of President Bush, although she never missed an opportunity to defend his biggest decisions, a sure sign of the hurt inflicted upon her as she witnessed the man she loved the most lampooned, mocked and misunderstood.

Most of all, she made me happy to be who I am. She affirms military families, wives, homemakers, mothers, daughters, and Texans. She gives hope to the reader, which is good, because she recounts 9/11 in such a personal and sharply sad way that I sat up in my in-laws bed one night with tears streaming down my face. It felt so fresh and painful still to hear it from her perspective.

She could have crumpled at such a time. Instead, she stood beside President Bush and threw herself into serving the nation. I won't spoil for you all her adventures in the Middle East and Africa, but I will say without exaggerating that her initiatives and personal visits to dignitaries have helped thousands of women who would surely have died without her intervention.

And now, I'm off to find the Bush Crawford ranch address, because I need to say a little thank-you to the writer who inspired me to keep going.