Boomer in Baja

The Big Dog

2009-08-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

This has been such a great couple of days, not only for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, and their families, but also for everyone like me, whose heart gave a little leap when Bill Clinton appeared on the world stage for the first time in a long time.

Remember the Clinton years? Eight years of peace and prosperity? More kids went to college, more police on the streets = safer streets, more poor people moving up into the middle class, the middle class strengthened ... oh yeah, and the rich seemed to be pretty happy at how much richer they got despite their tax rates!

In my small way I was part of the Clinton agenda, working close to both Bill and Hillary, from a fabulous East Wing office. I am so proud of all we accomplished, and seeing President Clinton on the North Korea trip brought it all back in a flash. How wonderful to see him greeted like a head of state, even if it was a rogue state. How interesting to see him sitting properly, but stiffly, next to the crackpot Kim Jong Il. No smiles or happy handshake there! Just do what you gotta do and get out. The minimum dipolmatic courtesy, as was appropriate.

Then to see him with Vice President Gore was even further delight. I LOVE those two men, respect their dedication to strengthening their country and making people's lives better. Al Gore was the best Vice President of my lifetime. Now he's the best former VP of my lifetime.

The desperate Republican attacks on this effective diplomacy are pathetic. John Bolton? Give me a break! The worst person we've ever sent to the UN. The best, perfect response to his criticisms came from Hillary Clinton herself, when Fareed Zakaria, interviewing her, got only as far as "John Bolton ..." when Hillary burst into helpless laughter. Just the right touch, as the ridiculous attacks by rightwingnuts ARE truly laughable.

Remember the 2008 campaign, when the Right tried to frighten us all by threatening that if we elected Hillary, we'd get Bill? Well, some of us thought that would be just fine, thank you very much, and now we can see it happening, just this once, and it's FABULOUS.

Hooray for the Big Dog!

Ladies at Lunch

2009-07-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late posting today, because I had lunch in Rosarito with the amazing Dr. Marlene Siersema, host of the #1 Positive Talk Radio internet show. She interviewed me a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time. MORE fun to meet in person.

You can find her at: http://www.drmarlenebbs.com/radio.htm

Some friends and I enjoyed a break from our normal days of sitting around, working on our laptops while staring at the ocean and observing the hummingbirds. I know, it's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it!

There's something wonderful that happens when women of a certain age get together and just want to have fun. Maybe it happens with younger women too; I just don't know 'cause that's not my age group. We laugh, we may cry, we understand each other's joys and challenges, and, maybe most important, we don't have to prove anything to anyone. We know who we are, we LIKE who we are, and that sets us free. I wish these friendships for everyone!

Now, what did we talk about? My book, "Clintonista, a White House Memoir". We're going to re-issue the book with a new title, "White House Story, a Democratic Memoir." Did some market testing and discovered too many people don't "get" Clintonista - a title I love. When they hear the White House insider stories, they love them, but it's getting the eyes onto the book that we're working on.

Talked about Dr. Marlene's astonishing weight loss: 170 lbs, the HARD way, no by-pass. Find her book on her site.

Talked about my friend Anna Love's Clinic Estetica in Tijuana, and her FABULOUS skin care products and procedures. She looks 30 years younger than her actual age. No kidding! Find this at: http://clinicestetica.com/

Talked about my friend Lynn Doiron, who has almost finished "The True Story of Irene in White Tights," her novel, and is a brilliant poet too. Just being able to say I have a friend who's a brilliant poet makes me sound more interesting, doesn't it? Lynn did just what I did - came to Baja for a "visit" and decided to stay, almost a year ago. I'm very glad she's here.

My friends enrich my life, and I love them!

Beauty and Persistance

2009-07-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

I was going to write another serious, probably political post today. Hey, it's where my heart is!

But my thoughts were stopped, and my heart captured by the photos from Rome of the American swimmer whose body suit split up the back when he stretched before entering the pool. You know how it is. The news is going by, and you're not really paying attention, just sorta, and then you catch a glimpse of something, your head snaps up and you reach for the remote to pause and rewind.

That's just what I did, and I'm so glad.

Did you see the pictures? OMG! The cutest guy, with a true athlete's body - and bum! He must have heard and felt the suit split, but he didn't hesitate to dive in and swim the race, doing well enough to qualify the US team for the final. I'm sure there's some really important lesson in that, about overcoming circumstances, etc., but the truth is, I just enjoyed the photos for his beauty. Now, the American news shows stupidly blurred out most of his fanny, because of our lunatic puritanism. You know us! Make a movie with the most degenerate, evil kinds of violence and it will be a huge blockbuster with the US audience. (See: Gibson, Mel) But a real man, with a real ass? Well, we are just so darn uncomfortable with this!

But I couldn't help imagining the reaction of the Italians. You know they must have gone crazy! This handsome young man, with dark curly hair that made him look like a Roman, and his amazing body ... They'll love him forever for providing such a great show.

If YOU'd like to see what I'm talking about, here's a link to a British paper that wasn't quite as squeamish as our American publications: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/swimming/5927580/Swimmer-cracks-under-pressure-as-bathing-suit-splits-at-world-championships.html.

Enjoy!

And as for a lesson, just think about the drag on him when water entered the suit, but he kept on swimming - and won. THAT'S a champion!

For a daily tweet of White House history find me on Twitter at: WhiteHouseInsdr

Health Care Reform NOW!

2009-07-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

A friend wrote to me that the new health care plan would cost $15,000 per person, and bankrupt the country.

I don't know where she got that figure, but I'll go out on a limb here and guess ... Fox! So, we know that equals zero credibility.

Let's just keep going back to the barest facts: we currently pay $5,000+ per person for average to poor outcomes, and we have 45 million uninsured. Finland and France pay $2,000+ per person for BETTER outcomes, and cover everyone. Why do you think we'd have to pay so much more?

Did you see the President's town hall meeting. today with AARP?

Some of the questions asked reflected the lies the right has been spinning to frighten seniors. No other way to say this. One old lady said she'd heard the new law would require every person to meet with a government bureaucrat who'd get to decide her end of life care. Would he please promise her that's not in the bill?

duh.

President said: 1) there aren't enough government bureaucrats to meet with every person to discuss health care, so, how could that happen? and 2) there's a very helpful provision in one version of the bill that will HELP people decide on their end-stage care by adding a payment for their discussion with a hospice, or helping them write a living will, so they get MORE control over what they want at the end.

The President wants a public option to run next to the private one. People who have and like their insurance can keep it! But insurance companies would be prohibited from cherry picking only the young and healthy, as they do now. That means that insurance companies, in order to compete with the public plan, will have to deliver less costly options for more people. That's a good thing.

It was Republicans in the majority on the Hill and colluding with President Bush who insisted the last Medicare bill include a provision PROHIBITING the government from bargaining with big pharma for lower costs on medicines. PROHIBITED. How much do you think THAT has cost us over the years since? What do you think the savings will be when the largest buyer of drugs in the world sits down at the bargaining table?

(And, as a political and ethical aside, how can anyone think that's defensible? Humongous give-aways at taxpayer expense to humongous companies run by cronies of the GOP leadership, but NOTHING for the poor and powerless. I am proud to be a Democrat.)

Doing nothing is not an option. If we do nothing, in 10 years the average family of 4 will have to pay $36,00 per year for health insurance. So, people will join the ranks of the uninsured by the millions. Then people WITH insurance will have their costs go up even more to cover all this, and so on and so on.

Why can't we take France, for example, as a model, and pay doctors for keeping people healthy? Why not begin with a universal basic level of care like well-baby visits, vaccinations, regular check ups, pap smears, mammograms, blood tests every year or so, etc.? There are millions of people who don't have access to these whose quality of life would go way up if they did. Not to mention the huge cost savings for spending a relatively small amount to keep people healthy, vs very large amounts to rescue them once they've become dangerously ill. And, let's be clear, we're ALL paying for these late treatments.

How about teeth cleaning once or twice a year? Dental problems can lead to all kinds of serious disease. Keep the mouth healthy and avoid a lot of costly problems down the road.

If we were to start incrementally, that would be the way. Create healthy-kids programs to prevent obesity and diabetes.

We're delusional if we think there won't be rationing. We're delusional if we think there's not rationing NOW. The ads from the right are designed to frighten us with warnings about government bureaucrats deciding what health care we'll get. This always makes me scream at the TV. How out of touch are these people that they don't know 1) everyone who has insurance already knows what it's like to have an insurance company bureaucrat - not a doctor - get to decide what care they have, and 2) for people (like me) without any insurance, we're not all that troubled by the thought of a government bureaucrat. We may have family on Medicare or in the Veterans' system, and those are government provided and run health care that people just love. So, spare me the cant about "socialized medicine."

So, yes, let's get moving on this health insurance reform NOW, and not let the right sabotage it the way they did in 1993. In 2008 the American people voted for CHANGE, and now it's time for the DEMOCRATS on the Hill to embrace this, even though their district may be kinda, sorta conservative, and get on the freakin' bus!

2009-07-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

According to a reknowned Princeton economist, if we do nothing to our current health care system, in 10 years the average, non-aged family of 4 will be paying $36,000 per year for health insurance.

Everybody here who thinks that's just swell raise your hand! Anybody?

Anybody think your pay will go up enough to make that affordable? Anybody?

So, when the President tells us the current system is unsustainable, and we have NO CHOICE but to fix it NOW, just what part of that do we not get?

One of my clearest White House memories is of hearing President Clinton talk about change. How scary it is for many people (see: "birthers"). But also, what are the choices? You can dig in your heels, hold your breath, close your eyes and shout "I don't want change, I don't want change, I don't want change!" but guess what? Change still gonna come.

That being so, the ONLY other choice is to look change in the eye, give it a big ol' embrace, and figure out how to make the change work for us. THAT'S where power and prosperity lie.

Republicans remind me of two-year-olds, stamping their feet because it's someone else's birthday and they don't get all the toys. If their tantrum spoils the day for everyone else, well, does a two-year-old care? Actually, that's what the two-year-old WANTS, isn't it?

Are we really gonna let them run our discourse and progress on this? Come on!

Our Fabulous Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton

2009-07-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

What a treat it was to see Hillary on Meet the Press this morning! The little snips of news we usually see of her in this capital, with that head of state, don't capture her personality and brilliance the way a real conversation does. Watching her brought back such strong memories of what it was like to work for her at the White House. I hope everyone saw her mastery of every topic they covered, and the flashes of spontaneous humor she brings to the table. She's THE most incredible woman. You'd want to have her for a friend. I'm proud that she's been mine.

She's a FABULOUS Secretary of State, with a great team around her. I loved what she said about there being no in-fighting in the Obama cabinet between State, Defense, the NSC, etc. the way there was under George II. I believe the world is already safer because of her part in our diplomacy. The last Secretary of State was a Soviet expert. In this century! Didn't work out that well for us, now did it?

And then there was the extra bonus of knowing her enthusiastic support of the President allows NO daylight between them, thus thwarting, yet again, the ridiculous Fox rumor-mongering about some supposed rift between them. Ha!

The only sad note was my regret that she's not President, as she shoulda been. It's taken me practically this whole year to get over it! But it's just like her to keep working tirelessly, in whatever capacity she can, for her country. Go Hillary!

The Wise Latina and the Munchkins on the Hill

2009-07-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am so enjoying the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings with Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Mainly because it appears that the Republican Senators, the right-wing bloviators and even the MSM have all lost their minds.

They all have bought in to the bizarre, and intellectually dishonest idea that white male values and culture are the standard, the invisible norm against which all other genders, values and cultures are measured. So, a Puerto Rican, or African American, or Asian person, of either gender, and a woman of ANY background are all suspect until and unless they can prove their fidelity to the "norm". WTF?

If we want a quick and easy example of how nuts that is, we only have to think about the Supreme Court over the last 200+ years before women and minorities were allowed in. Does any thinking person believe we wouldn't have had better decisions (wiser decisions) if the court had not been so relentlessly lily-white and male? Come on! Although I guess I need to acknowledge here that Justice Thomas is maybe the worst thing to ever happen to the Supremes in its long history. Oh well. There's always an exception to the rule! Still, there are hundreds of African American men and women who could have broken that color bar with some intellectual distinction. Just not him.

But that truth about white male culture is the (white) elephant in the room that everyone tiptoes around. So we get to see Judge Sotomayor, who said a perfectly reasonable thing about the judgment of a wise Latina woman, backing away from her observation as hard and fast as she can. I'm sure her White House briefers schooled her well (that's their job, and HER job is to get the vote). But it always seems sad to me when people can't express the obvious truth, because it's politically dangerous to do so. What a culture of weenies we have become!

I'm hopeful, however, that new Senator Al Franken may change this part of Hill/media culture, as he seems to be in the habit of plain speech and pointing out the obvious. He showed us a little of that today, and it was really refreshing! I just hope he doesn't get corrupted by THAT culture into mealy-mouthed platitudes and Hill-speak.

When I was at the White House we used to watch with great amusement when new Members of Congress came to Washington. They almost all started out as normal human beings, with a sense of the noble purpose public service can be. But it takes shockingly little time for the culture to corrupt them. "Oh, Senator, you're SO smart!" "Oh, Congresswoman, you're the most gifted public servant we've ever worked with!" Pretty soon they start to believe it, and it's all downhill from there. As my former boss said, "Next thing you know we'll be asked to provide them with bearers to lift them up so their dainty feet don't have to touch the nasty ground ..." And that's not much of an exaggeration.

I look forward to Thursday's hearing!

Spring Arrives in Baja

2008-03-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this from outside the San Diego/Baja Norte area you probably have in your mind that all of Baja is tropical - like Cabo, at the southernmost tip. But Cabo is 1,200 miles away from where we live, right up 30 miles from the US border. So, while I thought when I came here (two years ago) that I'd be missing seasons, that turns out to be wrong. We just had "winter" here, which was chilly (40s-50s). OK, I know that those of you from places where it gets REALLY cold are laughing yourselves silly at the thought of winter temps in that range, but for here, it's COLD. We had to bundle up to walk the dog, we had to put away our sandals and get out our sweaters, we had to light the (beautiful) fire some nights, and the bathroom floor was too cold to walk barefoot. The garden continued to bloom some, but most plants just slowed down. And it was rainy - very rainy this year. Big storms with lots of wild rain and wind in the night. I was very happy to be in our snug, cement villa. It started in December, lasted through January and February. Just when I was starting to think that I was getting pretty tired of "cold" - it ended.

Yes, just like that, on the first of March, Spring arrived in Baja Norte! The temperatures shifted to the high 60s. The sun shone more brightly and warmly. We suddenly seemed to have more hours of sunlight - now with US daylight savings time, it's light until 7pm! (We shift to US time because we like TV and all the programs we like are on the US schedule. Our families back home are all on US time. Mexico shifts an hour forward in April. So, it's pretty confusing here for a month in the spring and fall.) The garden has started to look lively. Flowers are still in bud, but they're getting ready to pop open with color. Birds have appeared from somewhere, with sweet and happy songs I don't remember from last year. They're hard to see - not colorful here, as I expected. Even the hummingbirds are a dull color. Did you know they don't "sing"? They make a little clicking sound that confused me at first, until I got close one day to make sure that sound was coming from that bird.

We see whales and dolphins almost every day. These whales are the last ones heading south to calve. The dolphins are following the fish, so they're always around, traveling north, traveling south, wherever the fish go. Sometimes the whales and dolphins get together to actually herd the schools of fish. You can see them, the whales moving slowly on the outside, the dolphins racing fast on their side, guiding the fish into smaller and smaller spaces, until they take turns going in to feed. The seagulls and pelicans wheel above, shreiking and dive in, with an almost soundless "plop". It's amazing.

We don't have the time to take the trip south to see the calving, but we've heard that in April we can drive about two hours south to a protected cove where the mothers bring their babies to shelter on the loooong trip north to Alaska. I REALLY want to see that! Sometimes, late at night, when I walk the dog along the cliff edge in the chilly dark, I look out at the vast Pacific shimmering quietly to the distant horizon, and imagine the huge whales out there, swimming through the night. Do they sleep, I wonder? Close their eyes? Make those lonely whale-sounds to each other as they travel? I know they're not cold, but the thought still makes me shiver.

Last night I slept with the door cracked open for a little air for the first time in months. It was deliciously cool and scented with ocean. Now I'm sitting in a short-sleeved shirt, no sweater, and sandals. OK, I'm a little cool, maybe rushing it a bit, but I have welcomed Spring whole heartedly, and I'm not going back!

2008-02-15T21:27:00.000-08:00

Well a happy Valentine's Day to all. Hope yours was fun and romantic. Mine was, well, typical for us. I did all the planning, and thought I did a pretty good job of it. I bought us tickets to the Cirque de Soleil production, Corteo up in San Diego. That would be the most fun thing we've done in over a year - but only if we could actually GET there to see it.

Getting Steve out the door is like getting a four-year-old - no make that four-year-old TWINS out the door. "Steve, are you taking your shower?" "Steve, are you dressed yet?" "Steve, it's almost time to go, have you walked the dog yet?" "Yeah, yeah, I'm gettin' there!" So, although I hoped to leave the house at noon, it was actually 12:45 when we walked out the door. We took the new Baja 2000 road to Otay Mesa, and saw the shortest line ever - we thought it would take only 20 minutes to cross (since I freakin' CANNOT GET a SENTRI pass from my government...) but our lane was sloooower than slow, so it took 45 minutes. We crossed about 2:15 and were supposed to be at the Del Mar fairgrounds at 3:00 for a 4:00 performance. There shoulda been plenty of time. OK, well, there shoulda been ENOUGH time.

So I said, I bet traffic will be bad as we get further north, so let's just head there directly. We can get a hot dog at the show. I mean, that was the smart thing to do. We were headed that way when I had to call our friend about meeting for dinner. When I got on the phone and was distracted for just the teeniest little minute, next thing I knew we had left the freeway, headed for a mall. 'Hey! Where are you going?" "We're gonna stop and get a bite." "No, we don't have time for that." "Sure we do, it will just take a minute." In Steve's world, which runs on Steve time, there is ALWAYS enough time to do everything you can think of, no matter what. That this bears no relation to reality does not bother him much. Bothers me plenty. I wish I had been driving.

We stopped at Taco Bell (because we apparently don't get enough Mexican food in Mexico), which was bad enough, but then he got the food to eat THERE. "Hey! We don't have time for this, don't you get it?" "Sure we do, it will just take a minute." Well, it took from 3:00 to 3:25. Now I'm totally pissed off, we get in the car and head north again. Shockingly (WHO could have predicted this, I wonder?) now there's a lot of traffic, 'cause it's rush hour on VALENTINE'S DAY and everyone left work early to get home to their sweetie. Again, WHO could have predicted that? Well, me for one.

Now I'm getting really anxious that we're gonna be late for the show, when Steve says, "Oh, shit, we're running out of gas! Just hit reserve! Unbelievable!" Sure enough, the reserve light is on, and damn if it isn't MY fault he didn't notice we're running out of gas. I'm exasperated, but I say, "I think the reserve tank will take us at least 30 miles. Let's just keep going north, we know there's a gas station up at our exit and we'll be close to the show." "NO! I don't trust this gas gauge. I'm getting off at the next exit, we'll get gas and only lose a few minutes." Now it's so late we don't HAVE a few minutes, but there's nothing I can do, I'm just along for the ride. I'm upset, but I'm trying really hard to keep quiet about it. You'd think Steve, WHOSE FAULT THIS ALL IS, would be grateful, at least just a little, but you'd be wrong. He's now screaming at me about how this is all MY fault for not getting him out the door earlier, so we'd have lots of time for screw-ups like this and why can't I learn how to deal with his time problems!!" We're driving around like morons because apparently we took the ONLY exit from the freeway that does not have a gas station anywhere around. We drive and drive in circles. Time passes. 3:45. 3:50. 3:55... now it's 4:00 and the show is starting and we're still looking for gas.

God knows he'd never ask, so I roll down my window and imploringly ask a woman in another car for help finding a station. "That way" she points. "Follow me!" Bless her forever. We would NEVER have found that station, we would have run out of gas at the side of the freakin' road and I would have committed murder. Did I mention it was raining? And cold. Really, really cold for San Diego.

We get gas, I walk the poor dog, who is traumatized by having to listen to Steve screaming and cursing and carrying on like a lunatic. He's a beast. (Steve, that is.)

We arrive at the show 20 minutes late. Steve snarls, "I'm dropping you off - I'm staying in the car with the dog!" I guess this was supposed to be a punishment to me? "FINE!" I say. "Fine. Just get me to the door and get lost."

So I missed the first 30 minutes of a 2-hour show. Sat happily in my 5th-row seat enjoying the show just fine by myself. After a while Steve came and sat next to me, looking sheepish, but not enough to suit me. He grins at me, takes my hand, which I try to pull away, kisses my hand repeatedly, whispers how sorry he is, what a jerk he is, how sorry he is, he's a moron.... I shrug and turn my attention back to the amazing show. LOVE any Cirque production. The flyers - they're the best part. How I'd love to fly. Makes me reconsider all my career choices....

During intermission Steve buys me pink champagne, kisses my hand some more, apologizes some more. He tells me he sat outside and watched all the other couples that arrived late - they walked separately, one of them looking totally pissed off. Just like us! What can I do, I'm kinda stuck with him and stuck ON him. We enjoy the rest of the show, and have a really nice Chinese dinner after, then make our way back to Mexico, too tired to do the horizonal tango, but happy to have seen the show.

This time last year I was flat on my back in a hospital bed recovering from a broken back. So I'm very grateful to be strong and mobile again. That could have ended very badly for me, but it didn't. Every Valentine's Day we've been together before that we went dancing. I miss dancing very much. There's not much of that where we are. I guess if we want it we'll have to set it up ourselves, but we're too busy writing our books just now.

This has been the story of Melinda and Steve's 2008 Valentine's Day - hope yours was a lot less dramatic!

Who I am

2007-10-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

My parents were very interesting people. My dad's family, the Ridders and Naumanns, came to America in the 1840s, supposedly to escape being executed by the Kaiser for rebellious activities. My mom's family came from Spain to Puerto Rico, where her great grandfather was a naval captain in Ponce during the Spanish-American war. At the end of the war he had to decide whether to go home to Spain or stay and be an American. He chose America and named his first daughter America Anna. My mother's mother died in childbirth when mom was only 3 years old. She and her brothers were shipped off to New York to be raised by three maiden aunts.

Dad was a founder of the NY Ski Club, and mom, a barely 5'tall Puerto Rican, for reasons she never explained to us, joined the ski club. They met, fell in love, and married, then moved to Washington DC for his work.

My sister, brother and I were all born and raised in Washington. It was a great city in the 1950s and '60s. My parents were staunch Republicans, but were very opposed to the Democrats on the Hill who refused to allow Washingtonians to have home rule. They thought this was very wrong, and they resented not being able to vote!

I'm the product of wonderful Catholic schools, although I'm not a Catholic any more. I attended Blessed Sacrament Parochial School, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, and Georgetown University, class of 1968. My most famous classmate is Bill Clinton, who I met the first week of freshman year. This tall, skinny kid with the whiteboy Afro, stuck out his hand and said, "Hi! I'm Bill Clinton and I'm running for freshman class president!" We've been friends ever since.

After school I married a very nice man I'm now divorced from - we are great friends and parents, just not very good mates. We had two wonderful sons. One lives near his dad in VA, and one is traveling the world, currently in Ipanema Beach.

AFter being home with the kids for a while, I joined the staff of the National Gallery of Art, as an exhibition supervisor. This was a great job! I learned to love working with the public, especially when the public is behaving badly. Any moron can behave badly back, but it's a kind of game to return kindness and helpfulness to rudeness and aggression. My first day on the job, at the opening of Treasure Houses of Britain, the charming Prince and exquisite Princess of Wales walked up to me and began a conversation about tourism in Britain - as if my opinion mattered. It was a wonderful experience, and I knew I was gonna LOVE that job. I stayed at the Gallery from 1985-'87, leaving only because there was no large, special exhibition scheduled for several years, so I had nothing to do.

In 1992, my friend Bill, now Governor of Arkansas, announced he was running for president - an announcement all his friends had been expecting for 24 years. I worked hard as a volunteer in the campaign in Washington, and never imagined there would be a job for me if he won - but there was. The day after the 1993 inauguration I was called to the White House to head up the Visitors Office - more about that later. I'm the first and only person in history to hold that job for all eight years of an administration, and that was in the Clinton years, when the First Family actually WANTED the public to visit. We found a way to accommodate 1.5 million visitors a year - a great record. For eight years I was the White House "Egg Lady", coordinating the annual Easter Egg Roll, an event for 30,000 people on the South Lawn, the day after Easter. I worked on State Visits, Arrival Ceremonies for heads of state, Balls, receptions, and every other kind of event the White House hosts. It was not unusual to walk out of my office, across the House, and to the Oval Office for a few moments with the President. These were amazing times, and now I'm writing a book about it all.

In 2005 I happened to see a CBS television program about Baja California, Mexico. They interviewed lots of happy Americans who seemed to love living on the beach. They talked about how affordable it is. It's only 45 minutes from downtown San Diego, a great city. Two weeks later we were here, just "looking". But, to my own surprise, I bought a little house on the beach, went home, quite my job, put my house on the market and planned my move to Mexico.

I will write the blog about all these experiences, and hope you find it interesting. If you have questions about the move, or about living in Mexico, please post it, and I'll be happy to answer.

2007-10-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to Boomer in Baja, the blog of Melinda Bates, transplanted East Coast girl now living in Baja California Norte, Mexico.

I'm a proud part of the first year of Baby Boomers, born in 1946. All my life, for reasons I don't completely understand, I have found myself on the leading edge of things. Deciding, for my own purposes, to do something, pursue something that interests me, and finding shortly after, that millions of people coming up behind me are interested in exactly the same things. So, when I quit my job, and sold my home of 30 years to move to a little house on the beach in Baja, I figured there will be a lot of my contemporaries following soon enough.

This blog (at least to start) is about my experiences with that move, the process of divesting oneself of a lifetime of acquisitions, moving to a place where I knew no one, adjusting to a new and very different country, gutting and rebuilding a house, in Mexico!, and settling in to a new life of writing.

This post is a brief introduction, a scout, so to speak, with many more to follow. I'll add photos of our new life, and political musings, and descriptions of life in Mexico. I look forward to hearing from new friends of all ages, and from all over. So, once again, welcome to Boomer in Baja!