I'm a huge NPR nerd

So much so that I listen to it every day on my way to and from work. Great for my job, not great for my trivia knowledge - my lack of pop radio knowledge really shows.

But I digress.

I'm watching the Democratic National Convention, waiting to see Hillary's speech. I'm on the NBC feed, listening to Brokaw and other NBC talking heads. Imagine my surprise to see that one of their analysts is Michele Norris, from "All Things Considered."

I hear her voice every day, but I've never seen her face. (Yes, I know, we have this wondrous thing called the innernets that allows us to find out just about anything we want about anyone we want, but I'm not going to come home and Google a radio personality. I mean, come on.) Yet, anytime I see someone from NPR on TV, I'm fascinated. I love to see what they look like.

Nine times out of 10, they look nothing like I pictured in my head. She's no exception.

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On our way home from dinner tonight, we listened to Kathleen Sebelius's speech. I like her so much. She makes me proud to be a Kansan - and that's not something I say a lot when we're in the national spotlight. Usually, it's our two-steps-backward thinking that we're being highlighted for, not our talented politicians.

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I'm off so I can watch the film and speech.

UPDATE: Watched the Hillary speech. I'm obviously a little biased, but I thought she did a great job. I can't imagine how hard it would be to stand up in front of the nation and give that speech, after working so hard to be elected herself.

I loved watching the reactions of the crowd as NBC cut between Hillary and the people. Some of them were genuinely worked up to the point of tears. I am so glad there are so many passionate people out there, who believe in the good that can be done, if only given a chance.

Certain segments of the population really take joy in criticizing Hillary Clinton, using incredibly degrading terms for "woman" when they talk about her. That was in the back of my mind last night while watching the speech. I'm pretty sure those people are completely and totally intimidated by a woman who is smarter than they are, and more powerful than they are.

It's a lot harder to keep a woman under your thumb when she can run circles around you in a mental marathon. That kind of stuff really makes me mad. Why, in 2008, do people still insist on judging her or any other woman in those terms? What does that matter?

She's just a senator, not a female senator. I hate that qualifying of the term all the time.

Leading up to the speech, all of the talking heads kept saying how worried the Obama camp was about her speech. They didn't know what was in it, what she was going to say. I think that's so funny - what did they think she was going to do?

Unity is the word of the day. I hope that sentiment lives through this election and on into the next president's term. (No, I didn't say Obama - not going to jinx it yet.)