The U2 concert in Raleigh is tonight!! We’re very excited and are going to try our hand at getting into the pit. From what Katie P has said and from what we saw during the last tour, that’s the place to be. In an effort to increase our chances, I’ve been reading “Joe’s Unofficial Guide to the U2 Queue.” I found this part particularly hilarious about eating and drinking light so that you don’t have to go to the bathroom:

Most venues will have portable toilets, so having to go to the toilet is not an issue in the morning. However, when it gets closer to show time, you only want to drink enough water to sustain life, but not too much where you will have to leave and possibly lose your spot at the front of the stage.

LOL.

I wanted to draw your attention to the Stop Child Trafficking Now Walk taking place on September 26-27 across the world. The more I get to know about this organization the more impressed I am with it. While there are two sides of child trafficking, the supply side and the demand side, SCTNOw focuses on the demand. From their website:

SCTNow directs the majority of its fundraising to organizations comprised of Special Operative Teams who gather information about child predators both in the US and abroad. These teams represent the best military, federal and state intelligence and investigative organizations. They track predators to build cases against them that result in convictions.

These teams possess skills beyond the average military or law enforcement individual—skills that enable them to achieve their goals in foreign lands independently, without support of US law enforcement resources.

These teams investigate, gather information, intelligence and evidence and build cases more effectively than law enforcement officials in sovereign states. They understand the risks associated with missions of this difficulty. The teams, selected and deployed for these missions, are made up of elite operatives.

They don’t seek public recognition or fame for their efforts. Their reward is the personal satisfaction that comes from knowing their efforts will take predators off the streets and put them behind bars, resulting in the rescue of innocent children.

There will be a walk taking place on September 27th in Chapel Hill where a group of friends, McCoy’s Marchers, will be walking to raise funds. Find out about walks in your state here and/or donate to my friend’s group here. If you’d like more information, let me know!

In this month’s Vanity Fair there was an article on Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. Miss Porter’s is known for its famous “ancients” (why this word is preferred to “alumni,” I do not comprehend), such as Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Gloria Vanderbilt.

I had to laugh out loud at one point when the article talked about the school’s culture of “making girls aware of their shortcomings, be they related to background or appearance.” One of the ancients they interviewed hailed from the great state of Nebraska:

Omaha-raised Letitia Baldridge recalls that she was the first student ever on scholarship, which she immediately learned was a dirty word… Her teachers were determined to beat the Nebraska out of her. “My English teacher, Miss Watson, said to me, ‘You come from the Middle West, and it’s going to take you a year or two to get over that.”

I’m trying to not get too excited — as time and money is always a factor with the federal government –, but Obama and the Federal Railroad Administration has released a strategic plan called a Vision for High Speed Rail in America. The funding part is tricky. There’s $8 billion in the stimulus package for a “down payment” on the plan and they’re asking for Congress to approve another $5 billion to be spread out over the next five years. I didn’t read the document too closely, but have a feeling that the whole thing is going to cost more than $13 billion.

None the less, according to the maps, if and when the “vision” comes to reality, the East Coast, and RDU more specifically, could see some pretty sweet rail lines to DC, New York, Atlanta, and the like. How lovely it would be to get on more trains rather than planes. Now if only it would go to Asheville too!

Could this be for real?