I am feeling so much better today.

I was looking forward to attending the Women's March in Philadelphia. I didn't want to travel to Washington DC but I did want to participate here.

In the weeks prior to the march I was furiously knitting Pussy Hats. I didn't find out about this project until my Stitch & Bitch club met at the end of the first week of January. And even then I wasn't convinced I wanted one.

So I knitted one in brown to see what I thought about it - and it was cute and easy and fun to knit. I decided I should knit some more but in the official project color, pink. When I went to AC Moore last weekend, boy, the pickin's was slim. I agonized over color choice for a while and finally settled on a soft bright pink and a variegated one.

I had a list of people to knit for and I still didn't finish as many as I wanted.

One each for Miss Mary and me,

 Three for my sister and friends.

 And while I worked Swee'Pea kept guard on the finished ones.

On Friday I woke up and decided I did not need to listen to a shred of news. I'm so glad I didn't.

I had errands to run and as I was about to leave the house I realized I wanted to start protesting that day. Why should I wait until Saturday to wear my hat? I put it on.

As I left the gate a young woman, maybe 20ish, peeked out from under her umbrella at me with a big grin. I stopped at school to take care of some things and as I was getting out of my car, I was honked at. Thoroughly annoyed, I looked up to see two women in a black SUV waving and giving me the thumbs up! I waved back. Later at Home Depot, a woman in her 60s walked past me and as just as she left my peripheral vision said, "Nice hat." I turned around and thanked her and we both smiled.



Saturday Miss Mary and I headed over to the rally at Eakins Oval in front of the Art Museum. I must say, Philadelphia has a beautiful venue for such events. The international flags along the parkway are gorgeous. It was wonderful to be with so many like minded people. There was a feeling of happiness that I haven't felt in a long time. I think it was that so many of us came together and that there is power in numbers and that we all realized there are a lot of us who feel the same way. People were out there for a lot of different reasons. My favorite performing group were the Granny Peace Brigade who lead us in song. It wasn't one of the largest marches I've been to but I think that is because we are so close to Washington and I know a lot of people who took buses to march there. There were still 50,000 who showed up here on a cold and foggy Saturday morning.

In the evening, when my sister texted me photos of them in their hats, She said that the Los Angeles march had 750,000 people. I was stunned! That is more that in Washington DC! I looked up the information and saw that they had to march down side streets because there were too many people. I started looking at more information and saw that there were marches all around the world.

And so yes, I am feeling better today than I have in several months. I'm still very concerned. While we have strength in numbers, it is an extremely fragile balance.

But I have a Pussy Hat and I'm going to wear it.