Meeting Justice Thomas

I met Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas yesterday. He was signing his book, My Grandfather's Son. Justice Thomas was warm, friendly, sincere, and just awesome. I was literally in awe of him. It's not every day a peasant girl like me gets to meet such an important person.

Justice Thomas was so nice and full of big smiles. A real departure from the serious-faced photos we see. (There are pictures of him with me on my Flickr site for friends and family.) I was deeply moved by just how sincere he was about meeting all of us, shaking our hands, and signing our books. As my turn came, he asked how I was doing. I froze. I was speechless and couldn't say a word. He looked up to get a response. WAH!!!! After I came to my senses, I managed to tell him how much I admired him and asked if I could have a picture with him.

Let me just say that he held me tighter than anyone except QE when posing for photos. Amazing. That alone won me over. He was so genuine in his friendliness. Most notable figures and celebrities give this fake niceties "meeting and greeting sucks" feeling. I don't know if I could have sustained Justice Thomas' cheery demeanor for two hours standing on my feet. Regardless of his political views and whether I agree or disagree with them, Justice Thomas is a good human being.

And his wife, Virginia? She is tall and gorgeous. Just beautiful. I spoke to her too. She wasn't pretty in that pretentious plastic surgery way. Naturally beautiful with amazing bright blue eyes. And so freakin tall. Here is this woman who is/was a GS15 or SES and wife of a Supreme Court Justice. You'd think she was rich diva. Nope. Her purse was a commoner's Nine West bag. WTF How grounded is that?????

Like many Americans, I don't know much about the judges of the Supreme Court. After reading his book, my respect for Justice Thomas grew tremendously. We share many of the same values and ethics. It's nice to know that good, hard-working people can succeed. Maybe there's hope for me yet.