Frustration of the highest sort ... .

Feels a bit like Dorothy's words to Toto!

Received electronic copies of photos from the White House today, of Tamaya, Alyana, and their grandmother with the First Lady Michelle and President Obama from our trip to the National Tree-Lighting Ceremony in December.  Only problem is that their arrival carried specific prohibitions as to their use.  "Cannot be used for any purpose beyond personal.  Cannot be posted to Betty's blog, nor, find their way onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.,."  In other words, only those lucky enough to see them on my living-room wall next to the framed invitation to his 2009 Inauguration -- will ever know they exist; except in my fertile imagination.  I'll have mine mounted and framed right away, then invite my family to a hanging ceremony improvised for the occasion.

Trust me.  It was real, and I'm still vibrating from the experience.

Can you imagine how hard it will be to resist the temptation?  But, of course, there's no question that those instructions will be followed faithfully.  In time it won't matter, but this minute it's a very hard thing to deal with.  Half the satisfaction of owning such a treasure is the sharing of it with family and friends ... and the definition of "friends" has been altered beyond recognition by social media.  Wonder if the White House has taken that into account?  Of course, they have.

Wonder if those limitations will extend beyond the Obama's term of office?  Will the prohibitions still stand after November, or the inauguration of their successors in January of 2017?  That might be a great question to ask at some point. 

You can imagine how difficult this will be for my granddaughters!  They will probably have a much harder time of it, I think, but then most of their life experiences are probably well-documented on their smart phones.   But, of course these precious pictures can and will be shared privately by the kids, as ordered.

But, oh how I wish ... .