Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday. Man, was it cold!! I do have to say, for the first couple of hours as we stood there freezing and packed in with the masses, I was seriously doubting the wisdom of the trip. I had visions of sitting at home, cozied up with food, a hot beverage and some warm blankets. My poor nephew was crying because his feet and hands hurt, and tearfully pleading to go home; I was this close to agreeing with him and getting the heck out of Dodge.

Hooray for the Museum of Natural History!! Thank you, Smithsonian, for being free, warm and open at 10AM when I couldn't take one more minute. We were saved from missing a historic moment - or worse yet, experiencing it miserable and ungrateful - by a quick tour through the beloved "rocks room" (the Gems & Minerals exhibit, for those who don't know the lingo ;-) ) and a rest on the second floor stairs. We re-emerged in time for the ceremony refreshed and in much better spirits.

What to say about the rest of that experience? Lowlights: still cold; Bush being booed; trying to get on the Metro to go home. Highlights: the music; my nephew waving his flags; my mom so excited and happy; President Barack Hussein Obama!!! That's still amazing every time I say it.

Afterwards, I pretty much crashed out at home, only finally waking up to go help my sister get ready for the Youth Ball. She looked absolutely gorgeous, which made it so doubly ridiculous that she (and many other ticket holders) got turned away from the ball because of overcapacity at the venue. It is still totally unclear to me how the organizers let that happen (I think something about a concert with Kanye West), but it was unforgivable. Their loss, because my sis is awesome and they missed having her beauty grace their presence.

Today. I am tired, and possibly getting sick, but happy nonetheless. I think I only finally got the excitement of it all while listening to the radio this morning - President Barack Obama!! - and then viewing my photos and videos (on my awesome shiny new camera). It was amazing to see the new first family come out of the White House on TV last night, and I do feel tremendously lucky and inspired to live in this country and to have witnessed "the moment", as everyone in the media is calling it. So it only took me a day to catch the spirit. :-)

I am going to be exhausted today and tomorrow, but it really was totally worth it, and not to have been missed.

Tomorrow. As I mentioned last post, this is where the rubber meets the road, for us as well as the President. We have to change the way we do politics, the way we think about the economy, the way we treat each other and the planet, how we hold ourselves and our leaders accountable. We have to come together around a shared vision for our future; the President's role is to articulate that vision as well as he can, and keep calling on us to make it happen with him. We have to answer the call.

January 20th, 2009 - a day that goes down in my history. I will tell my kids: I was there when.