Fancy

We spend a lot of time in my house discussing being fancy. Capital F and ancy was the battle cry at college, but even now, “fancy” remains a favorite adjective. Perhaps it should then not be a surprise that my almost 5 year old boy is uber concerned with being fancy, whether it is about his own fanciness or the fanciness of others, fancy is where it’s at. And fancy is more than just about what you are wearing or how you look. Fancy is a state of mind.

We have a fancy president. I love saying that. I love not having to say “we have a stupid president”. It really makes me giddily happy. And after my experiences of the last week, I would have to say that it makes a whole ton of people giddily happy as well. The amount of Obama paraphernalia being sold and purchased within the city limits of D.C. was staggering. I saw t-shirts, sweatshirts, scarves, buttons, key chains, hats, beanies, calendars, photos, shot glasses, posters, postcards, coffee mugs, tote bags, purses, wallets, and my personal favorite- molded chocolate lollipops with his face on it. Really? Is it appropriate for me to be eating my president? (insert token Monica Lewinski joke here). It was amazing. I was sure they would run out, with that many millions of people buying stuff, how could they have enough stock? But judging by the vendors on the mall the next day, they were well prepared. He has rock star status…he is fancy…and that makes me happy.

We went to the inauguration and we were fancy. I would argue that aside from the people sitting on the capital steps themselves, we had the fanciest experience of anyone there. In fact, I would say sitting with my mimosa, watching the folks on the mall watching the folks on the steps, looking down at the canons for the 21 gun salute, we maybe had the fanciest experience including those people on the steps. This mainly happened by chance. A friend of Michael’s passed very suddenly in November. He was supposed to do something for someone which Michael took over doing as a favor. The person that Michael helped is a member of this law firm, and upon hearing of our trip, insisted on putting all of us on the guest list. We weren’t even sure we would take advantage of it, or what it would entail. We honestly had no idea. But we made it there, through the pissy purple ticket holders, through the rent-a-cops (literally) from as far away as Alabama, shivering in their uniforms, as clueless as the swarms around them, and through the once beautiful hedges which framed the building which had been ripped up, out and practically disintegrated by the overzealous crowds. We made it into the building, and Michael likes to say it was as though the heavens opened and choirs of angels sang “Ahhhhhhhhhh” in perfect harmony around us as the doors closed behind. It was fancy.