Inauguration Organically

I have been trying to write the whole thing down for days. It's crap. It's all crap. I can't possibly bottle or recreate what the whole experience was like. I could write a (really boring) book on every last detail of the day, and from the drivel I have been coming up with, I am getting close to that.

Here is the thing. It was amazing. It was. It was cold, and crazy, and crowded. It was full of hope and patriotism and excitement in a way I have never ever felt before. And that was all by 7am. In retrospect, taking the kids held us back in a way from the "whole experience". There was no concert, no parade, no balls...we had to do things in their consideration and they really hated it anyway. They were cold and bored and uncomfortable. They were pissed we weren't actually "seeing" Obama. In the moment, they could care less that we were witnessing history. We've been working hard on the revisionist history and I wouldn't have wanted to not take them, but it did change things.

We did luck out though. Michael getting us into the fancy party at the law firm was a stroke of luck that I would have never imagined. Watching the proceedings with a heater, a catered breakfast and lunch, an ice scuplture (actually 2), an open bar, Katie Couric within shouting distance and a bunch of (really wealthy) very nice people was a very different experience than we expected. They looked at me a bit strangely when I burst into "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead", as soon as Bush's helicopter flew away...but they were all waving goodbye with glee, so I thought it would be appropriate.

We got the steerage ambiance for a couple of hours downstairs in the streets jammed with people. I loved it, I loved having the crowd burst into Of Thee I Sing and America the Beautiful, I loved seeing all the excited people in their giant fur coats and fur hats next to all the excited people wrapped up in blankets and aluminum foil, everyone thrilled to be there. There was a moment of slight panic for the safety of my children, when the crowd surged...but we huddled together and felt like the rock in the middle of the stream while the salmon swam madly around us. And as much as I loved all of that, being able to exit it into comparable paradise was pretty amazing. Exiting the building back into the street after was like being in a post apoctolypic movie. I think each and every flier that had been handed out, each "free" newpaper which had been printed, were all strewn and tossed into the street...much to the children's chagrin. It seems hope includes hope that someone else will clean up our trash. Although, to be fair, as much as the city planned for the bodily funtions of the millions of people descending, it didn't seem that any extra trash receptacles had been set out.

We tried to hold out for the parade, but then the wind picked up, the temp dropped, and the whining of the children got to me, so we had to head back. It was a long day for all of us. A fantastic, wonderful, hopeful, inspirational, beautiful long day.

If I can find the voice to discuss details, I will...but I needed to get something down for the meantime.