The day has finally come, and I'm so overjoyed that we no longer have to endure GW and now have President Obama. It's almost hard to accept that it's reality. You crave something so desperately for eight long years, and in the mean time drudge on day after day, watching people you despise run our country into the ground and when it finally ends, it's almost hard to breathe. I keep waiting for someone to come and snatch it away. It's too good to be true. It's hope and intelligence, reason and compassion personified. I sporadically found tears of joy and relief running down my cheeks in the past week. The passion with which this country has embraced our 44th President is nothing short of awe inspiring. The shear number of people that descended on Washington this week, with not even a hope of actually seeing the President in person, but just to be there in the midst of this historic event, even if they had to watch it on a big screen television at the mall, now that's really saying something.
Of course, we can't expect Obama to turn this mess around in a few months. He is a human being, not a magician. I completely understand that. But just to have a President that can speak to people, speak and sound intelligent, speak and really reach people, oh at the moment, that's a really nice feeling. I hear he even wrote his own inauguration speech. *Sigh* I'm in love. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, spring is in the air. . . Well, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but at least there is hope in my soul and a happiness in my heart while NE is plunged into the worst deep freeze of a winter we've had in a decade.
I threw an inauguration party. It just had to be done. I bought a life size cut out of Obama and we took pictures with him and played pin the sticker on Obama. We also played pin the shoe on bush. Curls did a great job putting that one together. And we had a Bush pinata filled with Dum-Dums, toy soldiers and horses. They were selling actual Bush pinatas, but they looked nothing like him, so I bought a cowboy pinata and taped his face to it. Worked out great.
My boys both have t-shirts that read, "Smart is Back" and on the back "Obama 2008." They wore them to the party and school yesterday. I'm thinking they'll be great for 4th of July too. Blackstone and I have t-shirts too. Somehow my woman's large felt more like a woman's medium to me, though. That and my tight jeans landed me some not so flattering pictures. On the bright side, perfect motivation to take off those holiday pounds and then some. Pictures like that are almost enough to turn me anorexic. I'm too smart and hungry for that, however. I just ramp up the workout schedule and cut the calories dramatically. I know I'm doing it right when I eat just enough that I don't want to gnaw off my arm and wake up starving every morning. This lately lands me eating oatmeal and drinking chocolate soy milk at 6:45 AM and watching news coverage of Obama while tears run down my face. A very heart healthy start to 2009.
I went over a friend's house to watch it with her, and we giggled and cried and held hands. It was lovely.
Can you believe it--all those people and not one arrest?? Now that's a strong statement.
Posted by: Bookgirl | January 26, 2009 at 04:28 PM
I came home for lunch that day and watched while I ate a pizza and drank a beer, you know to celebrate. Then I went back to work. Huh. I'm with you on the oatmeal and soy milk thing too. Oatmeal with honey, which isn't so bad....
Posted by: Alice | January 28, 2009 at 09:11 PM
Bookgirl - You're so right. All those people packed in like sardines and no arrests. It's amazing
Alice - I like the way you celebrate. Our IT department watched the main event upstairs in the break room. I guess we're the hard core Democrats in the building. But it's not like the guys in the warehouse have much flexibility to do that.
Posted by: Diosa Vispera | January 28, 2009 at 09:40 PM