Inauguration Day and Night

Yes, we were open at work on Inauguration Day.  I polled other businesses and they were going to be open on Tuesday; even the banks were going to be open.

But I knew that Inauguration Day was going to be special and that those of us working (a lot of people took the day off) would want to watch the inauguration and maybe parts of the parade. So at 11:00am, we ordered pizza and settled into the conference room around 11:30.  For the next couple of hours, we marveled at the number of people on the Mall, felt great when Barack Obama took the oath, enjoyed the music and the poems, and listened intently to the new President's speech.  When I got up Tuesday morning, I was a little sad that I wasn't going to be on the Mall, but when I saw the crowds on TV, I knew that I would have felt claustrophobic and lost in the sea of humanity.

I was glad to celebrate Inauguration Day with Maki and other people at work.  This was a day for celebrating with our community and sharing our thoughts about the future.

Around 1:30pm, we all went back to work.  and believe it or not, a lot of work got done.  We have out of state clients and the phones were surprisingly busy.  As I expected, out of state clients were not as in tune with the inauguration and had little idea that DC was basically shut down for the day.  All of our clients in DC + associations in the VA and MD suburbs were closed as well.

After work, I invited co-workers and a bunch of neighbors over for our own Neighborhood Inauguration Party.   We had homemade pizza, enari (tofu) pockets, hummus and chips, BBQ pork and cole slaw, cookies, beer and wine.  We watched CNN for coverage of the parade and the balls.  We loved the President's tuxedo but didn't much like Michelle Obama's dress (it was not flattering, we thought, and not camera-friendly). 

CJ had a ball playing trains and watching a movie with some buddies from the neighborhood.  He's turning into quite the social boy.  He loves it when we have people over to visit and he's very good about sharing his toys, even his trains!

Here is a photo of the entrance to the GW Parkway from Old Town.  Northbound access was blocked and there were barricades the entire length of the Parkway from Old Town to DC.

Here's a photo from CNN of the coverage on inauguration night.

Here's a photo of some of my guests.  The homemade pizza was a big hit!

What an Election Night!

Maki and I decided at the last minute to hold an election night party at our house. I figured it would be more fun to watch the returns with friends and this election was just too important to not share with family and friends.

So Maki, CJ and I and about 20 friends + a few kids got together on Tuesday night. We had CNN on the big TV + FiveThirtyEight and MSNBC on a couple of laptops. I loved the CNN touch screens and MSNBC's voter by category analysis. It cracked us up that Catholics who attend mass once a week went for McCain, while Catholics who went to church less than weekly went for Obama. We made homemade pizza and chocolate pudding, drank a lot of wine and had a blast.

CJ and his buddies played i the living room with CJ's trains. Gosh, they played together so well and clearly had a blast.

I knew the election was over around 9pm when Ohio turned blue. And it was definitely over when VA turned blue. What a night! Obama's speech was great; McCain's speech was more than gracious, even lyrical.

I'm excited about the election but also worried. As a small business owner, I feel like I would have been screwed under either Obama or McCain. But I do feel that Obama is a fresh start and if he's the economic moderate I hope he will be, then Maki, Matrix Group and I will be okay.

I'm interested in politics again

I have two degrees in International Relations and I used to be very interested in domestic and international politics. I campaigned for a few candidates and I faithfully read the Post, the Economist, the Far Eastern Economic Review, TIME. But over the past few years, I just lost interest in politics. Although I have never missed voting in a general election (I have even voted in all but one primaries), I just lost interest.

This year, like many people I suspect, is different. I am reading about the presidential campaigns, I'm reading the detailed profiles of the candidates from both parties, and I'm staying up (not too late, but still staying up) to watch the returns. I'm excited that the Democrats will make history with their candidate this year, and it's fun to see a real race for the Republican nomination for a change.

I'm sure the campaign leading up to the November election will get really ugly, really soon, but for now, it's great to be interested again.