| Poem for Wednesday |
[Jan. 21st, 2009|12:07 am] |
( It Must Have Been the Spirits )
I'm very happy that Barack Obama is now the President of the United States, but I'm not sorry that I didn't try to go to the inauguration -- I hate crowds, and I suspect I saw and heard things more clearly from my in-laws' living room -- not to mention felt more delight -- than I would have standing cold, exhausted and claustrophobic downtown. As much as I appreciated Obama's speech and seeing various dignitaries and elected officials (I hope Teddy Kennedy's all right), it was a particular thrill for me to hear Elizabeth Alexander read her poetry; I was in college at Penn when she was in grad school and we took several classes together, and were reacquainted when I was in grad school at the University of Chicago when she arrived to teach.
We were in Hanover for most of the day, going out after the swearing-in to the Utz Factory for their automated tour (conducted by push-button "tour guides" while walking past windows that look into the potato chip factory and packaging plant). Then we went to the Utz outlet store where we bought far more snack food than we really should be eating! Driving home in the late afternoon, we got to see the sun reflecting off the snow that fell all over the region on Monday. We had a small dinner to follow up our fairly large brunch while watching the inauguration; both kids have exams on Wednesday and Daniel wasn't feeling well, so even though there were free tacos at California Tortilla, we opted to eat at home.
( Utz Potato Chips )
In the evening we decided to watch the We Are One concert since we hadn't on Sunday. That was the perfect way to spend the time between the parade and the coverage of the inaugural balls -- we knew pretty much all the songs, performers, and guests, and it had that same sense of euphoria. I was astonished to learn that the stock market had dropped; I thought the sense of progress and hope in DC might have spread everywhere at least for the day. |
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