Wednesday, January 21, 2009

"we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

MENU OF THE DAY
Music playing: U2's Beautiful Day
What I am drinking: Lipton diet green tea
Mood: jubilant, but tired
Exercise: ran at lunch
This is a photo of my office blackboard. I wrote part of Obama's speech on it.

I am dead tired, but i couldn't leave up that Bush letter any longer. (Even the White House's web page has been changed for over 24 hours!) I started with my office pals at 8 in the morning watching the Inauguration live over brunch and mimosas. (The speech did not make me cry & there wasn't that Kennedy or Roosevelt soundbite in it, but i loved it all the same.)
Some of my favorite moments of the inauguration ceremony:
1. Malia shooting video of the event. Oh....those girls!
2. The slip up on the oath.
3. Aretha & Yoyo Ma
4. The faces in the crowds
5. Rick Warren & Reverend Lowery

And My husband's band, The Disclaimers, played for the Inauguration celebration at the Swiss Tavern last night. It was crowded, hot and loud and even though i tend to be claustrophobic and hate crowds, i felt great. Obama's speech was replayed on the big screen behind the stage and you would have thought he was there in person! I was there for 7 hours taking photos and video of the night. (I shot without flash in in the dark by bumping the ISO on my new D-90 Nikon, and many came out great, even after 4 snowcap microbrews) This shot of Brian shows the video on his forehead.












Some of my favorite moments from The Swiss last night:
1. When they replayed Reverend Lowery's speech, the whole crowd shouted out Amen! every time he did.
2. I have this incredibly funny video of an "overdancer". It's this woman wearing a fancy dress and i swear to you when i say she dances like Elaine on Seinfeld. It's hysterical and i'm saving it forever.
3. I ran into this guy and we both did a doubletake. He had such a great exuberant smile. Because he was African American i was afraid he would think i was doing that stupid thing white people do, so I asked him first, "do i look familiar to you"? because I was certain I knew him from somewhere. And he smiled widely and said "yes"! It was so loud we couldn't talk but later he asked me to dance and when the song was over we figured it out: we had both been Obama delegates at the legislative caucus at the high school.
4. (He also told me that i was a good dancer which made me feel good.)
5. Our best friends, Julie and Keith came to see Brian play. (I can always count on these two to support us.)
6. And it was truly cool to see my husband up there playing the drums.
7. I got to say "I'm with the band!" (I've always wanted to do that.)

What are some of your favorite moments yesterday? (Or parts of Obama's speech.)

12 comments:

Modern Hippie said...

i didnt get to experience the full way i wanted too but it was kind of cool to do it so, unnatural, its kind of a cooler story to say that we put class on hold and pulled it up online and projected it and invited all the other classes to come in (we had like 40 people in the room!) so its cool to know that it meant that much! and whats even funnier i spent election night in the same room, but we had finals and presentations so we couldnt watch anything so we were all getting text messages and mouthing the "score" to each other.

during rev lowerys speech i kept wanting to shout out "amen" but the classroom was pretty silent (in a good way, everyone was watching and we laughed at appro. moments) but i would have shouted back everything

i did rev lowerys speech esp. the part "when black doesnt get back, when yellow will be mellow, when white embraces right" i thought that was hilarious.

was it the young black guy that was running as a delegate? that we both really liked? he was kinda short, you actually asked him why he suppported obama and wants be a delegate and he said thank you? that guy?

equeyaya said...

We watched it on the big screen in the auditorium at work. I did cry but at little things, not so much the speech. I forgot to wear my Obama shirt, and Chris was working that night, so I didn't open my bottle of champagne. But I did watch the concert from Sunday on HBO and I loved it.

The Daily Show coverage was hysterical. Stewart showed how Fox's coverage was obsessing over every step of the Bush exit. Then they were saying maybe Obama isn't really president because of how Roberts flubbed the oath (I saw on this morning's news they did a redo yesterday). So Stewart says (I love this!) "You know what sticklers the republicans are about following the Constitution to the letter."

I'm glad you had fun. Now the real work begins!

jojo cucina cucina said...

http://www.thedisclaimers.bandvista.com/
The link above shows more photos i took at The Swiss, Brian added them to the website already. They are easy to view because they show up on one screen, but you can click on them to make them larger.

Kylee, you'll recognize Julie!) The guy i ran into was not the one you are thinking of. This guy was taller and built kind of like Brian. I did take a photo of him and i'll email it to you and see if you remember him too. Kylee i loved that part about Lowery's speech too.

equeyaya, i loved Jon Stewart too. I know much of it was probably orchestrated so the reporting could be extensive, but i loved reading in today's paper about Obama's first day.

IslandPearl said...

Nice photos. I like the shadows on the floor one best.

I wonder what the comedians will do for material now -- they dare not poke fun at this administration.

sam said...

My favorite part of Tuesday was watching my nearly-11-year-old son watching the inauguration with such intent. He asked questions a few times but, overall, he was glued to that television at least as much as he is when he watches Cops.

He's going to remember this as his first political exposure. I'm glad I took him downtown during the DNC festivities, too.

~ T (grits) ~ said...

You have a cool office, Jo! What are those awards? I love that you wrote that part on your board!!

I watched some but missed alot of the live Inauguraton at work. I truly did love the part of the swearing in when President Obama paused, forgetting what to repeat momentarily. I LOL and felt relief at his human-ness. And also because I felt on the verge of tears.

Kiddoo's class got to watch most of it at school. They even did sack lunches so they could go back to the classroom to watch.

She seems proud when she says that her mom voted for Barack Obama, even thought her dad voted for Mclain (how she says it lol). That makes me feel good.

~ T (grits) ~ said...

p.s. is that you in the red dress and blingy earrings??

Love the photos at the band website!!

jojo cucina cucina said...

pearl, that was one of my favorite photos too. I also shot a short video of just those feet dancing. The dancing feet are pretty cute.You were so right about me needing a digital camera. I feel like i did when i got my first iPod and wondered how on earth i lived without it.

Hey Grits, MCLAIN....lolol....
The only photo of me is the one where i am taking a picture of myself in the mirror with the Mona Lisa in the shot. Unless Brian changed the site I think it's the last one. The awards are writing awards from my work.

I love my office! (We moved in April and i got to choose the colors, hence the green wall.) The Obama photo was brought back to me from my co-workers who were in D.C. during a training. On one side i have a colorful peace flag from Italy that my niece brought back for me. It says "Pace" and i like both the Italian and English meanings.

T-sam, i love that your son was so rapt with the ceremony. Truth is, i never even watched Clinton's inauguration. This was my first one. Your 11 year old son will always remember that.

jojo cucina cucina said...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216538&title=changefest-09-obamas-inaugural

Charrdonnay always reminds me of Sherman Alexi's site at www.fallsapart.com which has a feature called "Stuff i Like". I was just on there and saw that he linked this clip (above) of Jon Stewart making fun of Obama's speech at the inauguration by reading parts of it with his terrible and hilarious Bush impression. (pearl, i think The Daily Show will find all kinds of ways to make fun of Obama and i look forward to seeing them.)

IslandPearl said...

Very funny clip! I have hope...

Cat said...

I watched part of it live at lunch and had DVRd the rest! I loved Yo-Yo Ma; that made me tear up. My sister was out in the crowds in DC and was texting like mad, so that was cool! I was very impressed with the speech and wrote part of it down on post-its! I need a big blackboard like you have, Jo! Maybe after taxes I'll redo my office; it needs it bad.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Hey Cat, how wonderful that your sister was in the crowds. (My husband made that blackboard from materials at an art store. It was pretty cheap.)

pearl, i'm glad you liked that clip. I thought it was very good. I don't think Jon Stewart will have any trouble finding the funny in Obama.

I have to come up with a new blog post pretty soon but i haven't had much energy lately and therefore no ideas - hopefully sometime later this week.