5 Favorite Moments of President Obama's 2009 Inauguration

Hopefully by now everybody's gotten to see it... I enjoyed it immensely! Here I have compiled my five favorite moments of the event, in roughly chronological order.

1. The beaming faces of Sasha and Malia as they walked out to take their seats. SO CUTE and so ecstatic, it just kind of set the tenor of the whole inauguration for me. The combination of your dad becoming Really Really Important and getting a new puppy would be a heady experience for any kid. Where is that promised puppy anyway? Isn't it about time for it to make an adorable appearance in the lives of the Obamas? And can we have a webcam please, or would that be creepy? If I were Sasha or Malia, I would already be making plans to take President-Dad to school as show-and-tell... That would totally make up for the fact that First-Lady-Mom says they still have to make their own beds every morning...

2. The ridiculously pleased expression on Bush's face as he relinquished power. His step was unusually light and jaunty as he walked on to the platform, and his relief seemed nearly palpable. Good to be off of the hot-seat Mr. President? I imagine your rear has been rather scorched for a while now...

3. Aretha Franklin's hat (classic and amazing!). And her wonderfully soulful serinade. By this point in the event, I was getting goosebumps and vaguely going through the motions of working as I watched the live feed from my desk. Also somewhere around this point, my whole building got a warning email from our IT guy, informing us that we were "hammering" the network with all of the inauguration-viewing, and could we please switch to lower bandwith so some people could actually get work done? Riiiiiiight.

4. President Obama's speech. This one is a given right? But it was just so good... Goosebumps again, and perhaps an inclination to shed tears, but if so it was steadfastly resisted.

5. John William's arrangement of "Simple Gifts." I'm pretty sure what happened was this... a hush-hush committee was closeted in some dim back room and suddenly somebody was like, "Y'all, we need a THEME. Get that Star Wars / Indiana Jones guy in here, and make that music SWELL with EMOTION." And of course, that's just what they accomplished.

I was thinking that this inauguration is different from any other, because regardless of politics, all Americans had reason to be joyful today. We do carry in our historical wake many national wrongs, and it is beautiful to see them put to right, even when that process has been far too slow. Tomorrow and the next day will be time enough for partisan haggling, but I hope today everybody was able to pause for a minute and just be glad! Today was a hopeful day. And maybe now America will have more room to grow. :) Happy inauguration Tuesday everyone!