Change

The mood in DC's Capitol Hill was a lot different that Seattle's Capitol Hill this morning, though I don't think anyone here was any less optomistic, just a little less frostbitten. Three things to say about the inauguration:
1) Michelle Obama's outfit did not disappoint. NY Times Style bloggers will have many good things to say in the coming days. Biden and Obama appeared to wear the same ties they wore on election night though: maybe they believe that the ties will bring luck?
2) Invocation and Benediction were inappropriate for a government event and contradictory to the Obama message of Change; it was the same Conservative Christian dogma as always. Saying Jesus' name in several languages does not make Jesus a universal figure. I respect the Obama's desire to pray before the ceremony, but that should have been a private matter: seperation of Church and State. However, I appreciated Obama's inclusion of non-believers in his roll-call of faiths.
3) I'm excited for the future but still cynical: he's inherited a mess.

We watched it in the conference room, mostly: the office don't have cable, so we just projected CNN.com, which kept freezing up on us. We watched Joe Biden get sworn in, but it froze during the following musical interlude and we switched to radio. A solicitor called the front desk at around 8:45 and I was very curt with them. She was Southern, so my guess is that she weren't thrilled about the outcome on the election. Neither was most of the office for that matter: I think the only people who really cared were Carol, Dave, Ellen and I; even though the other half of the office is younger, they're all fairly conservative. Carol brought in cookies with the Obama family stenciled on them: Barack, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and the mystery dog; I had a bite of Michelle. She was delicious.

Tomorrow I find out if change may be in store for me, whether or not I have a job. Just to be safe, I've secretly taken home all of my personal items over the past few days so that if I am laid off tomorrow all I need to carry home is my radio. I can always bring them back.