Monday, January 19, 2009

What to do?

Well, tomorrow is the Big Day around here. We've wanted to really experience this inauguration, but between the crowds, the cold weather, and having a two-year old who doesn't always like crowds, we've pretty much resigned ourselves to experience it on TV (fortunately tomorrow is a day off of work for me).

But it's been hard watching the coverage leading up to the inauguration to think about missing the whole thing when we live so close. I mean, we still kick ourselves for missing the Winter Olympics in Torino in 2006 and the World Cup in Germany later that year, and this is much closer than that. That feeling was only heightened by watching the We Are One concert yesterday, which took place basically 5-10 minutes by foot from my office. Sigh.

So we've started to VERY tentatively toy with the idea of taking Mädchen into the city on a bus that will be running from near our house to the city, even if only to wander around the perimeter for an hour or so and soak in the excitement and historical importance of the moment, and just feel a part of something much larger than ourselves. (An African-American woman who helped us at a store tonight told us she was taking tomorrow off work and planning to leave her house at 3:30am to walk down to get a spot along the parade route. This is NOT your typical inauguration by any means.) By the same token, when you read urgent warnings in the paper to label your children in case you get separated, well, that's definitely a strike against attending.

So we'll watch the news in the morning and get a sense of what the crowds, transportation, and weather are looking like and decide then. I'd say odds are still good that we'll stay home and watch the festivities from here...but I wouldn't put it past us to be impulsive seize the moment if the stars are aligned correctly. Whatever we end up doing, we're really excited for the moment to arrive.

THE VERDICT (TUESDAY MORNING):

Mädchen (and, by extension, Gretchen) had a lousy night's sleep last night, she is still fighting off a cold and Gretchen woke up with a sore throat, it's currently 20 degrees outside with a wind chill of 9, and as of 8:00am it looked like the crowds were already enormous, so...no go. It's pretty amazing to see how many people are braving the cold for this. But it looks like, for us at least, the best way to celebrate history will be here in our cozy family room.