Inauguration Thoughts

Yesterday was really a historic day and I tried to watch as much of it as I could. A few thoughts:

1. I understand it's in the constitution, but is it really necessary to continue having inauguration on January 20, regardless of what day of the week it falls on? Obviously, this year, people were willing to take the time off work to hit Washington DC and at the hospital, there were lots of people gathered around what TVs could be found. But I ended up missing Obama's oath and was forced to try to watch his speech with the streaming video on my laptop computer -- which was haphazard at best. It was like the speech was coming to me through a bad cell phone connection. It did get me thinking though: was this the first inauguration that people have been able to watch via streaming video online? Or maybe it was just the first that people actually wanted to watch. I don't know that it was really around in 2001 and if it was around in 2005, did anyone care to watch it that way? Anyway, it would be nice if the inauguration ceremonies were changed to the weekend to allow more people to at least view them on TV. The last inauguration I watched was Clinton's first, and that was really just because I wanted to hear Maya Angelou.
2. My daughter will never know life before a black president. That's a little amazing to me. To her, it will just be how things are. Perhaps, she may also never know life before a female president, but maybe not if Obama gets 2 terms. The first president I remember is Carter and the 1980 election. I would have been 8 years old and we thought we were so grown up talking about the election and the hostages.
3. Totally superficial, but Michelle Obama looked lovely. I loved her dress last night. And the girls were adorable as well, though I haven't seen what they wore to the balls (if they got to go). I feel for the girls and hope the Obamas are able to keep them out of the spotlight as much as possible (much like the Clintons did with Chelsea -- whom Maggie got to meet while they campaigned in Montana last summer. Chelsea visited Maggie's daycare).

It was an important day in our history and I'm happy to live in a time that I am able to be a witness to it from the other side of the country, even while sitting at my desk.