So I woke up this morning, unloaded the dishwasher, baked some muffins, made a fire (okay, lit a Duraflame log), set the smoke alarm off, made a Folger's Caramel Groove coffee, and settled in to watch me an inauguration.
Obviously, I'm not happy about who's being inaugurated, but I'm patriotic enough to get a little weepy about big American ceremonial to-do's in a non-partisan kind of way. "Peaceful transfer of power" has needed only about a week to become a cliche, and that's because we take it for granted. It is rather an amazing thing, when you think about it.
I was at the first Bush inauguration, don't you know. We moved to Washington in the summer of 1988, just before my senior year of high school, so we had front-row seats for the election that fall, which was slightly more open-and-shut than this past one.
As you might imagine, Washington pretty much shuts down on Inauguration Day, including most schools in the area. So my parents and I drove in to my father's office on M Street and walked over to watch the Constitution in action.
I can't remember where we were for the actual oath of office, but we didn't see it live. We were part of the crowds along the parade route, and frankly, my memory of it is sketchy at best. I think maybe we saw the car with the Bushes in it, and I remember a lot of bands. But I do know it was pretty cool to actually be there.
Then, of course, I had to reminisce about Clinton's first inauguration as well. By sheer coincidence, we actually had a snow day that day, a very rare thing in a university the size of KU. I don't think anyone in my apartment -- four young Democratic women who had all voted for Clinton in the first presidential election we were able to vote in-- was actually planning on going to class that day anyway. We sat around and watched the whole thing (Elise might be able to back me up on this, but I'm fairly certain Ro-Tel cheese dip was involved), happy and excited about this young guy who actually paid attention to us during his campaign.
So that was cool too. We loved Bill, loved Hillary, loved Al and Tipper.
Damn, I am going to miss them.
So, the booksigning last night was fun. Cannell is a very impressive figure, very tall and rather good-looking, and he obviously tells a good story. I bought the new book and had him sign it, and when I introduced myself as a former employee, he seemed pleasantly surprised but not overly effusive. We exchanged pleasantries about my old boss, he signed the book, and that was about it.
I don't know if I'll read it. The story sounds interesting, but the protagonist's name is Shane Scully, and I think that's ridiculous. Why on earth would you write a book where the main character is a cop and therefore constantly referred to by his last name only, and then make that name a name that everyone already identifies with a huge iconic character in American pop culture?
Anyway, he's a cop who shoots his ex-partner to death during a fight, so he gets all up in Internal Affairs, but is then accused of being involved in some high-level corruption even though he has no idea what they're accusing him of, and the only person who believes him is this woman who was actually brought in to prosecute him, so they team up as the unlikely pair. Her name's Mulder.
No, I'm kidding. I think it's Hamilton. But whatever.
I think that's about it. I'm going to go do a little work on the site, just some general sprucing up. I'm renewing my commitment to the book journal section and maybe I'll make a navigation graphic or something, so you better just hold on to your keyboards.
Yeah. It's going to be that impressive. Sure it is.
Good weekend, everyone.