The Mountaintop

This week I went to the inauguration, sardined onto the Mall with 2 million other very happy people. There were some serious crowd management problems, but no one seemed to mind too much (except the people with tickets who got shut outside the gates). I was close enough that I could see figures moving around who were obviously Roberts and Obama doing their thing. The crowd was loud and joyful the whole time, but during Obama's address everyone fell silent to hear every word. Afterward some people (mostly older black women) were sobbing uncontrollably. It felt as if we'd all been released from something. Part of it was being released from the Bush administration, but there was also a sense of an older evil being lifted off us. The air smelled better afterward, the sky was bluer, and the crowd sang goodbye gleefully to Bush's departing helicopter.

Winter sports a-go-go

I'm trying to set some kind of winter sport decathlon record. Tonight it's ice skating with various kiddies. It's amazing how willing parents are to let near strangers haul their children away when they've been trapped in the house with them for a week. I learned to skate on figure skates but now I only use hockey skates. They're so zippy and sexy. You can change directions in a heartbeat. Good for chasing little blighters.

Extreme oof

This afternoon while Bu went skiing, Andy and I rented snowboards and tried to make it down the bunny slope without hurting ourselves or others. I've boarded before and it went pretty well, until this kid fell right in front of me and I t-boned him in the gut. He acted like it didn't hurt but I think it must have.