I totally planned on watching, or at least listening to, the inauguration this morning, but I ended up not. For one thing, I wasn’t exactly sure when it was happening. I’ve never watched an inauguration before. Do they do it in the morning or the afternoon? Well, apparently they do it at noon, which makes sense–not too early, not too late–just about perfect, actually. Yes, noon EST, which was about a half-hour ago. Hmph.
Well, what can I say? I don’t usually have the TV on in the morning. I used to always turn the radio on after the kids left for school, but now that Townhall radio has left Portland and the only talk show on at this hour is Rush Limbaugh, I just don’t do the radio anymore either. I feel very out of touch. I download podcasts onto my iPod, but by the time I end up listening to them, the news is old. I suppose I could turn the radio on now, even if it is Rush Limbaugh. I could live-blog Rush Limbaugh’s reaction to the inauguration. That would be…fascinating.
….SNORE….
Sorry, checked out for a minute there.
Okay, now I’ve turned on the radio and some lady is talking. I don’t know who. I suppose I should turn the TV on so I can see who it is. She said “cotton and lettuce.” I just thought of arugula. You know, the arugula thing is finally funny to me, but I don’t think now is the time.
I turned on the TV and she looked familiar, but I didn’t recognize her. Hey, I recognize Dianne Feinstein, though. That’s Dianne Feinstein, isn’t it? Who cares? Girlfriend has no patience for this historical moment. TV is back off. Wall-E is on.
Radio is still on. Rush Limbaugh is inserting occasional snark. Not during the benediction, though, so that’s nice.
Yeah, that’s my live-blogging. I should really make breakfast. This cat’s prayer has grown tiresome. I’m sorry, but it’s hard enough for me to listen to prayers in church. I have limited patience for speech-prayer hybrids. I assure you this is not partisan sniping. It’s a personal failing. I take full responsibility for it.
What an awesomely brief speech-prayer. Now they’re singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I do love “The Star-
Spangled Banner.” I’m sort of alone in this, I realize. But I’m a fan. I like it. And now it’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” And Rush Limbaugh is being snarky again. And now he’s shut up again. This is really not that compelling on radio. It doesn’t help that I missed the most interesting part.
And now the opening strains of “Back to Ohio.” Ah, the Rush Limbaugh Show. How I have not missed you. Oh, crap, Rush Limbaugh just called the Rev. Lowry’s prayer a “speech-slash-prayer.” Now I feel dirty. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Rush Limbaugh. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate his peculiar gift(s). He just isn’t my cuppa. I like him best in small doses–preferably at those moments when he’s in really rare form and going off on someone who totally deserves it. But his snark, while restrained, is a little premature here. Have something nice to say for at least five minutes, dude. Radio off.
That reminds me, I’ve been listening to these Townhall podcasts, which I love, but they have these “Grassfire” commercials where some cat invites me to join a “patriotic, conservative resistance” to Barack Obama’s creeping socialism. He doesn’t say “creeping socialism,” he says something else–and I’ve heard it so many freaking times now, I can’t believe I don’t remember the exact words, but it’s something like “Barack Obama’s rapid move toward socialism.” Okay, I’m a conservative. I can finally say those words without choking on them. And I didn’t vote for Barack Obama, there are no tingles going up my leg when he speaks, and I’m obviously not hosting an inaugural party because I’m so effing excited he’s my President. But dude. He was sworn in half an hour ago. HE HASN’T DONE ANYTHING YET. Can we hold off a little on the histrionics, please? I’m trying not to have expectations. I want to give Pres. Obama a chance for success. I don’t want him to succeed at enacting a socialist agenda, but he just became President a few minutes ago. Let’s see what he actually does before we start forming a resistance to it.
Hopefully, you all already bought your automatic weapons. Right?
I’m just teasing. (You bought them, right? You got my back?) I was going to tell you about my weekend, but I’m trying to work on making my blog posts less long-winded, so you’ll have to wait. I know it’s Tuesday already. Maybe later today. I just need more time. Make like I’m Pres. Obama and be patient with me!
10 comments
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January 20, 2009 at 11:54 am
E
This felt exactly like me. I missed the inauguration for the exact same reasons. I wasn’t trying to make a statement, I just don’t usually watch TV and I wasn’t interested enough to figure out when it would be on until it was over. AND I feel exactly the same way about Rush Limbaugh. I’m a conservative, but, I’m not into snarky. So anyway, thanks for letting me relate.
January 20, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Susan M
Here’s the extent of my inauguration experience, a chat with someone I know online.
someone else: you have a new president!
me: coolio
someone else: he’s speaking right now. Great great stuff. watching on nytimes.com
just starting.
me: I’ll turn on the tv
someone else: literally starting right now
11 minutes
A couple minutes later…
me: sometimes I wish I wasn’t so cynical
someone else: you’re cynical about THIS? It’s an incredible moment.
even I am getting touched by it.
me: about what he just said
January 20, 2009 at 2:04 pm
bythelbs
I set it up to record on my DVR because I knew I’d be running kids to school at 9 am and for some reason I thought I really should see this one even thought I have no recollection of ever having watched an inauguration before. I haven’t watched it yet because the recorded event is like 5 1/2 hours! What the?! I think I’ll just fast forward to the 9 am hour and call it good. Is there anything worth watching for the 1 1/2 hours before and the 4 hours after? Really? Cra-zy.
January 20, 2009 at 4:40 pm
madhousewife
E – I actually like snark, but there’s a time and place, and 30 seconds after the inaugural ceremony is probably neither.
Susan M – See, I’m afraid I might have had a similar reaction if I’d heard it live, which is why I’m glad I read it instead. Skimmed it, really. It was pretty good, I thought.
bythelbs – I heard there’s some crazy Aretha Franklin stuff in there, if you want to search for it.
January 20, 2009 at 5:44 pm
janeannechovy
bythelbs, I watched it with 50 third- and fourth-graders at my son’s school, and there were definitely other parts worth watching. 8:30 to 9:30 would defintely adequately cover it, and ensure you get to see the performance of Simple Gifts, and the poem, and the inaugural address (which I think ended around 9:25, but I wasn’t watching the clock too closely). I think I’ll re-watch most of this segment again, since my attention was compromised by all the kids plus my squirmy almost-toddler.
January 20, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Evitafjord
I set it to record (in 3 parts because I chose our local Fox station) and then actually spent the day in the car and heard enough about it, so I came home and deleted it unseen.
My daughters (1st and 2nd grade) got (had) to watch it and said, “It was boring.”
My mind is just boggled at all of the spending on the pomp and circumstance of it all ($170 million, seriously, on parties and parades???). Un-freaking-believable.
January 20, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Alison Wonderland
I missed it. Slept through the whole thing. I’m not that sad about that.
January 22, 2009 at 7:29 am
Jody
I loved it! Am I your only liberal reader? 🙂
About the socialism thing, my favorite line is still from my 10 year old son, who is studying the Russian Revolution. He said, “You know those people who say that Obama is a socialist? I have a feeling that they didn’t even READ the Communist Manifesto!” Um, yeah, pretty good odds on that!
January 22, 2009 at 1:45 pm
madhousewife
Jody – Indeed.
January 22, 2009 at 7:42 pm
flip flop mama
I watched the swearing in of VP Biden and then up until about half way through Obama’s speech before my kid was yelling at me from the bath to wash her hair. Duty calls…
I admit though I did feel a little emotional at the whole process. Not necessarily Obama..yadda yadda..but the fact of the democratic process. I like being a witness of that kind of thing. I don’t remember watching an Inauguration before.