It’s clear that after the experience it is hard to just move on. We have found ourselves pulled back again and again into talking about it, reading about it, thinking about it.
I guess we should start the Wed. blog entry with the 12am-2:30am session after we returned from the ball. Since we needed to get up and get to the airport, and were already pretty sleep-deprived, reason said we should get to bed. But after the disappointment of the ball and missing the Google bash, we decided to have our own little post-inauguration party. On the way into the hotel we bought a couple of glasses of champagne at the bar, then went up to the room and brought out our stash of food we had been saving away (not too shabby – pate, aged gouda cheese, banana bread and chocolate chip cookie (from the busses), Trader Joe chocolate, grapes,….). We turned on CNN and watched the repetitive but mesmerizing round of showing Barack and Michelle at one ball after another, commentary on her choice of fashion designers, reminiscences of the day, and general human interest stories. In the end, I think we’re not big socialites. The two of us together was just the right size for a meaningful party
Another aspect was Carol’s, dare I say it, “obsessive” collection of newspapers. We brought home days worth of USA Today, Washington Post, local sheets we bought on the street, and a New York Times. Even though the repetition is mind-numbing, I still found myself brimming up with tears when I read one more article talking about the racial/ethnic diversity of the extended Obama family (including the Rabbi), or one more interview with African American "pilgrims" who had traveled far to the event to Washington, saying how they never dreamed this would happen in their lifetimes.
On the plane, the flight attendant spent most of the trip hovering beside our seats, telling us what he had seen on TV while we were shivering in the cold, with all the details of how Barack rushed over to an ailing Ted Kennedy, what Sasha and Malia were doing during the swearing in, and who was looking like what up on the platform. In a way, this text is the final step. By writing it, we are still holding on to the feelings and emotions (I actually get teary-eyed while typing these words). Sharing them with our friends and family is the best way to keep their meaning in our lives.