Inauguration Day!! Lets go President Obama!

It's inauguration day, and I'm one happy camper! I'm sure it's partly because I'm still in birthday-mode, but I'm thrilled and in awe of the historic moment in U.S. history that is happening today. It's different experiencing this in a foreign country...people congratulate me like I won the election. I think they [my Romanian colleagues] understand the importance of this event in America, and they want their belief in the American dream to once again be a reality. President Obama's ability to inspire the American people and even people in a small Transylvanian town is incredible. Although I, and even Obama himself, like to keep race out of the election discussion...Katharine Seelye of the New York Times described the significance better than I ever could:

“The inaugural itself will be at the Capitol, which was built by slaves who baked the bricks, sawed the timber and laid the stone for its foundation. When Mr. Obama delivers his inaugural address, he will be looking out across the National Mall, which was once a slave market, beyond the White House, also built by slaves, to the Lincoln Memorial, honoring the president who freed the slaves.”

It's important to remember President Obama can't solve all our nation's problems...we all must work together and maybe even sacrifice a little to create a better future for the United States. Here is to hoping we can all do that! As President Obama said,

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

A little piece of my favorite inaugural address which still inspires me even after Dr. Bigham made me dissect it line by line. [Lincoln's 2nd in 1864]

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.’’

I celebrated the historic moment with homemade pizza, Romanian cakes, and champagne... Then I learned how to play canasta! Not a bad day's work!!