My "Grumpy Old" inauguration Day

Today was a workday after a much appreciated 3 day weekend where I had celebrated my 30th birthday. I knew that if I didn't leave the house, I wasn't going to get much done. With all of the TV coverage combined with my weakness to the internets, I was going to be a goner if I didn't attempt to go somewhere to work.

Of course I went to my second office that is Westport Coffee House at around 9am. The place was pretty dead with it's usual flow of people grabbing a coffee before they went into work and some students scattered among the tables attempting to study.

An older man came in and immediately sent a couple of wiz bang comments out to the baristas about how he was surprised they weren't watching the inauguration on tv. The way he spoke to them along with their uninspired replies, you could tell he was a regular that people wished wasn't so regular. He ordered his coffee and b lined to a seat near me where he (I kid you not) slapped down his "Gun Lovers Monthly" magazine and his paperback bible. This guy was looking for some action today. He wanted it known that he wasn't at all interested in the "show" that was going on today and wanted to confront anyone who was.

I had a lot of calls to make and meetings to setup for the week so I setup a very choppy and almost unwatchable streaming video on CNN, where I was surprised I was able to sign in to my Facebook at the same time, turned off the sound and began making calls.

Sure enough the old guy came by my table and just couldn't help himself from saying, "Tough day at the office huh?" I'm guessing by some of the right wing blogs and radio spatterings I've heard in the last few days was he was implying that in these economically woeful times, I should be worrying more about my work than seeing this schmuck take office online. Like somehow the economic problems we are facing today were created by the middle class not working hard enough and that if we don't have our nose to the grindstone today of all days, we'd be doomed for another drop in the DOW by a few hundred points.

What's bothered my for the rest of the day, is that I had no witty retort to fire back at him. In fact my response was a meek, "yep, it's a real rough one", followed by a short grin. I really wanted to plow into the guy, to let him know that I wasn't one of the groupies, and not even a registered democrat. I also wanted to throw something at him to know that we were also not buddies and I was not one of the crabby many that have stated way too many times, "Now that the he's in office, we'll if he'll fulfill all of these promises."

Somewhere down the road, I did get caught up. I enjoy the feeling of hope and I love a politician that can speak openly about logical thinking, openness to science, and even point out that the "non believers", are just as American as anyone else. We will absolutely see what he can do in these toughest of times, but whatever it is, it feels much better than it did during the last 8 years of fear and fighting.

I finally let it go tonight. Nothing I could have said to ole grumpy pants would have changed his mind. He was looking for a fight and didn't get one. I can only hope that this may be the beginning of the end for those old thinking processes. The politics of sticking to something and not wavering, not cooperating, and especially not listening.

Following the events today online was also a trip. To feel like I was watching the event alongside of all of my friends, even though we were scattered throughout the country, was inspiring and made me feel a connection that I never have before for politics and pride in my country. There is a feeling of scratching the surface to something big, and that it should be the right to all in this country to feel that same connection.

Today was a special day. Not only because a black man became president and not because the W crew was saying their final goodbyes, even though I did snicker a bit at Cheney's Lebowski impersonation. It was special because of the people. Because people were happy even in a very unhappy time. People were connected and it feels different. Right now, I'll take different and see where it goes.