Taking a running start, jumping on, and firmly planting my ass on Violet’s bandwagon, I shall follow her lovely post with my own list of things that are causing double-extra happiness on this fantastic day (Note to the Future: 1/20/09 is the day that Barack Obama became President of the United States, or “USA,” which is what we used to call the place in which you live, Future.)

1. Writing this while listening to Washington DC squeal with excitement while the Obamas walk down Pennsylvania Avenue en route to the parade viewing platform.
2. Parades! How I love batons and marching bands and fixed smiles and twirling of all sorts.
3. Imagining Violet perform her Dance Step of the Day (“Wide, erratic back-and-forth lunges paired with robotic, chugging arm movements.”) I have just devised my own Dance Step of the Day: Hambone-inspired thigh slapping while spinning in a swivel chair. For varsity only: include a girlfriend head-waggle oh-no-you-di-int move.
4. My new calendar at work. A giveaway from Allied High-Tech Products, Inc. (“Quality Products for Metallographic Sample Preparation & Analysis”), it features pretty images of (I presume) metallographic samples. January features a “Banded Iron Formation (Magnetite), Polarized light.”
5. My Watergate courtroom sketch is about a bazillion more times vivid and beautiful in  real life that I could have ever imagined.

And that’s it. For now. Honestly, I can only digress for short times while I’m in such a close orbit to the history that was made today. Besides, there is a long line of marching tubas that need my attention on the CNN feed.

Obama! Obama!