Thursday, February 4, 2021

Social Distancing Journal, Days 313: Inauguration Day!

It's been two weeks since we got ourselves a new president! But, it feels longer ago than that. Coronavirus times, ya know? 

Still, it's time to get caught up on blogs. So here we go. 

Since I couldn't go to this inauguration, because nobody could go to this inauguration, I did take a whole bunch of screenshots on my phone. So buckle up for those. 

The night before: 


And don't forget, we were getting TWO new Democratic Senators too. I love them, and this is the only situation where you'll find me jealous of Georgia. 


Look, a real presidential schedule! Not just "the president will make many calls and have many meetings". Dude, that was just bananas that someone released that day after day for like the last two weeks of the Trump presidency. 




We did still have one more night of Trump though, and of course he did something stupid. 


And we played some games to finish out the night. 


Day 313: Wednesday, January 20th: Inauguration Day! 

But here we are, inauguration day! 


It's finally here!! We've been counting down for over 100 days. 



I got up early, mostly out of guilt, because Hayden really wanted us both to get up to watch Trump leave the White House one last time. 


I mean, to think we were there when it all started four years ago.. and now, were.... here... now. 


So much has changed in four years, but a lot has also changed in a year. It was one year ago that the first Covid case was detected in the US. Fifteen Days to slow the spread, my ass. 


He left a little after 8. Of course, because he wasn't going to the inauguration. First president since Andrew Johnson to skip it (other presidents who passed on going to their successors inauguration: John Adams and JQA). Honestly, when I saw him fly off in Marine One, all I could think about was all the Trump supporters who screamed racist obscenities' and flipped off Obama's helicopter as it flew over the crowds in the streets four years ago. 


So long, and good fricken riddance. Although, to be fair, without his Twitter account, he has felt gone for the last week. 

And not only is Trump gone, but so are all of these entitled people. 

But, also, you guys. THIS. 

Oh, Twitter. 


Jim Acosta sums it up best

Man, that guy has had it rough. I remember seeing people screaming at him during the Trump Rally in October of 2016, back when nobody even knew Jim Acosta's name. 

Also, it's time to bring some truth back to the presidency! I mean, they all say things that aren't exactly true, but man... 

And now, back to DC for the new president! 


Words of encouragement.... on Twitter? Crazy. 


And then of course, there was this. I LOVE this. 


At the Capitol, the dais looks the same, but the audience is very different this go around.  



And Among those seats... 

And then there was Hillary Clinton on this day. I mean, we can all agree she was screwed. Electoral Inversions are the WORST. (I cringed everytime over the last four years, someone said 'the people have spoken' in regards to Trump getting elected- NO! The fricken electoral college had spoken.) I think back to the reception she got on January 20, 2017 at the Inauguration. But she went. She wasn't a sore loser. 

More than all of that though, you have to think she helped crack that glass ceiling a bit more, leading the way for Kamala Harris to be VP. 


After Trump had left the White House, we went to get some donuts to celebrate. Also, we'd been up for awhile and needed a pick me up. And yes, I went to pick them up in my slippers. Because that's what you do in 2020. You get donuts in your slippers, people. 


Also worth noting, back here in Florida, Disney was totally on top of things. 


You wanna know who else was on top of things? The Hamilton Twitter Account. 



With Trump gone, the limited number of inauguration guests began to arrive. Amy Klobuchar! 


And of course Bernie, who took the internet by storm for days with all the memes. 




Over the next few days Bernie and his mittens were everywhere! 


Though, I feel like Janet Yellen missed out on some Twitter fame. Also, shout out to Janet Yellen for being the first females Secretary of the Treasury! If the Trump presidency taught me anything, representation DOES matter. 

Oh, Twitter. Sometimes you're hilarious. 


And then of course all the former presidents were introduced. Sadly, the Carters had to sit this one out. You know, Covid and all. 

But, the Clinton's were there. 


And the Bush's. 


And the Obama's! 


And of course Michelle looked amazing. 


Trump might not have come to the inauguration, but VP Mike Pence did. I don't know he deserves 'credit' for it. It's what you're supposed to do. And I don't feel bad for him. He got on this train four and half years ago. He can't be that surprised it crashed. 

Of course, when Kamala showed up she was escorted by a Capitol Police Officer who led rioters away from the Senate Chamber just two weeks earlier. 


And now our new Vice President and Second Gentleman. 



I also love this so much. Just an absolute remarkable photo. 


And now Joe and Jill. 


Who also looked lovely. 

And now, with everyone there, we can get on with it. (Also, again, Twitter has jokes). 



It is such a sign of the times though. 


Back here we had party poppers for the oath of office! 


YAY!!! I even bought myself a t-shirt to commemorate the moment. 


And next up... a new President, about ten minutes early, but I feel like we all deserved to cut the Trump era a few minutes short. 



YAY!!! 


And then we got a real inaugural address. Remember the 'American carnage' speech? I was there for it. And that was, as George W. put it, 'some weird shit'. 


Whether Biden became president the moment he took the oath, or officially at noon, we made it. 

As a reminder, Wednesday's in 2021 have been... a lot. Time to put this all behind us. 

Meanwhile, in Trump world, all those crazy QAnon Supporters didn't quite get the revolution they wanted. 

It's un-officially official when the Twitter account gets changed over. 


And WhiteHouse.Gov, including the fact that the awful 1776 project gets scrapped. 



And now, Twitter rejoices. 






Also, how good was Amanda Gorman, the poet? She was awesome. 
And she made the cover of Time! 

Speaking of Hillary, this might be my favorite tweet (and reply!) of the day. 


To celebrate here, we played a game of Inauguration Day True American! 


Even grandma joined the party. 


Though, Calib and Peyton didn't do great. They spent some time together in the corner of shame. 


But grandma did pretty well for a newbie. 


We did add Joe Biden to the jar. Peyton was less than thrilled he got Donald Trump. 


We'll play again in a couple weeks for President's Day! 


And now, back to see what the new president is up to. Obviously, there's no big parade or celebration. Instead, he went to Arlington Cemetery to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, along with the former presidents. 


All the while the White House gets cleaned out and changed over. 


Even the license plate of the beast is changed. 


We did watch a lot of CNN on inauguration day, but it was just a relief, you know? 


And we didn't want to miss any of the good stuff. Because there was a lot of good stuff. I know a lot of people loathe Hillary with a passion. But, I mean, things couldn't have been easy for her over the last four years, and especially the last year. But now... 

And of course, Kamala got to swear in her replacement and Ossoff and Warnock, stripping Mitch McConnell of his Majority Leader status (though, admittedly the 50-50 tie makes things a little precarious). 


Plus, there's this: 



For dinner, we celebrated with a cookout. 


And some sparklers! We could also hear fireworks off in the distance. 




And for dessert, an ice cream bucket! 


So, ice cream buckets are a Disney thing (you can get them at the Water Parks, or you could get them at the Water Parks if they were open). But, we made it as close to the Disney thing as we could. I even dug out one of the sand buckets they serve it in, and bought Mickey Sprinkles on Amazon to make it official! 


We finished up the night watching the TV inauguration special from Tom Hanks at the Lincoln Memorial, complete with a video cameo by the former presidents. No inaugural balls. But, lots of fireworks and uplifting messaging from across the country. Soup for the Soul, as they say. 





I leave you with my favorite political cartoons. That sum this all up. 



















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