Brrrrr....

This is pathetic. You wanna know how cold it is in my house right now? Its so cold that I'm cuddling with my laptop for warmth under a pile of blankets that's gotten so heavy that I can't muster the energy to reach across my coffee table for my camera so that I can download my latest batch of photos. It is record-setting cold here today, so I guess it should be no surprise to me that my house is an icebox, but that's not really very comforting at the moment. Bailey and Pepper refuse to share the cable box with me (despite the fact that I let them share my electric blanket last night - hmph) so I guess I'm just going to have to resign myself to the fact that I might be crushed under the weight of all these blankets. Its really my only option.

On the bright side, I think this cold snap has settled a raging debate that I've been having with myself lately. For weeks I had been torturing myself over whether or not I should attempt to go to the inauguration on Tuesday. I don't live too terribly far from DC, so it wouldn't require a plane ticket or a hotel reservation, but it would require squeezing myself into the subway with WAY more people than it was ever designed to hold, braving security lines that might stretch for miles, and dealing without bathroom facilities for a minimum of 7 hours. Needless to say, none of my friends or family members were even entertaining the notion of going, and indeed every major news outlet in this area has pretty much decided already that the crush of people about to descend on DC is going to result in a catastrophe of massive proportions. But....Its historic!! This might be the biggest moment in history that I'll ever have the chance to witness. How do you explain to your grandkids that, yeah, I could have gone to see Obama take office, but it was crowded and cold that day... Well, with the announcement this week that the last form of public transportation that I could have possibly used to get into DC had finally sold out of tickets, I was relieved - whew! decision taken out of my hands! No way I can go now! Well, then my sister asked me to go with her and my nephew to the big welcome concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. Oh geez - a whole new raging debate! Its going to be a huge event - 500,000 people, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Beyonce, readings by Denzel Washington and Maya Angelou, and an appearance by the President-Elect himself. How awesome would that be? Unfortunately, the same set of problems that go along with the inauguration go along with the concert, with the added bonus of it being even COLDER on Sunday. Aaauuggghhh! The torture! Why am I so indecisive?!?!?! Well, I think the suffering I'm going throught right now in this cold while INSIDE my house has made my decision for me.

HBO's showing the concert for free anyway...