It's a new day . . .

I'm sure you will all remember, many years from today, where you were when our 44th President took the oath of office. I was standing in Civic Center, San Francisco with 2 of my dear friends and 6000 relative strangers. Watching this event in a crowd was an unparalleled experience. In the hour prior to the actual start of ceremony we watched CBS's "pre game" coverage on the jumbo tron. As the crowd and others were panned you could hear our crowd cheer or jeer depending upon who was being shown on the screen. How liberating it was to stand with like minded people and boo without remorse Dick Cheney in his wheelchair. . . or GW (who brought the house down with his amount of boos). Equally impressive were the cheers. Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi sent the crowd into frenzy but when Barack Obama was shown- it was like being at a Stones concert. The picture, though poor quality, was taken from the KGO website- (they were co-sponsors of the event)

The only damper on my day was the gnawing in my stomach worrying about Ashley. Monday, while making her way home from a day of fun and frolic with friends, she took a nasty spill on ice and hurt her elbow and knocked her head on the concrete. Immediately she called Kyle (I was already in bed) and then some very kind strangers took care of her for a couple of hours before she got herself home. Once home she called again and this time Kyle came to wake me to talk to Ashley- "she hit her head" he says. Ashley sounded terrible, tired and probably worried- I instructed her to set her alarm for 3 hours later and have her roommate wake her if possible. The next morning at 5:00 am (our time) I called her to see how the night went. Brooke had woken her, she felt okay but a little nauseated. 1/2 hour later she calls me to say that while riding the bus to work she felt worse. A little later than this I called her and found she was in a cab and on the way to the MD. I also heard her have the cabbie stop so she could vomit on the road- Now, I started worrying. To make matters even worse- I had left my cellphone in my car and had to use my friend Fiona's. A bit later Randy called to tell me that yes, she had a concussion and they were having her go to the hospital for a CT scan. Knot in stomach now the size of George Bushes head.

After the end of the inaugural ceremony we walked and found a charming little cafe'. During this time Randy called me again to reassure me that the CT scan was negative and that Ashley was on her way home to rest.

24 hours later I am ebullient about the inauguration, and my daughters return to "normalcy" She goes back to work tomorrow and President Obama also will have to buckle down to some serious work. I'm looking for some really good shoes or boots with fantastic gripping ability for Ashley- I should also send our new President some thigh high waders to get through all the crap left behind by the previous administration!