Everyone knows I am a politics junkie. I always have been. In high school I wanted to be a U.S. Senator. Now I want to be a speechwriter (and found out that a coworker is friends with wunderkind Jon Favreau, a little connection I’m going to keep in my back pocket…) I had MSNBC and CNN streaming desktop all day, and was one of the first to arrive in the firm’s conference room to watch the inauguration on the projector screens with dozens and dozens of my colleagues, not really caring when they saw me wipe away tears. And I was the literally the last to leave the conference room and head back to my desk — only after I had witnessed this:

As much as I marvelled over the details and the entirety of today’s events, I continue to be awed by the absolute peaceful transition of power that took place at noon. No matter our political affinities, we should be grateful and inspired by this. And, I should note, how utterly classy of the Obamas to escort the Bushes to the helicopter, bidding them farewell with handshakes and hugs and a mouthed, “God Bless” from Michelle Obama to George Bush. I was pretty proud today — cliche alert! — to be an American.

And now, a running stream of commentary:  Craig Robinson wearing a Princeton scarf (I don’t care if it was some other school! It looked orange and black!); the Obama girls’ beautiful coats (especially loved the red and pink on Sascha!); I did love Michelle’s coat (and am loving her white off-the-shoulder dress at the balls); Rick Warren almost ruined it for me — especially when you compare him to the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery; Jill Biden’s boots and that short skirt! (If I ran five miles a day and looked like her, I’d do it too! My friend Kara thinks her kind of a hot mess and sure to be sporting lots of cleavage at the inaugural balls; I think she looked great, although we can debate the appropriateness…); Joe Biden has handsome blue eyes; John Roberts — wtf? Were you nervous? Also, do you think Justice Stevens is retiring, like, tomorrow?; if you want to see the funniest comment about Aretha’s hat, look here. Finally, I spent most of inauguration day texting and on Facebook, just revelling sharing in this moment. I loved today — like November 5, I woke up feeling it special, and I am finding it hard to tear myself away from the coverage more than 12 hours later.