Mall schmall: Can't beat watching inauguration on TV

My cousin and I couldn't decide if we wanted to watch the inauguration from National Mall or from the parade route, so we did some research. The D.C. police had issued a statement deterring visitors from getting to the mall before 4 a.m. Four in the morning? Here we were thinking we'd arrive sometime around 8. Now it sounded like we would have to set up camp around 6, a good five hours before any of the activity started. All in 20-degree weather, without food or drink and likely two miles or more away from the Capitol.

We settled on the parade route. Until we read the police report for that one: no food or drink, aside from certain granola bars, which could still possibly be confiscated, and they would be turning people away after the first 350,000. And all of this to watch a limousine drive by.

You know what, my cousin has heat and a TV in his apartment. And plenty of food. So we settled on that.

We woke up around 10 and flipped on the news, which had already been covering the pre-inauguration action since 2 that morning. The newscasters were discussing the debate surrounding the exact moment when power transfers during an inauguration according to the Constitution. Is it upon completion of the oath, or does it automatically transfer at noon? The only question I got out of their conversation was – do I care? They weren't lying about "total coverage." I decided to start watching again once they moved on to talking about the Obama's favorite brand of toilet paper.

Things obviously ramped up when the actual ceremony began. Even from the safe distance of the apartment, the power in the air was evident. That last, overwhelming silence before Obama emerged was stifling but fantastically invigorating, and the eruption following his oath could have registered on the Richter scale.

It finally happened – we had an African-American president. He said it best himself: Forty years ago, he would have been turned away from restaurants, and now he held the highest position in the American political system. In the words of the late poet and political philosopher Biggie Smalls, "things done changed."

It was a sensational trip overall. Even though I wasn't directly among the millions of attendees, dancing and screaming and weeping, the gravity wasn't lost. But amid all of the ecstasy, what must poor Bush have thought? Obama's speech was one of clear indictment of the prior administration's conduct and results, with Bush himself only a few feet away. In my honest opinion, I don't think Bush cared. After the eight years he served, facing the disdain of his own country and the rest of the world, he probably considers it a blessing to return to the relative anonymity of his ranch in Texas.

At least Obama was more than gracious. It's that kind of diplomacy that gives me hope for the next four years.