Chapter 6: The Inauguration Of Barack Obama, January 20, 2009: Living The Spectacle, Living History

The coffee aroma poured from the kitchen and lingered into the living room. I had slouched into the sofa with my laptop and the first of many mugs of coffee to begin my daily routine. My early morning ritual consists of checking email, glancing through friends’ updates on Facebook, and flipping through the hundreds of feeds delivered in Google Reader since the previous morning. Sunrays beaming through our northern facing window wall suggested that it was a warm January morning even though the outside thermometer claimed the temperature was just barely hovering above 0 degrees. Even though the morning rituals during the first few sips of coffee were typical for a January morning, there was an overwhelming sense of excitement and anticipation for the remainder of January 20, 2009—the inauguration day of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.