Wednesday, January 21, 2009

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Work Day

Yesterday, America's 44th President, Barack Obama, was inaugurated. 

(Or 43rd, depending on how you look at it. Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, making him the 22nd and 24th president. There's your brief American history lesson of the day.)

Last week, my boss, a self-proclaimed "Momma for Obama" told us she'd be parked in the conference room for the day, watching coverage of the inauguration. I wondered if our strict publisher would allow this. I figured she wouldn't and that myself and my coworkers would be sneaking on to CNN.com to watch. 

By 9:30AM my boss was in her position in the conference room. Only an hour later, nearly my entire office was there watching. Some of us working on laptops and others just watching. I've never paid much attention to politics and never watched an inauguration. So, I don't know for sure if this is normal or not. Something tells me it isn't.

We sat in the conference room until about 1pm. Something that normally wouldn't fly around this office. But it did yesterday. Regardless of your politics or who you voted for, it's hard to deny that history was being made. It was nice that my office could take a long break to witness such an historical event. 

Obama Inauguration Pictures, Images and Photos
                [Image via PhotoBucket]

Sidenote, how freaking cute are the Obama girls?

19 comments:

Sarah said...

My entire office crowded around one computer to watch. All of us sniffling away. And we're Canadian!

Krisito said...

I wish they made Sasha's outfit in my size!

Anonymous said...

Sasha is the cutest ever.....

Anonymous said...

they are so cute!

and it was amazing to see how many people stopped their lives to watch it

Caitlin said...

We all took a break from work to watch the inauguration as well. It's the last time the volume on the TV was audible since OJ's sentencing, ha. The rest of the day I snuck my FoxNews live stream in behind my work windows.

What an awesomely historical day.

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

I know...so cute. I heart the girls' JCREW jackets.

*Just Jen* said...

I watched it in my office alllll day. I hardly worked at all!!!

Lindsay said...

SO CUTE! I love their coats.

Gina said...

The kids at my school all got to watch it yesterday too. Not every teacher brought their class down :( but the kids were still talking about it today...and I work in an elementary school. And I second your comment about the Malia and Sasha. I never get over their cuteness!

Downbeat said...

We all sat in the break room around the one TV in our office to watch it... our entire company. I think that days like yesterday are universal once-in-a-lifetime-all-office-rules-go-out-the-window kind of days.

Anonymous said...

My publisher won't pay for such things as cable, so we listened over internet radio...the only thing our ancient macs will handle.

Anonymous said...

My school had a snow day yesterday (I won't go into the absurdity of that based on the less-than-an-inch accumulation of snow on the ground), but I know that a lot of the professors on campus came in to watch with their colleagues. At least the ones in the Communications school did, which I think is really cool. I sat in my living room with my roommate in our pajamas just watching, unable to take breaks from the coverage. And yes, Sasha and Malia spurred many "awwww!"s from us.

Anonymous said...

I live in Canada, but so many of us here are excited too! I am so happy that Obama got in!

<3 J. said...

Sadly, I had class all morning and totally missed the inaug!

But I just freakin' love the Obamas!

They're such an adorable family. You can tell that he and Michelle are so much in love and their kids are just plain cute!

And Michelle is so the new Jackie O. (Whom I also adore.)

And yay for HISTORY-MAKING! :)

Anonymous said...

I wish i could've seen it. I only heard part of his speech online. That family is so cute in general!

Katie said...

I agree! It wasn't normal. Everyone sat and watched.

I watched for as long as I could before I had to get back to work around 12:15...

Anonymous said...

Probably just the most defining moments in history. MLK and Rosa Parks would have been proud.

Love Mama said...

Just happened to find this blog while taking a break at work. I also recently joined the working world so it's great to read and compare my experiences with yours.

Manderz said...

I didn't watch it, but I definitely read about it online and watched some news clips. This is the first American election I really paid any attention to - being Canadian and not overly interested in politics and all.

And going beyond the history making aspect, this is going to be a great term fashion-wise with the Obama women.