It’s so cold here in Michigan that school was cancelled today, lest small children freeze at the bus stop. Our hearts are warm, though, as we make plans to celebrate Tuesday’s inauguration. I’ve received invitations to parties of every flavor imaginable, and most people I talk to are so excited and hopeful that it’s difficult to worry about the lost jobs and arctic air that might otherwise result in collective depression.
My first invitation was to a neighborhood party given by Kenny (who looks like an Old Testament character with his long, gray-black hair and full beard) and his wife Val. It’s one of many parties organized at the request of Move On, the organization that kept us motivated and informed as we worked on the election. There are other Move On parties here, one of which touchingly invites us to “come celebrate a new beginning with my friends, my dog, my cat, and myself, in my home. I'll provide some soft drinks and popcorn, napkins, paper plates, etc. Some friends will bring a snack to share; you're welcome to do the same if you wish.” If that invitation doesn’t say something good about Democrats, I don’t know what does.
On an increasing scale of glamour, there is also the Pre-Inaugural Celebration on the Michigan Princess Riverboat on Saturday night, which includes two bands and offers “25 cent drafts while they last,” the “Ballgowns or Blue Jeans” event at a local opera house, and the “People’s Inaugural Ball,” a benefit for the local food bank taking place at a charming, Lefty internet café called Gone Wired.
Many of my friends are attending the most elegant local event, the “Barack Obama Inauguration Gala” at the Lansing Center. The Gala, in a venue more commonly devoted to boat shows and various Expos, features a DJ, a band, complimentary hors d’ouevres and and requires “Sunday best to formal attire.” (In this town, in this weather, I am tempted to go just to see the array of costumes from men in black tie to women in minis, sweaters and Uggs). Alas, $30.00 per person is too much to ask my Republican husband to shell out for such an event, on top of paying a babysitter and figuring out where to park downtown.
Although I could have my pick of anything listed above, or party hop, I am most jealous of two families we know that are driving together to D.C., and staying with a friend who teaches at Sidwell Friends. That would be my first “pie in the sky” choice. My second would be to attend the “Hail to the Chief” party at Gregory’s Ice and Smoke, an impossibly cool local bar with a predominantly African American clientele. I am guessing that the clothes will be beautiful, the music will be good, and the enthusiasm and joy will, if possible, be even more contagious than at other local “dos.”
In the end (after watching the inauguration on CNN and crying), I’m probably just going to put my own Uggs on and walk down to Val and Kenny’s. I’ll have my hummus platter in hand, drink a few winter ales, hug some folks I haven’t seen since before the Ice Age, and bask in the rightness of what lies before us. I am blessed to be in a town filled with people who spent months working to elect Barack Obama, and who (after a much-deserved night of hard partying) will be ready to pitch in and work hard again to help him move this country forward.
Ann Graham Nichols cooks and writes the Forest Street Kitchen blog in East Lansing, Michigan where she lives in a 1912 house with her husband, her son and an improbable number of animals.