Behold! At last! A New POST!

I am a liar.

Or more of a...bender of the truth.

While I have returned to my blog, it does seem I am not as faithful as I once was. The relationship has changed. I have no crazy world travels to talk about.

Why, if anything, my life has gotten, just so-gosh-darn patriotic. I find myself living on Consitution Avenue, seeing American flags on every corner. I can look out the window and see the Capital building. And now, well, its inaguration time.

Yes. The time has come. The time of change. The time when we have a new president, and I while I will refrain from my usual teetering in betweens of the political world, I will merely describe what I have been seeing here, in Washington DC, as a new president prepares to enter office in tee minus two days.

Well, to begin with. My day usually begins with a brisk five block walk to Union Station, the nearest metro to my house, and after this walk, I often enter the station itself in hopes of warming up before my next walk from station to school. In this time, I have walked the station, well, a few times, and the one interesting thing I have seen is the sheer number of Barack Obama merchandise in the stores. There are at least two if not three small, station, stores that sell only Barack Obama gear, hats, scarves, pins, posters, books, life size cuts outs. etc. etc.

And this weekend? Well, beyond the stores devoted to Mr. Obama, there are now outdoor salesman walking the streets with gear, every metro stop, from U Street to Chinatown, has at least one person hawking Obama gear...although it is actually usually a lot more than one person. Oh, did I mention there are sweatshirts with the Obama family picture on it?

The world has gone crazy for Mr. Obama, and DC shows it. The fan fare, the toursits, the parties, the pins! Everywhere, everything here has transformed into a shrine to our future president. And while I am not sure how I feel about this whole thing, the sheer size of this persona and image has grown into something that I have never seen before.

Yesterday, Barack Obama arrived in Union Station, after a train ride accross at least part of the country. Pulling into the station, I am sure he walked past all the stores, although closed, that were built on one promise, him. I cannot understand or comprehend how that can make a person feel, the knowledge that it is his name, his face, his voice, his marketing that literally feeds these store owners, and beyond that, the fact that before he is sworn into office he has become the most famous and most popular president that we may have ever seen. Seeing it, as a regular person, with confused political ideas, and overall ambivalence towards politicians, I cannot help but feel strange. But seeing this as the man himself, as the new demigod of the US, well, I just cannot understand how he may be feeling.