[caption id="attachment_563" align="alignleft" width="318" caption="Hope we can believe in? I hope so But Barack you&#39;ve got a lot of work to do"]<img class="size-full wp-image-563" title="Hope " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cae-hope.gif" alt="Hope we can believe in? I hope so But Barack you've got a lot of work to do" width="318" height="472" />[/caption]

It's been a pretty lazy Sunday for me.  I've watched some tv, read a little, worked on a hat that I am knitting and then found myself playing around with <a href="http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/" target="_blank">this website</a>.

You can make your own Shepard Fairely's Obama-esque photo-poster.  It's pretty fun.  I got a big kick out of it and I think you might too.

I've been kind of bummed out that I won't be in DC for the inauguration.  My little sister got tickets (lucky she's from Eastern Washington) and my old roommate from Wyoming did as well. When I found out that both of them got tickets  I was really happy for them.  These are a hot commodity, a really hot commodity, and I found myself insanely jealous.  They were going to be there.  They were going to be able to say that they sat in freezing cold weather after arriving in the bitterly cold morning and being patted down by security to see the first black man be sworn in as president.  They had tickets to what may be one of the defining events of the 21 century.  They were going to sit through history and I was going to be 7 time zones away in Bulgaria (where we may or may not have natural gas next week).<!--more-->

I felt like it was okay for me to jealous about this.  Sure I am having a good time in Sofia but a black man is being elected president and I am not sure how I'm going to be able to watch because the Obama camp has sold the recording rights.  This is detailed in this article on the Washington Post: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011604921.html" target="_blank">Inaugural Panel Sells Exclusive TV Rights</a>.  I read the article and thought: well what does this mean for me? and why should anyone be making money on this?

Then I went to school.

At school, the secretary told me that she had a letter for me.  I wondered who knew that I worked there and thought it was better to deliver a letter for me there than at my apartment.  The return address told me that it was from the US Embassy in Sofia.  Also the letter didn't have a stamp and the envelope only said my name and on the next line the name of my school--those sneaky embassy people apparently they are not confined by things like stamps or zip codes.  (Oh and thanks for getting me the letter!)

Anyhow, I've been invited to a live viewing of the inauguration at the US Embassy in Sofia.

Okay, it's not exactly like being in Washington DC for the big day but it's not too bad considering.  I guess it's kind of the like the Super Bowl--some people get tickets and freeze watching the game outside drinking small expensive beers and eating nachos with fake cheese and then there are the rest of us who watch from the comfort of our living rooms drinking good beer and eating great food in t-shirts and jeans.

So to my sister and roommate: I'll be thinking of you on Tuesday when I am eating little hors d'oeuvres and drinking wine from the atrium of the US Embassy in Sofia. Heck, maybe I'll even look for the backs of your heads in the crowd when the cameras are panning around before the inauguration officially gets underway. (PS I do hope that you two have fun and aren't too cold out there on Tuesday.)

The only thing I have left to consider is:  can rock my yellow Obama shirt under a blazer with a skirt and heals and wear this outfit to the event at the US embassy?