Running Blog of the President’s Inauguration

Yesterday, I watched the inauguration in one of the larger lecture rooms at the law school with many of my colleagues. I decided, while there, that I might as well keep track of this historic moment, for posterity’s sake (even if its my own posterity). Here is what I recorded yesterday:

11:35 am – Is it just me, or does Dick Cheney look like Mr. Potter from It’s a Wonderful Life? “You’re so smug, Barack Obama, thinking you don’t need my money!”

11:38 am – Is the guy announcing the inauguration the MoviePhone guy? His voice is ridiculously deep and cheesy sounding. I think he’s had a little too much coffee this morning.

The crowd on the National Mall is insane. To see that many people crowded together is just incredible. I don’t care who I voted for, this is giving me some butterflies. It’s stating the obvious, but this is history in the making and I’m proud as an American to be getting to watch it as it happens.

11:43 am – I cannot recall trumpeters in the past. Is that normal? Either way, here comes Barack – AND THE CROWD GOES WILD. You can just see the overwhelming joy on people’s faces as the camera pans into the crows. Here go the Obama chants. Ok, that’s a bit much folks, lets calm it down a bit. I feel like Joe Biden has a touch of bitterness as he gives Obama a hug. “I’ve spent my whole life in the Senate dreaming of being President; you didn’t even serve a full term. But no, seriously, I’m not bitter at all, do what you do Barack.”

11: 48 am – Glad to see Spielberg could make it out for the ceremonies. I realize that all of these senators and former presidents have contributed to our country, but nothing matches the impact “Indiana Jones” and “Jurassic Park” have had on this country.

11:50 am – Warren now giving his “controversial” invocation. A few too many heads up and eyes open behind the President-elect. Seriously, bow your heads, kids. You know you are at least going to be on TV, make a feigned attempt to pretend you like baby-Jesus.

They just cut to a church in Memphis, the site where MLK Jr. was assassinated. Now they’ve panned to Harlem. Good call, CNN, I was forgetting that Obama is half-black, make sure to keep cutting to primarily black areas of the country.

Why did Warren put that crazy emphasis on Obama’s kids names? Don’t get fancy with this, Rick, just get this bad boy wrapped up so we can get to the main attraction.

11:55 am – Aretha Franklin has just come out, in a costume from “The 5^th Element”.  CNN Fact – “Aretha Franklin is singing ‘My Country tis of Three’” Thanks for that tidbit, CNN, I wouldn’t have guessed it. Why not give us some truly inspiring and informational facts, like, “Ms. Franklin is another 10 lbs. away from a triple by-pass”

11:58 am – Fun law school side note. I’m watching this in room 300, which is where 1^st year students have most of their classes. The lights were turned off, but many students have their laptops half-up so that they can continue reading for their next class. Law School – Why watch History when you’re afraid of having your soul crushed in Torts.

11:59 am – Joe Biden up to bat, being sworn in with that looks like a Gutenberg Bible from the 1500’s. And Justice Stevens seems as though he may have actually been around for the first printing.

12:0a pm – A special classical arrangement by composer John Williams. That’s right, Mr. “Star Wars Theme” himself has delivered up a recipe, and Yo-Yo Ma is cooking up the goods. Itchek Perlman, Anthony McGill, and Garbrele Montero are chipping in as well.

12:00 pm – Apparently, Barack Obama became President just now, even though he hasn’t had the oath, because it is now past noon. Seriously? Couldn’t have coordinated that a little better?

I think it’d be awesome if he just stood up and started walking out. “I got the job now, no need to stick around for this jazz. You guys notice the country was in hell in a handbasket?” Alas, there’s 0% chance of that happening. Let’s keep hanging around for giggles.

12:02 pm – What are his kids doing? Are the playing checkers or something? Why do they keep turning around?

12:05 pm – Barack just messed up the oath. Now again! Seriously, you didn’t do a couple of run troughs of this? Well, it’s done, and the crowd both on the Mall and in this room burst into applause.

12:06 pm – It’s speech go time. Let’s see how this goes. It’s been said it will only be around 15 to 20 minutes.  What can he jam-pack into that time?

12:10 pm – Lots of talk so far about the storm around us, war, and failure to make hard choices. These are just “indicators of crisis”. We are also sapped of confidence, apparently.

12: 13 pm – A lot “strong” lines, so far, but I wouldn’t say that I’ve heard a homerun line yet. Still about 10 minutes to go, though. Lots of talking about fulfilling the dream of our founders and ancestors. Now talking about the re-building of the infrastructure of America.

Former President George H.W. Bush looks like he’s bundled up for a military review in Moscow. It’s only about, what, 20 degrees in D.C. Man up, Bushie.

12:15 pm – Awkward moment as he begins talking about the constitution, rule of law, and how we will not sacrifice our values. Camera pans to W. If he could shoot bullets with his eyes, Barack just took some slugs in the back.

12:18 pm – “you can not outlast us, and we will defeat you!” There you go, Hawks.

12:26 pm – The speech is now officially over. After just an average 15 opening minutes, he truly brought it home in the last 5 minutes. He gave a rousing speech about the hope and virtues that have always been a testament to our shared national conscious. He then quoted George Washington, from a point when the Colonial Army was trapped in the depths of a cold winter, a city abandoned, and how future generations would remember how “Hope and Virtue” or something to that effect got them, and thus the future nation, through the troubles. Regardless of my mis-quoting, it was very effective and rousing, and a very strong finish. At least we have some strong oratory to look forward to for the next four years.

12:29 pm – With the start of the poet, I’m done.

J506 Students

If you are reading this and have no idea who commented on your blog, I’m Andrew Heaton, and in your class. Because I also keep a personal blog (this one), my comments thus far on fellow students blogs direct you here. I will try to correct this, but in the mean time, you will find my J506 blog at Andrew Heaton’s “Adventures in Ethical Leadership” .

“My wife gives me that little wink now and then . . .”

Every once and a while, a commercial comes along and introduces us to someone who truly seems like the worst type of person. We meet this person, and instantly think, “I’d like to punch him if I met him.” I say “him” not to be sexist, but there have rarely been any women in commercials who have inspired me to cross the ‘hit-a-girl’ line. Guys, on the other hand . . .

For the longest time, it was Jerod. Yes, I truly can not stand the Subway guy. Every time I see him grin his little Subway grin, I want to throw something at the TV. Now, I understand a lot of people find this irrational. Many people have been “inspired” by Jerod. That’s fine, if you have been. I think what gets me, though, is that many of the early commercials just let it seem as if, “well, I just ate Subway, and here I am.” For someone who struggled very hard with their weight (and still does to this day), to have this preening jack*** come on air and make it seem like it’s an easy-squeezy process feels like a slap in the face. I realize this is unfair, irrational, and slightly ridiculous. My wife likes to tease at just how crazy it is, and thinks that I should actually like Jerod. He is actually from Indianapolis, and many people here in the area have commented that they’ve met him and that he’s a nice guy. Nice or not nice, I feel like Jerod is destined to be my “Chicken”.

I never thought I could be riled up by a commercial spokesman like I was by Jerod . . . until I met “Bowflex Guy”. I don’t know “Bowflex Guy”’s name, and frankly, I feel ok with that. I know all I need to know about him from his comments in his commercial. You see, apparently “Bowflex Guy” used to be overweight. Then, he bought a Bowflex machine. Now, he’s apparently living life on cloud nine. If I’m to understand the props correctly, he is now a bit of a body-surfer or wake-boarder. He has gotten himself a fancy little tribal tattoo on his back. But what’s really been the most beautiful change is his new attitude. “My wife gives me that little win now and then {chuckle-chuckle-chuckle} ” he says with his slightly gap-toothed grin.  The most atrocious comment however, is none other than this: “I gave all my fat clothes to all my fat friends!”

DID YOU NOW? I bet you also gave chlamydia to your girlfriends, you pompous jerk! I seriously just want to punch this guy in the throat. I want to rip his eyeball out like Black Mamba did to Elle Driver in “Kill Bill Vol. II”.  I hope he lost all of his friends, both fat and non-fat, after this commercial came out. He deserves is. “Bowflex Guy”, rest assured, there is a cosy spot waiting for you somewhere in the 7th circle of hell, you pretentious blowhard.

Other thoughts:

• This Pistons are proving me right, unfortunately. The Iverson trade was a horrible mistake, and this experiment is actually going to push us farther away from a championship. Nice move, Joe.
• Four days away from history. I’d be lying to say I’m not somewhat excited about it.  Even though I voted for the other guy.
• If Palin thought she had a future as the leadership of the Republican Party, I hope this is the beginning of the end of those thoughts. I just truly don’t like her. As much as the ticket tried to promote Obama’s “cult of Personality”, Gov. Palin is running on nothing BUT personality, as she has continued to show very little evidence to illustrate a fundamental understanding of some of the biggest issues facing the world today. Drill baby, drill. Good grief.

One love to you all, holla.

2009 – Year of the Drew

Ok, so I’m ripping off a Dru Hill song for the title, and that’s sad because who has even heard from Dru Hill since Sisqo started poppin thongs. Bottom line, though, the title is a vision for what I see as a break out year for this guy.

In all honesty, it’s going to be a breakout year for both Mr. and Mrs. Heaton. In May, Holly will officially be done with Medical school. At that point, she will prepare for, what now anyways, seems like will be the biggest move of her life. She’ll officially be a doctor, and she’ll be doing it most likely in a brand new city all by herself.

Where will I be, you ask? Well, I won’t be too far behind, but I will be behind. It’s going to take me approximatley six months to meet up with her, as I am now on schedule to graduate by next December. But that is part of my own optimisim for the year. in this year, I will wrap up my graduate school career. I will finish out my last year in Indianapolis, and then move to a new city. I will, by the grace of God, have a new job, taking advantages of my new degrees.

Thus, with all of that said, I have big hopes and dreams for this year. 2009, the last year of the first decade of the twenty-first century. So, going with my own little tradition, I have cobbled together some goals for myself for the year. Before we go to this year, though, let’s reflect upon 2008’s goals, and how I did with them:

• Run a marathon – DONE. I ran the Chicago Marathon in October.

• Work as hard as I can in law school – I feel I did, anyway.

• Get out of the country at least once – How does China and Kenya work for ya?

• Read about a subject that I know nothing about – Ehh, can’t say I got that one.

• Start getting sometime of internship or associateship in the pipeline – Did an internship in the Fall, but need to keep going on this one.

• Go to a Tigers game – Sadly, this was a failure. But I did go to Yankees-Mets at Shea Stadium.

• Call my family and fraternity brothers more often - Well, I . . . who am I kidding. No.

• Love my wife as much as possible. - Leave that one to my wife to judge. But I sure tried.

So,  eight goals, five accomplished. That’s a .625 batting average. Not bad – but let’s see if I can go for 1.000 in 2009.

 

Goals: Graduate from Law school and the MBA program in the top 20% of both ~ Achieve 7% Body Fat (currently at 10%) ~ Read six books ~ Get a job! ~ Visit home more often (twice in 2008 ) ~ Visit another foreign county ~ Visit a new state ~ Finish a marathon in under 4.5 hrs. ~ Volunteer more.

 

I think that’s good for now. We’ll see how that goes. “00’s”, I’m gonna finish you out with a bang.

 

Kim Dean’s Wedding

 

The day has finally come, KimmyK, a.k.a. Momma Hen, a.k.a. Miss Kim, is no longer a single lady. I now have three of my four “sisters” married off. That just leaves you, Stetsi. The wedding was beautiful, and it was quite a showing of old school Mobile First Assembly youth group members (Fire Escape Youth Ministries). Brian Ferguson, Rachel Andrews, Josh Slay, Autumn Cho, old schooler’s were just coming out of the wood-works. I always love seeing the Dean family, especially in such happy times. Makes you long for days of old. Makes you long for a sense of home.

 

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be back again soon. Same bat time, same bat channel. One love to you all.

Skiing Penguin falls victim to “Marley” – coverage at 11.

Many of you know about the most recent addition to our family, Bella “Boo” Heaton. Bella is, at this time, a seven month old Golden Retriever puppy. She came into our family shortly after our return from Africa. While there, Holly had read the book “Marley & Me”. Upon completion of the book, our often debated topic of “getting another puppy” was no longer a debate. We WERE going to get another puppy. So once we came back, we scoured the Internet, and after finding a batch of Golden’s for sale near her parent’s home, we went down the weekend of Aug. 10th, and picked up our new bundle of joy. At the time, after reading the book myself, I had cautioned, “now, you know that she could potentially due all the things Marley did in the book. Are we emotionally and economically ready for this?” Holly said that we were, that there would be now more questions, and proceeded to put the shock collar back on me so as to keep my opinions to myself (the last part is a joke . . . sort of).

Fast forward to this past week. Bella has been, for the most part, a perfect puppy. With only one real “destruction” (a pair of Holly’s earrings), and just a few “accidents”, she’s been about as good as you could ask a puppy to be. We attribute this to her older ’sister’, Karley (our now 9 yr old Golden). Wednesday, taking advantage of end of the year holiday cleanouts at the store, we came across a “skiing penguin” at Target. Holly loved it, thought it was cute and funny, and particularly liked that it could be left out after Christmas, since it wasn’t just a Christmas decoration, but a winter one. Skiing Penguin was a resident of the Heaton by that afternoon. When he was first put on the ground in the living room, Bella showed a little interest. Holly told her “NO”, she backed off, and that seemed to be that.

That night, we were upstairs rearranging furniture, and had not noticed that our littlest family member was missing. As we proceeded downstairs to get another piece of furniture, I heard a distraught scream from Holly. I ran to the living room to see Skiing Penguin toppled, Holly raging, and Bella cowering in a corner. Yup, Bella’s interest with Skiing Penguin had led to a full on makeout/chew session. Skiing Penguins shinny orange beak was no more. Bella, I don’t think, realizes how close she came to ringing in NYE at an animal shelter.  Holly did giver her a spanking, however, that makes me feel somewhat sorry for our daughter’s one day (as I have already warned that I will be incapable of spanking little girls – little boys, on the other hand, well feel the ‘Wrath of Kahn’ if they breath the wrong way).

All is now well. We found another Skiing Penguin, and after realizing that it was, in fact, just an $8 Skiing Penguin, Holly and Bella are now best friends again. Bella is back to being at Holly’s feat, playing the role of Foot Warmer in the Heaton Holiday Spectacular. 2008, you went out with some pizzaz, I’ll give you that.

Random Thoughts and Dubious Mentions

• We rang in the New Year with friends Dan, Stephanie, AJ, and his date Rachel at the Rathskeller. We rang it in to the sounds of “Toy Factory”, which was a 70’s funk cover band. We thin proceeded to Boggs house to hang with the crew over there. All well rung in 2009, I must say.
• The Lions ended up going the distance, finishing 0-16. Absolutely amazing, guys. At least Millen’s gone. I emphasize least.
• After looking at my credits, and judging other considerations, it looks like I may get school done early, and graduate next December. One more year of school left. Absolutely amazing.

I’ll be making another post this next week, revewing my 2008 goals, and then listing out my 2009 goals. Until then, one love.