Great lede of the day...

"PHILADELPHIA – A destructive winter storm left more than a million customers in the dark before barreling into the Northeast on Wednesday, delaying flights and turning the morning rush into the morning slush as communities braced for the worst."

Who says journalism is nothing like poetry?

My life is a comedy of errors

(I stole that headline from someone's Facebook profile.)

There, I've confessed. I am a terrible liar. Can't even lie about a silly quote.

Like today, when I knew very well that I did not have my assignment for Spanish lit class (one of THREE Spanish lit courses I'm taking this semester- matarme por favor) I couldn't look my professor in the eye during the entire hour. When, just before we were dismissed, he made his rounds and took up everyone's papers, I ducked my head and slipped out the door. I couldn't tell a story about my aunt passing away (which, sadly, is true) or even make one up about a broken laptop, busted printer and lost bulldog bucks card. I'm a whimp. A whimp with a screaming conscience. A whimp with a screaming conscience that will never shut up.

I digress...I'm in my second week of school and the new job covering state legislature. It's been interesting so far, but my boss is a bit scatterbrained since he fired all his reporters last December and has been pulling everyone's weight since. I feel bad for the guy and the guys that I, a lowly intern, have replaced. I am doing their job for $7.50/hr and probably not doing a very good job at that. But this makes me hopeful for my future in journalism. If they're firing all the expensive, seasoned reporters because they can't afford proper journalism, then by all means, please hire the young and inexperienced! I know I'm getting assigned a helluva lot more stories now than had there been four pros to compete with.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of walking past the capitol; it's actually pretty thrilling. You feel like you're going someplace exciting, some small part of the machine of government, one tiny screw in the engine of change....

And then you realize you're stuck outside your office with no key card to get in because your boss (who is busy writing 10 bajillion stories) didn't have time to issue you one.

Comedy.
Error.
Life.

Turn left at Capitol Hill...right into History.

Finally pulled into DC around midnight and made it to Kim's home in Maryland shortly after. I managed to get turned around somehow thanks to a poor satellite signal that turned my GPS into a worthless talking box on my dashboard ("Recalcualting, recalculating..."). But my mix up led to a detour through downtown DC that was more than welcome. Women in gowns and men buried beneath thick woolen trench coats crossed the streets, going to or from some grand ball. I suddenly felt that tingle of anticipation, starting in my fingers as they drummed impatiently on the steering wheel and ending up stuck in my throat in a giddy bark of laughter. This is it, I thought. History. And I'm here.

The epilogue of Dreams From My Father was Obama's speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I had never heard it before; I only knew it as the defining moment in his career. That rare twist of fate when magic, inspiration, ambition and guts come crashing together. And from the explosion emerged a movement. Led by a man who would go on in four years to represent the future of a nation.

So, it's past 2 a.m. and I am heading to bed. But I'll let him have the last word tonight. Because Obama understands -- as well as Lincoln, Frost, Shakespeare, Dr. King and other leaders did centuries before him -- the sheer power of the spoken word. That it can change the course of a people like a strike of lightening.

To me, this was the acceptance speech for an election he did not yet know he would run.

It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work.

It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.

-- Barack Obama, 07/27/04

Top O' the Hill (Day One of D.C. Roadtrip)

After dragging myself out of bed this morning, I kissed my mom goodbye (promising to be careful) and hit the road -- Inauguration bound. It was a pretty uneventful six hour drive to my friend Tessa's apartment in Chapel Hill, NC. I listened to Dreams from My Father, Barack's first memoir. It was nice reclining behind the wheel, his smooth baritone keeping the road rage and fatigue at bay. It's hard to say if I'm excited or still a little in shock since Obama gave his epic victory speech on that cold Chicago night Nov. 4. Everything changed. And nothing changed, too. We knew then that the worst and the best were both yet to come. And he had squared his shoulders to receive the burden of a nation, tall and calm, a mountain in the face of an avalanche.

But he's not in this alone. We'll dig ourselves out of this mess the same way we got into it -- together.