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.