What a day.

Had to post that speech in its entirety. So moving. So wonderful. It's a new era, my friends.

But my day was weird and exciting on a whole number of levels. First of all, it SNOWED in North Carolina last night. No, like, for real! A couple of inches here, a few more in the neighboring counties. Which more or less paralyzes things in the South. I, however, no longer live an hour from the hospital, but in fact, a mile. And I have a four wheel drive. And I'm from Chicago. So, I could get to work if there were two inches of solid ice out there.

But...are you ready for it? None of my patients showed.

I was giddy. I mean to tell you. I went from having a fully-booked, arduous, fourteen hour day, to...well....essentially doing no work at all. My 7am therapy patient couldn't make it. None of my four morning patients showed. My lunchtime supervision was cancelled because my supervisor was snowed in. They decided to close the clinic at 1 and so all of my afternoon patients got rescheduled. And my classes tonight were cancelled, so, none of that.

It's a beautiful thing.

So Peng and Ruthie and I puttered around the office all morning, watching patients no-show (a lovely sight!). Dr. G kept popping in and talking about the inauguration. We had CNN streaming in the office for a while, but as the event approached, Dr. G told me the IT boys were planning something. So we all congregated in their office at 11:30, and Kelvin had set up the widescreen HDTV that we use for teleconferencing. And of course, my word, it was amazing. I cried. I cried every time anyone made a reference to the March on Washington speech I posted yesterday. I cried watching the Obama girls be all proud of their dad. Our crisis team attending, who's a Quaker, started sobbing at the Yo-Yo Ma performance of "Simple Gifts," and of course we all lost it at that point. I've never been so okay with crying in front of my coworkers, but fortunately, Dr. G's wife - Dr. D, who's an awesome gal and a hard-ass trauma surgeon - set the precedent by pulling out her stock of tissues before the speech even started. Oh, gosh, it was a wonderful time.

And then...then I got to go home! I stopped and got some soup, and when I got home, I discovered some little bit had chewed right through the garbage bag in the kitchen and strewn garbage all over the house. For which she got the full-on, three-name holler: "MAXINE CANDY DOG (okay, I used her last name), WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!" She tucked her tail all between her legs and hid under Maggie's dog dish (which is elevated, since when we moved I foolishly thought that would keep Little Maxine out of Maggie's food). It was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen, and I held out a good 20 seconds before scooping her up and snuggling her.

So the puppies and I ate soup, we texted Sparrow (who's promised me pictures from the inauguration, ahem), we snuggled on my bed and watched House, and I played on Facebook and email and whatnot for most of the afternoon. I've since talked to Sparrow, and my folks, made potatoes and a Gardenburger for dinner (and a tiny little Betty Crocker Warm Delights Mini Molten Chocolate Cake. Cute little awesomeness, straight out of the microwave, cooks in 30 seconds. I found them at Target this weekend. That may be the best find of this whole month), and we're back to the snuggling portion of the evening. Sparrow's on the road, so she'll come get the little one in an hour or so, I think. I just keep praying the roads are good and that they get here safely. And Maxine is happy to burrow under my blankets and keep my feet warm until her mom gets here.

It's been a good day.