{preparations for a big day}

Happy Inauguration Day!

Our 44th president was sworn in once again on Sunday and the festivities roll on, with parties ranging from Sunday’s Nickelodeon Kids Concert featuring Katy Perry in patriotic getup that would make Uncle Sam proud (or entertain dirty, flag desecrating thoughts. One or the other) to tonight’s Texas’s “Black Tie & Boots” Ball.

I was lucky enough to attend the festivities in DC last time around (and got close this time too… visiting a friend in Maryland over the weekend).

My memories below of that weekend four years ago, filled with inaugural style:

{layered up, clutching hot chocolate}

THE COLD

It was freezing that January in Washington DC four years ago. FREEZING. We attended a concert on the Washington Mall that Saturday (I think..maybe it was Sunday?), and I had to buy a new jacket because the three-quarter length sleeved wool topcoat I brought with me didn’t do the trick in sub-zero temps (imagine that…).

Luckily, I stumbled on to a winter coat that I love to this day. I recommend the brand – Spiewak – to guys whenever I can. It’s what the NYPD wear, so aside from being super warm, it looks pretty badass.

 

{the aforementioned not-warm-enough jacket, en route to the ball}

HAIR-RELATED MELTDOWNS

Before attending the parties the night of the inaguration, my sister and I went and got our hair did. No better occasion to splurge on something so frivolous then because you’re attending a ball, amirite? The direction I gave to the stylist at this place, Chez Leo, or something equally terrible in a strip mall in Arlington, Virginia was big beachy waves, “like a Victoria’s Secret model.”

Instead, I got tight spiral curls like Clara in The Nutcracker.

I left the salon in tears (still not sure why I didn’t just tell him I hated it and have him throw it in an updo) and returned to my sister and brother-in-law’s to brush the whole thing out. After a not-so-minor meltdown, I pulled the whole thing back and threw a fake flower pulled from a vase in my sister’s kitchen and had a good time.

 

{That’s an “Oh my gosh, I just saw the president and first lady!!!” grin}

PLAYING DRESS-UP WITH THE PRESIDENT

Seeing the president and first lady will always be a thrill. I attended the California ball, which had a sizable contingent of celebrities, but no one gave two hoots about J.Lo and Marc Anthony when the new president and his wife walked in. The ball organizers were decidedly stingy with the furniture – there were no chairs ANYWHERE, so tired attendees had begun plopping down in the corners of the cavernous room.  My dogs were barking pretty hard by that point, so we staked out a spot near the front and waited for their entrance.

The president looked a little uncomfortable in his formalwear (white tie is hard for any guy, post-Downton Abbey era, to pull off in my opinion), but he looked adoringly at his wife, as did everyone else in the room. Ours was one of the later balls they stopped in at, and buzz was at a fever pitch about what the First Lady would be wearing. Sorry to the forty-four men who’ve held the title of commander-in-chief, but it’s your wives that everyone at these balls really wants to see.

Tell me:

Have you ever attended a presidential inauguration? What did you wear?