I can't believe the day is finally here. I remember distinctly in 2004, after Bush somehow won his second term, saying to my friend Matt, "Do you realize that when Bush is finally out of office, I'll be 30?" I remember thinking that this seemed so far away, and that I'd be such a bitter, angry bastard by the time this nightmare was finally over. I remember thinking that we might not even make it to 2008, that somehow Bush's ineptitude would transcend the myopic and enter into the apocalyptic. But, I was wrong. Despite Bush's best efforts to ruin not only this country, but the world, here we are, still standing, bruised and beaten, but standing defiantly, marveling at the unimaginable stupidity and greed this country has endured to get to this incredible moment.

And I'm stuck home, sick. I've got a cough that makes my body rattle, and a sore throat that just feels like the onset of a terrible flu, with only a few hours left until my voice gives out on me, but here I am, watching MSNBC's coverage of a day I've been waiting for since January of 2001. I remember Bush's inauguration day a little too well. It was the day I took my comprehensive exams at Earlham. Here I was, analyzing this random, somewhat transcendental poem about a deer in some meadow, and thinking to myself that in 4 years, we may neither have wild animals nor meadows in which they could frolic. But, we pulled it off. We got the threshold of oblivion, and made it through. It's eight years later, and a better day is finally upon us. For one day, my cynicism gets a break. My skepticism is taking a day off. My rarely-used optimism gets a few days of work. I have no real expectations for the next eight years. A wizard with the powers of God and the brain of Steven Hawking would have a hard time taking on all of the challenges facing the Obama administration. Let's just hope he can scratch the surface of the problems facing this country in his first four years.

Best of luck to you, Barack Hussein Obama. You're going to need it.