Inauguration Day

     Man, "Inauguration" is a terrible word to spell. And it reminds me of Tolkien's dragon Smaug. Anyway, Donald Trump officially became the 45th President of the U.S. late this morning. I watched the swearing-in ceremony for the same reason that I watched the results on election night - because that's what you're supposed to do, because it's respectful.
     Do I think he'll be a very good president? No. But Hilary would've been worse. I watched on CBS since that seemed like the most legitimate of the networks, occasionally flipping to CNN.

     When Obama was inaugurated in 2009, we'd been in Grandpa's trailer for about a month after the fire, and we were in the middle of clearing out the house, sorting through what could be salvaged and what couldn't. While watching George W. Bush exit and Obama enter, I was reminded of a line from the tail end of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: "So this is how liberty dies - with thunderous applause." (I remember this from the novelization, which I think has Bail Organa saying it. The movie has Padme Amidala saying this line. Doesn't matter who said it, it still worked well. Also, Star Wars movies have REALLY long titles.)
     When Obama was re-elected in 2012, I was reminded again of this line, and again saddened. NSU, or at least the freshmen I knew slightly from classes, were extremely vocal about their liberal tendencies. Not being very experienced with dealing with this, it was one more factor to deal with in making that first semester so hard. RSU is more extremely liberal in the overall atmospheric viewpoint, but at least NSU allows differing views to be presented for consideration, thus "liberal" in this case being occasionally positive in the sense of "open to new ideas." RSU has more of a "If you disagree with this, keep your #$%ing mouth shut" vibe.
     Anyway, back to January 2009. It was raining, and I hadn't started college anywhere yet, because it was the middle of my freshman year of high school. I was fifteen, and the Okmulgee County homeschool drama group had just wrapped up a musical re-imagining of the story of Joseph as a This Is Your Life-style talk show. Cody was the host, and I played Joseph the interviewee in the present day. (Most of our best improvised lines in rehearsals were cut for not passing audience standards.) Roy played Joseph in flashbacks. Quinton played my assistant Stew.  While a bunch of us guys were playing basketball in the gym during the wrap party, I was on defense when a pass deflected off my hand, breaking my left pinky. It was almost healed a month later while watching the Obama inauguration, which I remember mainly because we were watching the CNN feed, and the Tahlequah Cable people had just installed the equipment earlier that morning. Having cable was An Event, since we never had it before or since. (As a family, I mean, that I can remember. In Missouri when I was a toddler we had it, and then in Tquah and Claremore I've had it while at college.) But I'm rambling again.
     Things that hadn't happened yet: Marie's incessant pestering finally convinced me to create a Facebook account four months later. I didn't know Jed or Jon, though I'd met them. I hadn't met Jessica or Amanda, and Josh and Marie were about the only people I felt safe hanging out with from church, since the Soukups had quit (the older guys in the youth group seemed to enjoy making our lives miserable, though I think part of that was just us overthinking.) Dylan hadn't moved to Tulsa yet, and neither had Samara. I hadn't yet been to Washington, D.C., though occasionally I would spend a couple days in Westville taking care of Nano. Sport and Sunny were still alive, and Sunny's daughter Eclipse had just died. I was just starting to dabble with guitar, figuring that it would be a good way to keep myself busy during the downtime (ha!) of the remodeling.

     But being in Tahlequah meant that I couldn't be part of the Okmulgee County spring drama production, The Hysterical Account of the Trojan War. It was really weird to watch as a member of the audience, sitting in the balcony of the First Baptist-Okmulgee sanctuary with Quinton, Alton and Brenna. There was a new girl named Jessica who moved from Florida who joined the group that semester, and to tell them apart Jessica Ashley became Little Jessica while new-girl Jessica became JB. She was best friends with Annette (they would write a play together called Tinker & Bell and the Fight for Neverworld) and eventually Alton and JB fell in love, becoming the target of many jokes, and they got married a couple years ago at Trinity Baptist in Morris.

     The Boy Meets World sequel series Girl Meets World had its series finale tonight. Just like Alton-JB were the couple of our Okmulgee homeschool clique, Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence were the couple of late-90's TV, which I knew well, being the child of youth pastors during the late 90's. I was more a fan of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and 7th Heaven, so I never really got into BMW, and not having cable, couldn't catch reruns to get into it. (I discovered MacGyver when I was about 13 and Full House in college, so that covers all of the 90's between all those shows mentioned.)
     But one day, while sick, I flipped the TV onto the Disney Channel (ack!) and a Girl Meets World episode was on. It wasn't good, but it was better than most Disney Channel shows are. So I would occasionally watch whenever there wasn't anything else to do. It was horribly written, and not realistic at all, but there was something that it did really, really well - and I never could quite put my finger on it.  The plot features the adventures of Cory and Topanga's daughter Riley, her best friend Maya and their friends, with occasional appearances by Shawn, Eric, Mr. Feeny, and pretty much everybody else who ever had an important role on BMW. These adventures reminded me a little of what me, Sam, Dylan, Marie, Jed, Jon and Manda got into during high school.
     Did the Tanners of Full House do a better job of parenting than the Matthews? Probably, but sitcom parenting is a little iffy at the best of times. (I would vote Nate and Beverly Jackson from Doc as the Best Parents on TV, though the Camdens of 7th Heaven and the Taylors of Friday Night Lights are also good candidates.) Is it as well-written as Parks and Rec? Certainly not. But GMW has that "....Well, whatever IT is, you've got a lot of it" (to quote Michael Jordan in Space Jam) stuff that both of those shows do. All these shows may be ridiculous, but viewers care about those characters. So, it kind of worked.

     Will Friedle played Cory's older brother Eric in both BMW and GMW, but there was also an ABC Saturday-night TV movie he was in called My Date With the President's Daughter. He played the pretty-average-but-quick-witted teenager Duncan. At the mall, when he meets and awkwardly asks out a pretty girl named Hallie, she asks if he's into sports. "Oh, yeah," he nods. "What kinds?" "The usual - bungee jumping....karate....rock climbing. Y'know, the basics." It was part of the Wonderful World of Disney that created such not-exactly-classics-but-they-sure-stick-in-my-mind-that-way as the Tony Danza-led Trash Pickin', Field Goal Kickin' Philadelphia Phenomenon; Slam Dunk Ernest; Angels in the End Zone (starring David Gallagher - Simon from 7th Heaven - and Matthew Lawrence, who played Jack on BMW); Angels in the Infield, the 1999 version of Annie (which is the best) and the 1997 reboot of The Love Bug (which stars John Hannah - Radcliffe on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - as the villain.) There was also a movie called H-E Double Hockey Sticks that also starred Friedle that I really wanted to see, but we had to go somewhere that night, and so until I learned the title just now it's bugged me forever, since I didn't know how to search for it. (Update: Found it on YouTube!)
     Anyway, between those two events, they reminded me of My Date With the President's Daughter, and it seemed like a great time to rewatch it. (Plus I didn't feel like studying.) The verdict? This movie is ridiculous, but it's supposed to be, and the writing and acting isn't top-notch, but it gets the job done. And it unfortunately could never happen now, because of social media and cell phones. And it is much, much funnier now than it was when I was five. Dabney Coleman(WarGames, Principal Prickly in Recess) is the President, and basically everything that could possibly go wrong on his daughter's first date does. Coleman makes a good fictional President.
      The next Monday at school, Duncan's friends give him a hard time about missing a dance, asking what he did instead. "Saturday night....I had a date with the President's daughter, got chased all night by the Secret Service, my dad's car was stolen, got into a brawl at a dance club, put on a magic show at a biker bar - that was pretty cool - uh....was on television, and oh, right - I kicked Steve Ellenger's butt!" That pretty much sums up the plot.

     I've pretty much tried to stay off of the internet, given all the tension and stress about the inauguration and all. Unfortunately I can't completely hide from people in general, but that level of tension is pretty thick around campus, too. Also, the power went out all across campus this afternoon, which happens with some regularity, just like in Morris. That didn't help anyone's mood. I had some time to plot out a fiction project a little more, and work on this post once the power came back on. Maybe tomorrow will go easier.