The original plan for today was to take the day off and go to Disneyland. They're kicking off their Lunar New Year celebration, and we did not want to miss it! Fortunately, the event is lasting more than a weekend this year, because when we woke up, it was pouring down rain. We thought it may not be the ideal situation to go to Disneyland in, and indeed at lunch time, it was coming down very hard and we knew that if we had decided to go to the park, we would have been very wet and miserable by that time. On the other hand, the sun was out about an hour ago, which did make me question our decision, but that's just silly, really. They probably would have canceled all the performances for today anyway, or at least all the ones that would have happened before we decided we were miserable enough to just go home already.

Anyway, instead of going to Disneyland, we stayed home and worked, and as a result, we have now finished or fourth translation of the year, before the third week of the year has ended! Tadah! And we really haven't been pushing ourselves very hard as far as work is concerned, so that's kind of nice. Hopefully it doesn't mean we've been phoning it in. The best part about it is we finished early, so we can take advantage of this glorious rainy weather to bundle up and do rainy day activities, while there's still enough light out to tell that it's a rainy day.

And that's pretty much it for us. We haven't really been following the inauguration, except for what people have been posting on Facebook. We did get to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing "America, the Beautiful," and it was a very lovely performance. I was kind of amused, because at the second half of the second verse, they did a split-screen thing where they showed the new president, and he was singing along! And it was kind of cute, I thought. And then it changed from, "America, America," to "God mend thine every flaw"...which the president did not sing. You could take that to be symbolic, but on the other hand, how many people really know more than one verse of "America, the Beautiful"? I read in a Terry Pratchett book (it was one of the ones with the witches, I think, but I don't remember which one exactly; it might have been one of the ones with the Watch) that everybody knows the second verse of any national anthem--it's "uhh uhh uhh" and a rousing version of the chorus. (That wasn't the line exactly, but you get the point.)

Anyway. I think "America, the Beautiful" was a really good choice for the choir to sing, because it's basically about how this country is beautiful, but only if we work to keep it that way. I took it as kind of a, "Nudge, nudge, remember that, Mr. President." I especially like the first half of the third verse:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

So...I feel like I should say something poetic about my love for my country, but I'm already getting embarrassed. The point is, I do love this country, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the future. Somebody posted on Facebook a reminder that we're not crowning a king or an emperor; we're hiring a new employee and we are his boss. So let's all make sure he does a good job, and if he doesn't, he's fired.

Today I'm thankful for the glorious rainstorm we had today, finishing another translation, having a little extra free time today, America the Beautiful, and shelter from the rainstorm.