On Tuesday, January 20, 2009, at about 12:01 p.m. EST, I realized how on edge I’d been on Monday, January 19. Was there still a chance Obama wouldn’t be inaugurated? Yes, my brain worried. For some reason, while I remember registering to vote on my eighteenth birthday, I don’t remember what it was like to cast my first ballot a short year and a half later, so that crazy election of 2000 is my election benchmark. If that could happen, I suspected that anything could.

Today, Wednesday, January 21, I realized how much yesterday sapped me—in a good way. And I’m thinking that a lot of people feel similarly. So let’s pull out our highlighters and focus.

I’ve never liked those chunky tubes that seem most common in the United States, so I was delighted to find some sleek rectangular ones in Spain (but made in Germany). And all four colors—the standard blue, green, pink, and yellow—still work, seven years later. You’re likely familiar with that Wite-Out correction tape, as opposed to correction fluid or pen—I learned today that there is highlighter tape as well. Fantastic, no?

Minorly obsessed with reading rehashings about yesterday’s inauguration, I came across two articles that meshed well with me. If I had a highlighter on me, I’d mark up this piece, on Elizabeth Alexander’s poem. And this article on a variety of professional writers’ opinions about President Obama’s inaugural speech is a mini-reference for sound editing tips.