The Founding Fathers did a great job putting together the Constit- ution, if I do say so myself. But I cannot wrap my head around why they decided to make the Presidential Inauguration a ceremony held outdoors, in January.

I can imagine George Washington addressing the Constitutional Convention, saying something like, “Well sure I’ll lead your country, but you’re not swearing me in here in Philadelphia during this absurdly hot summer. Let’s wait a few months, until it really could not possibly be any colder.”

I’d been weighing going to the swearing of soon-to-be President Barack Obama. I wanted to be a part of history, and I also wanted a better experience than Election Night, which was spent in the basement of City Hall on assignment for The Boston Globe. I got text message updates of the latest Electoral College tallies from friends, and sat around in case something newsworthy happened while Boston’s votes were being tallied.

(Nothing happened).

Because of my less-than-epic Nov. 4, I started making plans to head down to Washington, D.C. for the Jan. 20 inauguration. My plan was complicated, and I’d miss at least three days of classes. I would take the train from Boston to my house in Connecticut, where I’d get a car and make the eight hour drive to Virginia. I was going to park the car at a friend’s parents’ house, then take the Metro, the subway system that serves the D.C. area, to the apartment of two girls I know from co-op. If I was lucky, I’d get to sleep on their couch. But their apartment was going to be crowded because a ton of people are crashing there, so I would more likely have to sleep on the floor – for several days in a row.

The inaugural ceremony was going to be even crazier. The Presidential Inauguration Committee expects between 1.5 and 4 million people to pack the National Mall and line the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. The conditions will not be glamorous. There won’t be a lot of bathrooms. There are not seats. Items like coffee thermoses and umbrellas have been banned. It will likely be cold.

In the end, I decided I’m going to stay in Boston for the inauguration. I have neither the money nor a warm enough coat for the occasion. I didn’t get tickets from my Congressman, and it really wouldn’t be beneficial to my grades to miss consecutive days of classes.

I’m planning to head to afterHOURS between my classes and watch the ceremony, which starts at 11:30 a.m. I’ll probably wind up seeing more of the ceremony that way anyway, and I won’t have to wear mittens.

And I won’t be going to any inaugural balls or fancy Washington parties, but when I get home, I think I’ll pop open a bottle of champagne with some friends and we’ll toast our 44th president.

– Matt Collette can be reached at [email protected].