It should not be discounted or forgotten that 80 million Americans – probably more than that – are still processing the trauma inflicted upon us by Donald Trump. We’re past one full month of the Biden presidency, and many of us are still getting used to it. We’re getting used to NOT flinching whenever we watch a White House press conference or off-the-cuff remarks from the president. We’re getting used to having a president who is normal, who does normal things, who actually spends his days working and taking meetings as opposed to a guy sitting around, watching Fox News all morning and guzzling cheeseburgers and Diet Coke. CNN has a piece about how easily Joe Biden transitioned into the presidency, and how he’s not enamored with all of the trappings. He just put his head down and got to work.

Biden’s first flight on Air Force One as POTUS: When President Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force One for the first time this month, he did not spend much time soaking in the moment. Like a weary passenger on a commuter shuttle, he spent most of the flight reading the newspaper. “It’s a great honor,” he told reporters who asked about his debut ride aboard Air Force One, “but I didn’t think about it, to tell you the truth.”

Like a duck to water: He has established a regular schedule, including coffee in the mornings with the first lady, meetings and phone calls from the Oval Office starting just after 9 a.m. and a return to his residence by 7 p.m. As he walks home along the Colonnade, he’s often seen carrying a stack of binders or manila folders under one arm. He still brings a brown leather briefcase into the office.

He’s an early-to-bed guy: Unlike his most recent predecessors — night owls who spent the dark hours reading briefing materials (President Barack Obama) or watching television (President Donald Trump) — Biden is more of an early-to-bed type. He has continued a tradition of reading letters from Americans, a handful of which are tucked into the briefing materials he brings home in the evenings. Recently they have focused on the pandemic; Biden has also spoken by video conference with business owners and laid-off workers weathering the economic crisis.

He drops by Kamala Harris’s office: He has found his old stomping grounds familiar, dropping into his onetime office in the West Wing one day last week to show his new vice president the place on the window where his wife wrote him a Valentine’s Day greeting in 2009. He’s made surprise visits to other offices in the building as well, asking staffers what they are working on or consulting them on specific questions related to his Covid-19 relief plan.

He’s getting his PDB: The President’s Daily Brief, a highly classified update on the country’s top intelligence, is back to a daily occurrence after happening only sporadically under Trump. Joined in the Oval Office by Vice President Kamala Harris — who has used an iPad to receive the briefing, like Obama — Biden is run through the update by a range of intelligence professionals.

The dogs join him in the Oval: He has expressed a preference for a fire built in the Oval Office fireplace, and sometimes adds a log himself to keep it going. His dogs, two German Shepherds called Major and Champ, sometimes join him.

His weekends: On weekends, Biden has kept to his routine of attending public mass, in Washington at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown and at his home parish in Delaware — occasions that aides say allow him to blend back into normal life, at least for an hour. After one outing, he stopped by a bagel shop; officials expect he and the first lady will be more frequent patrons of Washington’s restaurants once the pandemic is over.

[From CNN]

I would imagine most well-adjusted, normal people would find it disconcerting to suddenly find themselves in the presidential bubble, just as most of us would also take some pleasure in the cool things that come with the presidency, like Air Force One and the mansion and the Diet Coke button. But not Joe Biden. He’s such a workhorse, and I love that all of this has just come naturally to him. I really hope the Bidens invite the Bidens over for dinner. I hope the Bidens get to have some semblance of a regular presidency once Biden fixes the pandemic too. Also: literally the only minor criticism is that he likes to go to bed early! SO DO I!! You get to a certain age, and let me tell you, nothing good or notable happens after 10 pm.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.