Preparing for Washington

When Verna Williams called to congratulate Michelle Obama morning, she half-jokingly offered to stop calling her old law school buddy 8220;Meesh8221; and start calling her something more dignified.

When Verna Williams called to congratulate Michelle Obama on Wednesday morning, she half-jokingly offered to stop calling her old law school buddy 8220;Meesh8221; and start calling her something more dignified.

Obama dissolved into giggles, and the two traded title ideas, one sillier than the next, all of them too ridiculous to repeat to a newspaper reporter, Williams said.

One day after the presidential election, the Obama family of Chicago8217;s Hyde Park is only beginning to figure out how to become the first family.

As the first African-Americans in the role, they will be a living tableau of racial progress, and friends say they are acutely aware that everything they say and do 8212; the way they dress, where Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, go to school, even what kind of puppy they adopt 8212; will brim with symbolic value.

For America8217;s new first family, leaving Chicago means leaving the protective cocoon they have built around themselves.

Throughout the campaign, Malia and Sasha, who will become the youngest White House occupants in decades, spent many hours in their grandmother8217;s tiny South Side apartment, in the same building where their mother was raised. Their private school at the University of Chicago is laced with neighbours and allies who watch over the girls with loving vigilance.

When the girls and their mother have needed an escape, they have retreated to the backyards of longtime friends, where they jumped rope or turned up the volume on their iPods and danced to Soulja Boy and Beyonceacute; Knowles. Michelle, a creature of the South Side and of habit, has spent nearly every Saturday for the past 10 years with the same two friends and their collective brood of children, lately at a local California Pizza Kitchen where the group hashes over their weeks together. Now all of that must change.

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On Wednesday afternoon, Mrs. Obama spoke with Laura Bush, who invited her and her daughters to visit the White House soon. The hunt for a new school begins now, Michelle told friends. In Hyde Park, she has a reputation as a fiercely attentive mother, one who watches Malia8217;s footwork closely at soccer games while other parents drift and gossip over lattes. Friends say she will apply the same scrutiny to her daughters8217; transition to Washington.

As parents, the Obamas believe in giving their daughters some sway over decisions that affect them, she said. And so, note to headmasters: The preferences of Malia and Sasha, the family ham, could weigh heavily. Many Washingtonians expect them to look at Georgetown Day School or Sidwell Friends, which Chelsea Clinton attended.

While the Obama White House will surely entertain the usual Washington dignitaries and foreign heads of state, the most prized guests might be the girls8217; friends. 8220;We may see sleepovers at the White House, groups of young girls in their sleeping bags hanging out with Sasha and Malia,8221; Williams said.

Instead of trying to create an entirely new social world in Washington, friends predict that the Obamas will transport some of their Hyde Park world to the capital instead. On the campaign trail, they were accompanied by bands of relatives and friends: Craig Robinson, Michelle8217;s brother; Martin Nesbitt, the campaign treasurer; Eric Whitaker, a hospital executive; and others. In part so the Obama girls could have familiar playmates, everyone brought their families along, too.