Obamauguration!!

It happened. I was there, and so was everyone else. Pretty incredible to say the least.

D.C. baby, D.C. They want statehood, and who can blame them; they have taxation but not representation.

I'm still in awe of the shock: Bush is gone. Is it true; for real? President Obama sealed the deal.

Let me tell you of our journey. It began waaaaaaaay back in early November, the 5th to be exact; I was excitedly gchating with some friends and it was suggested that we go to D.C. for the inauguration. I giddily agreed not thinking anything would come out of it, but then, as the days wore on/shortened/froze the plans solidified themselves, and soon '09 was in full swing... the day of CHANGE was within reach, the driving route had been calculated and the bags were packed and ready to be loaded in the belly of the beast.

Saturday, January 17, 2009 - 7:20 p.m. stomachs full of falafel, Ashley, Bryan, Mike (Wersk), Steve and I set off on our journey. Little did I know (but realized in Ohio) my wallet wouldn't accompany us. Soon after leaving Chicago the snow started and didn't stop until the sun came up in the Eastern time zone, luckily our drivers, B, Wersk and Steveo handled the road (and us) with care and we arrived in Georgetown 'round 8:04 a.m. (EST) for some delicious pancakes and eggs. What a cute little, hoity-toity area! Add Georgetown to the list of places I will live when I am a bazillionaire*.

Blah, blah, blah, we all split up and went to our respective crash pads. Wersk, Ash and I stayed with Ashley and my friends from college, Kristin (R) and Terry (Bear), at there super swanky pad in Arlington, VA. We unwound, caught up, drank java, then bundled and headed out for the We Are One concert on the Mall. We were by no means close, and in fact traveled in the opposite direction of the Lincoln Memorial just to get close to a Jumbotron, but it was still cool to get a feeling of the crowds and the bubbling excitement in the air. PS, it felt like SPRINGTIME!!! Well, compared to this frigid Chicago winter weather we've been experiencing (the temp read -16 the Friday before we embarked, so yeah, Springtime) it was a definite warm-up that didn't require a hat OR gloves - neat! So, there was BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!, Bono (oh Bono, 10.5 Courics) Garth -- and that "SHOUT!" rendition was fun to dance to, people dug it. Unfortunately we were getting ancy, hungry, hilarious-irritated by Bono's antics (ummm... yes, let's sit down here while I sing you this song in my rose-tinted shades) and we left the festivities before President-Elect Obama spoke (luckily they did replay the entire concert the morning of the inauguration).

We left the concert and headed over to 4th street or something, by the Capitol Hill area-ish, in hopes of finding a warm bar with hot eats and cold brews. Bar #1, IDs at the door - I didn't even try. Bar #2, the bouncer was outside and although I explained the sitch to him, the manager was apparently to the left behind me and dude checking didn't want to lose his job (understandable, understandable, no worries). THIRD TIME'S A CHARM!! We ended up at the Hawk N Dove and shared some laughs over Buffalo burgers and tasty brews.

Upon leaving the Hawk N Dove, I don't know where we were going, walking to some Metro station somewhere, far. Anyway, so we're walking down the street, Steveo's singing "Legalize It" pretty much at the top of his lungs and this party of four is walking towards us. As we get closer, I'm looking at the people, and I yell and point at the dude on the left, "HEY! You're Kal Penn!" (and while he may play a mischievous merry-maker in movies, he's a strong Obama supporter and even spoke at the concert) and he said, "That I am" as he blushed and looked down. I think he was with his Moms and Pops. After we passed I yelled to my friends, "I saw a famous person! I win!" then I turned around as he was at the top of the hill, on the corner and yelled, "HAPPY - OBAMA - TIME!" -- real mature on all parts of that story, right? I know; I never said I was. Adding to that lack of maturity, later, on the Metro (which is a 1980s flashback to a Disney World tram at Epcot Center), with my friends, I was laughing/talking/having a good time, and then this cute, smug little baby in a buggy came on, and I said, "That baby's so cute I'm going to steal it." Which probably wasn't a good thing to "whisper" to my friends (I quote it because I was intoxicated and thus dealing with voice imodulation disorder). The baby and I then smiled at each other as I thought about how nice it would be to look at a baby's little face of wonderment and joy, but then I thought about how they also require holding and cleaning and feeding and so I decided it would be better to have a staring contest with it instead, and I won, excitedly claiming, "I beat you, BABY!" I'm pretty sure I heard the parents breathe a sigh of relief as my friends and I (especially) exited the train.

Monday, Monday! I woke up later than planned and went for a run on the Mt. Vernon trail, with a stop-off at Gravelly Point (that's not me in the pic, but it coulda been "slash" shoulda been - and it woulda been a better pic, indeed!) feeling excellently like Wayne and Garth to watch the planes take off. Blah, blah, blah. I hopped on the Metro**, left VA and met up with my ultimate bestie from way back when (rec soccer league, braces, bangs, boys, home movies with stop-action blobs attacking soldiers), Lisa, who lives near Capitol Hill, and she took me to this awesome bar, The Argonaut Tavern, where they cater to pirates and wench-loving whores - like us! It was a fun time, I was able to explain/convince the manager of my situation and he allowed us brews. They have tasty TASTY sweet potato fries there - like better than I've ever had before, ever. Alright, so Ms. Lisa Lou and I are having a fantabulous time catching up and loving life and laughing, and then "Paradise City" comes on the juke, Lisa starts booth dancing and I notice this dude that's been sitting over at the bar getting up to join us, or something. He makes some awkward comment about her being a great dancer and uses that to segue into what a great song it is and how everyone loves it, "Yeah, it's, uh... it's pretty good."

Yeah, GnR. How old were you guys when this album came out?

"Uhm, didn't it come out in like '91? We we 6."

No, it was '87.

"Oh, then we were 2."

I was 15, and I thought it was good, but all the seniors, man, they loved it. It was their album. I didn't really get it until I was in college, but wow - good album.

I don't know how we got from that to just talking, sneaky, sneaky Brad! That was his name. We chatted about the 'hood, the inaug, and then, he joined us. He discovered that he and I have 5 things in common, these being that we both like running (1), have the same type of gloves (2), are writers (3), wear the same brand of running shoes (4), and Uh, uh - there's one more, I know there's one more. We both love freedom? America? Obama? Sure, any of those will do, but it was probably the fact that we're both wavering on the blurry line between social drinkers and alcoholics (I kid! I kid! - only because my mother now reads this - cool, Mom! And, like a creep, she comments under the "pseudonym" Aunt Barb, her name is Barb). Anyway, Lisa failed in the task of giving him a fake number and I put his in my phone just to make his night. I like when creepy, unthreatening guys buy me drinks - if only they'd be like Steve Martin in "shopgirl" and pay off my student loans, in full.

Alright! No more BRAD! Though, that was a pretty hilarious part of the trip - perhaps even the highlight. Our other hometown besties, Ms. Alli got in town from the bus and we cooked up a yummy chili, laughed, drank a pinch of wine and called it a night in order to be bright-eyed in the mornin'!

***Again, a mother-directed comment. Apologies for the fact that I'm being verbose.

Tu-tu-TUESDAY!!! It's here, it's here, it's finally here!!! I woke up at 6:17a and we were all out of the house by 7. I forgot my flag! UGGH! (Luckily the Boy Scouts of America thought ahead) So, we trekked from somewhere far away to a little bit closer to the Capitol, but moreso the Washington Monument. There was excited anticipation in the crisp morning air. The sun was peaking over the government buildings casting a pinkish-gray light across the smiling faces of the red hatted volunteers. GOOD MORNING!! This way to the inauguration. Soon we didn't need their guidance as we were in the midst of throngs and throngs and throngs of people. Everywhere. Strides turned to steps turned to shuffles. Road closures changed the routes and confusion could only be met with smiles as we knew we were all here for the same purpose and we had waited long enough to get here, to this day of incredible, history-making magic. Eventually Alli, Lisa, her roommate Katie and I settled on a grassy spot just in front of a CBS camera crane and in viewing distance of a Jumbotron. Shivers started soon after we stopped moving and a search for coffee began but was not finished - we did get FLAGS!! The concert replayed, and we screamed, jumped and waved like raving lunatics at any sort of movement from the camera crane. It was pretty hilarious to watch, and I couldn't help but get caught up in the excitement. We were surrounded by people of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors; red men, yellow, brown, purple, green and blue - all here to celebrate freedoms and America and PRESIDENT OBAMA! There was room to breathe, unlike Election Night in Grant Park where I had some dude right up on my back and every time I tried to make space for myself he filled it in, and that was nice - this time, not that time.

Then "'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be true, 'tis the gift to hmmm hmm hmm hm hm hm hmmmmmmm" that Quaker song that we sang in middle school played over and over again as we watched politicos and famous people arrive for their seats. It was really wonderful just to be there; we weren't close by any means, but just to be with all those people who wanted the same thing, and voted for change - that was really powerful. The energy was outrageous. I still can't believe that I was able to be in the midst of it; that was awesome!

***I'm fatigued and therefore copying/pasting most of the following from an email I sent to my Auntie Sandy, PS.

I did "BOO" slash sing the "Na na nana, na na nana. Hey hey hey. Goodbye" song when Bushie came out, hehehe. Rev. Warren's opener was surprisingly moving - I mean I didn't expect him to gay bash on the national stage, but from all the negative stuff I've heard about him, I thought he did a great job and I was very moved. Moved to giggles when he over pronounced "Sasha and Malia" - hysterical! And the swearing in yada yada - Roberts messed up, but so what! That speech PRESIDENT Obama gave was so beautiful and moving, and hopeful, and I'm so excited to see how his actions reflect them. "Friends and former foes" and holding out a hand - it's like he's the WORLD's president (ours primarily of course, but I think the change that he wants to bring us here will filter out to the people in other nations)!! I'm just really beside myself with joy and pride for our country and I think we're going in the right direction and I want this feeling to last the next four years (at least). So, here's to the future!!!! Also, that Rev. Lowery's speech with the yellow man getting mellow and the red man getting ahead, man - sooo funny!!

So, we trekked back to Lisa's house afterwards, having to zig and zag all over the place because of the roads closed for the parade (which we did not go to), but again, getting to see more stuff was great. Unfortunately my friends were cold and tired and didn't want to go over to the Lincoln Memorial with me, or around other places... so I was bummed, but I've been there before, and I can go back again... some day. We got home, warmed up, took a nap, and then! - bummer - my other friends called me and said, "Hey! We want to leave tonight, at 9, so be ready." Originally we were going to leave Wednesday morning and I was looking forward to getting back to Gravelly Point and maybe squinching a few other things in, but it was me against 4 and I wasn't up for the fight. But, I did get a chance go to Chinatown for dinner at this awesome restaurant Busboys and Poets (inspired by Langston Hughes), got a sweet OBAMA shirt, and saw fancy people going to the fancy balls - so, I can't complain too much about it; only a little.

I slept for most of the ride home, and took Wednesday off work to get my bearings back in order. President Obama, it just makes me smile to say. I'm incredibly thankful to all my friends that took this trip with me (and the ones I went to Grant Park with, too!), those who voted for change, those who want a better future, those who put me up in their warm homes and hugged me as I cried for joy and then later stress of the real life. As Kurt Vonnegut's son once said to him, I too believe, "We're all here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

And I can honestly say this, in my heart of hearts, this which I did not feel inclined to say during the past eight years of irresponsible administration, "GOD BLESS AMERICA!"

*The LIST: NYC, Tahoe, Foggy Londontown, Montana, Reykjavík (though maybe not anymore), Georgetown

** (another blurb from the email, but just sayin' y'know? Just so you know.) Ooooh, that Metro! I am NOT a fan! I cannot express this to you enough. #1, their farecards are made out of paper and each rider must have their own - no sharing (which the sharing was explained to me b/c you have to swipe out when you leave the station because they only charge you based on the distance you go and if you transfer - which I guess is okay in that respect) which results in a LOT of paper waste, in my opinion. #2, they demagnetize ridiculously easy, or if they get folded in your pocket, they stop working again. Needless to say, I encountered this problem and was NOT happy about it, seeing that it happened twice. I gave the first farecard to Kristin and told her she could just keep the $8 because she would have to go to a special station to get the problem taken care of. Then, on the last night, on the card I had $16 left the attendant gave me a form that I have to mail it in; he was all too aware of the problem of the farecards as he hands out forms and deals with angry travelers on the daily. OKay, enough of that.