My Piece of History: I helped make it happen!!

Here's a play by play of my amazing week in D.C. for President Obama's Inauguration.

Thursday late evening: arrive in D.C.

My friend Amy from high school was kind enough to offer a place to stay and picked me up from the airport, too! (Since my flight arrived after the Metro stopped running.) I hadn't met her roommate Alexander yet, but he was so sweet to make a bed for me before I arrived.

Friday: leisurely day.

The full gravitas of the experience hadn't quite settled into the city yet, and none of my cohort out-of-towners had arrived. My Metro stop was on the red line, and conveniently, most of my engagements were also on the red line. I walked around Dupont Circle a bit, found an indulgent (and warm) vegan cafe, and ended the day hanging out with Amrita, a college friend I hadn't seen since 2003. It was so great to see her again! We walked to dinner then to her place where she made the most delicious vegan hot chocolate. Ok, the magic touch was probably the Ghiradelli (vegan) chocolate chips that "spilled" into the cocoa. But having a readily available vegan option for hot chocolate was freakin' awesome! Friday's theme so far: coming out of vegan exile. HAH!

Actually, the REALLY fantastic part of Friday was catching up with Amrita. Her post-college exploration resembles mine somewhat - minus the teaching elementary school thing. She's had a few jobs that were great in ways and not so great in others. She's done her share of wandering around Europe. And now she works for an organization that helps Asian/Pacific Islander victims of domestic violence. She helped me appreciate being in a city other than the mainline NGO hubs like D.C. and NYC.

Saturday: still easing into full gear.

At the time, I saw Saturday as a day for recuperation because Friday was COLD. Apparently, it was the coldest day in D.C. in five years. It took me until Sunday before I finally got on board with the two-layered pants strategy. After sleeping in a bit, I decided to walk around again. But alas, once again, I landed in a warm cafe with a nice view until the time arrived for my dinner with the rest of the ASC crew. I was skeptical about the restaurant when I paid $4.50 for tea and saw the four course dinner option for $44/person. BUT, it turned out to be a brilliant location. One of the planners had heard it turned into a club late at night, and lo and behold, it did. We debated going elsewhere to party but decided to stay put and had a blast. Check out photos on facebook. Then! When we were really tired and left, we discovered the real value of the evening. We discovered that the cover charge to get in our dinner club was $20! SCORE! HAH!

Sunday: the real beginning

Sunday marked the official start of Inaguration Week with the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I went with Amy, Alexander, and Kim (Amy's cousin). We collectively agreed NOT to arrive at 9am for a 2:30pm concert. Instead, we were in line by about 1pm and then directed to the "jumbo-tron" viewing area around 2pm. The numbers I heard estimated 300,000 people in the secure area and at least 750,000 people total. We had fun. This was our firsthand introduction to the concepts: "Yay! Crowds are warm!" and "Yes, I know you're just passing through and not trying to stand in front of me, but you're increasing airflow and moving my portable heaters (people) away from me."

Right around the time U2 came on stage, I realized I was hearing more famous artists live in one concert than I've probably heard in my whole lifetime. (the real live music highlight comes on Tuesday) Because I'm a concert snob who doesn't like paying $50+ for concert tickets. Granted, they each sang about one song, and none of the songs were originals. Whatever, it was cool. AND this was my first time hearing Obama and Biden live, except on conference calls.

Sunday continued with a Missouri Obama Staff Reunion. The fantastic part was hanging out with my MO people, Werks, Jonae, Amber, meeting Jarvis and Jonae's sister (shoot! can't remember her name), and seeing the GA organizers, too, Sarah and Justin. The glitch came early when we discovered that the official MO Reunion location was a 21 and up bar. Two of our organizers are 18 and 19, so the bar was a no go. We tried to find a restaurant with seating for eight, contemplated hanging at Amber's hotel, but eventually landed at a McD's instead. I voiced my frustration to our state director in a crisp email. If we had known ahead of time that the MO Reunion location was a bar, then we could have PLANNED, made a reservation elsewhere for our group at a restaurant for all ages or SOMETHING. Impromptu plans with eight people don't work AT ALL. Seeing everyone and hanging out, though, that was awesome.

Monday: the calm before the storm

What did I do Monday? I'm not sure I remember. Oh yeah, this was my first big walking day. AND, I forgot an important development from Saturday night. I found the most grateful recipient of my extra Inauguration ticket: Nayadin. Nayadin and I did our education courses and student teaching together at ASC. Unlike me, though, she actually likes teaching and stuck with it. She came up to D.C. from Atlanta without a ticket, like tons of other people, just for the awesome experience. When she heard I had a spare - she pounced! Kidding, not really, but she was really excited. So we decided meeting up Tuesday would be our attempt, but we knew there would be no guarantee. We met up Monday to hang out and for me to give her the coveted ticket.

Back to the walking. After I gave the ticket to Nayadin, we went to lunch and walked around with a couple of her friends, Lauren and ????? (darn it, there I go again forgetting a name. that's what I get for waiting 3 days before blogging). Anyway, the guy friend suggested we walk over the Key Bridge to Georgetown to see MANIFESTHOPE:DC. That exhibit blew me away! To paraphrase a comment from the exhibit's website, isn't it amazing to have a series of art inspired by our president as compared to the last eight years during which most people were embarrassed by our president?

Tuesday: are YOU ready?

I spent Monday night hanging out with Amy, Alexander, and Kim at their condo, so we could all rise at 3 A.M. for the big day. Yes, it was early, and yes, it was worth it. As the eager beaver, I walked to the metro station in time to be there when it opened at 4 A.M. But alas, the crowd of us had to wait 'til 4:15 before they opened the gates. No big deal, I got on that first train and made it to my designated security checkpoint metro, Judiciary Square on 4th St. NW, by 5am. Once off the train, I had to navigate the crowds and streets to find my actual line at the intersection of Constitution Ave. and First St. NW My first mistake was easy to correct. I saw that the street I wanted to walk down was blocked off, I decided to follow a crowd down an interstate tunnel to circumvent the blocked street. However, when I saw an exit sign for 2nd St. SW, I sensed trouble. I confirmed with an officer and turned right around. No worries, I still arrived at my "Purple Ticket Line" by about 5:30am. Or so I thought. At this point, it did cross my mind that I was again following a crowd without gathering my own information. However, this line was growing rapidly enough that leaving it to explore other options would have cost me greatly.

When Nayadin found me in line, I was so grateful for her warmth and company that I didn't even think about one of us going to explore other line possibilities. Four hours later......having moved about a block and heard no official updates on entry status, one of our line buddies climbed on a guy's shoulders and reported that the people gaining entry were in a completely different line, which was quite far away. So it wasn't until 10:30 a.m. that we abandoned our line to make our way to what we hoped would be the line to our entrance. Keep in mind that moving an inch in a direction different from where the crowd was headed was near impossible. People were amazingly happy and polite, but no one likes being pushed.

Once we were in the new line, we were inside within an hour! That security gate was mayhem! As soon as we passed through the metal detectors, everyone sprinted. We bombarded through the porta-johns trying to get to our new crowd and realize we could see nor hear anything substantial. It was SO amazing to finally be inside!

And then we noticed Nayadin's blackberry was gone. We went back to security, hopeful but not successful. When we returned, we decided to stay out of the crowd, so we could hear better. Within moments, they were announcing Izhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriella Montero, and Anthony McGill who played an arrangement by John Williams, "Air and Simple Gifts." That was beautiful! Then, even though I couldn't see or hear the oath at the time, hearing the cannons and watching the officers ride through the crowd.....I was so moved. I'm sure everyone has heard President Obama's speech by now. I loved it.

The rest of Tuesday blurs together. We scattered pretty quickly after the speech, I missed the benediction. When I got back to my metro stop, I ate, and then got a text message back from the good samaritan who found Nayadin's phone. What a relief! I went to retrieve the phone, returned it to Nayadin, and went to sleep as soon as I got home. That return trip was also the only time I took a taxi instead of walking the mile home from the metro. I thoroughly enjoyed the walking, but by about 6pm on Tuesday, I was exhausted.

Wednesday: no time to recuperate, it's time to PARTY

I guess I slept in a little bit, compared to Tuesday, but it sure didn't feel like it. I met up with my MO crew again, and then I went to April's to get ready for the Staff Ball. April's another ASC friend who lives in D.C. She lives close to Reagan National Airport, so she offered to drop me off Thursday morning. She also came to the Staff Ball with me, which was awesome. The Staff Ball had amazing food, even more amazing music (Arcade Fire and Jay-Z), and more wonderful speeches from Joe and Barack. Very inspiring!!!! And of course, we were too excited to go to sleep without catching up and too tired to talk as long as we wanted.

Oh, what a wonderful week! A once in a lifetime experience!