History, unplugged

I went to a history lesson on Tuesday, January 20, 2o09. It was AMAZING. There are no words to describe how awesome it was to be there. I went with 2 other members of the mafia, Amethyst and Mary Jane. We stayed with my law school big sister. Anyway, enough background, on to the good stuff.

We arrived late Monday night, and hurried to get ourselves in bed after eating round pizza in a square box. We set our cell phones to go off at 3:45 a.m. Thankfully, when it went off, our hostess told us that 4:30 may be too early to get there, since the gates weren't opening until 9:00 a.m. So, we re-set the alarm for 6:00. Well, we turn on the television when we get up at 6, and what do we see? People wandering about on the National Mall. Crap! So we shift into turbo gear and haul arse out of the apartment. On the way to the Metro, we stop at Rite Aid and get various provisions for the journey. Now, statisticians had used the number of people predicted to show up, and the ratio of port-a-potties to people was 1:300. that's right. 300 people for every 1 port-a-pottie. Yikes. So, there were no liquids bought for pheebee, outside of one shot of 5 hour energy drink. Mary Jane and Amethyst both bought some V8 and Powerbars. I stuck with the yummy trail mix that my mommy packed me. Our hostess was the big spender with bagel and juice.

So, we jumped on the Metro at approximately 7:00 a.m. Any self-respecting eL rider would've been unimpressed with the crowd on the Metro. Those not from NYC or the Chi really found the Metro completely crowded and claustrophobic. Those used to it were cracking jokes about levitation. We also nominated ourselves in charge of getting people off when it came town. (Loudly proclaiming "COMING OFF!!!") We were thanked with shoving of gratitude. Upon arrival to the Federal Center station, we separated from our hostess because she had a ticket. We followed the herd to the nearest open spot on 14th & Independence. It took about an hour and a half to get there. (It was .9 miles away -- I just google mapped it). We arrived at our ultimate spot with a good angle on a monitor around 10:15 or 10:30. On the way there, we purchased hand-warmers (and were promptly ripped off too). Amethyst was especially hurt by this because she bought a pack of handwarmers and toewarmers and left them back home.

The crowd was peaceful, and friendly. To keep warm we started doing -- in a group with perfect strangers -- calisthenics, tae-bo, and (my favorite), the cha-cha slide. As the crowd started to swell, and people were getting colder, there were people who would get agitated. Immediately, someone would step in and remind the agitator that today was not the day. We were here for history. We all froze together, watching Mr. Obama take the oath of office. Of course, there were people around with no home training (including a guy who stood on his folding lawn chair). Mary Jane got pushed off the curb by a really big guy who lost his spot. But, we endured to see his hand on the Bible. For me, the most powerful momentn was when all 2 million people, at the direction of the preacher giving the invocation, said the Lord's Prayer in their own native tongue, at the same time. 2 million people saying one prayer was incredible. Plain and simple.

And then it was time to go. We all turned to the back, moved a couple yards, and then stopped and stood. Something, somewhere, was blocking. So, a guy who had climbed a tree to watch, started telling us that we all needed to move right. Hilariously, people started yelling "right! move right! RIGHT! MOVE RIGHT!" You could hear it as the rumor started moving through the crowd. Incidentally, during this process, someone muttered "as his first presidential order of business, I want Obama to get us all out of here." We all giggled around him. I told him that this wasn't Malcolm X. He couldn't just put his hand up and point. (If you haven't seen the movie with Denzel, then you should go rent it so you can get that joke).

Anyway, 2.5 hours later, we finally got on a train. We were all whiny and grouchy, but it was totally worth it. We stopped at a restaurant near the Metro station, and ran up our bill ordering coffee and Baileys (2 each -- we were really cold!). We also discovered the joys of putting the still hot hand warmer under our bra straps and in our waist bands. Ahhhh, warmth. We then headed back to our hostess' apartment (she still had to work at a reception held by the Congresswoman she works for). And then we watched the inauguration on t.v. HA!

All in all, I WAS THERE!