Inaugural Chaos
There were two pretty sweet moments today when I felt like it was worth leaving our house at six a.m. in frigid weather to brave the crowds and watch history in the making. The first moment was when we reached the 14th Street Bridge, where traffic was being diverted from all of the DC-bound interstates, leaving Virginians with no way to drive into the city. Ah, but we had an "Essential Congressional Support" pass, and when Jason and I and my coworker Kaylyn and her husband arrived at the baracade, Jason simply pointed to our special reflective sign in the windshield...and the police cars pulled out of the way, letting us onto the bridge--the only time I'll ever be the only car on northbound I-395. Pretty sweet.
And any cool factor was balanced out by the chaos of driving down Independence Avenue, where the crowds pressed against the car so much that the Chief of Police had to basically escort us down the street.
The other most awesome moment was finally getting to our seats (after over two hours in line) and looking behind us to see the masses of people waving flags. Let's be perfectly honest, I was there for history, not for Obama, but it was a pretty breathtaking sight. And there is something awfully majestic about watching the peaceful transferral of a power so great. My boss generously gave his staff great seats, but Jason, Patrick, and Chris (who came down from New England)--as well as the friends and family of my coworkers--weren't so lucky. Even though we left so so early, they never made it through the mob-like security line. Jason ended up watching the inaugural speech from my boss's office. At least he was warm. Brrrr! Thank goodness for the Shaanti's hand-me-down fleece-lined pants, circa 1996--they kept me warm during the last inauguration, and they didn't let me down today.
What an amazing moment to witness! And now I can safely say I am never going to another inauguration again.
As a fun side-note, our house was full of revelers, since Sean and Jill decided last minute to drive down and sleep on our floor the night before. Also, I figured you might want to see pictures, which are scattered here and will hopefully soon be on Flickr. I also uploaded a video of part of Obama's address. You'll have to excuse the jittery cinemography, but my teeth were chattering.
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7 comments:
How exciting! Glad you got to be there, wish I could have been too! It really is a great moment in US History, no matter what your opinion on his politics.
Once again ... Marbs is jealous of your DC adventures. I'm glad you got to witness history!
That's pretty cool, I was wondering if you were going. Seeing it on TV was really impressive with the massive crowd but I'm sure actually wading through it made much more of an impression. Don't we have such a great country?!?
great pictures and story missy - I just love living vicariously through you! so cool you were THERE.
wait..are those the fleece lined jeans from gap?? awww yes, I remember when those were ALL the rage with us..I actually don't think I even got any-I was just really jealous when you guys did (I think Jenny) :)
And yes, that's awesome that you were so close to the activity on Tuesday. That must have been amazing to see...yay for peaceful transition of power!
Is no one sad that I among thousands of others with actual TICKETS to the event were shut out of the inauguration? I (along with the growing number of us on the blue ticket shutout facebook group) are calling for a full investigation. I smell a class action lawsuit!
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