The Inauguration

It's taken me a while to get around to writing this, and with good reason. This weekend was a marathon celebration and I'm still exhausted. It was a lot to take in, the significance of it all. Two amazing events really happened. Not only did Barack Obama become president, but equally mind-boggling, George W. Bush is no longer president. I'm not sure which of these two developments makes me more happy. During the ceremony itself, I was similarly undecided. Which was my favorite part? The swearing in of Obama, or when Bush flew away in his helicopter and got to see everybody celebrating his departure?

I'm tempted here to go into a tirade about why I'm glad Bush is gone, but like I said in my first post, I'm not trying to make this a political blog. Suffice to say, there is a new energy in Washington, on K Street even, where I work, there is a new feeling that is different from the usual glumness that characterizes the mood of a typical work day. Something is in the air, a sense of disbelief and encouragement, hope and possibility, but I don't think it has even really settled in yet for most of us. It's almost too good to be true. For as long as the last 8 years have been, it's still hard to believe this transition has commenced.

I think it's worth thinking about, if you haven't already, what things might look like if McCain and Palin were in charge. I'm inclined to imagine that McCain would have governed much like he ran his campaign, hastily, on instinct, and in a technologically illiterate fashion. And for all the worrying throughout the campaign about which candidate would "hit the ground running," McCain would surely not have made as impressive a transition as Obama has. Barack hit the ground running yesterday, but he was flying even before that. His organization is astoundingly efficient and forward-thinking, and continues to amaze me.

Okay okay, there I go, enough of the political analysis already, on to my personal experience at the Inauguration. I celebrated most of the weekend with my friend Adam Lynn because I know no one else who is as enthusiastic about politics as this guy. He is also the saint that gave me an Inauguration ticket. The night before, we were supposed to go out celebrating and I didn't want to over do it, but he reminded me of the significance of this weekend and I proceeded to drink heavily and walk halfway around this city and back. We didn't get to sleep till about four in the morning, and when I woke up at nine I thought we might miss the main event. 

In a still drunk state, we power-walked down to the Mall from my house and encountered the largest congregation of people I've ever seen in my entire life. We had to enter the Mall from the south, which meant that I had to go on the freeway underneath the Mall to get there. Walking through that tunnel with thousands of people was very surreal. It reminded me of some kind of zombie movie where a town had been deserted and cars didn't drive on the road anymore. I tried to take a picture of it, but unfortunately my camera would not cooperate (I think because of the cold, later on it warmed up a bit). 

When I got to the other side, it was about 10:30 and I knew I better hustle. I went over to the silver gate which is where my ticket area was and quickly realized that it was so gridlocked that I could very easily not actually make it in at all. I felt like a real idiot, hating myself for having not woken up earlier on such a special day. But I got in line anyway, and very very slowly moved toward the gate. At about 11:25 I was still way too far back from the gate and I pretty much lost all hope of seeing the main event, which started at 11:30. 

But to my surprise, right at that moment, the crowd lurched forward and I quickly made it past our gate and into the Mall. Unfortunately, I then discovered that the reason the crowd started to move was because the fences had been knocked down, and the ticketed silver area had now become general admission. So I never had to show my special ticket, and never went through security, but I was happy because I still got to where i wanted to be, right near the back end of the reflecting pool, and while I couldn't see Obama, I still had a pretty good view of the Capital building and I could see a large TV screen fairly clearly.

The ceremony itself you probably watched yourself, so I won't describe it. I can say though that the vibe in the crowd was electric, and the people themselves were very diverse in terms of race. We packed in so close to each other that I didn't seem to notice the cold anymore. 

After the ceremony, people started to walk out onto the frozen reflecting pool that had many large cracks going through it. When I got up close and realized it was only a couple feet deep, I decided to walk out onto the ice and head toward the Capital. At that point the whole thing just became a big party. 

There are more details I could ad but I am too beat to continue, so I'll let the pictures tell the story instead.