Because there is. Now that the millions of people that came for the party are gone, I can take a moment and recap.
My inaugural visitors didn’t make it into town until 4 am on Sunday SO…we did not make it to the concert. Ah well. I heard good things about it and will probably get around to watching it some time soon. But from the looks of the National Mall afterward, I think we can safely say that many of the folks who voted for President Obama were not nearly as serious about protecting the environment as they might have previously presented themselves to be.
We had ourselves a nocturnal walking tour of downtown DC and the National Mall. There were satellite trucks from all over the country lining the sides of the National Mall.
There were trucks from EVERYWHERE on Sunday night and they had probably been there for days.
I steered clear of the MSNBC contingency on the Mall. I received some unwanted air time on election night and I didn’t want to risk being caught unawares in front of communist propaganda again. That is why this picture is taken from pretty far behind the headquarters.
MSNBC had tons of people crowded in front of their headquarters late on Sunday night in the cold.
We walked all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial, where workers were still breaking down the sets and stages for the concert earlier that day. I suppose it would have been nice to be at the concert, but it was really stinkin’ cold and Bono was there. Ugh.
We decided to swing by the Korean War Memorial on our way back to the Metro. I love the Korean War Memorial. It looks kind of creepy, especially at night. I have some great pictures, but for some reason technology is being a whore right now (yeah, I said it) and the upload application thingie keeps on rotating the damned images even though I’ve saved them the correct way like a thousand times. Rickey??
Two of my guests and I, the third was feeling sick, went to Chief Ike’s Mambo Room on a whim after seeing their sandwich board on the sidewalk advertising Prince night. I will most definitely be back at Chief Ike’s soon. I have never seen such an eclectic mix of people bust out those kinds of dance moves. There were people breakin’ it down with some old school shit.
I also got to introduce my visitors to Jumbo Slice on 18th St. A Jumbo Slice could eat Roppollo’s for breakfast, y’all. I ain’t playin’.
It kind of reminds me of that episode of "Arrested Development" where Tobias asks, "Do these effectively hide my thunder?" when trying on shorts. Two plates is definitely not enough to hide the thunder of the Jumbo Slice.
Lindsey and I shared ours and it looked something like this:
Sharing is caring.
On Monday, we tried to go to Manifest HOPE, but those rat bastards closed the doors an hour early. So, we wandered down M street and ended up seeing another collection of art at an art gallery that was pretty cool. After cooking some delicious soup, we went out for a beer or two and then went to bed.
We did NOT freeze our asses off on the National Mall for the swearing in, NOR did we freeze our asses off to stand on the street for hours waiting for the parade. And, I am SO GLAD that we didn’t. But, we did get to see a lot of insanity once we made it downtown to look for a friendly bar with a television and room for us to squeeze in. There were people all over downtown DC selling everything from Obama water and hand warmers (and no, I’m not joking) to North Carolina barbecue. It was surreal watching people swarm down G Street in the final minutes before the swearing in. Downtown DC without cars is a total trip.
Most of the folks down there in the final minutes before the ceremony were desperately looking for a television because they had been closed off of the mall. There were around 4000 ticket holders that didn’t make it to their seats, but everyone was warned to get to the Mall early. And, as predicted, cell phone networks were jammed because when we got separated from a member of our posse we couldn’t send or receive text messages or phone calls. Thankfully we found her just in time.
Aside from the unfortunate woman who fell onto the tracks at the the Gallery Place-Chinatown station, WMATA did a pretty good job and everything seemed to go pretty smoothly. Props to the transit cop from Houston who saved that woman’s life, by the way. Texas represent!
We went to a bar in Chinatown to watch the ceremony, which ended up being perfect. It was warm, I could see and they had booze. Lindsey remarked that the place sounded like a church with all the mmmm hmmmmms and other exuberant interjections being uttered around us.
The crowd at the bar was almost as enthusiastic when the Bushes boarded their flight to Texas as when Barack Obama was sworn in. But, all in all, there was less ugliness than I expected.
A friend of mine in class told me that it took her 2 hours to get off of the Mall after the ceremony and that it was a crush to get out. I don’t think I would have been equipped to deal with it. Oy, that’s rough.
My friends and I made our way back to my apartment to watch the parade and relax. One of my friends had to book it to BWI, but the rest of us lounged and watched The Beast make its way slowly from Capitol Hill to the White House. We were watching NBC, so I had the pleasure of watching Al Roker act like a prepubescent girl when the President and the First Lady sauntered by alongside their limo.
It was real and it was fun. It was, at times, real fun. But, I’m glad it’s over.
