Inauguration

My thoughtful mom told me to write down my thoughts on the inauguration for posterity.  I decided that I'll write them down here and press SAVE for posterity.

I had some overly gracious friends in DC invite me out for the inauguration this week and it was TOTALLY worth the China bus journey from New York to be there.  First of all because they are the most fun friends ever and second because we ended up getting tickets to attend the inauguration itself.

The big day started at 6:00 a.m. when I woke up to Christy and Jason giggling, which is just how I would like to wake up every morning, and pretty much got to the whole time I was in DC.  We all got as bundled as possible (stretchy pants under jeans) and headed out walking to the bus by about 6:45.  From there we boarded our crowded transportation full of blurry eyed bundled people just like us.  We stepped off into hords of people a few blocks from the capitol and began following signs and crowds down-around-and through tunnels to get to a very windey, very very long line which was marked "the blue group" (our tickets placed us with the blue group).  Waiting pursued for the next hour or so.  Our line then broke up and turned into a herd which then funneled into row of metal detectors (which was only reached after another hour of waiting and pressing up against strangers).  Pretty much it was chaos within chaos with a lot of Obama buttons, t-shirts, and bedazzled sock hats mixed in.  There were characters everywhere (pretty sure we were considered as characters by everyone people watching us too though).

Once the inauguration itself started I was still cold - but wasn't quite as bothered by it.  I'm sure you all saw the ceremony, so you know what it was all about, but if I could add to that - what you didn't see - people utterly thrilled ALL around you.  People were hopeful, brought to tears, praising the lord - all of it.  You may think Obama is the messiah, you may think he's alright, or you may not like him at all - but it would be hard NOT to be inspired, excited, and revitalized by that energy.  People are hopeful, they are listening to him and respecting him - THAT is refreshing. 

I feel like a lot of what Obama said in his speach were things most of us have heard our whole lives; like being good to people, being charitable and thoughtful.  Working together, keeping our chins up, and on and on - but how refreshing to hear the new leader of the country verbalizing those goals and not just our parents.  They're not just things that are told to children to keep them humble and polite - they are things being talked about between business men and politicians.  I feel it's fantastic.  Now if we believe it all we will be able to do it more.
This is also what you missed, and a lot of it.  
People in our section were climbing on top of porta-potties to get a better view.  One guy told us how he climbed a tree to be able to see into the processions.