It was awesome!Alright, it was kind of a while ago...so maybe I should remind some of you who aren't religious readers of this or my dad's blog! My dad came to visit for the Obamapocalypse...the Barackuration...the...alright, I'll stop. It was an historic weekend that I will never forget. I'm sure many of you caught ALL the news and over-analysis of the weekend's events, but I'll just tell you what we DID and DID NOT do.
We did:
a.) stand in ridiculously long lines that at times felt like purgatory or something closely related to anticipatory failure.
b.) walk down the middle of the street (on more than a few occasions) because as a pedestrian you have the right of way (which I'm convinced is never true when people say that), but when there are 4 million extra people in a city of 500,000...some things just become necessary. See below as we evacuate the mall onto a 7 lane road, following HBO's concert (see "DID NOT" item c):
c.) attempt to stay warm by becoming all too familiar with strangers (as a side note, for the first time in my life I heard the phrase "Snuggies are badass!" actually admitted in public)
d.) see famous people including Vanessa Williams and Samuel L. Jackson in person, and others like Bono and John Legend (see "DID NOT" item d), at a greater distance.e.) attend the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America (wanna see proof...Where's Waldo?) Thanks again to Peter DeFazio (and my dad!).
We DID NOT:a.) get attacked by terrorists! YAY! (in your face nay-sayers!)
b.) stay out to 5am last call. Even though almost all of our outings ended at a local watering hole within walking distance of Canada, we were usually pretty tired by 9pm. But I would've LOVED a half-smoke at 4 in the morning (see "Things to do before I die" #326)...this line would've killed me though...around into the alley?!?!:
c.) See or hear much when we stood outside in the cold for 6 hours to see the HBO concert on the Mall. We believe that the best way for HBO to repair this offense, is either a free year of HBO...or Beyonce at my birthday party! (If HBO needs to contact me...please leave a comment on this blog and I will put you in touch with my people)d.) personally meet famous people, the president, or attend any social elite galas. That's right, I missed out on tickets to see John Legend perform at an open bar event...I'm an idiot not only for that, but because it was my best chance to meet and marry the cheerleader. Oh well, I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow night (Heroes RETURNS!).
e.) get left out of the ceremony. I know you may have heard a few horror stories about people stuck in lines...much like our own experience...except we weren't trapped in a tunnel. We came, we saw, we cried...alright, not really. And we sure didn't shed a tear when the former President Bush took off (for the last time) to leave the ceremony (seen below in the tiny speck above the Capitol).
Like I said: a life-long memory! I think one of the coolest things about the weekend, was even through all the crap and confusion that was going on, people were just so EXCITED about what was going on, that we very rarely saw problems. I've never seen that many people in my life, and almost assumed that police would be in riot gear, ready to gas the mobs, but I was more like Lovefest '09. I know...many of you roll your eyes, but it was just cool to be there.
