After all of the waiting and anticipation, election day came and Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. Watching his acceptance in Chicago, I wished I was there so that night I bought tickets to DC for the inauguration. Lucky for me, my aunt just moved to Arlington this fall so I would be able to stay with her and my Uncle. Even better, my cousin was going to be in town from college in WI and Jessica was going to come up from Va Beach.
I got in about midnight the night before. We got up super early and drank lots of coffee to pump ourselves up. We watched the news about all the crazies who had been out on the mall since 5 am. No way jose. Jeremy was staying at a friends place in Springfield so we were trying to coordinate meeting up, catching the metro and getting there. Jeremy got to the station and it was INSANE, huge lines to buy metro cards so we waited at the apartment for awhile. Once he texted us that he was in, we hurried over to our metro station to try and possibly get on the train he was on. It was a mad house. The platforms were completely packed, the trains were stuffed full of people and running behind since they kept being attacked by more people wanting to get on. Jeremy didnt know if he would even be able to get off.
We decided to try and bus it to the bridge to walk over the Potomac. We come out of the station and find an empty bus, doors closed, a huge group of people standing outside staring at it and the driver and a young lady FLIRTING inside. I was like, no way, what the hell is this?! Well, finally, I knocked on the door and he opens it with basically a "How you doin!?". I'm like buddy, this isnt speed dating, we need to go somewhere! He informed us that he wouldn't be taking anybody anywhere and that we should just walk. He let me and the other girl off and then he took off, empty bus.
We walked from Crystal City all the way across to DC and to the Mall. Along the way, there were tons of empty buses. wtf?? Jeremy had already arrived so he doubled back to meet us coming across the bridge. We made it there by about 930 am and it was perfect. Not too much time standing in the cold and we were right next to the jumbo trons at the WWII Memorial.
It was an amazing event. So many people and everyone so excited. Also too, I feel like suddenly everyone is all interested in politics and who's who. Its kind of amusing. Obama's speech also was totally appropriate. He has a lot to deal with and its going to take a lot of work so best not to create lots of optimism until he can get some real results moving along. I am really excited to see what's going to happen over the next 4 years.
