the 14 miracles of inauguration weekend

first of all, i hope you all like my new display name. the other one was really just a placeholder and since all of the lovely co-authors of this blog chose such exotic ones, i thought i'd follow suit and use my nickname with my middle and last initial. sounds kind of asian doesn't it? like i could be yoyo ma's sister or something. plus, sarah will be in asia in a few months, so it felt right.

i cannot believe christmas was only a month ago- it feels like a million years ago. work's been busy, which is good… but i can’t help but see the unemployment numbers rise and think i might be next. so you’d think i’d get react by keeping my nose to the grindstone, burning the midnight oil and all that. nope, instead i decided to take 2 days off of work (on top of a holiday) to go see the inauguration! i really wanted to go and had all the necessary things in place- mlk day off, libby and jenny offering a place to stay and park, an invite to a kickass inauguration day party that libby was planning with the website she works for, and promises of historical moments to share with the grandkids someday. my only problem was i had no way of getting there that wasn't astronomically expensive. enter chris and jackie who had wheels and wanted to partake in all of the above. it was perfect.

once we made plans to go, i started researching a little. the warnings for people traveling to dc were enough to scare off anyone with even the tiniest inklings of agoraphobia. every source i checked was predicting mass pandemonium. early estimates said 4 million people would come to DC and that every road would be blocked, and that there would be roller-coaster like lines just to get on the metro. it seemed like stepping within a 5 mile radius of dc would be "like times square on new years eve, but worse"- direct quote from a newspaper. i'm glad i was prepared for the worst, though, because every time any little thing worked in our favor i saw it as some sort of miracle and wanted to praise lord jesus christ. in fact, here is the story of inauguration day, which i would like to call "14 miracles" :

• miracle #1 and #1.5: no traffic on the way to jenny's in maryland, and no traffic driving into DC with jenny. it was saturday though, so maybe i was being a little paranoid.
• miracle#2: jenny gets parking spot right in front of libby's apartment. i thought we'd be circlingfor hours!
• miracle #3: 12 bottles of wine got consumed on a night of "taking it easy"
• miracle #4: garth brooks' rendition of shout is the highlight of sunday's concert on the mall. i've never jumped so much in my life! i left before barack even spoke bc i was so cold.
• miracle #5: despite the crowds GOT A TABLE WITHOUT A WAIT at the nearby round robin bar at the willard hotel. after a makers on the rocks and some cheese popcorn. i am sufficiently thawed out.
• miracle #6: i did not have a panic attack trying to get out of the metro on monday. even though we were stuck underground for 20 mins shoulder to shoulder, groin to butt, boobs to back. everyone was so nice! and not pushy! they were almost happy to be stuck together. weird...
• miracle #7: caught a cab (i thought cabs were out of the question when 2 million people come to town!!) to georgetown, right after seeing charles gibson up close. he's pretty handsome.
• miracle #8: saw dave chappelle and then caught ANOTHER cab, no problem, back to dupont circle (libby's hood).
• miracle #9: i did not have to pee once the entire 4 hours i stood in the cold to watch the inauguration.
• miracle #10: WE INAUGURATED A BLACK PRESIDENT. i was standing next to a couple who came in all the way from new zealand and thought of sarah the happy traveller and wondered where she was at that moment.
  
• miracle #11: we made it back in one piece
• miracle#12: caught cabs to and from the inauguration party ON inauguration day. the party was so kickass- colt 45 flipcup, karaoke, burlesque dancers who put themselves in balloons, twinkee eating contest, an awesome standup comedian, and tons of great bands. my favorite was libby's bf's band, fever. look 'em up!
• miracle #13: they were not sold out of soul food on U street. yumm.
• miracle #14: (bc 13 miracles might amount to bad luck) no traffic on the way back either!
  

for chris's pictures of the weekend, go here (he got some great shots!):
http://picasaweb.google.com/jackieam5/Obamarama#

and for pictures of the party libby put on with brightestyoungthings.com (seriously the girl is amazing for pulling this off) go here:
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/photo-posts/photos-byt-inauguration-classic-2k9-spectacular/

the pictures always tell the story better.

now i am back in boston and sick as a dog. can't complain though. it was definitely worth it!