Obama!

I am still processing the Inaugural Experience 2009. I cannot believe a) we actually made it, b) Obama is President and c)that I was a mere pixel in history. But all that aside, I'm sleepy, my toes have regained a feeling of normalcy, and I'm happy to be home. Since every other image, metaphor, interesting thought about the experience has already been taken, I will give you a smattering of what I experienced.

So, after a good two weeks of shocked stares and jaw-dropping "OhMyGodICan'tBelieveYouAreGoingToTheInaugurationYou'reNuts" looks, comments and frantic phone calls and fear factoids from my mother I had nearly convinced myself that maybe I was insane. But, the urgings of a sage Brit who wisely said, "It's not like there will be the second inauguration of the first black president," and the fact that we live only two hours away made me think otherwise.

So, with maps, sixteen layers of clothing, and pockets full of trail mix, we faced our fears. And, after experiencing a full-on escape from the apocalypse crowded Metro stop, we were spat out onto the National Mall at 7:45 a.m. Here is a jumble of what you too could have experienced as part of the hoi polloi:

-Men wearing fur coats.
-A man trolling the Port-a-Potties with a bucket and a bottle of disinfectant charging $1 to clean the potty before you went in.
-A woman carrying a patio table on her head.
-The loose mic feed to the Jumbotron which allowed 2 million of us to overhear banal banter as the important people took their seats at the Capitol.
-A CNN talking head zipping past the Port-a-Potties
-A t-shirt with an image of Obama slam dunking John McCain's head
-Obama faced dish towels
-$10 Obama "change" cards. By signing the back agreeing in your commitment to "change" it becomes a historic document.
-Obama mints
-A little boy in a spiderman mask screaming Obama's name at the top of his lungs.
-The man behind me who shouted out "Richard Nixon!" when Jimmy Carter appeared on the Jumbotron.
-Jumping around like maniacs in front of the MSNBC news "house."


The worse part was the Titanic-esque swarm of people trying to leave through one station and the lack of direction as to where to go to get out of the city. I do feel that my Irish pub/bar experience prepared me for the flesh press, but it was still pretty overwhelming. Let's just say if I never, ever, ever see L'Enfant Metro Station again in my lifetime, that will be fine by me. Unfortunately, we tried to exit through the mall entrance and ended up trapped between a Dress Barn Woman store and a Radio Shack for about 45 minutes until we got the sense to get the hell out of there and try to concentrate less on getting out and more on regaining a sense of normalcy. It was like a weird '80's movie where everyone is trapped in a mall.

Overall, the whole experience restored my faith in humanity. Despite about 1 million people exiting at the same time, only a couple of people got shovey. There was an interesting calm to the day, something I've never experienced in a crowd before. People saying "Excuse me," or "I'm sorry" when they accidentally stomped on my foot. It was like everyone was on their best behavior for Obama. Or, because it was so early we were all completely exhausted, excited and frozen like popsicles. Either way, we came, we saw and wow.