This week has been filled with Inaugural activities, most of them positive. Sure there have been long lines, cold temperatures, delays, and tourists (lots and lots of them) wandering the city with delighted, if dazed expressions on their faces. But at the same time, there were no arrests, a visiting Metro volunteer saved the life of a woman who fell onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train, and people were generally pleasant and patient regardless of somewhat trying conditions. So I’ll offer you three beautiful things from what I’ve seen around the nation’s capital:
1. A young woman wearing fairy wings is ahead of me in the volunteer line at RFK.
2. A little girl and I converse on the Metro Wednesday morning about the Inauguration. “What was your favorite part of yesterday?” prodded her father. “The candy.”
3. At the concert on Sunday, they ask everyone to please remain in their seats while the Obamas exit the premises. A crowd of half a million share a wave of laughter because only 200 or so lucky souls have seats. I hear it again on Tuesday (but this time on CNN) when they make the same announcement to the two million people who’ve been standing on the Mall for hours.
Having a new president, many of whose ideas I actually agree with: Priceless
Living in the city in which he’s inaugurated: Priceless
Spending the four-day inaugural weekend with the friends I made during the Howard Dean political campaign four years ago, who are my family away from family: Utterly priceless
I’ll be back tomorrow or the day after with photos and commentary.
I suggest you turn up your speakers and sing along when Pete exhorts you to:
We know the crowd stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument and rumor has it that it may have amassed as far back as the Smithsonian Castle… We do know that they turned people back from the barricades when the magic number reached 350,000 — and that was only as far as the World War II Memorial. Easily half a million people singing along to Woody Guthrie’s most famous song.
This weekend marks the happiest D.C. has been in eight years, when this bluest of blue cities grudgingly had to allow access to a Republican president whose victory in the 2000 election was still questioned by many.
Yes, we have to share our space with hordes of tourists who don’t know escalator etiquette (please stand on the right, leaving the left for those who don’t want to wait) or Metro etiquette (don’t block the doors, either as a passenger continuing on to a later stop or as someone hoping to get on the train) and who clog our restaurants. But since they’re here to celebrate something that our residents are ecstatic over, we’ll welcome them and try to cut them some slack.
Yesterday, I managed to squeeze into a fancy dress long enough to determine that I don’t need to buy a new one for Tuesday’s Hill Ball. Hooray! Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that I do need to find some shoes. Each time I go to a fancy event the shoes that I wore go to Goodwill as I continue the hunt for the perfect pair of dressy shoes suitable for city walking.
Tomorrow, we’re volunteering over at RFK for a little while to help put together care packages for soldiers (and hunting for the aforementioned shoes).
And Tuesday we’ll venture out for a bit to see a bit of the scene, but our Northwest D.C. crew are expecting to turn back eventually and find a bar to watch the action on t.v. We’re heading over to Cap Hill for an unofficial ball, complete with swing band, so Rudi and I are hoping to spend time dancing.