Inauguration Day 1/20/2009

This is my account of my own experience of Obama's Inauguration. I stayed at my brother and his wife's house in Vienna, VA. My young nephews generously shared a bedroom while I was there so I could have my own room. By complete coincidence some friends of mine from Seattle were staying in a hotel in Vienna, VA that was only 1/2 mile from my brother's house.

I met up with my friends Beth and Barry, Beth's mother, Gratia, and their daughter B. at the Vienna Metro station. Although we all left the house very early, we didnt get downtown until around 10:30am which was too late to get anywhere in front of the Washington Monument.



The trains were running slowly because someone was pushed or fell onto the metro tracks so they had to turn the trains around before that station. That person was not seriously injured because of the quick thinking of some guy on the platform who knew that there was a space under the platform. He pushed her into the space and the train missed her. I was relived when I heard that. Click here for the story.

My brother was a couple of trains ahead of me because I wanted to wait for Barry/Beth et al and I figured I would text him and then find him once we got down there. While on the train, someone else got a text that streets were closed near the mall so we decided to get off the Metro at Foggy Bottom. Once I got out of the station, I got the text from my brother to get off the train at Foggy Bottom and head towards the WWII memorial. That was just one of many lucky occurrences that surrounded this event. I mean, I missed my brother's text but did the right thing anyways.

Once we got there, there were already too many people for me to find my brother even though he texted me his exact location. I could see where he said he was but I couldnt get over there. So I found a spot near a tree and sat down for a while. I had a pretty good view of the jumbo-tron for most of the ceremony but eventually the space in front of me filled up so I had to stand to see. It got really crowded even way back where we were. I mean crowded like you could barely move crowded. It looked like there were crowds all the way back to the Lincoln Memorial!



During the swearing in people were *very* emotional. There was lots of crying and hugging strangers and cheering. It was awesome! When Aretha came on, I yelled out "Detroit Represent!" and lots of people near me cheered and said they were from Detroit too.



After the swearing in, some people started to leave so I sat down again and watched the rest of the program. I was really happy to have found such a comfortable spot. It was a little cold but not too bad. I was only cold because I had taken off my coat to sit on it. Once it was over, I put my coat back on and was fine.

When it was time to leave, there was discussion about heading towards one of the museums to warm up but it quickly became obvious that there was NO WAY we were going to make it to one of the museums. We stood in a huge crowd that was moving towards the streets. It was remarkable because there was no pushing and no shoving even though the crowd was so dense that everyone was pressed up against everyone else. I have never been around such a mellow nice crowd except for at some Dead shows but those people were high. These folks were just plain NICE although there was some cheering and out breaks of a certain Bananarama song when the helicopter that may have contained Bush flew overhead.



Eventually we made our way back to Foggy Bottom where we ended up in a big crowd waiting to get into the station. They were limiting how many people could enter the station at one time, possibly because of the earlier incident. After around 45 minutes in yet another incredibly nice and pleasant but very dense crowd, we got into the station. I was impressed with the transit workers who were in charge. They kept making everyone repeat "when the person in front of you goes, you go" and "when the person in front of you stops, you stop" and cracking jokes so again, there was no pushing or shoving and lots of laughter. I think they took a potentially dangerous situation and made it much safer so huge props go to the Metro staff.




Eventually we got in but everyone was tired so we got on a train going the wrong way because it had seats and we just rode to Maryland and then eventually got off and got on the train in the right direction. There is nothing like a little discomfort to make one appreciate things like a seat on a warm train. People were very nice on the train too. One guy even gave us a free bumpersticker



Eventually, we made it back to Vienna. We met up with my brother then and we all went out for a very nice dinner.

Schadenfreude, Football, and Elections.

We all have our dirty little secrets or what should be dirty little secrets but aren't because we write about them in our blogs. One of mine was how often I find myself rejoicing in the suffering of others. Not all the time of course as I am not without compassion. But man, sometimes when some boastful jerk gets taken down a peg, I swear I get giddy in my toes.

I first noticed this tendency a few years after I moved to Ann Arbor. You see, Ann Arbor is the home of the University of Michigan which has a football team...a good football team...a football team that wins most of the time. Winning football games is a big deal on Saturdays in the fall. It is what Ann Arbor does. In fact, if you arent especially into football, you hardly notice it except for the occasional bragging by people who seem to think that being a Wolverine fan makes them a better person (because they have the good judgment to be a fan of a winning team I guess) The team wins and everyone goes about their business as usual...UNTIL...

They lose. Then, the whining begins. And it is serious whining. It is whining mixed with anger and rage. And I love it. There is something about watching someone get enraged over a FOOTBALL GAME (ferchissakes) that fills my heart with joy. I hardly ever watch football but when I do, there is a part of me that always roots for the team playing Michigan only because I know that if that team beats Michigan, the fans will sulk and pout and rant and rage and so on.

It turns out that I get the same feeling after elections. Not towards everyone who voted for McCain. I actually like McCain and can totally understand why a reasonable person might vote for him. But there are people on the right who just were jerks in the weeks leading up to the election, who are now rivaling Wolverine fans in the sore loser department. And I love it.

I keep reading craigslist because they keep entering rants like this one. They are losing it and I LOVE IT!!! I keep hoping that someone will interview that mean lady in Grosse Pointe who wouldnt give candy on Halloween to Obama supporters or their children. How do you feel today lady? That's what I want to know.

So that is my secret. If you see me grinning and all giddy. That's why. These guys might rant for four whole years. Elections are way better than football as it turns out. boo yah!

Yay!!!!

It's Summertime and the Living is Easy

This is just an update. I dont have anything special to write about so much. It is just summertime and for me, summer in Michigan means all is good. I've had friends staying with me most of the summer which has been nice. I've been swimming in the lake a lot which is also nice. Lots of hanging out, drinking beer, watching fireflies and the usual summertime pass times. It's all good.

Here is a photo of me from a couple of weeks ago. This is the first time I held my nephew Joey. I am not sure which one of us is more uncomfortable. I think I'll be a better Aunt when he is older. Then I do stuff like take him out and get him all sugared up on ice cream and overexcited about whatever activity I can drag him on before returning him to my sister. Ha ha.

Think of the Children

So today, after enduring 45 mins on the bus with a screaming child, a man at the bus station stopped me and asked me if I was interested in saving children. I told him "no thank you" It was only after walking away that I realized that I had said "no thank you" in the exact same tone I might have used if he had just asked me if I would like him to take a crap in my hand. Oops.

Art Fair

I havent had any trouble working downtown during this art fair. I have a
parking pass so even though I had to drive downtown Wednesday and
Thursday due to after work plans, I had no problems with parking.
Traffic was actually easier in the morning, I suspect because a lot of
people who usually drive downtown werent. Afternoon traffic has been
crappy causing me to try to remember all my old "back ways" but I
surprisingly did manage to drive all the way from downtown to Trader
Joe's yesterday on side streets. Today it was even easier as I took the
bus to work. My office is on Washington so, with the exception of one
loud kid with a lemonade stand, there hasnt been any noise.

My favorite things so far:

1. There is a booth with interesting stone sculpture on Main Street in
front of National City. They are way out of my price range of course but
if I had the bucks, I might consider buying one of those.

2. I have a friend who is a photographer and also is REALLY into crafts.
She isnt part of any of the official juried art fairs but knows the
people who own the building where A Vault of Midnight is located so she
has some arrangement to set up outside their store. She has a lot of
photos on magnets so I bought one of those. She also has some pretty
cool bowls she makes by melting vinyl records and notebooks with covers
made from the record covers.

3. I always end up checking out that King's Chosen area or whatever it
is called. There was one woman with silly drawings of pub signs with
dogs that probably are the artistic equivalent of those dogs playing
poker posters but I really liked them. Since I now own a pure bred dog,
there was one picture with a yellow lab that I liked.

4. In the same area there was a booth with what looked like wind chimes
made out of melted and smooshed liquor bottles. I thought those looked
fun.

Labrador Lessons

I just got back from the lake. First I stopped off at my sister's house to meet my new nephew. I didnt hold him though because he only weighs five pounds and is too little. People who are that little are scary. But I poked him and that made him cry. And I swear, he waved good bye to me when I left.

Then I went to my parents' house and went swimming with the dogs. When I adopted my five y/o Labrador last fall, I was kind of disappointed because she both didnt know how to swim and didnt know how to fetch. So this summer we have been spending a lot of time at the lake and she has spent some time with Larry the Labrador who lives at the lake. He's been very good about showing her how Labradors are *supposed* to behave.

Anyways today, even though Larry was no where to be found, Tasha fetched and swam all on her own. She even went WAY out into the deep. Then she and I and my sister's dog Buddy swam around together. It reminded me of how people pay money to swim with dolphins. I wonder if I can charge people to go swimming with the dogs. Haha. Probably not.

Oh yeah, I went to Art Fair today too. It is nice working downtown. I was able to walk around for an hour which is about my limit for Art Fair. It was hot but then I was able to go back to my air conditioned work place. And I get to do it again tomorrow. And Friday.