Happy Obama-nation Day!

Today, history was made. I’m referring, of course, to the absolutely unprecedented wave of freezing cold winds and temperatures that descended upon the city of Washington D.C. for the past 24 hours. Oh, yeah, and the inauguration of our new president. But seriously, it was COOOOLD! When we started out, I was glad that I had run upstairs to grab my hat after momentarily forgetting it. Half-way through, I was wishing I had grabbed a few more things, like three more pairs of socks, two more pairs of gloves, two long-sleeved shirts, a sweater and my hoodie, etc. By the time we made it to the Capitol Building, I was wishing I was wearing every article of clothing I possessed. Bro. Rowberry, who has lived here for quite some time, says that today was the coldest weather he had ever known in D.C. Which makes me feel a little less wimpy...but not less cold.

But to make up for the cold, everyone was excited and happy and crazy, all at once. Which made for a very exciting, happy, crazy interesting series of adventures on Inauguration Day. Here’s the scoop:

I woke up at 6:15 am, almost exactly on the dot! That’s when I knew that this day was going to be different and special...

I exercised downstairs, watching almost the very last episode of my Redwall mini-series (Sniff! I’m going to miss them! Please note: Scarcity is the mother of unfounded feelings of great appreciation for things that would otherwise be discarded as stupid and childish). And they totally wrecked the Cluny-in-the-bell-tower scene, just so you know. For one thing (oh, and spoilers ahead, though I can’t imagine anyone reading my blog who does not know this already, or cares enough to be upset at the spoiler ending), he gets INTO the tower by grabbing Cornflower, rather than just running in. This makes Cornflower look pretty helpless, and also wastes all the hard work they put into making her a strong tough feminine character in completely fabricated episodes!. Then Cluny lets Cornflower go for unknown reasons when Matthias pursues and attacks him. THEN Cluny grabs Cornflower AGAIN when Matthias is at the top of the tower (making her look not only helpless, but stupid for not running away during the minutes it took for Matthias to get there). THEN Cluny yells at Matthias to come down—and totally forgets the part where he tells him to lose the sword. Um, hello? And finally, which is perhaps the most ridiculous happening of all, Cluny spends maybe five seconds standing still and staring up at the bell when it falls, screaming at the top of his lungs. Five seconds! Enough time to lick all of your fingers after a helping of Great Hall Trifle and summer salad, and the blighter just sits there, wot!? Well, anyway. I still enjoyed watching the series. In fact, picking apart the bad parts is almost as fun as enjoying the good.

But back to Inauguration Day. After exercising, I washed some dishes and, hearing some sirens, went over to our commons room and got to see a whole line of maybe 20 police motorcycles and police cars, followed by a small line of black cars, all heading down Pennsylvania Avenue past the Barlow Center. I knew the chances were slim that it was....HIM...but it was exciting all the same, because, well, it had to be SOMEBODY, right?

After a shower and quick breakfast apiece, Valerie and I headed downstairs to the lobby, where a rather large group of us had gathered to head out for the Senate building. The streets didn’t look too crowded where we were, and we were hopeful of walking to the Capitol in as little as an hour. Ha.

We had planned last night to meet at 8:30, but most of us knew we wouldn’t end up leaving before 9, and we didn’t—but it was mostly the fault of one guy who had heard that we would be leaving at 9, and behaved accordingly. It seemed silly to hold up the show for one guy, and it seemed even sillier when we ended up breaking off into numerous groups in the first half-hour, but, as is the case with crazy excited happy people in an atmosphere surrounded by other crazy happy excited people, we did it anyway. It turned out to be a good thing that we waited anyway, since it gave me time to change my outfit a couple of times. I couldn’t decide whether the Senate reception thing would be formal or not, so I changed my casual T-shirt to a less-casual shirt and my keds to my nice boots. Then I decided that I was going to be doing a lot of walking, so I changed back to my keds (which, incidentally, made me look ridiculous, but I solved that problem by never taking off my coat). Then I decided it would probably get cold, so I grabbed my hat to add to my scarf and gloves. Wise decisions, the latter two. The first was kind of dumb, since, as I said, it never got warm enough for me to take off my coat anyway.

I was elated to discover that the first half-hour of walking the streets was not that cold or even crowded. We walked along Pennsylvania Avenue until 14th street or so, and then met a big crowd all heading towards the Washington Monument. Whoever was in the front of our group decided to join the crowd, and we followed like sheep, cheering recklessly whenever the crowd did, waving our non-existent American flags, taking pictures of other people taking pictures of picture-taking people, and generally behaving like a bunch of nuts. I did take pictures, and even some videos, but will have to post those later as the Internet is STILL (weep, weep) down, and there’s too much to write about anyway without bothering to put up the pictures. To all those of you who prefer short quick descriptions and pictures to long-winded journal entries, go away. This blog is primarily for me, anyhow, and my wonderful Dad, who will read and love everything I write (and I love you too, Dad!). So there. Nyah.

It was beginning to get cold by this time, but we were still excited enough to not care, particularly when we got close enough to see the Washington Monument and walk around on the not-so-green lawn surrounding it. There were a lot of people, but we had plenty of space to walk around and could see quite far, so we were still optimistic about making it to the Capitol. Perhaps we would even cross the Mall, we mused to ourselves as we passed the Monument and the huge screen of Obama giving speeches and the speakers even farther off, which were playing “This Land is Your Land” (Funny side-note: When it started playing, I heard one mild-looking middle-aged white guy exclaim to another, “This is my kind of song!” Which made me happy, since I also at least know and kind of like the song). Ten minutes later, we knew we were kidding ourselves. I have never seen a crowd form or close in on a group so quickly: One minute we had plenty of room to walk around and we could see off in the distance. The next, we had all stopped moving, there were people all around us in every direction, and the somewhat-shorter-ones (including, sigh, yours truly) had the ill luck to not be able to see anything past the shoulders of coats of big people standing all around. Our group had already undergone severe fragmentation by this point, but there were 6 or 7 of us who still clung together, and we ultimately decided that there was nothing to do but go back out of the Mall, as far away from the Monument and as far back as possible to the Southwest of D.C., and then walk around the whole thing until we came up behind the Capitol.

This was easier said than done, but easier done that you might have expected. Laura, perhaps the shortest one in our group but also one of the “natural leaders” (more on this later...), took charge in forging a way for us through the enormous crowd which had now congregated around the Washington Monument. We followed her in single file, never taking our eyes off the person in front of us (well, at least I didn’t!) and got out in record-breaking time, perhaps as little as ten minutes. On the way I was amazed to observe how small the gigantic stretch of land with the Washington Monument appeared when covered with people, blankets, and backpacks. Some people had literally just camped out for the day, and didn’t show any signs of doing anything else that day besides sitting in their one secured spot. I did NOT envy these people, not one teeny weeny bit.

After we got out, it took us a good hour to forge our way south and around all the security, though the crowds were more of a concern for me. To be honest, I was a little terrified after the last blinding as well as claustrophobic experience (because being short is the equivalent of not being able to see anything once you’re in a crowd). Being unable to see or move is pretty scary. And I could have gone deaf as well if they had decided to suddenly all start shouting “O-BA-ma! O-BA-ma!” as they did spontaneously later on in the day. It’s a dangerous life, but someone’s gotta live it, I guess.
We managed to do pretty well for the next part of our journey. We went farther south than I had ever gone in D.C. before, passing even the Holocaust Museum and walking several blocks around to get to the Capitol. We even walked past the L’Enfant Metro station exit where we had emerged after a slight bungling of plans two weeks ago!

We almost got lost after making it behind the Capitol, but a nice security guard pointed us in the right direction to the Senate building, and from there on it was clear sailing. Cold, hungry, and anxious because it was 11:13 am and the inauguration was due to start at 11:30, we were all EXTREMELY excited to see the uncrowded, warm, unlocked Senate building at last! After over 2 full hours of nothing but walking in what had rapidly becoming freezing cold weather, I can’t even begin to express how grateful I was for the comforts provided by the Utah senators for their constituents. We took an elevator to the 9th floor, used the bathroom, signed our names on name tags (though my hand was so cold that it took me three times as long to make a legible signature), and walked inside the reception room, sobbing for joy at the sight of empty padded seats, screen TVs, and FREE FOOD. The next 30 min. was pretty much heaven on Earth, particularly the part during which I was eating those rich, chocolatey chunky fudgy brownie things (but don’t get me wrong—the chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, fudge cookies, cream-filled cookies, raspberry and pineapple sherbet drinks, hot chocolate, chips, and pretzels were also ravenously good).

Given the crowds, I was doubtful that the members who had split away from our main group would end up at the Senate building, but surprisingly a good number actually attended. Another thing which shouldn’t have been surprising but was anyway was meeting Elise’s friends (I only know one—Meggie—from ushering and a Spanish class, but have run into the others at least three times now, including the time at La Madeleine while getting hot chocolate, and the completely random encounter on the free Kennedy Center bus); they’re all student teachers, and I guess they’re all from Utah as well... We didn’t have to provide a record of our constituency or anything, but I would honestly have claimed to have been a genuine Utah pioneer just to get inside and at those refreshments after the long cold walk we had been through.

Watching the Inauguration in a warm environment, sitting down, eating food, without having to crane my neck to see or hear anything was perhaps the very best part of the day. I tried to pay attention to what was said, but I was so stuffed up with pep and energy and sugar that it was hard to concentrate on anything other than cheering and clapping as hard as I could after every sentence like any old insanely-minded Obamaholic on the Mall. I do remember listening to and thoroughly enjoying the invocation, and thinking that it was really neat how the reverend or pastor quoted scripture and prayed for the protection of the presidency and that we would all do our best to make America a better place, etc.

OH! That reminds me—there were a TON of people along the Mall and the Washington Monument area when we first came that were carrying all sorts of scriptural signs, about Jesus being our Savior and that He was coming soon and that we should repent and things like that. I wasn’t quite sure of the point of most of these signs, but one sign held by an elderly, nice-looking lady stood out quite clearly: As best I can remember, it said “How can we ask God to bless a country that condones abortion?” While her statement made sense, I wish she had attempted to provide an answer to the question. I oppose abortion, but I still believe in the values and ideals of America, and the freedom to make and live by our own laws. Is it possible to love what America ought to be and strive to make her so, asking for God’s blessing in the process? I hope so. Another white-haired gentleman in front of a church had a sign which said, as best I remember, “When they say it’s a choice between the mother and her doctor (or it might have been “God” in place of “her doctor”—yikes! I can’t remember now), they’re forgetting somebody,” and it showed a picture of a little baby. That one was really powerful, and I absolutely agreed 100%.

Back to the Inauguration itself. I was impressed with how interesting and yet how short and to-the-point the ceremony was. There were some beautiful musical numbers, there was the swearing in of the vice president and president (I got the latter on video—a few people groaned when he stumbled on the first few words, but I thought it was kind of cute), there was the speech (very nice, very optimistic, but I’m finding it hard to recall any of it just now, so it couldn’t have been too memorable. I do remember thinking it was nice when he thanked President Bush and everyone clapped, y’know, out of respect). And there were the prayers; I thoroughly enjoyed the invocation, as I mentioned, and the benediction was...uh...interesting. But a little bit irreverent there towards the end, reverend. The best part was when the camera cut to President Obama during one of the speaker’s comparisons about how “the red man can get ahead, man,” and he (Pres. Obama) couldn’t help smiling, even though he kept his eyes down. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the singing of “My Country Tis of Thee” and the National Anthem. The latter was dignified and touching, but the former did cause quite a bit of laughing in the reception room, due to the perhaps unconventional display of emotion and intensity of gesticulation in her performance. Yeah...I’ll leave it at that.

Soooo, after we had all stuffed our brains and our stomachs to maximum capacity on that wonderful refreshment table and the accompanying Inaugural ceremony, we stuck around for another twenty minutes waiting to see the actual helicopter carrying President Bush take off in front of the Capitol (we were just behind it, which was kind of annoying, because we could really see anything, but we KNEW that it was taking just on the other side...). It was really neat—I took a video, and moved the camera back and forth from our actual view of the helicopter and the view provided by the T.V. It was nice to see how friendly and peacefully the two presidents parted; they just shook hands and hugged and then smiled and waved. It didn’t feel monumental or anything, but it didn’t really need to. One of the things the T.V. announcer was continually emphasizing was how amazing and miraculous it was that the American government had a system where power could be passed so freely from one leader to the next, and I was kind of proud of our forefathers for making that such a crucial element to the function of our government. Change is good for everyone, and I must admit that I am kind of excited to see what kinds of changes we’ll see in America with a new and different kind of president. I’m excited for Obama, I’m proud of him now that he’s our president, and I fully hope and pray for his success and for God’s blessing on him and his family as he takes on the responsibilities of the office of President of the United States.

We left soon afterwards to head home, but a few of us wanted to see the Parade, so our group (which had reconvened into a fairly large size) split up once more. I went with Brad and Ashley to the nearest Metro station, Union Station, because I was tired and wanted to go home. Unfortunately, we had to spend about 30 min. of crowd-enduring before we got anywhere close to the Metro station. The place was jam-packed, and we could go ten minutes or more without moving more than five feet. At one point, Brad suggested we pull out and just walk...but we realized pretty quickly that it would be just as hard to push our way out as push our way in by that point, so we decided to stick it out. None of us was feeling particularly motivated to be a leader (or had the “natural leader” aroma) to get us out, either, which was probably the main reason why we just kept standing there. To keep us entertained, Brad played a few mind-games with us, which basically means any game that makes absolutely no sense to the people who have never played it before until they discover a simple rule, and then the game becomes obvious and boring, and you have to move on. This kept us going for twenty minutes or so, but I guess we were just too smart, because we had figured out all his mind-games and were still stuck in the same twenty-foot area in front of the escalators that led down to the Metro. Sigh...

Despite my qualms about being in the lead, I was somehow in the front of the group at this time, and expecting them to follow me as I opened up a path, like we had with Laura. But they didn’t, so we eventually got separated, I made it to the Metro long before them, and got home on my own without any problems. It’s really funny now when I think about how nervous and scared I was to ride the Metro all by myself when I first got here in D.C.! One good thing about walking across and back the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge at nighttime by myself is that nothing else seems even comparably difficult or frightening.

Now a word of explanation about “natural leadership” as it applies to crowd-walking: This is the ability to enthusiastically set a course and start walking towards it, and HAVE PEOPLE FOLLOW YOU. It doesn’t necessarily mean people trust you or depend on you, but it DOES mean that THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU. From my observations, it could depend on a number of things, including display of personal confidence, easy visibility (it’s much easier to follow someone wearing bright colors and some kind of weird tacky ornament than a rather blah person in a blah coat with blah hair and makeup), pitch and volume of voice, self-assured click-clack of shoes on concrete... Any and all of these factors can make or break you when it comes to being a natural leader. You do NOT, however, have to be in front of people or know where you’re going (ACTING like you know where you’re going is much more effective).

If you haven’t guessed already, I am NOT a natural leader when it comes to crowd-walking. I like to stay in the back and follow the person directly in front of me. I’m terrified of getting lost in a big crowd, of confronting strangers, and of dealing with all the responsibilities that (supposedly) come with being a leader. Come to think of it, I’d make a horrible U.S. president. Whenever I found myself in the top tier of the group, I made sure I was behind someone else. Whenever I was in the very front, nobody followed me. Even when I knew exactly where to go and was going there in a straight line, no one followed. Even when three of us were bunched up together like sardines in a can and I was inching forward in the only direction that could possibly get us closer to anywhere we wanted to be, the others didn’t follow (meaning they didn’t follow as I would have—which means staying closer than, uh, ten feet or so). Result? I got separated from the group. Note that the group did not get separated from me. That would only have happened if I were a natural leader. Fortunately, I’m pretty comfortable navigating my away around the Metro now, and was so tired of standing in line that I immediately decided not to wait for the others and forge a path for myself.

There were about a zillion people on the Metro, most of whom were nice and normal and not from D.C., so I got to act all smart and knowledgeable giving advice to a lady and explaining how the Metro card worked. She seemed really nice, and we actually started up a good chat before I had to get off. Too bad I left my church pass-along cards at home... Elise would have been better prepared. There was a HUGE line of people waiting to get INTO the Foggy Bottom station when I got off, though the line of people getting off was relatively easy to maneuver. In fact, once I got clear of the Metro station, I hardly had any trouble at all with crowds. I made it to the Barlow Center in record time, and took a long rest and snack before doing anything else.

When I was ready to join the rest of the civilized world again, I found some people watching the Inaugural Parade on T.V. downstairs, so I joined them for a good amount of time (i.e. until I fell asleep). The only part of the Parade that was really memorable was watching the slow-moving black car carrying the President, accompanied by the insane cheers of the crowd, which became even more insane when the President and First Lady got out of the car and walked for several minutes, waving to the left and the right. After a while, you could tell they were kind of just waving mechanically, and I knew their faces had to be feeling the pressure of smiling so hard for so long, but I was still proud that they got out and did the walk (particularly the First Lady, in a none-too-warm-looking dress and high heels! My goodness!). I had been hoping they would...y’know, as a way to connect to the people and express gratitude and make the insane Obamaniacs wildly happy for the rest of their lives. Joe Biden and his wife were also walking and waving, I believe, but of course the camera didn’t pay any attention to them.

After I woke up from the post-Parade nap, I went upstairs and did a few middling things that needed to be done, like straightening my desk, doing laundry, reading the paper (OF COURSE this is a task that absolutely NEEDS to be done—just ask any of our professors!), and pining through it all for the restoration of Internet privileges.

A few of us went to Georgetown later to browse through Barnes & Nobles and get some food. I got caught up in reading The Hunger Games upstairs, and missed my group when it left, but tagged onto another group which had arrived in the meantime. I unfortunately missed Institute tonight, and the concert (which probably would have been too crowded to see anyway), so I guess I will be attending Institute tomorrow for sure. Also tomorrow I hope to go shopping, maybe see the concert, visit B&N again to get another crack at The Hunger Games, finish homework (ha ha ha), and—is this even POSSIBLE!?!?—Go to bed before MIDNIGHT for once!

Good night, everyone!