I didn’t actually see Sarah Palin in person in the ladies room. Instead, I saw a fun rant about her on the bathroom stall. This is blog worthy because I have never seen a rant on a bathroom stall about Sarah Palin. I hear the men’s bathroom has all kind of goodies to read like this one, though. What an amusing bathroom trip! Only in Capitol Hill, kids.
If you can’t read the last line, it says “And she could have been VP?!?!?”
For weeks now, every time someone asked me if I was going to go to any inauguration events, I laughed and retorted right back saying, “Are you nuts?! Hell no. There’s going to be a shitload of people!” I mean, come on. There are hotels booked all the way out to West Virginia. There are people renting out their places for a shitload of money! People traveling from thousand of miles just to be here. So of course I am going to stay right here on my ass at home and watch everything on TV. Basically, I was hell bent on staying away from all that inauguration mess. However, when the weekend actually arrived, I kept flip flopping: Should I go?! Should I stay home? Should I go? Yes I’ll go. No I won’t go. On Saturday, I stayed away from DC.
But…yesterday at noon, while sitting on my ass, I suddenly just stood up and announced, “I am SO taking my ass to DC now. What was I thinking staying home on my ass!? I am SO going to regret not going!” This was history and I live right next door to it all! This is OBAMA! This was CHANGE! This was HOPE! And, Dude and Dudettes, there was a free concert in DC with Beyonce, Shakira, Garth Brooks, Stevie Wonder, and so on!! This is exciting! What was I doing on my ass?! I started running around like a headless chicken getting ready to leave. I grabbed my scarf, gloves, hat, and whatnot, because baby, it’s cold out there.
Once I got to the metro, I saw three helicopters heading in the direction of DC. I can almost guarantee you that it was either Obama or Bush, because I’ve lived here long enough to know if its the Marine One or not. But then again, it could have been someone else important.
Upon arriving to DC, I could already see road blocks by cops and military. The buildings were plastered with welcome signs for Obama, our 44th President. It was so surreal. I’m sure Obama is flattered with all these welcome signs and support. The concert was at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall, but by the time I got there, swarms of people were walking to the Monument instead. I asked people what’s up!? Why is everyone walking in the opposite direction!? Turned out that the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool were all blocked off, too crowded and that people were forced to go to the Monument area where there were screens scattered with a live feed of the concert. There was no way to get to my friend over in the Lincoln Memorial area. Worse, the AT&T network crashed! I couldn’t use my phone at all! Doesn’t that say a lot about how crowded it was?
I couldn’t see ANYTHING! All the areas with screens were already super crowded, and I couldn’t even read the captions. I could hear what was going on at the Memorial, just couldn’t see the captions. I dragged Jeff into all kinds of directions just to be able to see! Finally, I just gave up. Stood in the same spot. Ten minutes later, I was ready to go home. I was satsified just being there, but on the same token, also sad I couldn’t see anything! I figured it would suffice to see the concert on TV on HBO. There were firemen on top of their fire truck taking pictures for people just because people couldn’t see anything! One fireman stopped and said, “Hang on! Let me take my own picture with my own camera! One moment!” Ha!
So, I proceeded to walk back to the metro, but Jeff noticed another screen. We walked towards it, and saw that there was room for us to just sit at the front. We had to kind of pull our heads back to be able to look up. AT LAST! I was one happy camper! The speakers were incredibly loud and with awesome quality. The captions were clear enough! The experience was just so surreal. Every time Obama came on the screen, everyone cheered so loud. When Garth Brooks was playing, everyone followed his lead and put their hands up in the air whenever he sang “Shout!” People were clapping their hands. I was thinking to myself that this totally beats watching it at home on HBO!
Let me tell you this, though. I have never seen so many porta potties in my life! Everywhere I turned, there were porta potties lined up that seemed to go on for miles. They came in handy because I had to use a porta potty twice! I know this porta potty thing won’t end up as a feature in history books (or will it?), but for me, I am never going to forget this part!
What’s amazing is that no one was rude. People were civil! Many of you have heard me say how rude people can be here, pushing and everything without even saying excuse me, and whatnot. But at this concert, everyone was just incredibly nice. They even let me through the crowds even though I stepped on some shoes. Everyone must have been just so excited and filled with hope, change, and a new presidency. On a second thought, maybe these people weren’t from DC! Hah! I’m sure many were, though.
Here’s a slideshow. To see the titles/description, just hover over the slideshow and click “Inauguration Concert Set.”
I’m incredibly glad I hauled my ass to DC to witness a part of this history in the making, and to support the person I voted for.
(The concert is running on HBO continuously if you want to see the whole thing!)
