20.01.2009, 7 am. -8 degrees Celsius, light wind. Federal Center Metro Station. I am yawning my jaw off, standing somewhere out of the way of the thousands upon thousands of confused tourists streaming out of the metro exit, hoping that the rest of the Cubicle Warriors will show up soon so we can go stand in front of a giant screen and watch Barack Obama become president. A girl wearing a hat covered in "yes we can" stickers accosts me.
Sticker Hat Girl:
"Sorry, are you travelling alone?"
Me, thinking she's a volunteer wanting to show me the way:
"No, I'm waiting for some friends. They should be here any minute, thanks."
Sticker Hat Girl:
"It's just that I have one spare ticket, and if you're by yourself, you can have it."
Me, thinking how I saw some of these tickets crop up on Craigslist for $400 a pop:
"..."
Sticker Hat Girl:
"Here, why don't you take it, and if you don't use it, give it to a deserving individual."
Sticker Hat Girl walks away, never to be seen again, leaving me with one ticket to the western blue zone, the standing area closest to the Capitol (any closer and you're a VIP, which earns you a crappy green collapsible plastic patio chair). Some of the Warriors showed up in the end, and told me not to be stupid, to go, and to show them the pictures later. And so mere 3 hours of queueing later, I was in where even Kima could not go.
Still don't know how or why I got so lucky, but there you go. V. says it's Karma for being turned away from two gates before the Saturday concert. And the pictures? Right this way, please.
Actually, hang on, I have two more things to add:
Sticker Hat Girl:
"Sorry, are you travelling alone?"
Me, thinking she's a volunteer wanting to show me the way:
"No, I'm waiting for some friends. They should be here any minute, thanks."
Sticker Hat Girl:
"It's just that I have one spare ticket, and if you're by yourself, you can have it."
Me, thinking how I saw some of these tickets crop up on Craigslist for $400 a pop:
"..."
Sticker Hat Girl:
"Here, why don't you take it, and if you don't use it, give it to a deserving individual."
Sticker Hat Girl walks away, never to be seen again, leaving me with one ticket to the western blue zone, the standing area closest to the Capitol (any closer and you're a VIP, which earns you a crappy green collapsible plastic patio chair). Some of the Warriors showed up in the end, and told me not to be stupid, to go, and to show them the pictures later. And so mere 3 hours of queueing later, I was in where even Kima could not go.
Still don't know how or why I got so lucky, but there you go. V. says it's Karma for being turned away from two gates before the Saturday concert. And the pictures? Right this way, please.
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| From Inauguration and Swearing In Ceremony |
Actually, hang on, I have two more things to add:
- the funniest part was the brilliant tactic they used to get people to leave after the end of the ceremonies: they had Elizabeth Alexander recite a poem. I never thought 2 million people could leave a place so quickly. Seriously, it worked better than a water cannon, riot police should consider nominating a Crowd Control Laureate;
- the saddest part was how quickly poetry can disperse a crowd, and how much bad PR it got after the event. Granted, I thought the poem was pretty bad (I mean, "Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself, others by first do no harm or take no more than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?" Really?), but that's the most exposure to poetry these people will have for the next, well, 4 years. Couldn't they have picked someone better? Someone who could maybe read their own freakin' poem aloud? Even Jon Stewart said he's not a big poetry fan after that debacle. That's some bad stuff right there.
loved the captions. loved the pics. you must love your camera. thanks for laughs. wow, you were there on a scholarship when all this happened :) grrreat
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