A Capital 4th of July

Happy belated 4th of July to you all. I hope everyone had fun and is fully recovered by now. I shot the photo above at the fireworks show on the National Mall. The following recounts the tales of my holiday.

It all began Saturday early afternoon. My roommate, Trevor, and I were sitting in the living room watching the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest. I watched in horror as Joey Chestnut stuffed his face with 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes, breaking a world record. As most people would celebrate the holiday with burgers and dogs, I could not fathom the idea of chowing down on the bunned-goodness after witnessing such a grotesque display of food eatery. So instead, I munched on a bowl of cereal, maybe some waffles.. I don't exactly recall. I lounged around most of the day, bouncing back and forth between my computer and the television. I got caught up on Samantha Who? (new episodes are finally out again).

By about 5 p.m. I'd "finalized" my plans with Nat and Marshal, who was in from Portland visiting before his European adventures. I got ready to go, as did Trevor. We headed down to Gallery Place/Chinatown and met up with Bill by about 6:30 p.m. In an attempt to find Nat and Marshal we made our way over to the Washington Monument... a good 10 block walk from where we left the metro. Along the way we saw a scary looking dog, a person wearing sunglasses and a shirt that read "Help the blind" (though they flinched when the dog wasn't even close...) and your usual array of red, white and blue fireworks-goers. We found a nice grassy knoll right on 15th street below the Washington Monument. Perfect for viewing the fireworks and making nice pictures. Excellent, we were set. Not quite. Nat called and said, you're too low, come find us, we want to go up higher. So, Nat drags us across the Mall to higher grounds to view the fireworks, Marshal and I adventure through the crowds so I can take people pictures and we get ready to watch the flaming balls shoot into the sky from the Lincoln Memorial... at this point, the Washington Monument was no longer in our view, it was directly behind us, thus ruining my prime picture taking opportunities for the 4th.

The show lasted about 15 minutes. I wasn't all that impressed. Personally, I think Fort Vancouver puts on a way better show, but then again, it's what I'm used to. After the show, Trevor tells us that his cousin is going to a party in Capitol Hill, so we decided to make the who-knows-how-long-block walk over there. On our way, we passed many Smithsonian museums and stumbled across the Hirshhorn where On the Fly was hosting a ridiculous Flip Cup game of at least 60 people. So of course we had to join in on the fun. After about an hour or so of Flip Cuppery, we decided to head on out (more like, the Park Police were kicking us out at 10:30 p.m.). We were headed to an Irish pub in Chinatown (ironic, I know) for some more 4th of July celebrations. Along the way, we picked up four people at the Flip Cup game who decided to tag along (a brother (we'll call him Muscles) and sister (we'll call her Red) pair and a sister pair). So at this point, it's me, Bill, Nat, Marshal, Trevor and our four new friends.

We arrive at Fado, which was insanely packed, manage to grab a table for all eight of us to sit at and commence the drinking. Trevor thinks it'll be a good idea to order five car bombs for the table... At some point, Nat disappears, Marshal talks to one of the sisters, Trevor is talking to another, a group of guys is talking to Red and I'm left with Muscles (typical when you go out with a group of guys). Low and behold, he works at the Pentagon and we were hanging out with a bunch of former Air Force kids. So by this point, it's about 12:30 a.m. and our four new-found friends want to go to Georgetown (that's where they were staying), Trevor wants to follow the girls, Marshal is still pretending to be interested and I don't really care what we do. We find Nat and it turned out he'd chatted up the bouncer who happens to be very well connected in D.C. so Nat decides to stay behind and pick this guy's brain. So, the seven of us head to Georgetown.

We arrive at Gallery Place/Chinatown and head down to the trains... most of us anyway. Trevor thought it'd be a great idea to slide down the middle of the escalator hand-rails. He gets to the bottom only to find that there's a giant puddle of water. So, his ass is totally soaked and black-streaked from the rubber now.

We arrive in Georgetown, rather Foggy Bottom, at 1:30 a.m. and still have the trek to make to Wisconsin Ave. We walk into the first bar we find, Mr. Smith's. Totally packed and totally Georgetown. Ugh. I'm drinking water at this point and the rest of the group is still going strong (not to say that I was drunk... I was just dehydrated). Marshal has realized the girl he was chatting up was crazy, Trevor starts chatting up Red and the two sisters seemingly got into a spat. I'm sitting with Marshal in the corner of the bar, look over to my left only to see Trevor sucking face with Red. Marshal disappears to the bathroom (I think) and Muscles comes over to the table and sits down with me. Then, poses this question, "Well here's the awkward part," "What's that?" "Who's going home with who?" Now tell me, who asks that kind of question?! I told him that it seemed my roommate would be going home with his sister and that Marshal and I were going to head back to Nat's place since it was right across the river. I have no idea where he was going with the question considering that though he and I were talking at Fado's, on the walk to Georgetown he managed to point out every hot chick that crossed his path.. so if that was his way of hitting on me, it most definitely did not work.

By now it's about 2 a.m. and the bars are closing. Our group wants food. We go on a quest to find a Jumbo Slice that some drunk guy told us was "only 1 slice up." He was clearly focused on his slice. In our attempts, we find that one of the sister's wants to go home and wants nothing to do with her sister. So Muscles chases after sister back to their place. Red and sister start talking, Trevor wants to intervene but I stop him and Marshal, the brave Marine, wanders up Wisconsin Ave. in search of our pizza. Trevor decides he's going to go up to Five Guys and get us some burgers; we detail what we want and he heads out. Red and sister are now arguing at this point, so Red gets up says shes going to get food and tells sister to not leave. Sister leaves exactly 30 seconds later, leaving me alone in a store front window on Wisconsin Ave. in Georgetown.

I'm sitting alone in this store front texting with my sister when three Indian boys come up to me telling me I look very happy. They had just seen a girl walking down the street crying hysterically, to which they asked if she was ok and of course she responded with a typical, "Leave me alone." And I tell them, of course I'm happy. I have one boy out getting me pizza and another getting me a burger! Then they tell me they want to split my meal, but me being a hungry girl at 2:30 a.m. will have none of it. So then they tell me they're on their way to find a strip club, I point them in the right direction and they head out.

Marshal comes back with two slices of pizza. Life is good. Trevor then shows up with Red and a bag of food from Five Guys. I ask him for my burger and he looks at me with a totally blank stare. The drunk ass completely forgot my burger AND bought Red a burger. Needless to say, I was unhappy with him. Then Red realizes that sister was gone. We find out she had gone back to their place, packed her bags and attempted to storm off when Muscles stopped her bags and she ran off without them. Now the night has turned into a total mess for their group of friends and personally, I wanted nothing to do with it. So Trevor decided to stay back (duh) and help Red find her friend, while Marshal and I were about to make the trek across the Key Bridge back to Rosslyn.

We made it to about 34th Street when Marshal realized we wouldn't make it into Nat's apartment and we decide to head back to my house, so he remembers seeing on the news a program called Sober Ride, where taxi services were free. For whatever reason, I thought a ride from Georgetown to my place was going to cost $35 so we decided to make the call. It's now 3:30 a.m. and the service ends at 4 a.m. but the operator reassured Marshal they would come get us, though it would take an hour. So we parked our little butts in front of Johnny Rocket's and began our wait. We made friends with the bum sitting outside after Marshal went in to buy a drink and ended up coming out with a burger and fries, which he gave to the bum, who gave them to a lady who showed up after the place had closed. One cab drove by, another and another... it was like torture watching all these cabs pass us, all the while the streets grew more empty. 4:30 a.m. comes and the lady who had taken the fries offers to drive us home and we say no thank you, because we were a good 25 minute drive out of her way. We end up taking a taxi after all..

During our 25 minute taxi ride, we discovered our cab driver was an extremely religious Muslim man. We of course got into a debate with him about drinking after we asked him why he wouldn't participate in a Sober Ride program. Definitely one of the more interesting cab rides I've had in D.C. The taxi ride ended up only costing us $16.50. Had we known, we could've been in bed by 4 a.m. instead of 5 a.m.

We woke up six-and-a-half hours later, went and picked up my sister and met Nat at Ulah for brunch to recall the story I just told you. I hope you enjoyed it.

The King of Pop Thrills No More

This image best depicts how I remember My Michael Jackson. I grew up with the great MJ of the early 90s. He was already white at that point, but the music he was making was still rockin. I destinctly remember watching the "Black or White" music video in my living room, sitting way too close to the television. My sister claims I'd sit there, stroking the screen saying, "I love you Michael." I don't recall this, but sure, I'll buy it. I'd run around the living room doing little dances attempting a very pathetic moon walk.

Over the years, the media has antagonized him for being a freak, a pedophile, being hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, hanging his baby off a balcony... so many things to pick on him for. But, we tend to forget what he did to music in the 80s. And even before the 80s, with the Jackson 5. It was revolutionary. He made music that had people getting up and shakin their bootys. Stuff people hadn't heard yet and wanted more of. He made women of all ages swoon. Guys wanted to be just like him, leather jacket, high-water jeans and all.

Last night my roommates and I went out to share a drink in his honor, Ian clad in his MJ legs tshirt, me in my fedora. We do what we can. We will miss you Michael. Your music has touched the lives of many and there will never be another like you.

Some More Thoughts

It's been about another month since my last post and I think I'm going to continue on with my news commentary, only because stuff is happening and I have an opinion about it. So, read on my fellow blog-keeper-uppers.

Iran and it's election ridiculousness: It's kind of crazy to think that Ahmadinejad could have possibly won this election fair and square with the amount of unrest happening in Iran. Last week I was checkin out The Big Picture blog as usual and they had photos posted from the protests and rallies. We've been hearing about it on CNN and local news networks and reading about in the NY Times, but when you see visuals it makes everything so real and really makes you empathize with what people are going through over there. I personally think a recount is in order and that the police brutality coupled with bans on foreign-media coverage is grounds for thinking something went awry with that election. So, good luck to you, Iran, I hope you get what the people truly want.

FDA controls tobacco: I only heard about this on NPR this morning, but I think it's not a bad idea. The FDA might not have a lot of time on their hands, but regulating cigarettes is probably a good thing. Cut back on that nicotine, clean up the cigs, people might not be so addicted anymore and maybe, hopefully, in a dreamworld, people would quit smoking all together. And Obama himself supports it, and as we all know, he's been a smoker for many, many years.

iPhone 3Gs: I'm not going to lie. I want one oh, so very badly. The fact that Apple was able to sell 1 million new phones in one weekend, is insane (and good marketing). It's the third generation phone and people are still dropping serious cheddar on upgrading their phones. I mean, it can pretty much do anything and everything except drive your car and spoon-feed you., but other than that, it can pretty much do everything else. Say you're lost in NYC and you're looking for some cheap good food, just type your neighborhood into the Urban Spoon application and next thing you know, your phone is telling you where to eat. I mean, how much easier could life get?!

And those are my thoughts for this week. I'm going to try to keep updating more often because I know you're all dying to hear about what's going on in the world from my point of view.

Oh, also, I'm applying to the Peace Corps. I'll keep you updated on that too.

Just some thoughts.

I haven't updated in a while and am just realizing this. I'm gonna take this blog post in a different direction than the rest. Instead of mumbling on about myself, I thought I'd provide some social commentary on happenings around the world. So, if you'll allow me, let's begin.

Israel/U.S./Iran: For those of you that don't know about this situation, let me explain it to you in about a sentence. Iran doesn't like Israel and has nuclear weapons that Israel fears they will use against them, so Israel wants to preemptively strike Iran to protect themselves, but the U.S. doesn't want that to happen (though we're providing them with the weapons to do so), meanwhile the U.S. wants Israel to allow Palestine to become a state and Israel essentially saying it will only do so if the U.S. helps Israel attack Iran. Got it? Ok. So. Let's look at this unbiasedly. Why are we giving Israel weapons to attack Iran if we're trying to avoid WW3? Honestly. And why does Israel suddenly think it's ok to blackmail the U.S. into a WW3? Can't people just get along?! We all have to share the air we breathe, so why can't we share land too?

Obama's emissions plan: So Obama wants to essentially raise the price of most vehicles by $1,300 by the year 2016 to create 35.5 mpg vehicles. I have no idea why it costs so much money to make a car more fuel efficient. You'd think it'd be cheaper. Lighter materials, smaller engines.. I clearly know nothing about car mechanics. But, why are we so focused on cars? Shouldn't we spending our time thinking about ways of bettering public transportation? Making roads smoother and less congested? We need better infrastructure. It's almost 2010 people and we're living like it's 1950 still. Carpool to work and catch up on some office gossip. Or work on your tan while riding your bike to work. Or, throw on your iPod and listen to the latest Eminem album on the metro.

Swine flu: Two weeks ago this was the hottest topic of them all. Now? What's the swine flu? TV media blows things so greatly out of proportion it's insane. Maybe a handful of people have died in the U.S. from it?? Do people not realize that regular flu kills 40,000 people every year in the U.S. alone? Half-a-million in the southern hemisphere? Not that big o'deal people. Just wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough. I mean, gross.

I suppose that's all I've got for now. Those seem like the big 3 stories of the day. Maybe something else will happen that's more exciting. Either way, catch up on some print news. Check this out, or this one here or even, this right here.

NYC: Part Two, the part that really counts.

The photo above was taken on my most recent trip up to the Big Apple. It's a view of the NYC skyline as seen from the Brooklyn Pier (I think.) I'm thinkin I might go back up again in two or three weeks. We'll see. It all depends.

In any case, I'm really starting to think NYC might be my next move. After all, this blog is about my adventures and the people I meet along the way. How many more adventures and people could there possibly be to talk about in D.C.? I've been in D.C. longer than I've been anywhere since college. I'm antsy in my pantsy and ready to move again! The itch started back in August when I was first looking for a "real" job. As my loyal readers know, I got a job and ended up staying in D.C. But, obviously, I've been ready to get outta here for a while.

I started thinking about moving up north a few months ago. Actually, I was thinking about going back west to San Fran, but with the recent news about this giant thinking about shuttering its windows, I'm thinkin it might not be such a wise move. So why not go north? 

I already knew a few friends from home and college who live there and after going to Israel I met even more great people who live there, so it's almost as though my life is waiting for me up there. The biggest obstacle of making this move happen is a job. Yes, a job. That three-letter word that seems to be everyone's biggest problem these days. I have three friends who've recently been laid off and possibly another today. Still waiting to hear about that one. So, how does someone like me, who has a fairly stable job in a completely unstable field, a lease and a "life" feel like she has the right to want more? Well, because I deserve more. That's why. I didn't see myself being where I am today two years ago. I figured when I graduated from college I'd do a few internships and end up at some kick-ass newspaper chasing cops and photography babies and puppies. Well, those things happened on the internship, but not in the real world. I want that in my real world and I'm determined to make it happen. 

So NYT, Hearst, Conde Nast, I'm comin full speed ahead to you, begging, pleading to take a chance on a rookie who really wants it. If any editors are out there reading this, you can find my resume here.

Israel: It was a Birthright

I took the photo you see above our first day in Israel. We landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv at about 3 in the afternoon and immediately hopped a bus to make the 5 hour drive up to the Golan Heights. Note, our group of 35 kids had only met maybe 15 hours earlier.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the trip. All I knew going into it was that, a) I don't like group tours, and b) I'd likely be one of the oldest people on the trip.

To my contrary, I ended up being in the mid-age range for the people on the trip. We had a few youngins, 18 and 21, but most of us were between 24 and 26. Worked out quite nicely if you ask me. Like I mentioned earlier, there were 35 of us, from all over the US. Most were from NYC, some from Florida, a few from the LA area and then the rando, from SLC.

The trip started out on a Shabbat weekend in a town called Hispin up in the Golan Heights. If I were the trip organizer, I wouldn't have started it out that way because most of us freaked out when we realiezd there was nothing to do and nothing you could do because of Shabbat. (For those of you that don't know, Shabbat lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday and you're not allowed to use electronics of any kind during that period.) So what were we left to do? Drink. Earlier that Friday we were taken to a winery and some very smart people bought bottles of wine which saved us after dinner. It was definitely a good ice breaker to say the least.

So we spent a few days up in the Golan and then headed south to Jerusalem. We toured the Old City and saw the Western Wall. It's amazing the energy you feel at the Wall, even if you don't believe in what it stands for. So many people in one concentrated area feeling so many emotions. It's nuts. They let us run free for a night on Ben Yehuda St. in Jerusalem. We went to a hookah bar and drank some local beer.

From Jerusalem they took us back north up to Tel Aviv for the day to see the Mediterranean Sea and an outdoor market. It wasn't too exciting, but I blame that on the fact that they took us to the wrong part of town. Next time I suppose. From there we travelled south again to Masada. We woke up super early the next morning, 430 am, in hopes of climbing Masada to watch the sun rise, but alas that did not happen. We only left the hotel in time to see the sun rise. As we drove our way to the starting point we crossed path with a group of soldiers marching on the road and we got out to walk with them for a while. It was a pretty cool experience. Sun coming up over the desert, walking with a group of 40+ soldiers carrying automatic weapons.

We climbed Masada, saw some amazing views. Then we went to the Dead Sea. Let me tell you... If you ever want to feel like a human buoy, go swim in the Dead Sea. It's the most awkward feeling ever. The water is so slimy, but fairly warm. You just have to trust the water. So you get in, turn around and lean back. Next thing you know, you're floating through the sea on your way to Jordan. After the Dead Sea they took us to some strange animal refuge nearby where we hiked for a while. The day was rounded out with a solid 3-minute camel ride. That was a weird experience too, but a good one nonetheless.

Our last two nights were spent in Jerusalem, another Shabbat dinner. We went to the Western Wall again for Friday night prayers. The second time around was a different feeling. It was more happy and enlightened than the first time. 

Overall the experience was a really good one. I met 35 unqiue individuals with interesting stories to tell. I spent 5 days with incredible Israeli soldiers. I learned that being a Jew doesn't mean you have to believe in God. And that being a journalist is one of the most awesome jobs I could've picked for myself.

NYC: Even your ankles get dirty.

I realize it's been almost 2 months since I last updated, but a lot's been going on. So, I'll just start with my trip to NYC on March 14.

I went up to visit my friend Carly for the first time since she's been living there (which is going on like 3 years). I'd been to NYC three times before, but never just to explore. There was always something that had to be done. But this time, I got to explore and had a great friend as my guide.

There wasn't really anything specific that I was dying to see, so instead we just chose a route that would get me through all the neighborhoods I hadn't seen. So we took the train to Times Square and started there. We walked our way down to Greenwich Village moving on to Tribeca and SoHo and finding ourselves in the Financial District at 5 pm. That's a scary place to be at that hour, let me tell you. We also stumbled upon the Fannie Mae bull, which was surrounded by tourists so we did a quick walk-by snapshot of the two of us. It was cute. Then we proceeded to take the Staten Island ferry there and back, and along the way I taught some tourists how to use their camera.

NYC is a pretty interesting place. It's crazy how you can walk from one neighborhood to the other and feel like you're in completely different places. If I were to move there, I'd love to live in the Village. It's so quite and pretty, but everything is still right there at your finger tips. We came across this tiny hole-in-the-wall, soul-food diner called The Pink Tea Cup where we shared some fritters and coffee. It was totally delish. 

I also happened to be in NYC for St. Patty's day. Let me tell you, that was pretty insane. Carly and I decided it'd be a great idea to start the day with Irish Coffees and walk to Central Park (since I still hadn't seen it) and drink beers out of paper bags. So, we packed a backpack with snacks and ventured out back into the city. We were walking around and heard the beats of drums and the sounds of bagpipes from across the park so we followed the sound and found ourselves watching the St. Patty's day parade. It was pretty freaking awesome. Being in NYC on St. Patty's day drinking beer in the park. Awesome. So we watched the parade for a while and decided it was time to get serious and head to the bars. We met up with her BF and all of his buddies from Brooklyn at some bar, somewhere. Probably called O'Reilly's or something... or maybe no, it was McFadden's. There. That's it. Started our party there, where I discovered it's apparently ok for cops to party in uniform if they're from NY. Interesting. We moved on from there to I don't even know where. We'd made the smart decision to smuggle in a small bottle of Jameson's to the bar. Excellent idea when meeting new people on a drunk holiday. We bar hopped from bar to bar stopping to eat slices of NY pizza in between. It was a pretty good night.

All in all NYC was pretty fun. I have no idea if I could actually ever live there or not. Maybe in the nice quiet neighborhoods where it doesn't feel like the sitting is caving in on you. There's defintely never a dull moment though. We'll see... it might be my calling in the near future.

Stay tuned for the next post: 10 days in Israel.

Something Totally Random

Last night, my near and dear roommates, DeVille, had a show at this place called Penguins Down in the Igloo in a place called Arbutus, MD. It's a suburb of Baltimore. They played with 3 other bands. I only saw one other band aside from them. Let me tell you why.

At the beginning of our evening, Trevor was told to talk to the owner about whether or not I could get in free as the band's photog. We were never able to find this owner, Cheech. So we go on about our business. The show's haven't started, so no big deal.

It's show time. Nat is in town visiting so he heads downstairs to where the stage is and the doorman says, "Who're you with?" to which Nat replies, "I'm with the photographer of one of the bands." The doorman proceeds to draw a line on Nat's hand and lets him in without paying.

I come down about 10 minutes later and say, "So do we know if I'm allowed to just go in?" to which doorman replies, "Go find the owner and talk to him about it, but I'm not gonna harass you about it." So I go in. Can't find the owner, whatever. Doorman did not draw a line on my hand.

The night goes on without a hitch. First band plays their crazy loud awful music. Ugh, finally over. DeVille sets up. Yes. Time for some awesomeness. They rock it out, get the crowd excited. Excellent. I shoot my photos. Perfect, we're done.

I'm packing up and Nat comes up to me to tell me he's been kicked out. And I think, WTF! He proceeds to walk out the door downstairs and I'm totally confused. So I go after him and in the process the doorman starts talking serious smack to Nat as he walks out the door. I ask Nat what happened, he explains to me that out of nowhere the owner comes up to him and said that he was bullshitting the doorman and that he needs to pay the $10 or get out. Nat of course says, well the dude let me in and now he's kicking me out? I'll leave.

So after Nat tells me this, what do I do? I go find the doorman. The doorman starts telling me that Nat lied and I'm defending Nat for good reason. Then, the owner comes over. I tell the owner, there's been quite a miscommunication here. The owner says, he doesn't care. Then proceeds to yell at me saying he was never told there'd be a photographer and that I had to pay. I say, I don't have cash and don't need to stay. I go on to tell him that it's no way to treat patrons the way they yelled at us for no reason. Instead of dealing with the situation quietly and calmly, the doorman only escalated the situation by being hotheaded. I proceed to get thrown out.

So Nat and I are standing outside in the parking lot explaining to some red necks and country bumpkins what happened and they laughed about the situation. (Apparently they had just gotten done beating someone up for spilling a drink on them.) Suddenly, the owner, Cheech, comes out to talk to us. He starts telling Nat that he doesn't like that Nat lied to the doorman so Nat stops him in his tracks and says, "Let me tell you exactly what I told him and see what you think." So Nat does and then the guy goes on to profusely apologize to us. He gives Nat back the $10 that he paid for this chick to get in and tells us to come back inside and party with him and that he'd buy us all drinks. We pass. He then goes on to tell us that his venue is a unique one that hosts unique musicians and that it's all about the "f-ing stage." That there aren't tvs and billiard tables all over the place. We say, cool buddy. Kudos to you.

BUT. The story does not end here. Trevor comes up to talk to me to find out what happened. As I'm explaining this all to him, a rather large woman comes outside and starts puking. You can hear it across the parking lot. It's gross. Trevor counts that she's puked 12 times. Sick. Well, that's not it. She then lights up a cigarette. Then we hear her saying, "I'm not intooooxicated... I can driiiive... You can't have my keeeeeeeys." 

So that was my Saturday night. Definitely a blogworthy night. I'm sure this post doesn't do it justice, but it was an interesting end to the evening nonetheless. This puts me at 2, for the number of times I've been thrown out of a club/bar.

Obama Madness, Inauguration 2009, Part 2

Sorry this post is about 2 weeks late. The Inauguration really was total madness. Well, it's over and done with now and we've got a Rock Star for a President now!! Woohoo!

In the above photo, if you squint hard enough and look long enough, you will see our new Commander-in-Chief with his goregeous lady friend. They were looking directly at me. Had I know this while taking their photo, I probably would've passed out. So, let me rewind a little and tell you how the day went.

My coworker/roommate/friend Ian and I were told we'd have to come to work at midnight Jan. 20 (so latenight, Monday) to meet up with the Old Guard folks on post and then take a bus with them over to the Pentagon. Well, the plans, of course, changed. We were then told to meet up with the Old Guard public affairs folks at 430 am at Farragut North. I spoke with my boss regarding this change in plan and he said, well, you don't have to, just get down to the parade by noon. Ian and I were thinking, well why in the hell would we get up 6 hours before we had to?! So, Ian and I agree that we'll meet at Farragut West at 930 am and walk down to the Ellipse.

I get to Farragut North at about 920 am and walk down to Farragut West. The crowds of people walking down I  and 17th streets were incredible. It was just a sea of bodies walking in the same direction. So, while I was waiting for Ian I decided to take some photos. I climbed up onto one of the Jersey barriers to get some high-angle shots of the I st. crowd and ended up meeting a former photographer from the Hartford Courant. We exchanged pleasantries and I still haven't found a way to contact him (his name is Michael and he took a buy-out recently and worked there for 20 years... if anyone can help). Finally Ian shows up. There was a mishap on the red line at Gallery Place... apparently someone got hit by the train.

So we head down 17th street to find a gate. We were supposed to enter the media circus at 17th and E. The gate happens to be at H st. Secret service has no idea where we're supposed to go with our credentials so one of the guys walks away talking into his cuff. He takes too long so we just jump in line. Get through security, no prob. I get laughed at by one of the security guards because my camera bag was completely stuffed with clif bars. (We had no idea when we'd have a chance to eat!)

We make our way to E st and walk toward the Ellipse. We saw a bunch of heating tents and asked one of the national guards(wo)men where we were supposed to go and of course she doesn't have a clue. So we trudge on. We make it to the Ellipse. Where's the media circus?! We saw maybe 4 or 5 sattelite vans getting feed from the video guys at the Capitol. Ok, clearly this isn't where we're supposed to be because there are no photos to be had here. We decide to walk toward the parade route. We end up at 15th and E st at Pennsylvania. The final turn on the parade route before the White House reviewing stands. We talk to some cops, some Air Force people, some secret service and still, no one knows where we're supposed to be. So, we take post at the corner there and wait. And wait and wait and wait. There were no jumbotrons set up along the parade route, so sadly, we only heard an audio broadcast of the inauguration. By now it's probably close to 11 am. The swearing in was at 12:04 pm. So, if you do the math, we were out there for a long time.

Let me tell you though, it was COLD. I had brought hand-warmers, enough for the both of us. I stuffed two into each mitten. I tried sticking them in my pants pockets but it really did nothing. By mid-afternoon, 2 pm or so, I had to bust out the toe warmers and put those on.

Luckily, while on our corner, we made friends with the announcers in the booth at that corner. They let us hang out in their booth once the parade started and lucky for us, they had a tiny little space heater. (Ian spent most of his time next to it and I unfortunately had to hang my body outside the tent to shoot the parade, so needless to say, I froze a little inside.) While waiting for the parade to start afer the swearing-in ceremony, the crowd stood patiently, lining the streets, listening to the same 2 cd's over and over again on the loud speakers. The Obama-production people didn't take into account that people would have to listen to the same 32 songs over and over again. By the time the parade started, people were shouting, "Turn it off!" 

The parade was supposed to start at 230 pm, but like everything having to do with government and military, we hurried up and waited... and waited... and waited. Thanks to that one lady who talked throughout their luncheon at the Senate, poor Ted Kennedy's collapse and a quickie speech by Mr. Biden, the parade started at about 430 pm. Finally, Ian and I were about to see some action. We were told by the announcers we were standing with that Obama was going to walk the last leg of the parade route, so we were stoked.

After about hundreds of cops and military folk passed, the first family approached in their ridiculously long motorcade. Unfortunately for us, like the rest of the day, the Obamas stayed in their nice and toasty warm vehicle and waved to the crowd from inside. I waved back excitedly to little Sasha and her ever-so-classy mother, but Obama I saw not. (Not until I got home and went through my photos and saw the one posted above.) I was of course incredibly upset and frustrated, so I wa ready to go. But Ian, Ian wanted to get a shot of good ol' Biden (photo linked above). Biden walked the whole route. (We found out the next day that Obama walked the first few blocks down by the Capitol, and the last block by the White House, which, was not more than a block from where we were posted.)

So, we got our photos. Biden passed by, the Old Guard passed by, Obamas passed by, we were done. Who cares about the high schoolers marching in the parade when its 18 degrees outside. Ian and I were off. We trudged back across the Ellipse, found a warming tent, went inside and stood under one of the vents until we defrosted and made our way back up to Farragut North to take on the crazy crowds of people on the metro. Lucky for us, they'd all left after the swearing-in. By the time we got home I discovered I had burns on my hands from the hand warmers and that I couldnt' feel my toes.

But damnit, I took part in history that day. I can tell my nieces and nephews that I was in our nation's capital the day Obama took the oath of office. I covered my very first inauguration (and hopefully there will be more to come). I survived a ridiculous amount of people clogging up the city and all without seeing one celebrity with my own eyes. Now I'm going to figure out a way to have lunch with our president and his new photographer, go shopping with Michelle and take the kids out for some gelato in Georgetown.

Obama Madness, Inauguration 2009, Part 1

Well, I was going to make my next post about the rest of My Winter Adventure, but I'm over that and President Obama's inauguration is a way bigger deal.

So, let me begin my story. The photo you see above is a hail-mary I shot on the mall during the concert at Lincoln's Memorial on Sunday that was aired live on HBO. My roommate Gabby and I decided to go down and check it out. We ended up getting off the metro at Farrugut North and hoped to hop a bus, but as we were about to do so, all streets going East-West were closed down. So we made the not-so-long walk down to the Lincoln Memorial. Along the way we were offered all sorts of swag ranging from Inaugural (Bakset)balls, posters, t-shirts, buttons to Obama fragrances. It was kind of ridiculous the things these people were selling. But then there were the practical pitches of hand warmers and tissues. We didn't stop to purchase anything, but it was amusing nonetheless.

Unfortunately, we got there at 2 (when it was supposed to start) we couldn't see jack. We ended up right behind the WW2 memorial watching a jumbotron with all those people in the photo above. Security ended up closing off the gates that would've allowed us to get past the WW2 memorial, so we were left hopeless until I saw a hole for us to get to the front of the second crowd of people. We had a decent spot at the south jumbotron. I mean, ya know, it's cool we were there to experience it live, but it would've been way cooler if we'd gotten to see it up close and not have to see Mary J.'s boots on a giant screen.

The rundown of celebrities (if I can even remember them all) included: Denzel Washington, Mary J. Blige, Kal Penn, Steve Carrell, Tom Hanks, Laura Linney, Shakira, Usher, Stevie Wonder, John Mellancamp, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springstein, James Taylor, Beyonce, U2, John Legend, Garth Brooks, Jack Black... the list goes on. I'm straining my brain just trying to remember them all. So all in all, it was pretty awesome to be at something so historic.

The speakers showed old footage of past important presidents like Roosevelt and Kennedy. And quoted Lincoln quite a few times. Martin Luther King III spoke about his father and the things he tried to accomplish during the civil rights movement. 

And then... then... Obama spoke. My god the crowd went absolutely insane. And you know what? It was for good reason. The man is an amazing orator. The way he speaks, the things he says, he's totally motivating. I'd say he was the highlight of the day, even though we got to see so many great acts in the same day. So, now I've experienced the mass of people and I feel slightly better prepared for Tuesday's festivities. Ian and I are going to be going back downtown to the Ellipse behind the White House to cover the inaugural parade and the Army parts of it. I hope, hope, hope! that I'll get to see Obama in person for some amazing photos. So, stay tuned folks.

Also, to see more photos of the event and photos of tomorrow, check out this Facebook Album.