I guess I should feel a little guilty for calling him out, I didn't add him to the list of blogs I was following.
All is forgiven?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
InaugBlog
Ashley and I agreed, rarely do you see spectacle and mass sentiment combined into one event the way we did on Tuesday.
I think the next time I choose to travel to some historic event, it would be prudent to find a little easier way to get there than I did. The marathon, twenty-four and a half hour journey that took me from Portland to San Francisco to Boston to Washington DC (and every backwards town in between the last two) was pretty wild. Needless to say, when I arrived in DC on Sunday night, I was pretty pumped to, I don’t know, sleep lying down, or eat a real meal.
I hadn’t realized that my layover was a whopping four and a half hours in San Francisco, so I called up Nate and Meredith to see if they were busy or wanted to make a trip into the city. Turns out they were in Napa, so they happily agreed and met me at the airport.
We did an In-N-Out run (double-double animal style, a-thank you), then headed into the city for cocktails at their snazzy hotel. It was a nice little distraction from the travel ahead, and also pleasantly knocked me out for my flight in to Boston.
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In Boston, it was bitter cold, and snowing profusely. We broke through the clouds about 20 feet off the ground (or so it seemed), it was pretty wild. I made my way to South Station (via the Silver line, I did my homework) and then sat for a couple of hours and people watched. The Amtrak employees in Boston deserve some kind of award for being great, they were unbelievably helpful to everyone.
The train was late getting in, so we started off our journey on a bad foot. When our train stopped in New Jersey (one of the countless, surely needless stops we made), I am almost certain I saw Clifford Robinson get on. I would have said hello, or shown him my copy of Against the World* that I had with me, but I didn’t get the chance. He sat in first class, was dressed in all black, and looked awesome.
I rolled in around 8:30 (a little over an hour and a half late, bleh!) and was pleasantly surprised to find that Ashley’s house is a short walk from Union Station. After getting settled, we decided some DC pizza (not something the city is known for) was worth getting. Armand’s did not disappoint after a weary travel day! When we got back, I was able to meet Ashley’s roommate, Caroline and say hello to Erica. We called it an early bed, because we had much to do the next day.
We slept in (the only day of my weeklong vacation that I did this) and then had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. Erica’s friend Jonah joined us for breakfast, he was quite the fella. It’s definitely a different crowd of folks than I am used to hanging with, and, although we all come from different cities and backgrounds, I was pleasantly surprised to find we all enjoyed discussing the most inappropriate things possible at the breakfast table. Subjects included: drinking, fecal matter (a couple of different times), and being vomited on. Erica was the winner with that last story!
Earl Blumenauer was having an Open House at his office in the Rayburn building and since Ashley used to work for him, we were going to pop in and say hello. Our first mistake was assuming that he was the only one having any kind of function. As it turned out, every member of Congress was having some kind of event for constituents in town. The line wrapped completely around the building, which is saying a lot, it’s a huge building. So, that was out. Ashley’s friend Cappa, who still works there, said they ended up staying three and a half hours later than they had planned because of all of the people trying to get in. Since I wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to just stroll the mall.
We got a look at the Inauguration set up on the Capitol Building steps, then proceeded to walk towards the Washington Monument. There really wasn’t anything going on on the mall, mostly just technical work setting up the jumbotrons and getting the sound working. There was a great moment when they were testing everything and Stevie Wonder came on. It was from the concert on Sunday night (with Usher and Shakira), and as soon as the opening riff of ‘Higher Ground’ kicked off, a group of older black ladies walking down the mall busted into a little dance party. That was pretty indicative of the party atmosphere in the city, lots of smiles, strangers making friends. We made it to Lincoln to find, whoops-a-daisy, it was closed so they could take down all of the scaff and staging from the show the night before. Bummer.
We walked along the water to the Jefferson Memorial, which was really cool. I don’t remember seeing it when I was here as a kid, so it was cool to see it now. Even if I had, I don’t think I would have understood any of the words on the walls or what it was all about. Seeing that definitely made me want to come back and ‘see the sights’ when there aren’t an extra 3 million people or so around. By the time we boarded the Metro over there, we had covered about six miles on foot!
We went back to Ashley’s place to rest up and prepare for Taco Night. I made some epic guac, the meat was expertly prepared, and all said and done, it was super delicious. Caroline and I had some good bonding time talking about beer, Jesus, and life in general. Good times! Everyone retired for the night, and I set up shop in the dining room watching the Blazer game online. Thank God for justin.tv and their live TV streams. It was rad to be able to stream the Blazer broadcast feed to hear Mike, Mike, and Rebecca on the east coast. And they won!
Before Erica left for her dinner engagement, she and I decided that we would leave at 7:40 the next morning when her friend Laura Claire got to Ashley’s. This seemed like a really good plan at the time. I mean, hey, we had our tickets, we could show up an hour or so early and find our way on in. Big mistake. Mother of all mistakes.
In one of the most baffling moves in the history of anything, Congress and the organizers of the Inauguration Ceremony over-distributed tickets to the standing room only part of the Capitol lawn by about, oh, let’s say, 20,000 tickets. We showed up to giant masses of people. The roads were blocked off, so, imagine a city block completely crammed with people in a line stretching five blocks. It was bad. I think it was like a combination of the bridge scenes in Cloverfield and I Am Legend. After standing crammed in the line for two hours (!) and not moving (!), I decided I needed to find out what was going on. I told Erica and her friends I was gonna break out and see what was going on.
This brings me to the other huge blunder of the day: the production. At least from everyone in the standing tickets section. We couldn’t hear anything! Rick Warren knows how to use a mic, that was ok, and of course, Obama knows how to work a mic, but everything else needed to be boosted. We could barely hear the introductions, or either of the oaths given. You gotsta ride that fader, son! Also, whoever had the genius idea to put the front two jumbotrons right behind (or in front of, depending on your perspective) giant trees on both sides: Great work, buddy!
All of that aside, it was truly remarkable to be there in person for it. It was wild to hear the applause echo behind us from the huge crowd. He delivered a great speech, struck just the right tone for the occasion. After he was sworn in, everyone around us was hugging. Complete strangers. While I was expecting people to be crying, I think the reaction I saw was better. People were smiling, and there was an air of contentedness around. It seemed to be like one big sigh of relief.
Walking away, I felt a little like the Cal Naughton Jr. to Obama’s Ricky Bobby. “That. Just. Happened.” (Great reference, eh?) How rare in life is it that you can see a huge shift of the country coming the way we were able to here? It definitely felt like a watershed moment.
Despite the close proximity to, well, everyone, I was freezing cold. When I was watching the game last night, they had the ‘Wear In The World’ segment**, so I thought it would be genius to wear some Blazer gear, get a photo taken with the Inauguration in the back drop, then submit it (which I did, watch for it tonight against the Cavs, or coming up). This turned out to be a great idea for showing my love for my team, but a horrible idea for staying warm. I was FRIGID. The picture above does not really do justice how effing cold it was. I braved the masses trying to get spots for the parade to hoof it back to Ashley’s. On the way, I saw Marine One flying Bush off to Andrews on his way home to Texas, that was kind of neat.
She looked me in the eyes and said, “You’re going. You’re getting in. I know it.”
I kind of laughed and probably said something like, “We’ll see,” before getting back to the task at hand, but the moment definitely stuck out in my mind. And now it turns out she was right!
Ashley had made some chili the night before, let it simmer all morning, then had a bunch of people over after the festivities. Chili hit the spot. After being outside in the high-20’s, low 30’s temperatures with only a couple of layers on, I felt beat up and totally sore from standing in line, so I ate, then promptly passed out in the front room for a glorious nap.
We ended the trip pretty low key, going to Subway for dinner before calling it a night early (I sense a theme). I got up at 4:00 to make it to Union Station on time to catch my 5:00 train, and away I went!
* This is the story of the 1991-1992 Portland Trail Blazers written by Kerry Eggers and Dwight Jaynes. Worth reading!
** ‘Wear In The World’ is a segment n the Blazer broadcast, they encourage people to wear shirts or jerseys when they travel and submit the photos to be on TV. Shameless, I know.
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I think the next time I choose to travel to some historic event, it would be prudent to find a little easier way to get there than I did. The marathon, twenty-four and a half hour journey that took me from Portland to San Francisco to Boston to Washington DC (and every backwards town in between the last two) was pretty wild. Needless to say, when I arrived in DC on Sunday night, I was pretty pumped to, I don’t know, sleep lying down, or eat a real meal.
I hadn’t realized that my layover was a whopping four and a half hours in San Francisco, so I called up Nate and Meredith to see if they were busy or wanted to make a trip into the city. Turns out they were in Napa, so they happily agreed and met me at the airport.
We did an In-N-Out run (double-double animal style, a-thank you), then headed into the city for cocktails at their snazzy hotel. It was a nice little distraction from the travel ahead, and also pleasantly knocked me out for my flight in to Boston.
---
---
In Boston, it was bitter cold, and snowing profusely. We broke through the clouds about 20 feet off the ground (or so it seemed), it was pretty wild. I made my way to South Station (via the Silver line, I did my homework) and then sat for a couple of hours and people watched. The Amtrak employees in Boston deserve some kind of award for being great, they were unbelievably helpful to everyone.
The train was late getting in, so we started off our journey on a bad foot. When our train stopped in New Jersey (one of the countless, surely needless stops we made), I am almost certain I saw Clifford Robinson get on. I would have said hello, or shown him my copy of Against the World* that I had with me, but I didn’t get the chance. He sat in first class, was dressed in all black, and looked awesome.
I rolled in around 8:30 (a little over an hour and a half late, bleh!) and was pleasantly surprised to find that Ashley’s house is a short walk from Union Station. After getting settled, we decided some DC pizza (not something the city is known for) was worth getting. Armand’s did not disappoint after a weary travel day! When we got back, I was able to meet Ashley’s roommate, Caroline and say hello to Erica. We called it an early bed, because we had much to do the next day.
We slept in (the only day of my weeklong vacation that I did this) and then had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. Erica’s friend Jonah joined us for breakfast, he was quite the fella. It’s definitely a different crowd of folks than I am used to hanging with, and, although we all come from different cities and backgrounds, I was pleasantly surprised to find we all enjoyed discussing the most inappropriate things possible at the breakfast table. Subjects included: drinking, fecal matter (a couple of different times), and being vomited on. Erica was the winner with that last story!
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Earl Blumenauer was having an Open House at his office in the Rayburn building and since Ashley used to work for him, we were going to pop in and say hello. Our first mistake was assuming that he was the only one having any kind of function. As it turned out, every member of Congress was having some kind of event for constituents in town. The line wrapped completely around the building, which is saying a lot, it’s a huge building. So, that was out. Ashley’s friend Cappa, who still works there, said they ended up staying three and a half hours later than they had planned because of all of the people trying to get in. Since I wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to just stroll the mall.
We got a look at the Inauguration set up on the Capitol Building steps, then proceeded to walk towards the Washington Monument. There really wasn’t anything going on on the mall, mostly just technical work setting up the jumbotrons and getting the sound working. There was a great moment when they were testing everything and Stevie Wonder came on. It was from the concert on Sunday night (with Usher and Shakira), and as soon as the opening riff of ‘Higher Ground’ kicked off, a group of older black ladies walking down the mall busted into a little dance party. That was pretty indicative of the party atmosphere in the city, lots of smiles, strangers making friends. We made it to Lincoln to find, whoops-a-daisy, it was closed so they could take down all of the scaff and staging from the show the night before. Bummer.
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We walked along the water to the Jefferson Memorial, which was really cool. I don’t remember seeing it when I was here as a kid, so it was cool to see it now. Even if I had, I don’t think I would have understood any of the words on the walls or what it was all about. Seeing that definitely made me want to come back and ‘see the sights’ when there aren’t an extra 3 million people or so around. By the time we boarded the Metro over there, we had covered about six miles on foot!
We went back to Ashley’s place to rest up and prepare for Taco Night. I made some epic guac, the meat was expertly prepared, and all said and done, it was super delicious. Caroline and I had some good bonding time talking about beer, Jesus, and life in general. Good times! Everyone retired for the night, and I set up shop in the dining room watching the Blazer game online. Thank God for justin.tv and their live TV streams. It was rad to be able to stream the Blazer broadcast feed to hear Mike, Mike, and Rebecca on the east coast. And they won!
Before Erica left for her dinner engagement, she and I decided that we would leave at 7:40 the next morning when her friend Laura Claire got to Ashley’s. This seemed like a really good plan at the time. I mean, hey, we had our tickets, we could show up an hour or so early and find our way on in. Big mistake. Mother of all mistakes.
In one of the most baffling moves in the history of anything, Congress and the organizers of the Inauguration Ceremony over-distributed tickets to the standing room only part of the Capitol lawn by about, oh, let’s say, 20,000 tickets. We showed up to giant masses of people. The roads were blocked off, so, imagine a city block completely crammed with people in a line stretching five blocks. It was bad. I think it was like a combination of the bridge scenes in Cloverfield and I Am Legend. After standing crammed in the line for two hours (!) and not moving (!), I decided I needed to find out what was going on. I told Erica and her friends I was gonna break out and see what was going on.
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I got to the front of the mass of people I was standing in to find out, none of them were going anywhere. Everyone who was getting in was lining up at the real gate, about 50 feet to the left of where we were waiting. As I discovered this, I was suddenly swept into the flow of people getting in. I tried calling and texting, but the cell service was going haywire with all of the people there, so getting the rest of the guys to come up was a lost cause.
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I managed to squeeze my way to the front, wedged up against an older black gentleman who I was forced to put my arms around at a few different points. We squeezed through minutes before they shut the gates (and I’m sure royally pissed off a TON of people). I booked it to the lawn, managed to find a view that could see the podium, even if it was pretty tiny off in the distance. To give you an idea of where I was (assuming you watched some telecast of it), there was the Capitol steps, the seated area in front, ticketed standing area, then the Capitol reflecting pool, then the National Mall (where the masses gathered). I was in the back of the ticketed standing area.
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This brings me to the other huge blunder of the day: the production. At least from everyone in the standing tickets section. We couldn’t hear anything! Rick Warren knows how to use a mic, that was ok, and of course, Obama knows how to work a mic, but everything else needed to be boosted. We could barely hear the introductions, or either of the oaths given. You gotsta ride that fader, son! Also, whoever had the genius idea to put the front two jumbotrons right behind (or in front of, depending on your perspective) giant trees on both sides: Great work, buddy!
All of that aside, it was truly remarkable to be there in person for it. It was wild to hear the applause echo behind us from the huge crowd. He delivered a great speech, struck just the right tone for the occasion. After he was sworn in, everyone around us was hugging. Complete strangers. While I was expecting people to be crying, I think the reaction I saw was better. People were smiling, and there was an air of contentedness around. It seemed to be like one big sigh of relief.
Walking away, I felt a little like the Cal Naughton Jr. to Obama’s Ricky Bobby. “That. Just. Happened.” (Great reference, eh?) How rare in life is it that you can see a huge shift of the country coming the way we were able to here? It definitely felt like a watershed moment.
Despite the close proximity to, well, everyone, I was freezing cold. When I was watching the game last night, they had the ‘Wear In The World’ segment**, so I thought it would be genius to wear some Blazer gear, get a photo taken with the Inauguration in the back drop, then submit it (which I did, watch for it tonight against the Cavs, or coming up). This turned out to be a great idea for showing my love for my team, but a horrible idea for staying warm. I was FRIGID. The picture above does not really do justice how effing cold it was. I braved the masses trying to get spots for the parade to hoof it back to Ashley’s. On the way, I saw Marine One flying Bush off to Andrews on his way home to Texas, that was kind of neat.
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We got to all debrief when we met up again at the house. As it turns out, even though I was the last one to get a ticket, I was the only one who actually got into the ceremony! That was a pretty cool accomplishment. It makes me a little weirded out though; a woman I was helping at work a few weeks ago started chit-chatting about things and I mentioned that I was going to DC for the inauguration. This was right after Blumenauer’s office had informed me I was not going to receive a ticket from him. I mentioned to her I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but at the very least, I would go be a part of it.
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She looked me in the eyes and said, “You’re going. You’re getting in. I know it.”
I kind of laughed and probably said something like, “We’ll see,” before getting back to the task at hand, but the moment definitely stuck out in my mind. And now it turns out she was right!
Ashley had made some chili the night before, let it simmer all morning, then had a bunch of people over after the festivities. Chili hit the spot. After being outside in the high-20’s, low 30’s temperatures with only a couple of layers on, I felt beat up and totally sore from standing in line, so I ate, then promptly passed out in the front room for a glorious nap.
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---
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We ended the trip pretty low key, going to Subway for dinner before calling it a night early (I sense a theme). I got up at 4:00 to make it to Union Station on time to catch my 5:00 train, and away I went!
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* This is the story of the 1991-1992 Portland Trail Blazers written by Kerry Eggers and Dwight Jaynes. Worth reading!
** ‘Wear In The World’ is a segment n the Blazer broadcast, they encourage people to wear shirts or jerseys when they travel and submit the photos to be on TV. Shameless, I know.
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