Mr. President's Inauguration

So I moved to Washington, DC fully supporting the man with the plan Mr. Barack H. Obama. I did not know that he would actually be elected President of these United States, however the audacity of my hope knew no boundaries.

This past week has been more than memorable for me. The city that I've moved to over 7 months ago has embraced me, spit me out, then embraced me again. Now DC was going to have to buckle down for the biggest event of it's history to date.

My Experience:

• 2 friends stayed with me throughout the historic weekend

• Free concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, Jan. 18th (Stevie, Beyonce, Mary J., Bono, Bruce S., Garth B., will.i.am., Shakira, Usher etc....I could go on and on).

• MLK day was supposed to be Service day for our trio...however sleep trumped it...and we ended up eating only one meal and decided to party for the King that night

• MLK Night partying in Dupont Circle in 2 clubs, with 2 bottles of champagne, shots of patron and music to keep us moving until 4am.

• NO sleep after partying 10pm- 4am...just went back to the apartment, washed up, changed into jeans and sneakers, and headed to the subway to prepare for inauguration day.

• 6:30am still at subway station...lines are long, its FREEZING cold, and we are still not sober and now want coffee and sleep.

• 8:30am we arrive at the National Mall!! It's still cold, and we have about 1.5 miles to walk.

• We arrive at one of the furthest spots from the Capitol Building, right by the Washington Monument (we're now thinking that maybe we should have sleep at the Mall the night before).

• We see a screen far off in the distance, and are determined to at least get close enough to see it. However, we got stuck at a National Guard/ DC Police/ Federal Police checkpoint, and were told that no crowd movement would be granted.

• The ambulance where we were stuck moves, and a screen is in clear view, not to mention we are on a slight hill and now see just how many people are on the mall...the millions upon millions.

• Standing in the cold, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, elbow to elbow with strangers, old, young, white, black, asian, hispanic, we stood there and listened to the historic oath, and speech. Tears flowed, and even though the toes and fingers were numb at this point, we all were comfortable if only for the few moments when we realized that we were actually witnessing history.

• Leaving the crowd was chaotic (if there is another word for utter chaos, please insert).

• The closest train station was closed, the next closest was full, however, out of the cold, so we headed for it. Just imagine about 300,000 people in a trainstation built for about a max of 2000-5000. We were shoulder to shoulder moving all at once slowly for 2 hours in a confined area. People started to pass out from left to right. Paramedics could not even assist everyone, and a mini-riot almost broke out when one of the store keepers in our tunnel refused to sell refreshments...eventually he started giving away orange juice and water to those who had fainted.

• After almost 3 hours of waiting, my friends and I decided that we needed to exit before we became victim to the fainting spells.

• Starbucks and about a 2 mile walk later, we were at a more calm station, and we hopped on it exhausted. No food, and no sleep.

• Mickey D's at 6:30pm and sleep at 8:00pm on the most historic day in our lives. How American can you get!

With all of this...I would not have traded a bit of it. I'm a citizen under the watchful eye of my Commander and Chief, President Barack H. Obama. Thank God.