Seema's here!

Seema and me at Cafe Japon, a karaoke/sushi place in Dupont Circle. We were not actually blurry, but it is not the fault of your receiver. Do not adjust your set. If you've ever wondered what a subway station looks like at 12:30 on a Saturday morning, here it is. Unfortunately, not my train.

Apparently, it's not about punctuation.

In all honesty, there was a tiny apostrophe inserted where it was needed, but it was obviously an afterthought.

It's always hard to leave a good party.

I didn't know it, but the spot that I picked to watch the inauguration was right by one of the exit routes from the Mall. That was a very good thing, because after standing still for about an hour I was getting pretty cold. Once I got into the stream of people leaving, there was little choice about where to go. Not only was almost every route blocked off, but just the force of all of those people was enough to keep me going wherever they were going. I pulled out my map a couple of times to make sure I wasn't being carried in the wrong direction, but I was pretty sure that we were probably going the right way. I had it in my head earlier that I might be able to duck into a museum for the afternoon while all of the crowds dispersed from the Mall, but the friendly folks in camo wanted us all to stay together.

Once we got to the closest Metro station that was open, they had to keep us from flooding into the station. Earlier in the day a woman had fallen onto the tracks at one of the stations, and while she said she wasn't pushed, people don't usually stand that close to the edge unless there's nowhere else to stand. So the police and National Guard were being very cautious about crowd control. By now some people were starting to get grouchy, but only a few. The guy who appeared to be in charge here kept telling us two things: "If you have kids with you, keep them in front of you!" and "If you start pushing, I will have to shut this station down and you'll have to go somewhere else!" None of us wanted that.

Even with people pressing against me on all sides, I was starting to shiver. I was glad that I was not at the back of the crowd. I was on a train heading home about 45 minutes after I started leaving the Mall. The whole day was a phenomenal experience. I would do it again in a heartbeat and I'm glad I wasn't scared off by all of the dire warnings.

Settling in to Watch

I eventually settled in to watch across the street from the Washington Monument. It was toward the back of one of the massive sections that were blocked off so there was more room to move around. The Marine Corps band was playing the whole time, and thanks to the great sound system we could hear the music even though we were quite far away. They played lots of music that would be familiar to any band geek -- Washington Post, Liberty Bell, National Emblem, Hail Columbia, and at least one Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

It was amazing to me that so many people were so happy to be standing there in the cold waiting for this. Not even any of the children that I saw seemed to be unhappy about having been dragged along with grandparents and parents -- I don't think I saw a single hand-held video game. There was so much to see and hear, and there was very much a feeling of shared experience. I saw a member of the National Guard bring hot popcorn to one of the people waiting because the popcorn cart was in a different section and he couldn't let her cross the barricade. They were very strict about not letting people move around very much.

I knew that there were going to be Jumbotrons there, but I had no idea how well I would be able to hear everything that was happening. All of the arriving dignitaries were announced, and we were able to hear all of the speeches and performances that preceeded the swearing-in. And then, it was finally time!

The trumpet fanfare in the background after the oath that you might be able to hear beneath all of the cheering people are Ruffles and Flourishes. The President gets four repetitions, followed by "Hail to the Chief". ;-)