We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration
A history lesson, told in secular songs that spoke of belief in mankind and perseverance and in stories of bold moves by strong leaders, served as Barack Obama’s first public celebration in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. - Weekend recap.
Wednesday: Arrived at 10:30 pm and crashed at my hotel.
Thursday: I enjoyed breakfast in bed and worked from my hotel room until noon and then headed to the PR News luncheon at the National Press Club. We all wanted to sneak into the Newsweek event. The MWW crew had some beers in the afternoon and then met up at the D.C office for a bit.
I met my cousin Toni at the Metro and we stood on a packed train back to Bethesda then grabbed some dinner.
Friday: Back to D.C. for a long day of work and conference calls.
Toni, Sean (her bf) and I grabbed dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant in Bethesda and then proceeded to the bar for a long night of drinking and hilarious conversations and encounters.
Some people of note from the bar:
- “G”: He was wearing a button down with some graphic embellished with sequins on the back. Apparently he owns and/or works at a local restaurant where the only decent thing on the menu is eggplant parmesan. No one was talking to him so he decided to sit near my cousin and I and pretended he was with us. He attempted to make conversation by saying “Hey, I got into the master’s program at Georgetown. Salute!” My cousin didn’t have a drink so he ended up cheers-ing with me.
- Sweatsuit guy: I didn’t catch his name, but this guy was the highlight of the weird people of the night. He was wearing a velour sweatsuit with a graphic tee of some kind underneath. He definitely thought he was hot shit throwing around his “What’s up bro?” and “Hey, can you grab me a chilly” lines. (A chilly is a beer in this guy language.)
- Big booty, butter face girl: All I have to say is, why did your friends let you out of the house wearing a tight, beige sweater dress with black tights when your butt is the size of Texas? And I know you can’t change your face, but at least try to accentuate your good features.
Saturday: We didn’t go to sleep until 3:15am and got a late start in the morning. We finally made our way to D.C. for a day of sightseeing and picture taking. My cousin works for a congressman from Arkansas so we got to go into her office and then she took us on a staff tour of The Capitol.
We made our way down “The Mall,” which I thought was a shopping center when my cousin first said we were going to walk the mall. We saw all the Smithsonian museums and Departments of the INSERT NAME HERE (e.g. Treasury, Interior, etc.).
We stopped by the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Abraham Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Vietnam Veteran’s War Memorial and finally The White House, where I saw snipers on the roof.
We had dinner on Saturday night and I had an amazing crab cake sandwich and ended up falling asleep on the couch at around 10:30pm.
Sunday: Toni, Sean and I attempted to have breakfast at a Jewish deli run by an Chinese family, but the service was so poor, we waited 45 minutes for eggs and had to get our meals boxed up. I ate hash browns with my fingers in the car on the way to airport.
I had an amazing time and the vibe in the city was so refreshing and exciting. I wish I had a few more days to soak it all in, go the museums, see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and visit Georgetown. I guess I just need to schedule another trip!
Our Nation’s Capital.
I am here.
And it is beautiful, exciting, amazing and many more words I can’t think of right now.
