Inauguration Tales

Sorry it took me so long to get back and write about my 24 hours of adventure on inauguration day. I hope you enjoyed the pictures in the mean time.

On the night of January 19th I found myself running from commitment to commitment, as you might expect from me by now. We had a game that night at North Carolina State University...and what a game it was. Desperate for a win after opening conference play 0-3, being in the midst of a 4 game losing streak and trying to rally around their coach (the now late Kay Yow...another post on that later...and yes, I seem to say that a lot but one day it'll happen), the Wolfpack pushed us to our second overtime of the season. We won the game, went back to our locker room and immediately began writing cards of well wishes, thoughts and sentiment to Coach Yow.

Once we arrived back at Duke, I finished up my managing duties, came back to my dorm to squeeze in an hour or so of work, packed my "stuff" and was right back out the door to catch the bus to DC. I left the dorm wearing a pair of turquoise pantyhose, with gray stirrup pants (come on, you remember those from the 90s?) over them, a pair of black athletic leggings over top, and finally a pair of jeans. I also wore an under armor long sleeved shirt with a long sleeved t-shirt on top and my hiking books. With me I brought a fleece, a hoodie, a winter coat, ear warming head band, a hat (thanks Nicole!), a pair of hiking socks, a pair of cotton gloves and an old pair of my mom's driving gloves (from the 70s when she lived in NY!), and wind breaker pants. Can you say L-A-Y-E-R-S!?

We got boarded the bus just after 12-midnight and were on our way to the nation's capitol! Some hours later we stopped briefly at a rest stop before arriving at RFK stadium. As we got off the bus, the Duke chaperones gave us hand warmers! I'd never heard of them before and didn't know anything about them. To a kid from Arizona they're kind of the opposite of those instant ice packs!

From RFK stadium we caught a shuttle which took us to just a few blocks from the National Mall. We got to the national mall and waited...and waited...and waited...and tried to stay warm in the process.

The children's choir was a really beautiful introduction to the day's events. Nothing like singing "America the Beautiful" or "My Country Tis of Thee" or "My Land is Your Land...Your Land is My Land" with 2million people on the national mall!

Everything after that is kind of a blur. Lots of flag waving, cheering, soulful amens and "mhms", chanting O-BA-MA and singing "na na na na hey hey hey good bye" to Bush.

Following the inauguration ceremony we went to go find a bite to eat. This proved to be a much more dramatic task then either of us could have ever predicted. Food options were limited, everything had crazy lines and we had no idea where to go! Literally hours later we wound up back at the national mall and got hotdogs before heading back to RFK stadium to catch our way "home" to Duke.

The whole thing was absolutely incredible. To witness and be a part of history like that is a pretty surreal experience. Arguably the best $20 (thats how much my bus ticket was) I ever spent in my life.