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So, I had a "thing" yesterday. My good friend Jenn, my new friend Ted, and I braved the crowds and the cold to catch the Inauguration. It was inspiring to join with a million or more people to celebrate the dawn of a new era. We welcomed the Obamas and Bidens to the White House with open arms. We also gave Bush and Co. the boot.
Happy as I am, there is this hollow feeling in my gut. We won't have W. and Cheney to kick around any more. It is also worth noting that Cheney was in a wheelchair yesterday. Supposedly, he pulled a muscle moving a box. He should have called me. I would have been happy to move him out. Incidentally, Cheney will be drawing an annual pension of $132,451. I hope that is enough to keep him out of politics.
As for the Inauguration, the crowds were really as large as the media tell you, but we encountered very few problems other than the First Street crowd. There were no major arrests or incidents. Some people with standing room only tickets (the Purple Tickets) did not get in. After an initial bad decision, we headed down toward the Washington Monument and caught the ceremony on one of the giant screens. After the ceremony, we took in the sights and snapped a few pictures for some folks on the Mall. It was an incredible experience.
The people were all all happy and positive. We met people from Belarus, Montreal, Vermont, Indiana and Utah. That's just the ones I remember off hand. We also ran into two gentlemen who know an administrator from my tiny undergraduate school in Pennsylvania. We even got on to Indian Television after walking behind a news crew.
Today, President Obama signed executive orders freezing salaries for senior staffers, making the federal government more open (documents are presumed to be open to the public rather than closed as they were under W.), and placing more restrictions on former staffers lobbying the government. Change has even come to the White House website.
Just one more rant: always tip your server. We got talking to a waiter/bartender at a great bar downtown. This guy worked almost non-stop between Sunday and Tuesday and was getting tips of a few bucks on bills of $100 or more. Don't do that to your server.
Rants over. On to the pictures:
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Just one more. Here's the big moment, screw up and all.
Yes, we did.
Chris
Update: I forgot about this one. We had record ridership on the Metro today, with only one major mishap. A lady fell onto the tracks. A volunteer from the Houston transit authority helped rescue her. That's what it was all about this weekend.
2 comments:
Oh, I was hoping you would have pictures and a story to tell.
My friends from Oklahoma texted me from the mall yesterday. I would have loved to have been there. Oh well, I'll be there in 2016 to see a woman take the oath.
Good one like the typo
dad
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