History Happened

The 57th Inauguration happened 2 days ago, I am aware that I am late for posting this. I had to digest and relax from the events. Here is what I could remember...

The opening ceremony was positively incredible. I think it was the highlight of those three days. Dr. Carter had rearranged the schedule so we could attend together. Old Dr. Carter, he is at least mid 60s, walked all the way to the Washington Monument with us, jumped off a wall, and hopped a fence. Mind you, by the time we got there it was Dr. Carter and 3 of us students. The rest of the group had walked ahead or got lost in the crowd. The concert was amazing; never in my life can anyone say they saw Stevie Wonder and Bono perform at the same time. The acts could not be outdone. But what was more interesting was the mood of the crowd. You could feel something in the air, I think it was excitement or just anticipation for Tuesday. And everyone was happy.

Monday was our first day off. It felt so great to not have to wake up! My roommates and I went to check out the Eastern Market, a farmers market a few blocks away. We bought the coolest Obama tshirts, I will post a picture of them. We then rushed home to get ready for the Marquette reception at the Center. We were at least 15 minutes late for working coat check. And that is just the beginning of the hell.

The reception had 300 people RSVP. And 500 showed up in the first hour, the hour that 5 of us were working the coat check with no instruction on how to set it up. I spent an hour getting ready only to be running floor length minks up and down the stairs in heels. I was hot and sweaty when I was finally relieved. That worked out great when I went to mingle with Wisconsin congressmen and the president of the University. I met the mayor of Milwaukee, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and tons of young Marquette alums. There were even 5 different generations of Alpha Chis there. Way to rep in DC! After stuffing myself with cheesecake lollypops I took another shift at the coat check and then left, exhausted.

The next morning my friend Zac, who was staying in my room, had left at 5:30. Because we didn’t have tickets, my roommates and I left at 9. Down the block, over the walls of 295 expressway, through the blue ticket line (people were not happy), wading through HUGE crowds, and over the river we go….
It took us 2 hours to get 30 feet in front of the Washington Monument. I cried when we got out of the crowds, but I didn’t cry during his speech which I was surprised. It was a somber speech, but it was history. The crowd was chanting “Obama,” people were hitting drums, and people were in trees and climbing Porta Potties.

I could have only made it out of there with a sense of humor. The crowds were pressing. There was no where to move and we had army men telling us to go in 50 different directions from on top of Hummers, but you could not move at all. People were getting very angry. I really thought something was going to go wrong. We made it through 3 tight squeezes and got home in 2 and half hours, it should only have been a 20 minute walk. We had to walk a few blocks out of the way to avoid the Metro stops. All the Metros were closed because someone fell on the tracks and died. That meant there was no way out of the city, the bridges and Metro were both closed for 3 hours. I am still shocked there was not a riot.

What made the day all better was when Zac and I walked around the Capitol around 6. They had the whole thing under flood lights and everything was still set up. We hopped a few fences and got some great close up pictures. We were so close to where history had been made 6 hours before. Walking back we ran into people in their ball clothes, I wish I got a ticket!

I can sum up the experience as, its something I will be proud to tell my kids I was at, but it was terrible living it.