Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
When Opportunity Meets Luck...
Yesterday it was announced that President Obama would be coming to speak at the university where I work. People who wanted to attend had to sign up for a lottery system. The only person on my entire floor who scored a ticket was....(drumroll please)...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Veni, Vidi, Vici
When Julius Caesar announced to the Senate his victory over Pharnaces he shouted the immortal words "I came-I saw-I conquered".
Today we did. Today is the day we thought we would NEVER see. Collective sigh of relief
So...to give you the first hand account of the parts you didn't see on t.v.
5:45am I'm up. Eye rubbing, teeth brushing, shower taking and out the door to meet up at the Metro Station. Traffic suspiciously clear (but I also live inside the beltway).
7:15 am Park cars and meet up to take very chilly walk to station...even with 3 layers of clothes. Weather 20 degrees.
7:45ish stand in a very long line to get into the station. Mood: pretty jovial considering it was the ass crack of morning. Lots of Obama fever! My coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
8:45ish after waiting on freezing outdoor Metro platform, get on train. Smart enough to get on at the end of the line in the last car and secure a seat for the whole ride. (In my best Homer Simpson voice) Woo hoo!
9:00am on for the ride. Train is stuffed. I know what Twinkie filling feels like. Knew I should've left earlier. Wouldn't have helped. Spend the next 45 mins telling people at every stop they can't get on. Thankful I am not motion sick because the trains are carrying so much weight they're leaning harder than D4L.
10am finally make it. shock and awe. the line...the ticket holder line... is about 1 mile long (no exageration). settle in for a wait.
10:30 still waiting (but moving). Have a nice chat with a family from New Orleans.
11 ish Now I heard they were supposed to shut the gates down at 11:30...gettting antsy. See ticket holders walking in my directions saying the gates are closed. Closed my ass! Not going anywhere until I get "official" word. Dumb dumbs who fell for that ploy get out of line. Time to move.
11:15 ish get pretty far up to where the ticket entrance is. Police hold us up for a few to let the crowds go forward. Mood still upbeat. I actually have a ok view from where I am standing. Cops are doing a good job...can't even hate on them cause I can't imagine how jacked up their job must be today. Spot cops putting up barricades out of the corner of my eye...crowd suddenly shoves me to the left and then an open space...I'm on the other side.
11:30 as close as I am going to get. Not great but not bad. Glad I'm tall...I'm on a little bit of a downhill but have just enough of a straight line of sight to see the jumbo tron.
12:00ish become a living witness to history.
After that it pretty much becomes a blur. We left shortly after all of the speeches (I caught about 2/3 of Obama's speech on my video camera...which is mostly shots of the backs of peoples heads but you get a REALLY good idea of what it was like to stand in the middle of it all). Took a nice walk back to a less crowded Metro station and rode home. It pretty much was a choice of seeing the oath or watching the parade (you pretty much had to be there super super early to be on the parade side and they only let 350K in then they shut it down)...So after a pretty breezy ride back I got here just in time to watch the parade from the comfort of my nice warm living room. Current temperature 30, but 16 with the wind chill. Was hoping that typing it all up would help my fingers defrost...not even a little...LOL. But was it worth it???
Hell YES!!!!
I have never met so many nice people. I have never seen my city so crowded. EVER. I still can't quite feel my fingers. My feet hurt from all the walking/slash standing I did. But I have a new president. My president. Our president. And I'm pretty damn happy.
PS I have some video that I will post on youtube and then embed. It's the swearing in and about 2/3 of the speech (it's a large file so I'll have to compress it). Meanwhile I am going to go recoup.
Item #121 CHECK.
Today we did. Today is the day we thought we would NEVER see. Collective sigh of relief
So...to give you the first hand account of the parts you didn't see on t.v.
5:45am I'm up. Eye rubbing, teeth brushing, shower taking and out the door to meet up at the Metro Station. Traffic suspiciously clear (but I also live inside the beltway).
7:15 am Park cars and meet up to take very chilly walk to station...even with 3 layers of clothes. Weather 20 degrees.
7:45ish stand in a very long line to get into the station. Mood: pretty jovial considering it was the ass crack of morning. Lots of Obama fever! My coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
8:45ish after waiting on freezing outdoor Metro platform, get on train. Smart enough to get on at the end of the line in the last car and secure a seat for the whole ride. (In my best Homer Simpson voice) Woo hoo!
9:00am on for the ride. Train is stuffed. I know what Twinkie filling feels like. Knew I should've left earlier. Wouldn't have helped. Spend the next 45 mins telling people at every stop they can't get on. Thankful I am not motion sick because the trains are carrying so much weight they're leaning harder than D4L.
10am finally make it. shock and awe. the line...the ticket holder line... is about 1 mile long (no exageration). settle in for a wait.
10:30 still waiting (but moving). Have a nice chat with a family from New Orleans.11 ish Now I heard they were supposed to shut the gates down at 11:30...gettting antsy. See ticket holders walking in my directions saying the gates are closed. Closed my ass! Not going anywhere until I get "official" word. Dumb dumbs who fell for that ploy get out of line. Time to move.
11:15 ish get pretty far up to where the ticket entrance is. Police hold us up for a few to let the crowds go forward. Mood still upbeat. I actually have a ok view from where I am standing. Cops are doing a good job...can't even hate on them cause I can't imagine how jacked up their job must be today. Spot cops putting up barricades out of the corner of my eye...crowd suddenly shoves me to the left and then an open space...I'm on the other side.
11:30 as close as I am going to get. Not great but not bad. Glad I'm tall...I'm on a little bit of a downhill but have just enough of a straight line of sight to see the jumbo tron.
12:00ish become a living witness to history.After that it pretty much becomes a blur. We left shortly after all of the speeches (I caught about 2/3 of Obama's speech on my video camera...which is mostly shots of the backs of peoples heads but you get a REALLY good idea of what it was like to stand in the middle of it all). Took a nice walk back to a less crowded Metro station and rode home. It pretty much was a choice of seeing the oath or watching the parade (you pretty much had to be there super super early to be on the parade side and they only let 350K in then they shut it down)...So after a pretty breezy ride back I got here just in time to watch the parade from the comfort of my nice warm living room. Current temperature 30, but 16 with the wind chill. Was hoping that typing it all up would help my fingers defrost...not even a little...LOL. But was it worth it???
Hell YES!!!!
I have never met so many nice people. I have never seen my city so crowded. EVER. I still can't quite feel my fingers. My feet hurt from all the walking/slash standing I did. But I have a new president. My president. Our president. And I'm pretty damn happy.
PS I have some video that I will post on youtube and then embed. It's the swearing in and about 2/3 of the speech (it's a large file so I'll have to compress it). Meanwhile I am going to go recoup.
Item #121 CHECK.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Speechless...
Omg!!!In the imortal words of SpongeBob Squarepants: Today is the best day EVER!!!
Why. did. I. just. score. an inaugural ticket?
Ok...let me pick my own jaw up off the floor.
Cliff notes version, it happened completely by accident. I came across a lady on one of my social networking sites who had tickets, but lives out of the area and is unable to attend.
Wow! That's all I can say right now...
While I am at it...Parade Magazine has published an open letter from Obama to his daughters.
http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/news/2009/01/barack-obama-letter-to-my-daughters.html
...speechless.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Update on Item # 121- Inaugural tickets
I received this email just prior to Christmas:
Thank you for contacting Senator Webb’s office regarding Inauguration tickets. As you may know, the Senator’s office has received more than 35,000 total ticket requests and has been allotted only a few hundred tickets. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to accommodate your request for tickets to the Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol. However, please note that the remaining sections of the National Mall will be open to members of the public who were unable to obtain the limited tickets available. These areas will have large screens to ensure that the general public can easily view the ceremony and festivities.
We wanted to give you this status update well in advance of Inauguration Day so that you can plan accordingly. Please also be aware that in addition to the public viewing area on the National Mall, there are a number of events during the week, including the Inaugural Parade, that do not require tickets.
Due to the extraordinarily high interest in the Swearing-In Ceremony, Senator Webb has sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, requesting additional tickets to account for Virginia’s proximity to Washington D.C. Should Senator Webb receive additional tickets from the Inaugural Committee or any other source and be able to accommodate your request, we will be sure to let you know.
The Swearing-In Ceremony is the only Inaugural event to which our office has received tickets...
Blah blah blah... long story short, I still may have an angle on tickets, but I am going to Plan B/C which is to say I am either 1. going to brave the cold and the expected 4 million people who are coming to my town in about 2 weeks and watch the inauguration from the Mall or 2. I am going to go to the Verizon Center or Convention Center which are fairly close, but have seats and heat, and watch on the big screens from there. I'm leaning more toward the first since this is a once in a lifetime moment.
Suggestions?
Thank you for contacting Senator Webb’s office regarding Inauguration tickets. As you may know, the Senator’s office has received more than 35,000 total ticket requests and has been allotted only a few hundred tickets. Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to accommodate your request for tickets to the Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol. However, please note that the remaining sections of the National Mall will be open to members of the public who were unable to obtain the limited tickets available. These areas will have large screens to ensure that the general public can easily view the ceremony and festivities.
We wanted to give you this status update well in advance of Inauguration Day so that you can plan accordingly. Please also be aware that in addition to the public viewing area on the National Mall, there are a number of events during the week, including the Inaugural Parade, that do not require tickets.
Due to the extraordinarily high interest in the Swearing-In Ceremony, Senator Webb has sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, requesting additional tickets to account for Virginia’s proximity to Washington D.C. Should Senator Webb receive additional tickets from the Inaugural Committee or any other source and be able to accommodate your request, we will be sure to let you know.
The Swearing-In Ceremony is the only Inaugural event to which our office has received tickets...
Blah blah blah... long story short, I still may have an angle on tickets, but I am going to Plan B/C which is to say I am either 1. going to brave the cold and the expected 4 million people who are coming to my town in about 2 weeks and watch the inauguration from the Mall or 2. I am going to go to the Verizon Center or Convention Center which are fairly close, but have seats and heat, and watch on the big screens from there. I'm leaning more toward the first since this is a once in a lifetime moment.
Suggestions?
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