A lot of people have asked me how may Inauguration Day went. Mostly family members and friends back in San Francisco. I haven't had time to talk to anyone yet because I've been so busy with different events in DC.
I've been planning to come to the inauguration since November when Obama won. Sara heard a rumor that she might get tickets to one of the Official Inaugural Balls, which sounded exciting, and I just wanted to be here to see Obama sworn in. It seemed like it would be an experience to remember - just to be able to say to my grandchildren, "I was there". It didn't turn out so well.
When Sara got her tickets to the Inauguration, she only got two tickets to the swearing-in ceremony, and two tickets to the Youth Ball. Since her Mom also came to DC, she decided to take her Mom to the swearing-in, and me to the ball. I planned on watching the swearing in from the mall with my sister, or with my friend Janet.
After I arrived in DC, I decided to call around to the Senators and Congressperson who represent me and ask them if they had any extra tickets. Fienstien's office said that yes, she had some tickets and they were on a first-come, first-served basis. I dropped what I was doing, and I dragged Maria to the Senate office building to try and get tickets for us. It took us awhile to find the correct building, but once we did, we found a line outside the senator's office. The line was pretty short, but it wasn't moving at all. It turns out that the senator had given her last "extra" ticket to someone about 12 people in front of me. Now we had to wait until 5pm to get any unclaimed tickets. I waited there until 5:45pm (about 3 hours) or so and they finally gave out tickets. I was really excited because, not only did I get a ticket, but I got one in the same purple section that Sara was in, so we would be able to watch the event together. Sara, in the meantime had acquired a ticket for me also, so this meant that we a ticket for my sister, Maria too. Altogether we had 7 people in our party and 8 tickets.
Our plan was to meet up at 6:30am at 3rd and D st and go the security checkpoint from there as a group. There was chaos at 3rd and D, so we met at 3rd and E, but we met up and went to the security checkpoint. There was a crazy line stretching back that we followed into what would be eventually known as the Purple Tunnel of Doom.
We ended up stuck there until about 11:10 when the line suddenly surged forward and we moved all the way to First st. For whatever reason, security closed the gate and started turning people away, but the Yellow Gate was letting Purple Ticket holders in. It was generally just chaos and confusion. Nobody knew what was going on or why. There was lots of misinformation being passed around. In the end, we never did get in. We listened to the inaugural address on Maria's cell phone set to speakerphone. She had called my Dad and had him put his phone next to a TV.
Overall, it was just a horrible experience. The thing is, the situation had just enough control to it that we were lulled into thinking they knew what they were doing. I think if it had been more chaotic, we might have just left and gone back to a hotel room or something. I should note that a lot of Obama's staff was stuck in that Purple line too. It's really a tragedy that the people who put in 18 hour days to get Obama elected didn't get to watch him get sworn in.
The day was redemed however later, but I'll save that story for another post.
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