the inauguration!

First, I should say that I just love DC. I miss it all of the time, seriously. I don't think that there is just one person out there for everyone or just one place that each person should live in but I do feel strongly that DC is the city for me right now. 

I loved it even though it was extaordinary and extremely crowded. I did not make it to U St, the gentrifying faster than one can say gentification historically black neighborhood (and one of my favorite areas in the city). In retrospect I definitely should have but I knew BCB would be packed-- I heard that lines were apparently three blocks long due to Mayor Fenty and PEOTUS Obama's appearance -- and although I thought it would have been jammin to hit up Busboys and Poets this week, I didn't really get a chance. But I did get to hang out in many of my old haunts while I was in town. That, needless to say, made me very happy. 

Sunday we came into Union Station and it was packed with people, mostly African-American tourists from out of town. Excitement permeated. We ran some errands (aka picked up ball tickets!) which brought me to Mount Vernon Sq for the first time. Previously in my mind it had just been the place where that British tourist was killed during a robbery when he thought it was the location of GW's house slash that stop on the green line that always seemed to extend the already irritatingly long trip out to U St. and Columbia Heights. Nothing is really there but the convention center but it was surprisingly pretty! 

Then my friends David and I had some dinner with Bobito at Good Stuff Eatery. OKAY, I totally undersell Capitol Hill. Because I lived in NW for the summer, I really didn't explore this area enough except for one actually very entertaining trip to the Hawk'n'Dove. (I should note that the first time I wrote that sentence, I said it was lame. Sorry Andrea, Helms, and Meems.) As for Good Stuff Eatery, it is Spike from Top Chef's new joint. I thought the roll was excellent and the burger's special sauce was pretty jammin' but it wasn't super special.

Monday morning David and I went to a breakfast at Ballou in Anacostia sponsored by Service Nation. Originally our two Ethiopian (aka haven't left NW) cab drivers didn't know how to get us there but we fortunately ended up bumping into some folks on the Metro and found the shuttle. I saw lots of Tufts people I had met over the summer there, including the ever-amazing Deb Jospin, and witnessed great speeches by MLK Jr III and John Lewis (my love for him knows no bounds). Toby McGuire went on after John Lewis and made a total fool of himself because he was tearing up, hadn't prepared remarks, etc., and it was pretty awkward. Then we went to RFK STADIUM where I proceeded to David to the point of annoying him about BEN-EE OLSEN, Luciano Emilio, Jaime Moreno, the Barra Brava, and DC UNITED info galore. (One of the things I happened to fall in love with about DC last summer was its MLS Soccer team DC United. Hat tip to Helmsy.) My enthusiasm was not contagious. We helped pack care packages to servicemembers in Iraq as part of the the president's call for service. 

Afterwards, we went to the Hill to pick up our tickets for the inauguration and no joke there were 1.5ish hour lines at all of the entrances to Cannon. There are four. Ugh. Rather than wait, we asked our respective MC's staff to meet us with the tickets, got some tacos at Taqueria Nacionale (yummmmm, another of my favorite things about DC), and saw the following people enter NBC's satallite studio for hits: PA Gov Ed Rendell, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, John Lewis, and Karl Rove. I seriously think we could have sat there for longer if it weren't so cold and if our excellent Tufts friends hadn't come to meet us. 

TUESDAY we woke up at CRAZY OCLOCK aka 4:15 to go to the inauguration. The day had a hilarious start which I will share on a person-to-person basis but not on the blog. The Metro was packed even that early, around 5:30, crazily enough. We got to Fed Center around 6:15, huddled in the cold until staking out an awesome spot on the front left corner of the reflecting pool where I could see his balcony (barely) and a giant teleprompter (hey-ooo). The speech was great and sharing it with such inspired people -- many middle aged African-Americans -- was just awesome. Definitely made all of those hours in the cold worth it. 

After the inauguration, getting around the city made me want to die. It was packed, you couldn't cross Constitution because of the parade route, and it was nearly impossible to get to and then around in NW. It took 2.5 hrs to get from 3rd and Constitution NW to 15th and G NW because we kept getting sent in different directions. Finally we made it to the party at NDN where I met the Tufts provost (?) and saw a bunch of Tufts people. Later we went to the youth ball. KANYE PLAYED and the Obamas came, made kissyface (oh man I know!), and were just generally awesome. It was otherwise not that great, though I did laugh a lot at Fall Out Boy who also played. Pete Wentz is officially no more than 5'8, I think probably more like 5'6. He sucks a lot.

On my last day in DC Bobby and I went to Amsterdam Falafel where I participated in another of my favorite DC traditions, french fries with Old Bay Spice, and then I saw Stella, and we talked about religion for hours. This is a subject I am interested in discussing if you catch me on the telephone.