Biggest news in January was that Mattie and I went to the Inauguration. Here's my blog about that:
Mattie and I watched the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. On T.V. like all but two million Americans who waited in long lines in the bitter cold weather to get in to the ceremony to watch history unfold right before their eyes.
Oh, wait...we did all that.
Let me back up and tell our tale from the beginning...
We all arrived in DC on Monday afternoon--Me, Mattie, Manpreet & Vicki--to begin the adventure of a lifetime, something we'd all talked about incessantly since November 5th. I think none of us wanted to jinx anything by talking about it any sooner, but amidst the pure joy and pride and hope we felt on November 5th, talk soon turned to, "wouldn't it be AMAZING to be there?!" And the quest for tickets began.
I received an early birthday present when Congressman Ted Poe's assistant called me over Thanksgiving break to let me know he had set aside four tickets for us to attend the Inauguration. I made sure Mattie's teacher, Mrs. Carol Poe, knew how much we appreciated the tickets. Tickets that were like gold.
As we made our plans, we quickly discovered that those who weren't afraid to jinx now President Obama's chances had pre-reserved hotel rooms and booked flights, and we were about ready to show up with a tent when Vicki and Manpreet's law school friend named Sunshine agreed to give up her Capitol Hill apartment for us and Continental opened up several new flights for the occasion. The stars were aligning. We were going to be there!
So we stocked up on cold weather necessities--things we Texas residents don't have hanging in our closets. And Monday was finally here. And we got on our plane and landed in DC and couldn't stop talking about how excited we were, and how wonderful Tuesday would be.
Manpreet and Vicki volunteered to get up early in the a.m. and head out to the purple gate entrance, just two blocks from our apartment according to the map they sent with the tickets. For those who saw the crowds that day, the purple section was in the back right corner directly behind those with chairs, in front of the reflecting pool and the millions on the mall. We were in a choice location.
Correction...we would have been in a choice location.
So anyway, not wanting to drag Mattie out at 6 a.m. in 10 degree (with the windchill) weather, we met up with Vicki and Manpreet at 8. They had called me to tell me about some tunnel they were in, which made no sense considering our spot was so close to our side of the Capitol, and there was no tunnel on our map. But Mattie and I walked to where the purple gate was, and we saw a long, snaky line with no end. I asked a family if they were purple ticket holders, you know, because they were in front of the purple gate. Yellow, they said. Hmmm....where is the purple line then?
Mattie, a huge fan of pedi-cabs (bikes with buggies on the back), spotted one and begged me to get one to wherever the end of the purple line was. So I flagged him down, and he had to ask 3 cops to get the right answer. And he peddled several blocks away from the purple gate, and down into a dark tunnel filled with people. It would later come to be known as the Purple Tunnel of Doom.
We hopped out and started walking to the end of the line when Vicki spotted us and called out...I had pretty much given up hope that we'd find them in that sea of people. But they reported that they'd been in the tunnel since arriving on the scene at 6:30 that morning, and I would imagine there people lined up at least a mile in front of, and behind us.
But the line had finally started to move. And people were all happy to be there. We made friends with other folks from other places who all had similar stories. And then, at about 11:00, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, both figuratively and literally. We could see the sunlight again, and the line was moving faster, and we knew we were so close, and it was getting ready to beging. As we emerged from the tunnel, people started getting reports (cell contact was spotty before) about the purple gate's metal detectors breaking, and that they had let a ton of silver ticket holders (those designated for the mall) into the purple area, and that they were closing our gate.
CLOSING OUR GATE. WE ALL HAD TICKETS. Everyone had been waiting patiently--happily even--for hours and hours in the frigid DC weather. And they were closing our gate.
At that point, I decided to leave the line and take Mattie back into the warm apartment to watch history unfold on TV so we'd be sure not to miss it. Vicki and Manpreet wanted to push on and see if they could get in or at least get close enough to hear.
I went home and turned on the TV and began texting Manpreet.
"Obama's out."
"Invocation."
"Aretha's singing."
"Biden's getting sworn in."
"ARE YOU GUYS IN????"
"Obama's sworn in."
"Music."
And then a message from Manpreet:
"We're getting pizza..what kind do you like?"
When they got back to the apartment with pizza, they were visibly crushed. They relayed their story over lunch:
Not too long after we got out of line, they too decided there was NO WAY they were getting in, and Vicki pushed to go home so they could at least watch it live. But on their way out, a cop pointed them toward the ORIGINAL PURPLE GATE, the one I saw with all the Yellow line folks in front of it. And told them they still had time.
THEY STILL HAD TIME. So they and another crowd that had followed headed through that gate, and into a new line, and they could see the entrance gate--the security screeners were right there. And Vicki said people started to close in and push harder to move forward. Everyone knew it was now or never. And at one point, she yelled "STOP" because she couldn't even breathe from the pressure. And the guys in front of Vicki and Manpreet had moved up in line--they were IN! And they knew they were next.
And then the gate closed. 10 feet in front of them. And they were all turned away.
There's much more to say about our trip...we did end up having a fabulous time. We got sweet spots to watch the parade, and we're all convinced President Obama waved to us. We got meet the Mayor of DC. And we saw some of our national treasures. I'll blog more about that later. But since this happened, we have learned that we were not alone. We knew thousands were turned away or gave up, but it turns out that there were many more than we knew. And people with incredible stories, like a woman who was descended from slaves owned by Senator McCain's ancestors, and a little boy from Florida who has been trying to get an interview with the President and has made it on morning talk show, and the lady next to me in baggage claim today with her son, about Mattie's age, who also flew to DC to experience history.
I wanted Mattie to remember that day forever. I wanted her to have a story to tell her great-grandchildren. And even though we didn't quite get the story we went for, we were still a part of history, and we were still so fortunate to be a part of that day, and to be in that city where Barack Obama became President Obama, and to be surrounded by other people--other Americans--who, like us, now believe that anything is possible.
