The election of the first United States president of African descent signals the start of a new day. This is a primarily a political blog with occasional forays into celebrities and other types of feature stories.
Monday, January 19, 2009
I'm Glad I'm Not in DC Now
Tonight my husband and I were going to meet a few friends that we met through the Upsize This forum. (They are from Chicago and they live in the same South Side area where Barack Obama got his start in politics.) The original plan was for them to take the Green Line Metro to College Park where we would pick them up and go to R.J. Bentley's nearby for drinks. However, they had planned on going to a dinner party in downtown DC first so we would not have met up until after 9 p.m.
Well those plans have fallen through. One of our friends had called us saying that the streets of DC were so clogged with people that it took a much longer time for them to reach their dinner than usual. They didn't arrive at the dinner until after 8 p.m., which was about a couple of hours later than they planned on arriving.
As I'm typing this I'm watching a live broadcast of Countdown With Keith Olbermann on MSNBC from DC. Outside the window of the broadcast booth, there are throngs of people standing outside hoping for their 15 seconds of fame.
Oh, man the last couple of days have been incredible. Even though I live outside of Washington, DC, I haven't gone inside the city mainly because of the throngs of crowds that have come from faraway places have descended on the city in droves. My local state delegate had a contest where he was giving away two free tickets to tomorrow's inauguration. I entered it but I lost so I'm going to watch it on television instead because there is no way in hell I'm going to step foot inside that city until after it's all over.
Besides, with my recent hip replacement surgery, the only way I could've gone to either the swearing-in ceremony or the parade would be if I could bring one of my portable folding chairs with me. But there are so many security-related restrictions on what you can or cannot bring that I know there is no way in hell I would even be permitted to bring that chair.
How strict are the rules? Well, this page on The Washington Post's site provides the answer. For example, you can bring a camera but not a tripod or a camera bag, you can't bring any bag larger than 8 inches by 6 inches by 4 inches, you can't bring backpacks or strollers, and you can't bring an umbrella with you no matter how bad the weather gets.
Yesterday I saw the concert at the Lincoln Memorial on HBO. I would've loved to have seen it live but the crowds would've been a bit much for me. I later learned that it was just as well because they capped the fenced-in areas off at no more than 400,000 people and anyone who came too late had to deal with watching the thing on one of the many giant screens that were set up further away from the concert area. If I was going to have to watch it on a screen, I was better off with watching it in the comfort of my own home--where it's nice and warm, I'm able to get food and drink anytime I want, and go to the bathroom instead of waiting in line to use a port-a-potty.
The entire concert was awesome to watch from beginning to end. It was star-studded ranging from U2 to Bruce Springsteen to Will.I.Am to Beyonce to John Mellencamp to John Legend. Here is an awesome clip that Bono made after he performed onstage with U2.
Here is how I answered Obama's Call to Service. Yesterday I purchased a few bags full of canned goods. Today I sent it over to a local non-profit organization known as SEED (Sowing Empowerment & Economic Development), an organization that helps out low- and moderate-income families and communities by providing education, job training, food, and clothes. I also spent a few hours helping out in the pantry where I sorted the various canned goods that many people had donated today. It was pretty easy work and I felt like I had something more constructive than--let's say--spending the holiday watching television or going shopping where I buy something on impulse that I don't need.
I hope the idea of service on Martin Luther King Day becomes an annual tradition. Heck, I would like to see other days of service throughout the year. For example, I think it would be cool to do something for our men and women in uniform on Veterans Day instead of ceding that holiday to the stores so they would use it as an excuse to run sales.
Tonight my husband and I are going to meet a few friends we've met through the Upsize This.org forum. They are a couple who live in the South Side of Chicago (where Barack Obama began his political career) and they arrived in DC just for the inaugural ceremonies. We're going to pick them up from the Metro station in our area and go to a local bar here in the suburbs. (There is no way in hell we are going to fight the crowds downtown to go to any bars or restaurants there.)
I abruptly ended my previous post because of dinner. Now that I'm done with eating dinner, I'm just busy doing some blogging while my husband is watching Countdown With Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Right now I'm going to focus on recording my own memories of this history-making election. I'm going to begin with the night before the elections.
I am a member of a political discussion forum called Upsize This (which originally started as a forum on film director Michael Moore's site until he shut it down and some of the more active posters decided to start an independent forum not connected with any famous person) that has people mostly from North America, Europe, and Australia.
It was through that forum that I got word from three members living in Australia that they decided to take an extended trip to the United States and they wanted to meet other people from that forum. It turned out that they were headed for the Washington, DC area (where I live) just in time for the upcoming presidential elections.
After much posting back and forth, we finally agreed on a place where we would meet for an evening of drinking and socialization. So my husband and I headed to The Quarter House in Silver Spring where we waited for our Internet friends. First another Upsize This friend who also lives in the Washington, DC area arrived while we waited for the Australians to arrive. When they finally arrived, we started to consume greasy food and booze while we talked about ourselves and the next day's elections.
I tried absinthe for the first time. (I found it tasty but very powerful. I didn't dare drink any more than one absinthe drink.) I then switched to drinking Hoegaarden (Belgian beer). We socialized until well into the evening and by midnight we were all pretty tired. Our new Australian friends suggested that we end the evening by drinking a shot of straight tequila. I drank the shot but then I began to feel totally queasy in my stomach.
As my husband and I left The Quarter House, I was waiting for him to fetch the car when I really felt sick. I threw up on this stone fence that surrounds one of the local businesses near The Quarter House and I even upchucked part of this hot dog that I ate for dinner.
When we got home, I threw up some more and I finally got rid of the rest of the hot dog that I ate. I then crashed on the bed. The good thing about throwing up was that I only suffered a minor headache that I was able to shake off quickly. I would've hated going to the polls with a major hangover.
As for my Australian friends, they decided to spend Election Night in downtown DC because they wanted to be among any spontaneous street parties that would break out in the event of an Obama victory. We DC locals suggested that they check out Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street because it is such a DC institution. I haven't seen any posts from them on the forum yet. I think they are still recovering from two straight nights of late-night partying.
