Hope, Change, and all that Jazz

It has been almost 2 months since President Barack Obama took his oath to office. It was a momentous occasion that I had the opportunity to attend.

A group of friends and I took Amtrak (booked back in the beginning of November) to D.C. January 19th. We stayed overnight at another friend's studio apartment (a tight fit) and then headed out at 7am to the National Mall. The goal was to fend off the other millions of people walking to the National Mall from various D.C. locations to get as close as we possible could to the Capitol building.We gauged our success at the number of screens back we were, and kept trying to make it to just the next screen up. Naturally, we weren't the only ones...it was a big mosh as we laughed with our neighbors that we were pushed up against. Eventually we settled in to wait the now 4 hours until the Inauguration ceremony was supposed to start.

The screens played the concert of the past weekend and the crowd sang along during our wait. Eventually the San Francisco choir began to sing and I could make out little red dots on the Capitol building. The ceremony commenced. The mob waived our flags, watched the ceremony on the screens, and laughed every time they said "You may now be seated."

As we waived our free American flags at some point I looked up to see the monumental Capitol building in front with a sea of bodies between me and the building and blue skies up above, and it hit me, what an amazing moment in history to share with all those around me.