the inauguration of p-bo

i had a little pre-adventure adventure. we (scott, my best friend since middle school, his sister stacey, and i) drove up to washington dc for president barack obama's inauguration. we stayed with another middle school friend, stephanie, in her studio on east capital, about 4 blocks away from the capital building. on monday we wandered the mall, and stumbled upon a live taping of, cnn's most gorgeous anchor, anderson cooper. we were on the front line of the original interview site, but the mass crowds surrounding anderson made it impossible for him to get back to where we were standing. unfortunate. we meandered down to the washington monument, where we met my northwestern friend, kyle, and stephanie's cohort, gabbie. little did we know just how much time we would spend at the monument. all day tuesday. stephanie's apartment being so close to the capital, we still had to walk all the way back to the washington monument on inauguration day. we stood on the hill, right in front of the monument, in the midst of those hundreds of thousands of people. and watched, and jumped, and cheered, and cried. it was a really important day. history was tangible. and i am so glad to have spent the day in the midst of a million odd strangers. i went to an obama rally in raleigh, nc (with about 4ooo people). i traveled to chicago, for the grant park, november 4th, election day, acceptance (with a couple hundred thousand). and i journeyed to washington dc for inauguration (with 1.5 million friends). i love how the numbers grew, and just how much support and faith there is in this man and this country. although, as scott so often mentioned, as we waddled in herds down packed streets, its very mob-like. we follow so blindly and trust so avidly. let's just hope that as we embark on this new era of change that we keep our individual intelligences and our ability to question our leaders.