Ibloguration

We know that this is not a political blog, nor a funny blog- thanks Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous! But we figured that since Elyse is in school in D.C., witnessing things from a drama[tic] student's point of view, people might be interested in reading. Take it away, Elyse!

So, the inauguration was this morning, and I literally got off the train just in time to witness history. Well, just in time to buy a button that said, "I Witnessed History." It was such a great experience being here today, so I wanted to share some interesting tidbits.

• For as many Obama supporters as there are out there, there are about twice as many louder dissenters, who also happen to have megaphones/sound systems, and really giant posters of things you don't want to see posters of. I'll let you imagine what you want to imagine. But I had to deal with seeing them on every street corner while I was trying to scarf down a hot dog. I mean, you all could have probably guessed that I had no trouble eating the hot dog, but still. Gross.
• The barricades didn't do anything to keep the traffic under control. The only thing they did successfully was make about 1/3 of the people think they were really agile and brave for scaling the 3-foot tall plastic gate. Seriously, you should have seen the speed and concentration these people had while they were getting their running start to climb over the curb.
• I should not have worn a backpack. I came straight from the train station, so I went to all the inauguration proceedings knowing in the back of my mind that if I wanted to change into my Thoroughly Modern Millie audition outfit and tap shoes, I totally could. The backpack became a problem after the speech, when there was a mass exodus to leave the Mall. Everyone who was behind me thought I was wearing the backpack just so that they could hold on to it as I steered them through the crowd. They were wrong. And I let them know this by taking a giant step backwards.
• The pedestrian traffic was really ridiculous, as you can imagine, and most of the time was spent virtually standing in place, waiting for the giant horde to move forward a foot. I was getting bored, so I looked down and watched people's feet and it was hilarious! It was seriously like Kabuki Inauguration. Everyone was taking the tiniest steps, even if there was no place to go.
• I discovered that I am actually the shortest person in Washington, DC. Seriously, standing in the crowd, I felt like Tai in Clueless when she's standing at the party between the two really tall guys. Except she was cute and tiny and wearing short overalls, and I was still 5'6" and disheveled and wearing sweatpants and 12 jackets. And the backpack.

It was quite a day! Stay tuned for stories about me babysitting Sasha and Malia!