Beginning on Friday night the crowds began arriving, and the city was in full swing by Saturday night. Many of us residents were worried about the revised bar closing time of 5:00 AM, but our worries were for nothing. There was such a positive atmosphere, there were no incidents, no fights, no nothing! That feeling lasted all weekend, culminating in the explosion of excitement and joy when Barack took the oath of office.
Here are some of my favorite moments (in chronological order):
- Standing opposite the Lincoln Memorial with 400,000 other people, listening to The Boss and U2, then laughing at the spectacle of Jack Black trying to be serious and reciting Lincoln
- Rocking out to Moby spinning at a local club from 12am - 2am, then rocking that much harder after the power came back on again at 2:45am
- Showing up at RFK Stadium as part of the Day of Service on MLK Day, and realizing that 10,000 other people listened to Barack's call to serve on Monday just at that location alone!
- Waking up at 8am and realizing that the Mall was already 3/4 full of people, so having to book down to try and get as close to a jumbotron as possible
- Standing in a sea of a little under 2 million people chatting, laughing, and talking while we waited for the ceremony to start
- The roar of joy when each of the following showed up: Al Gore, Teddy Kennedy, Hillary & Bill Clinton, Michele Obama, Sasha & Malia Obama, and loudest of all, Barack Obama
- The thunderous boos when each of the following showed up: Clarence Thomas, Dick Cheney (also accompanied by laughter though), and George W. Bush
- The fact that 2 million people stopped and became perfectly silent for 10 minutes while a quartet including Itzak Perlman and Yo Yo Ma played Classical Music (Air and Simple Gifts, arranged by John Williams in this case)
- Watching Barack Hussein Obama take the Oath of Office, and feeling the surge of joy and hearing the roar of the crowd.
