arriving at one side of the cathedral we were told by a copper that we couldn't get in that way. we continued up the street and looped around and found a nice, small crowd of people standing across the street from the cathedral. it was nice to have room to put my bag down, turn around and move as i pleased. there hadn't been much of that in the days prior.
we had heard that the service started at 10am, which is precisely when we arrived. i called mom to see if he was in the church already, and she said she thought she saw the back of his head in the first row. we stood in the cold, hoping the ceremony wouldn't be too long. mom called back a little after 11 and said they were doing the closing prayer [ah, where would we be without cell phones and cnn?]. we prepared ourselves as people started exiting the church. there was another media tower directly in front of the church doors, which gave me hope that perhaps he would actually exit out the front [news cameras know all]. this, however, did not happen. we waited, waited a little longer, and waited a little longer still, until the last few people trickled out and the cops on bikes left their posts. one said he thought he had heard a loud cheer from a side street, where there was a smaller gathering of people. apparently there was a side door to the church [of course there was], and the president had probably snuck out that way. not one to give up that easily, i waited at the corner to cross the street to check that he was gone for sure. while waiting for the light to turn green, matt looked up and across the street to the other corner. "hey! it's joe lieberman!" so no obama, but we brushed shoulders with joe lieberman. good enough. well, maybe for matt. not for me. we walked over to the cathedral lawn and took a pass by the front. the cameras were mostly gone, and those that were left were packing up. i didn't recognize anyone coming out of the church. he was gone. and i had missed him.
i hadn't had very high expectations when we woke up that morning, but once we got to the church and i saw the small crowd, the cops lined up along the road, the media platform, the men in black trenchcoats with sunglasses and ear pieces, i thought that maybe, just maybe, i'd get to see him. i didn't realize how much i had wanted to see obama until it dawned on me that i wouldn't get to, and i started to cry. matt told me it was really nice that i cared that much about our president, and that's true. i've never been into politics, never had any desire to see or be involved with any of our prior presidents [though i guess that really just includes bush, since i was too young when clinton was in action, sooo...], but i really, REALLY wanted to see obama. and i feel as though the best shot i had was during these few days. i really can't complain though. i was at his inauguration. barack obama's inauguration. AHH!!!
i walked back to the metro, teary-eyed and feeling irrationally sorry for myself, with matt. from here we ventured over to the white house where we were quickly ushered onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street. we all thought obama and his posse were going to come rolling in, so we stuck around. about 20 minutes later, two black cars drove through. and that was that. lame.
obama had opened his house to the public for a reception later that day. tickets had been available online, and i was kicking myself for not hearing about it sooner. because that was obviously my fault...
anyway, i was seething with jealousy over the lucky bastards in line.
we peaced out after the black car probably holding nobody drove by, and booked it to the lincoln memorial. there was another line, but it was moving quickly, so we ran up the steps, read the speeches, took our pictures, and jetted another mile and a half to the nearest metro stop. we hopped on the train to the airport, only to find out from united update alerts that our plane had been delayed an hour. ugh. why couldn't they have called 15 minutes earlier?
upon pulling up to the airport, though, we realized why our flight had been delayed. if it had left on time, there would have been nobody on board. there were people EVERYWHERE. this was the most thankful i have ever been for not checking any baggage. there was nobody at the electronic kiosk, so we printed our boarding passes and cockily walked by the droves of travelers. changed out of our winter clothing in the bathroom and got in line for security. good thing we were there early, after all. security was slow as molasses and it took us 45 minutes to get through. luckily we each had one last macintosh apple to enjoy while waiting. they don't really exist out west.
i crammed down some panda express [mmm orange chickennnn] and asked a united employee if he thought we would make our connecting flight in chicago. he said yes, probably. we said no, not if we only have 10 minutes to get to our gate. he ended up being right, but only because our chicago flight was delayed by 45 minutes...
while in line a girl asked if she could cut us to ask a quick question because her flight was leaving soon. i told her we were on the same flight, so we had to get through just as quickly. all she wanted to know was if flight 625 was going to chicago. we said yes. she was extremely grateful. too grateful. we passed her in line when we were boarding, and she recognized us as "the people who helped me!! oh my gosh you are so wonderful, thank you so much. i've had such a horrible day. they stole my wallet, and now got my credit cards and everything and i just want to get home..." she didn't stop talking, even as we were walking farther and farther away from her. i dreaded the possibility of sitting next to her on the plane.
our flight was fine, though. free drinks [unlike us airways. sluts.] so i drank my fair share of cran apple juice. we did crossword puzzles most of the way to chicago, and as soon as we landed we booked it to our next gate. our flight was delayed, so i had time for a nice pee before boarding. more crossword puzzles, a cat nap, and we were back in la. chris came and picked us up, dropped us at my house so we could get matt's car, and we headed to in 'n out for some eats.
it's good to be home.
Untitled (False Hope)
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