asdgggh this is so frustrating. I still haven't seen ANY of the ceremonies, and I was in freaking DC while it happened! D:
*Warning: pity party ahead.*
Good lord that Inaugural Committee screwed up horribly. On the 19th every who had tickets waited in line for /hours/ to get them from our Congresspeople ((ours is awesome, btw! He showed us around the office and was all cool and stuff. So glad I voted for him and he's turning out great already.
)), and that's not really a problem, that's just what we had to do, but that just made what happened on the actual day suck
that much more. ARGH. Seriously, we got up a six AM, walked several blocks, no one would tell us which way to go, what line to stand in, ANYTHING informative (and I'm talking about the cops, here. They were clueless or something, everyone was confused and being sent the wrong way and misinformed.) The committee didn't even put up any freaking signs telling the HUGE masses of people where they needed to go. And then they weren't checking whether the people they let through the gates to the viewing areas even HAD tickets, so random people were cutting in lines and getting in when they weren't supposed to, people in one of the further-back areas from where we were supposed to be knocked over a barrier and flooded into OUR area, so they shut the gates down WAY to early after we had been waiting in line, the WRONG line (thank you, Mr. Policeman.
), in the sub-freezing temperatures for over two hours in a deep, dark tunnel of despondency (OH GOD THAT TUNNEL.). So when we finally made it to the end of that #@&^%$* tunnel, everyone was being turned away from the gate. That was
heartbreaking, and such a huge disappointment after everything we'd gone through and done to try to see this thing. Just heartbreaking.
BUT. I've gotta say, all suckiness aside, that was one of the coolest experiences EVER. The night before the inauguration, the whole city was just so. unbelievably. happy! It was awesome! Everyone was excited and upbeat, just so glad to be there, witnessing what we were there to see, celebrating like crazy! And it's so cool-- I heard that out of the
two million]/i] people there in DC, they didn't have to make /any/ arrests. Now that's awesome.
So yeah, I'm so disappointed that I didn't actually get to see anything. Sigh. But I was almost there, and what I got to see, and heck, just being there were still definitely worth going for. (Ooh, and the tickets? Came in this gorgeous little packet with an invitation, program, and pictures of Obama and Bide. They're all thick and made of parchment and really, really pretty. It's like the best souvenir evar. And all us ticketholders who didn't get in actually get *two* of these now, because the boneheads from the Inaugural Committee announced that to make up for not getting to see the ceremony, they were giving everyone who missed out on this historic event that may have taken the trip of a lifetime to get to... a memorial program and pictures of the President and Vice-President! Hooray! Apparently someone forgot that all the ticketholders would already have these things. 
)
Ah, well. It was an adventure, and I'm glad I got to do it. We're gonna have a little Inauguration-watching party of our own in a little bit, since we DVR'd the whole thing, so that'll be fun. Best of luck to Obama, his family, Biden, and all those guys in the next four years. I really think that this is going to be a messy, problematic presidency if there ever was one, and I hope, hope, hope that the country will come out better for it.
(Oh, and I got a few pics of DC out the whole deal; if I find my phone's cord i'll put 'em up. )
