A week ago I was on the National Mall with my hubby, sizzie, and bro-in-law were just a speck among the huddled masses braving the cold and wind to bear witness to a history making inauguration. After driving 8 hours to get to DC in time for the We Are One concert on Sunday January 18 we managed a practice run at huddling. The concert was awesome, Bruce Springsteen, John Legend, U2, Beyoncé, Tom Hanks, Tiger Woods, Garth Brooks it was one impressive appearance of star after star. Then out came Barack Obama, a total surprise to me. I had no idea he was going to be there and it brought on the most emotional moment of the three days, for me (equally emotionally provocative was seeing my grandfather's name and service record in the WWII database at the WWII Memorial).
We spent Martin Luther King day touring the monuments and the Museum of Natural History along with everyone else who had descended upon DC so the wait for the Metro was just as long as it was for the concert, but absolutely nothing would compare to what we were to face 12 hours later.
Inauguration day. We were out of our hotel by 5:30am to drive an hour to our park-and-ride lot to catch a 1/2 hour bus ride to the New Carrollton metro station. After waiting in line for an hour and a half in frigid conditions we got the metro into DC. We had to weigh were we should get off as updates about which stations were closing due to overcrowded conditions and which had reopened again. We managed to get off where we were able to buy some food and use the restrooms. We ladies took over the men's room, allowing them to enter for the urinals, poor guys-if they had to poo- they were out of luck!
We moved shoulder to shoulder with the crowd about a mile to the National Mall. We found our place next to the Washington monument and waited for history to pass and now it is written down. There were 1-2 million souls crammed into the park, there was not a single arrest, I never even had my toes stepped on! I cannot begin to tell you about how amazing this crowd was. How thrilling it was to be there feeling the bitter wind huddled up to strangers to bear witness to history even if we could only see electronic snippets of it from our tippy-toes.
Afterward we millions had to get back to our warm places, wherever they were through a declared the state of emergency minus the panic. Everyone was calm polite and secure in transfer of power that signaled hope for so many. So this was just the first 3 days of the week. I had hoped to visit my beloved grandparents on the way home but the timing wasn't sufficient so we had to drive on by. Only a week before had I learned that grandma's Alzheimer's progressed by leaps and bounds since I had last seen her 3 months ago, grandpa was hospitalized with pneumonia and then diagnosed with cancer. Two very opposite emotions invaded my psyche. We made it home safely. I tended my orchids first and Steven went to our pets and my sweet Zephyr was dead. In my heart I think I knew. I didn't hear the squeaks of his respiratory ailment that should have taken him to the bunny beyond years ago.
Not too long after this I learned another good friend was clinging to life in ICU. My thoughts were all over this week from highest emotional highs to tearful lows all piled in one week. Through it all I had card orders to catch up on, a vigorous ski outing to clear the mind and a warm fire to soothe my soul. The skiing inspired a new design.
And a pile of get well cards and thinking of you cards will be in the mail to friends and family. I worked on cleaning out and cleaning up, warm showers and blog therapy. I start a new week tomorrow with the same sadness and thrills I had this week but with new things to do ⎨starting a letterpress class⎬ friends to see and the support of my steadfast husband. Life keeps happening, inspiration keeps flowing and all the love is still there. These things both high and low would not be so strong if it weren't for the love I feel for the persons, places and events around me. Every once in a while a long post like this seems inevitable. I needed to write it and I won't reread it because I don't want to mess with the interconnected but random thoughts.
Oh, I heard about an Inauguration pop up card on NPR that would be offered as a DIY, I'll have to find that and include in my blog before it is totally outdated.
