5:13 am My alarm goes off. This is dumb. I'm very angry at my phone for making noise. But I get out of bed because I know that I have to. It's Inauguration Day, baby, and this ho's got places to be.
5:30 am Michael picks me up at my apt. He doesn't say anything when I get in the car, he just shoves a camera in my face and snaps a shot. The horribly proof is on Facebook. Thanks for documenting how truly unfortunate I can look early in the morning.
5:35 am Met up with a group of friends and we start walking downtown to the Paramount theatre. It is cold and my teeth are chattering. We pass another intern's apt and yell, "If you can hear us, jump out of your window." Delirium has obviously set in. The fog is really think over the whole city and whenever we see other people walking around they look like zombies. Are they zombies? Probably Obambies.
6:03 am We reach the theatre. There isn't a huge line yet but we're about 150 people back. The theatre can seat 4,000 so getting there this early was obviously not required. I didn't want to be too bitter about this fact so I kept it to myself. Meanwhile we were shouting at the other people in line like we were back in Vegas. Imagine an MTV Spring Break house and you'll get the idea.
6:17 am I yell at a man, "Hey denim, back of the line." It is rude to cut lines, especially if you're wearing a denim coat.
6:45 am I can't feel my toes. To quote Step by Step, "Either there's a rock in my shoe or my big toe just fell off."
7:04 am They finally let us in to the theatre. I get some free Tazo Tea samples from a Starbs employee and then someone else chucked two gingersnap-ish type cookies in my hand. Whatever, I was about to eat that rock in my shoe so I inhaled them. We get seats right in the middle of the theatre about 20 rows back. Perfect. Komo 4 news was there and we make fools of ourself to be seen on TV. Sorry you had to put up with us, Seattle.
7:04-10:11am We sit and boo as Bush and Cheney walk across the screen, stand up and cheer whenever there is a glimpse of Obama, Michelle, the Bidens, Obama girls, or that hot Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, we cry when Aretha sings and scratch our heads at the lame images that ABC Google-Earthed for the news feed, and listen with rapt attention as Obama gives his first speech as President. It is absolutely amazing and made every minute up until now completely worth it. It's hard not to feel apart of something bigger when you see the shots of DC packed wall-to-wall with people that are overjoyed to just be within earshot of the Inauguration. It was a pretty exciting thing to watch and being with such a big crowd made it even better. We finally have a new President!
For the rest of the day I was pretty exhausted and had trouble focusing on my work. Then Jackie left a voicemail detailing all of the celebs that she ogled. That's when I hit a real low. Overcome with jealousy and exhaustion I made my way home. Today was a long, long day. But it was worth it to feel that in a small way I was apart of history.
I'm sure I'll read this to my kids one day and they'll be bored out of their minds, but that's not my problem. It's there's.