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January 2009

Yep, he waved to me!

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I just couldn’t leave. Despite the fact that I was shivering from being outside for so many hours in bone chilling cold, I just couldn’t go inside. The energy and happiness and joy was just too intoxicating to leave! Plus the crowds were still just so immense that I was sorta sweep along with the masses.
I walked around the back part of the Capital and somehow found myself inside the area where once you exit, you can’t re enter. As I kept walking, I found myself at the staging ground for the start of the parade. All the Capital Police, the Miltary Bands and the Honor guards were all by the Capital, waiting for the President to start the parade and then lead down to the official start of the parade a few blocks away.
We waited, not realizing that the parade was delayed because of Senator Kennedy collapse at the luncheon, but we kept waiting. And waiting. Then the sirens started, the motorcyles started up, and then the Military bands started up ( the President had already reviewed them). Then the press on huge flat bed trucks came next and then the Secret Service and the Presidential Motorcade started rolling by us very, very slowly…. and then we saw the family and they were waving to us and smiling to us and yes- happy to be there! We cheered him not just like a rock star, but as our new leader and our president and one we were so very, very proud of. The crowds kept following the motorcade down the street, cheering, shouting and crying. So much so, that poor Joe Biden ‘s motorcade didn’t have a soul cheering him! I stopped following the motorcade and was completely by myself waving and cheering for Joe and Jill! I wasn’t 100% sure that the President actually waved to me, but I am 1000% sure that Joe did wave to me because no one else was around!!!
I’m leaving the city tommorrow, time to go back home to my own community and try and find ways to help our community , state and country to be the best we can be.

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Yes We Did- Our day of National Joy

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Today was part Woodstock and part Religious Pilgrimage. A day so full of Hope that people from all over the world felt our happiness and wanted to share in the joy. We cheered our new president and said goodbye to the old one. I saw the former president’s helicopter fly over the Mall on his way to Andrews Air Force Base. I can’t begin to imagine what he thought when he saw the millions of people who came out to celebrate the newest chapter of our Country.

The day began riding the bus down the street as far as we could go towards the Mall. We first posed with the young soldiers here from Iowa helping with security all over the streets. Bundled up against the cold, layers and layers to try and keep warm. The Mall was going to be out of the question to watch the swearing in- the mall was already full at 5AM and we didn’t leave the house until 8:30AM. I left Donna and Bud off at the Capital ( they had excellent seats towards the front) and I just kept walking and walking heading towards the Washington Monument. You literally were just swept along with the thousands and thousands of people, most of which did not have tickets, but were just there to hopefully hear , but mostly just to be there. I finally realized I wasn’t going to get on the mall at all, so I stopped at 14th and Independence and walked up a staircase of one of the Smithsonian buildings. The mall was two blocks away and you could hear the Jumbotrons even if you couldn’t see the events. My little group of strangers who were also on the steps became my little parade group family. Young and Old, Black and White, Americans and people from other countries. We all huddled together staying warm, sharing stories on why and how we were here, even being interviewed by two different people who were shooting documentaries of the day.

We couldn’t hear very well, but we could see the mall and hear the cheers and knew what was happening and when. When the swearing in was finished, the cheers erupted all over. Our little group hugged and cried, some thanked God, some just smiled and looked towards the heavens. My new 78 year old friend from South Carolina who rode up with her church group arriving that morning at 8AM and was leaving at 6PM back on the same charter bus, thanked God and then told me again how we all need to do our part to help this man create change in our country.
After the swearing in, I started the walk back towards home walking past the various museums. I passed the Air and Space Museum and didn’t see any lines getting in- so I just walked up the steps and walked in! Warmth! Bathrooms! Places to sit down ! Not to mention, I was in one of the best museums ever, one that celebrates the human spirit and all we can do when we put our minds to it! We walked on the Moon. We flew around the world, We made air travel as common and safe as bus travel. I wandered all over the museum and again thought of how wonderful to be in a country where any thing is possible with hard work and the opportunity. I finally warmed enough and was shocked- all those people on the mall had also tried to get inside, but had to face hundreds of people ahead of them also trying to get in. My leaving allowed one more person to come in.
What a Day! What a Country!

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Our National Community

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Last night I drove Bud and Donna to the Indiana Ball. I myself have a big date with my buddies at MSNBC- Chris and Keith to start things out! I did tell Bud, who’s a very big deal in his home state of Indiana to tell John and Elaine Mellancamp I said hello and that he represented Tybee very well yesterday!
I had an experience heading back home that sums up the change in our country- at least for this week… Donna lives in the Capital Hill area which is still a neighborhood in transition. I got turned around driving back to the townhouse and saw a woman at a bus stop and pulled over and asked her for directions to Florida Ave. She gave me great directions and then told me welcome to DC. I realized how cold it must be waiting for a bus and I could tell she’d been working all day. I asked her if I could drop her off somewhere vs waiting for the bus. She paused for a second then said- Sure why not!

We started talking on the way to her home in Southeast DC . She had just finished working at her job with a catering company here in DC and she told me how she just kept tearing up during the party because she was just so proud of what was happening in the country. She said her parents never believed this would happen in their lifetime. Then she said, “and you know, I never would have gotten in a car with a complete stranger and I bet you never would have offer ed a black stranger in downtown DC a ride home either”. We both started laughing and she hugged me when she got out of the car and said “God Bless America. We live in the greatest country in the world and we’re living up to our potential.” I was part of a feeling today that I experienced in downtown Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics where everyone thought the best of each other and truly felt like a global community. It’s a high and is the reason why we all in DC are walking around like giddy kids!

Enough for now, I’m heading to the Mall to say “I was there” to anyone who asks where I was when History was made in our Country.

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My new best friends-the crew at Morning Joe!

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Ok we did it. And those of you who read my blog last night were up and watched Morning Joe at MSNBC starting at 6AM know we did it! I found 3 other friends who are much a political junkie as I am. What fun!! We were up and waiting for Pam and Sydney to pick us up at 6AM to get to the Dubliner by 6:15AM. After all, we figured how big a crowd could there be at that time. Surely no one else really watches the show to know their plans. WRONG. What I came to realize this morning is for so many of us, this is our SuperBowl. We’re like middle aged men who can’t wait for football season and the chance to go to the big game! All the other political junkies like us were in the line which stretched for about two blocks, it was very cold with light snow… and we were dressed for TV, not for the winter. So we waited and waited…. then Willie came out to work the line, he posed for pictures and was just like he is on TV- cute and good humored! We slowly moved up and finally made it to the tent area. We saw Willie go back into the Dubliner at a door right by us and Sydney decides to follow. 2 seconds later, she comes out and motions us all to come in. We’re right in the area where they are shooting the show!

So, we wiggle into a spot directly behind Joe and stand there for 2 1/2 hours! I know alot of you saw Donna in the white coat- thank you Susan for telling me to move her to the side! We watched, we cheered with each new favorite who walked in and was on the show. We stood over two ladies from Atlanta who were eating breakfast ( and as they said, kept stretching it out for 2 hours so they didn’t have to give up their seat.) We didn’t get autographs, but we did get Morning Joe buttons and posters! We saw Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, Tina Brown, Mike Barnacle, Pat Buchannan, Wycliff Jean, the Governor of MA, Peggy Noonan ( who kept turned around and saying to the us- “isn’t this festive!”), we even spotted Carole King the singer in the crowd- waved and said hello- then Mika and Joe spotted her and brought her on the show! So Carole can thank us for letting them know she was there. Mika asked her to come back tomorrow since she was staying right there at the connected hotel!

What was so great was everyone who was on the show recognized how special this time is for our country. This is not just another political event. This is transforming our country and even the world. They all had big grins on their face and kept signing autographs, posing for pictures and were in great humor! We did go over to David Gregory and tell him what a great job he was doing on Meet the Press. He genuinely thanked us and thanked us for taking the time to tell him so. He knows this is his show to take care of and love and accepts the responsibility with great respect.

Then when everything was over and done and the crowds left, we sat down and had a super Irish breakfast! On the way out, we ran into the executive producer and assistant producer of Morning Joe , told him what a great job they’d been doing and they then posed with us in front of the Dubliner! All of this and it wasn’t even 10AM yet!

Yes, for those of you with eagle eyes, we were also on The Today Show when Meredith and Matt showed acouple of shots of Joe and Mika and we were yet again in the background.
We can’t do the Tuesday show, but we sure are going to be up at 6AM to watch and see who’s in our spot this time! Joe did tell the crowd to come on back on Tuesday, but we’ll leave that to another group of hearty souls!

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Hope, Connection, Unity

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As one of my favorite people, Tim Russert always said, “What a Country”. The Mall today was a giant block party, the country’s largest state fair, the 4th of July parade that makes us all cry…. something is in the air… we’re yearning for something that maybe we can’t quite put our fingers on it, but we don’t want it to go away. We and we’re talking thousands of people- just wandered around smiling at each other, laughing just because we all feel so good, buying everything out there that says Obama or 1-20-2009 or something to help us remember today. The media was EVERYWHERE! I finally found my friends from Miami who are as giddy as the rest of us and as we’re walking the Mall, two very cute, very young men with mics and a TV camera came up to us and asked if they could interview us! Turns out they were from Australia- one of the big news stations from Sydney and they wanted to know why we were here and what all this means to us. Then they were delighted to pose with us for pictures!

We also walked down to the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress- look how beautiful and majestic both these buildings are! 12 hours and counting till we head back to the mall and our day of history! Such a beautiful day to be outside with our fellow Americans!

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