A Pair of Panties and Boxers

This post was written a year ago during Obama’s Inauguration.

We stocked up on food and energy drinks before heading to DC on Monday. Once we arrived, we drove straight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, parked the car and took the Metro to the Mall to scope and strategize “the spot” for Tuesday’s inauguration. After we concocted our plan we had an Indian restaurant in Chinatown and swam through a sea of hawkers to see Gran Torino. Except the hawkers weren’t Chinese, they were black.

They were selling everything underneath the sun with Obama’s name and face, including condoms. This inauguration showed DC at its most capitalistic. Hotel tripled, some even quadrupled, their rates. Everything hiked in prices including Metro fare cards and restaurant menus. Even tickets for Jay-Z’s concert ranged from $300-$1,000. What inner city kid who listens to rap can afford that? Jay-Z was obviously milking out white wallets.

We made it back to the Ronald Reagan Airport where we parked our car around 12:30AM, Tuesday. I prepared ham sandwiches in the car while JC made room for blankets and pillows. We slept in the frigid car at the airport and woke up at an ungodly hour, 3:45AM. We motivated to get ready and took the Metro to L’Enfant Plaza to be herded like the masses who were also headed to the Inauguration.

We stood at the Mall for over 7 hours waiting for Obama to make his inaugural speech. I was not a pleasant person. By 4AM I lost all feeling from my knees down and with less than 2 hours of sleep I was running at 50% mental capacity.

It was a long, cruel tease until Obama finally appeared to be sworn in. After being semi-frozen for last 5 hours, I couldn’t care less about all the people they announced whose name wasn’t Barack Obama. All I was thinking was, “Let’s get this shit over with already!” As soon as Obama finished is inaugural speech, the people swarmed out like bees to the nearest Smithsonian Museum to defrost. Everyone sprawled out on the museum floors like dead logs.