The Aftermath

Skip to Thursday — post-Inaugural recovery!  A regular day catching up with old pals and co-workers from DC.  Going backwards in time will help piece together the rest of the whirlwind tour:

Wednesday: slept in til 11:30am, packed, and vacated pied de terre for Club Quarters downtown.

Ben's Chili Bowl

Walked to U Street to check out the gentrification of our former hood haunts in the Harlem of DC.  Here’s what the famed Ben’s Chili Bowl looked like, and there wasn’t even a FAMOUS PERSON or politician inside… nice ice sculpture.

Obama Ice Sculpture

 

CakeLove

To fend off the cold breeze, we had to stop at Cake Love for a ymmy cupcake and hot cocoa — along with the bunting for Obama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cafe Lautrec Mural

 

Off to Adams Morgan — sadly Cafe Lautrec is closed, though its mural still stands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a nap — geezers need that! — ventured forth to Dupont Circle for a nice dinner with a pal who regaled us with stories of freezing and marching in the Inaugural Parade in the Peace Corps group.  Nightcap of Irish Coffees at the Tabard Inn was the only appropriate finish.

Back track to Tuesday evening: the Inaugural Ballzzzzz!  After the post-Swear-In Great Thaw in the afternoon  and military ground maneuvers to get home, we hosed off and polished up for dinner at Citronelle (tres chic) complete with “Celebration Cake” which included a Roman Candle to mark the occasion.

Luckily, the crowds waned enough to take the Metro to DC’s City Hall, the Wilson Building, for the 51st State Ball — a thumpin’ hip-hop party with rapper Chuck Brown and surprise appearance by Kurtis “The Breaks ” Blow.  Lots of fries with that shake in party gowns. Sometimes, we’re just sooo white….  Home by 2am, not too shabby!

5:24 pm EST Oh, The Humanity!

silver-invite

T-shirts are on order: We Survived Inauguration 2009!

 

 

 

 

staypuff marshmellows

 

 

Dressed like the little kid from Christmas Story, Michael, Mark, and I joined the 7am salmon swim to walk down to the Silver Ticket Swearing-In area “near” the Capitol.  Some numbers for the statisticians:

Temperature: 30  With Wind Chill: 18 ~~  Miles from Foggy Bottom to Swearing-In: 2.5  ~~  Time to Walk to Silver Ticket Holder Gate: 30 mins  ~~ Time of Standing Still Mashed Against Strangers Waiting to Get Into Check Point: 1.5 hour  ~~ Length of Ceremony that We Saw on JumboTron: 30 mins   ~~ Number of JumboBasketball Players Blocking the View of 27 People at a Time: 3  ~~ Number of Times Bush, Cheney, and Leiberman Were Booed during the Ceremony: Approximately 25   ~~  Number of Fingers the Crowd Held Up as Bush’s Marine One Helicopter Did the Final Fly-Over: One Big Middle One ~~  Time Standing in Huddled Masses Yearning to Break Free from the Ceremony without Getting Any Direction before Finally Dismantling a Chainlink Fence around the Native American Museum and Climbing Over, Through, and Around to Get Out to Independence Avenue: One Hour ~~ Mr. Gorbechev, Tear DOWN THAT WAALLL!!  We were pulling grandmas, babies, twins thru the whole in the fence.  Snipers on the roof, can we still do this:  OH YES WE CAN!

For your viewing pleasure:

Inaugural Ballz: The Movie

(No Democrats were harmed in the making of this film…)

 

 Yes, those PortOPotties were around all perimeters — here’s one of the friendly “inspectors” now:

Mark seeing a man about a horse

 

 

 

 

Currently thawing out in the room, swilling hot cocoa, watching the crazy parade and commentary:  OMG Did Chris Matthews just say “I’ve never seen so many black people in my life.”?!!! Oh no he di’in’t…!

bloghead

6:45 AM WTF

OMG! people have been streaming by the apt window along Pennsylvaina Ave since 3:30 this morning and CNN has been screaming at us since 6:00 when we woke up! God help us all!  Overheard on Inauguration Day: 

• Michael Martinez keeps saying “8 degrees” over and over and over. 
•  ”BarackStock” – yes, they said it on CNN –  “I wanted to bitch slap the reporter, ” said Michael. 
• Cheryl said “what the hell do I know I’m Jewish”
• Mark said “If we get to stand in front of 1 single person on the mall we are ahead of the game” 
• Everyone said  he is an idot.

OK here we go out to the Mall on foot with full belllies and a lot of moxie!

Morning March 2 Mall

People on Virginia Avenue heading toward the National Mall… a NEW “Morning in America” (buh-bye Reaganism).

The Crowd Thickens

By 8:00 am, the crowd thickens on Independence Avenue.  Little did we appreciate the “loads” of personal space we had here, soon to be gone in the 2-hour mosh pit for Silver Ticket Holders…

11:36am EST Part Deux Continued

Bipartsain Window

Pre-inaugural MLK day festivities continued on a smaller scale: helped Mark’s son, Chris, pick up his tux for the GW Inaugural Ball at the Men’s Warehouse 2 blocks from the White House.  Holy Senior Prom, Batman!  Lines of formal wear renters lined up like ladies in the powder room at a ballet Intermission.  Soon, on the campus, my alma mater, we were accosted by bipartisian art: the donkey and elephant peacefully existing. — and colorful, to boot!

Frank and Megan

We met up with “Bond, Frank Bond,” a pal from my DC days,  former anchor and current “mayor” of the Newseum for a little libation.  He and his best producer, Megan, met up with us for some brews and burgers to escape the literal wall-to-wall coverage;  they are really spending a Night at the Newseum.  All personnel are donning jammies to overnight in the Pennsylvania facility to deal with the madding crowd for Tuesday’s parade.  Go Frank! Go Megan!

The city is in full regalia for tomorrow’s Obama-palooza, even the Metro, which we braved later in the chilly evening.  Many banners adorn the kiosks and stairways with the O’s replaced by the campaign logo.

Yes Mom there are toilets

At Ye Olde Ebbitt Grill

12:20pm EST: jour deux

Break out the long undies: 32 degrees, tiny flakes expected!  Possible events today, if we can drag our Left Coast jet lagged butts out:

1. Sage the White House: A rabbi, a shaman, and a lesbian walk into Dupont Circle…. no really! Check out this link:                  

2. Writers for Obama: A meet-up at the Unitarian Universalists Church on 16th Street (where “writing is a religion”…)

1:30am EST: Long Days’ Journey Into Nite

Not long after we boarded the first flight, our inner East Coast attitudes (yo! U talkin to me?!) kicked in full force.  Ticket desk attendants had new orifices ripped. The doofuses (doofi?) blocking airplane aisles trying to unwedge their crammed in, over-sized luggage from overhead bins almost made us miss connecting flights. Luckily, with a two-hour delay in Philly, we made the  next leg.  (Hey, when does Darwin’s thinning the herd actually kick in?) We hit the Tarmac at DCA at 1:00 am.  We grabbed a cab “old school” Yo! Cabbie! and arrived at an amazing location for our stay.  We are on Pennsylviana Ave (2400) walking distance to the Capitol and the apartment had HEAT!   Too wound-up to sleep, ordered — you guessed it — a pizza and we were fat, happy and warm. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2pm PST (5pm EST) “Why We Suck” According to Dr. Denis Leary

Taxi to SFO = $47
Suitcases checked = $30
Peet’s watered down coffee and day-old muffin = $21
Guy shouting all the way back to LA into his cell phone like Mario Cantucci to find his keys at the gym…. PRICELESS!

As tech-heads were buried into Facebook, Twitter, and other electronically induced REM, we hear “Last call, will passengers O’Neill and Lurie — if you’re in the vicinity, get your pasty white tofu-eating asses to Gate 28 (I mean)… please come to the doorway, this is last call.”  DOH!!!! I knew the easy morning taxi ride and the lack of nauseating Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride on the Stupor Shuttle would come back to bite me. We made it onto the plane. And the fun was just about to begin…

Where do ya think our seats were?  Not  on the brightly colored wide-bodied Airbus, as graphically depicted on the Seat Assignment Selector on US ScAir — 2 seats, 3 seats, 2 seats, but in a much smaller replacement model plane A (does that stand for “Acme”?) 319 cargo plane (could this have been due to the heroic water landing last week in the Hudson?). And in fine Rosa Parks fashion, we were escorted to the actual seat numbers on the boarding pass, which were ass-ended against the lavatory. Like a day at Typhoon Lagoon Waterpark, we enjoyed the never-ending giant sucking sound while traversing the country for 5 and a half swirling hours, complete with seat cushion that looked like it had already been used as a floatation device. And for our efforts, we were allowed to pay $2 for formerly-complimentary non-alcoholic drinks.

Good thing we had an uplifting, positive affirmation audio book to listen to for 4 hours: “Why We Suck,” by “Dr.” Denis Leary..

In da back of the plane

Sunset from the tail

Boggolishious

Day One: Genesis

I don't want 2 go 2 da airport 2day

So It’s 5 am,  and I am in a warm bed covers pulled over my head and I got to what? Get up and get ready 2 get out of Dodge and travel the yellow-brick road to the Nation’s Capital. Doh! I swear it feels just like waking up everyday during the fourth grade, “but I don’t want to go to school today” blues.  Its cold, dark and early here in “Frisco” and it’s going be a 12 hour travel day ahead and Gary da cat has my feet pinned to the bed as he is sleeping across my legs.  Alright just five more minutes and I promise I’ll get up

Obama-Palooza: West Meets East

We got tickets the Olde Fashioned Way:  Senator Nancy Pelosi took pity on our unemployed non-tax contributing,  tree-huggin’, West Coast rent payin’, Tenderknob strollin’, Blue Bottle Coffee swillin’ ways and sent an email for free tickets to the Inaugural Swearing-In on January 20, 2009.  No subsidies included for travel, room, and board — and so the Gullible’s Travels begin into the quagmire of DC, from whence we came 8 years ago.

Packing List for Mark:

• Clown Shoes
• Long Itchy Underpants
• Socks without too many holes
• The Incredible Shrinking Sweater
• Adult Garanamals — everything’s black so it all matches
• Borrowed Puffy Jacket from Ski Bum “the Sergenator” Serge Martin

Packing List for Cheryl:

• Maps, Pictures of Maps, Downloaded Icons of Maps, Maps of the DC Metro, Maps of my suitcase contain maps
• iPhone Manual in paperback
• Enough tech gear and chargers to run NASA
• Long Itchy LongJohns with backflap
• Depends Undergarments for the long wait in line to get into the viewing field as CIA, FBI, DEA, and ASPCA do background checks
• Special Travel Underwear  “1 pair good for 6 countries”

Wheels up from SFO at O’Dark Hundred.  More webisodes to come from mobile offices of Mark O’Neill and Cheryl Lurie…