It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Inauguration

Thursday, January 15, 2009

As Inauguration Day approaches, I've developed an overwhelming sense of paranoia & anxiety. I'm not exactly what you'd call a "people person," at least in terms of large swarms of people. Being in groups that are too large make me feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience, & not in a good way.

"The experts," whomever they may be, have predicted that as many as 4 million people could swarm the District for the day Mr. Obama Goes to Washington. And even though the Secret Service has deemed that estimate a bit high, even a couple million is too many millions for me. I'm heard rumors that cell phone towers will crash & sewers are going to back up, both unprepared for such an influx, so I'm prepared to live like it's Y2K here. I even bought groceries & a jug of water today.

As anxious & nauseated as I am, though, it's exciting to watch the whole city prepare for what I've only half-jokingly been calling "the dawn of a new era." Local bars & restaurants are decked out in full-scale red, white & blue with signs to welcome tourists. It can be assumed that any guy carrying a tux bag is holding an invitation to some swanky inaugural ball. And every 20th word out of everyone in the city's mouth is "inauguration" or "Tuesday" or "Obama" or "ball" or "Oh, my God, I can't believe the Metro is going to be so overburdened that I'll have to actually walk places" or something else equally anticipatory.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still spending all weekend as cooped up as possible - but that doesn't mean it's not very, very cool.

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An employee at Yanni's, the Greek taverna nearby, affixes flag-patterned stars to the restaurant door:


A cardboard cutout of our Pres-to-be chills in the lobby of Bubbles, a local hair salon:


And my favorite - the Firehook Bakery down the road displays dozens Obama-iced sugar cookies in anticipation of the Big Day:

4 comments:

  1. Those flag cookies look soo good- do you think you could send me one- just kidding!! Eat one for me!!! Yum!

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  2. Oh my goodness I love those cookies!!!

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  3. Wow!! I'd be as freaked out as you are, but still, to be there to witness all of it is pretty exciting!

    Ditto Lynsey - those cookies look sooo good!

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  4. Those cookies look SO GOOD SEND ME ONE NOW PLEASE. Kthnx, bye.

    ReplyDelete

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