Welcome President Barack Hussein Obama - (part IV - FINALE)

It was almost a tie. The elation I felt when Obama was finally sworn in or the glorious moments watching the official helicopter fly over the Capitol and out of Washington DC with FORMER president George Bush. My chest felt as if something was going to leap out of it and dance. Yet, only the sight of Barack Hussein Obama becoming the President of the United States brought on the round of hugs and jumping around. I can still remembering hugging Camille first and thinking about these moments we shared are like nothing ever before.

I think quickly about the rest of the country and the world looking at the Inauguration. We have all found our place to be a part of history. Being there for the beginning of a national healing.






I am struck by the impact of these days. I do not want to leave and I AM proud of my country. In uncertain times, I have hope, inspiration and believe in our ability to fly above the ditch that has been dug for the past eight years.



Today, we can say history was made. All our travels to monuments and ancient sites, in the United States and throughout the world, can not touch the fact that we, the people, have all been part of a creating a legend for the ages.

Welcome President Barack Hussein Obama, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama. Welcome home.

I Too Sing America...(part III - FINALE)

Dear Langston, Camille (grandmother), Sojourner, Rosa, Malcolm, Martin, Robert, Harriet, Frederick and others,

I feel your presence in my hometown. D.C. is full of ghosts, spirits, ancestors. 2+ million breathing and countless others from the past are witnesses. Patriotism has many definitions and Americans could final walk out of their closets to display its many forms.

Service: especially youth service, greets me early as these timid youth ask us to sign petitions ask Obama to help end the genocide in Dafur. No one turns them away. I want to hug them. I know actions like these can now be celebrated as heroic and as love of country. Service brings out the best of Americans as caring human beings.

Flags: Traditional and altered - seen as the fabric of our national connection to one another today - not criminal, nor offensive.

Civility: The picture of true peace all day. No care of nation status. No care of rich or poor. No incidents of violence. Welcome to the neighborhood.

The Massachusetts couple who hugs all around our section - tears of joy - laughing and crying throughout the ceremony - our instant friends.

The women who sit next to us traveled, as far as we have, only to sit next to fellow Californians. A teacher from the Pruess school at UCSD and a group of friends from the Imperial Valley.

Even movie stars must mingle with the not so famous (see Halle Berry and Jamie Foxx). Many others are in our section too but the star of the day has finally arrived.

In Obama's America - (part II - Finale)

The day is the birth of Obama's America and I can only see the day through those eyes. The experiences unlike any day I have lived but had always hoped to see. As Camille and I walk to the front of the Capitol steps, the phrase "no ways tired" echos in my head. WE have waited much longer than what will turn out to be a 7.5 hour journey before Obama is sworn in.

In Obama's America, for the first time, I am not made to feel as if I am the enemy in my own nation. Military, police, FBI and other security treat the celebrants with respect, kindness and acknowledge all with smiles. Feelings I am not familiar with - this new agenda is shocking and new. I take it at face value even if it is for this day only.




They are vigilant and we are happy they make us feel they ARE there to protect us, to protect Obama and these armed workers for the day are showered with "thanks" as people pass by. Marines serve simple as ushers for the theater of the day. They are so young, I listen as one tells how he applied to serve at the Inauguration. He is so proud and honored to be here this day. We bond over our warm climate homes and how soon he will see his family in Las Vegas. I feel they resist their own breakdown to tear up and cheer when Obama is sworn in - their lives highly considered before going into harms way. Their eyes speak volumes today.

Out of the Darkness - Into the Light (part I - Finale)

It's a New Day - Obama's Inauguration!

4:30 AM - The alarm rings. Camille jumps out of bed and half sleepwalking/half getting dressed - she asks "Where am I?"

5:30 AM - Bodies pour out of every hotel door - bundled beyond belief but the energy is already hot. We all walk out into the pre-dawn darkness.

We wait for the public bus to transport us to the nearest Metro train station but instead the expensive shuttle bus company has sent its drivers to pick up everyone from the hotels for free for the day. The drivers were happy and proud they were part of helping Obama.

6:00am - The metro began to fill quickly, as we arrived at station after station, with sleep deprived, grinning faces.

On the train, you could hear pieces of chatter:

• " Can you believe it is TODAY?";
• " Where are you from?";
• "This is the happiest day";
• "I never thought this day would come".

The feelings were mutual between travelers.

AGAIN, we part from my mom as her security screening area is separate from mine and Camille's. We are off on separate trains. Although our seats are only about 200 yards apart, our entrances to the Capitol were almost 5 miles apart.

Camille and I disembark at Union Station where each inch of floor space is filled with people moving steadily outside to stand in 2 hour lines before reaching our ultimate destination.

We camp out for breakfast on a higher, less crowded floor. Meeting and greeting strangers - IT was beginning. IT was the start of a connection we would have forever without knowing each others names.

I felt as if I had been traveling in a foreign country for years and all of a sudden you hear some speaking your same language from home. You haven't heard it in a long time but it is exciting to hear something familiar, something you don't have to explain or translate. Except, I realize that this language is being spoken by everyone around me. It is the language of camaraderie, compassion and community and it is right here in America.

7:30 am - Camille and I join the moving masses and make our way outside of Union Station - into the light of day.

Sleeping Sweetly

Our hearts are full but my body is weary. After only 3.0 hours of sleep last night, I will have to take a break from the blog tonight. I send out a couple of photos from where we sat but will write the final blog soon (including photos of Obama being sworn in and our celebrity sightings from our seating section). We fly home tomorrow but I sleep knowing that ANYTHING is possible, absolutely anything.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

My Mother had her own antics today at Congressional Offices and transporation nightmares. A little known fact - we gave up our tickets to the Colorado Ball and it was the best decision as we would never have made it tonight through the crowds and roads. Our own hotel was hard to get in and out of as the Texas Ball was across the street tonight and George Bush attended.

Once our three generations gathered again at our hotel, Camille and I got the best surprise!!!!

Two seat tickets in a front, center section for the Inauguration of Obama!!!! I was speechless. These beautiful yellow tickets with a formal and official invitation...this is better than Christmas and birthdays combined. Take a look: we really can't sleep now and it is already almost 1am -we leave at 5am.

Angels in America

Today was a day of service. As my mom headed off to gather her official Inauguration tickets, Camille and I went off to plant a tree. After a crazy maze of driving and bad directions, we arrived at Anacostia National Park. Just erase any image of a Yosemite or Grand Canyon Nationa Park. This is more like Compton and Watts combined. We had a great time. Camille and I went to work with a Ranger and another volunteer, Paco, to plant our tree while a large tent housed lots of Senators making speeches to their supporters.

We had a one hour turn around from tree planting to the service event I could hardly wait for. The Social Action Boot Camp - a speed dating event that paired up adult mentors "me" and up and coming non-profit innovators 25 years and under (Camille spotted one participant who couldn't have been older than 10 years old). I have to keep this story short but because of more bad directions, the shock of the crowds who were taking transportation today, NOT being allowed into some cabs - I never made it in time to start the Boot Camp project. After crying on the streets of D.C., Camille and I finally arrived at Georgetown University for the final 30 minutes of the Camp. After apologies and explanations, I learned that I was not the only one to not make the day. So, I will spare you the prolonged story and tell you about our "angels". Although we were lost many times today on the road today, we found our way through a host of kind strangers. A police officer in DC, Officer Mobley, who escorted us around a maze of dead ends to get to our tree planting project, a woman at a gas station who changed her plans and drove in front of us to lead us to the park and ride station, and the Republican, anti-Obama cab driver who saw us as viable passengers who inevitably took us to Georgetown.

Yet, the best Angels are always right under your nose. The understanding daughter who knew how much the Boot Camp project meant and asserted herself to help me hail a cab when I felt defeated. How about the friend from San Diego (here for Obamanauguration too) and her sister whom I never met before, meeting us in Georgetown, helping us find veggie food and then driving us all the way across Washington DC to get back to our abandoned car. My big lesson today was to keep mindful that all these acts of kindness were service in their own right. Something THEY may forget, but I will always remember.

The Obama fever today was HIGH. I can feel the excitement EVERYWHERE with a big dose of anxiety as everyone must negotiate road and bridge closures. Trains and buses with overloaded capacity. The area is wide awake. We know people sleeping in their D.C. offices tonight with family and friends to avoid the morning madness. Others are not sleeping at all and have staked their claim near the National Mall. Tonight was filled with soldiers, police, secret service, machine guns, blackened windowed SUVs and endless sirens and flashing lights...I am an excited, nervous wreck and tomorrow Barack Hussein Obama will be our President.

Barack for a Bargain

Oh Yeah, There is a LOT of stuff!

The collection has begun - we like all the give-away Inauguration buttons from EVERYBODY.

I shared a good laugh with hotel-mates (people debrief their Obamanauguration Day in the lobby at night) - do you think the same things happened for George's first Inauguration? I will let you all answer that one on your own.

Yes We Can to We Are One

We danced and sang at the top of our lungs with people of every cultural, racial and ethnic background. Babes in arms to seniors needing assistance. Our location was too far to view the Presidential Family with the naked eye but a shared experience like no other.

Give it up to Garth Brooks who brought the house down;

The historical reflections for making me and some others cry;

Pete Seeger for pulling us closer together again in history through his songs and;
Barack Obama for the amazing amount of HOPE he has given the WORLD to inspire a day - a week like this.

Music Saves Your Mortal Soul

How do you express the feeling of being in the middle of National Monuments, Amazing Musicians and Entertainers and 1million of your newest friends? PRICELESS. If you didn't catch the HBO broadcast of the WE ARE ONE concert today, find a way to see it now.

The three of us left our hotel by 10am for the 2:30 pm concert. After getting lost, again, driving to the Metro Station, separating from my mother to score a good location for the three of us, and walking three miles to claim our square foot of hard, dusty ground. We were ready for the time of our lives....

EXCEPT for the throngs of people who too were looking for a space and stepping on or over us;

standing in line for 1.5 hours to buy food and hot chocolate;

and losing your 12 year old daughter in the process.

YES - parental figures and concerned others. Gone. Vanished in a crowd of a MILLION!

Don't panic - I told myself...I met two women who were near our location and we were near the Reflection Pond directly across the port-a-potties and that tree...or was it that tree. OK - don't panic.

After thirty minutes of searching and having the scalding hot chocolate become a nice lukewarm, I found her. Now let me tell you why I had to write this story: in those 3o minutes I had the BEST moment of the day occur.

Sixty or more complete strangers began to yell a beautiful chorus of "CAMILLE" to help me find her. A small chant went up into the air to help a worried mother. It was so moving - the effort that they made - I knew I would find her in the masses. I can also guarantee that not another person outside of Obama and the performers had their name chanted by so many people at the event.

*FYI - No I couldn't call Camille because she lost her cell phone Day 1 in DC and my mom was ushered into the disability section of the concert.

The Only Place I LOVE Roaches

Some sites are must repeat visits no matter how many times you come to D.C.

Camille made friends with the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

We saw some fun Americana Icons and stood near one of the GREATEST portraits in US history...I couldn't help but blow it kisses!

Tomorrow we head to the biggest concert EVER. Camille and I will see how we can spot Nelson Mandela who is reported to be in the hotel across the street from ours (along with Aretha Franklin and Usher according to the waitress we meet from the hotel last night).

Please Sir - May I Have Some More?

The biggest party is about to start.

We went into training by spending an entire day walking through the National Museums of Natural History and the American History. Now I understand why the museums are free. My lunch of a tiny bowl of soup and a small bread roll cost $7.00. I can appreciate the serving size - I felt I was in the middle of the Great Depression...COLD...SMALL PORTIONS...and Daddy Warbucks is still in office.

Saturday in the Park....

...I wish it were a day in July. Not a day in my life has ever been colder. If there was any doubt of my undying devotion to our President in waiting, it ends with now. Today started with our 5 seconds of fame on MSNBC. Any follow-up interviews will have to wait until we give an exclusive to Oprah.