The Inauguration, Part 1

(Because we had already lived here a few weeks before I created this blog, there are some events and activities that happened a while ago that I still want to share. It's been almost a month since the inauguration, but it's one of the key unique-to-Washington experiences in our lives here so far, and I think it's definitely worth a post, albeit belated. These posts are based on journal entries I wrote fresh from the events.)

Our inauguration experience really started on Sunday afternoon, January 20, when we drove to Harvey’s building and camped out in his office so people from Tulsa could come by and pick up their tickets. Judah fell asleep in the car, and she stayed asleep (on an office couch) the first hour and a half or two hours we were there, which worked out well. We put a movie on for the kids in another part of the office, and that worked well for a while too. Around 3, the other staffers came, and Judah woke up. It was a little stressful after that. It wasn’t their fault--they didn’t seem bothered by the kids, but I was nervous the kids were going to get in the way or make too much noise. Plus more and more people were stopping in, and Harvey wasn’t as free to help with the kids as he was at first. 

A couple times I took the kids for walks around the halls, and that helped a bit. It was interesting to peek into the other offices as we passed them and see how they were decorated and how many people were in there hanging out and picking up tickets. James Lankford had refreshments, and his office looked nice and there were several people milling around. (Loved that Thunder flag hanging outside his door!) Some offices (e.g., Nancy Pelosi’s) had signs on the doors instructing people to pick up tickets elsewhere. One office around the corner from Jim’s was having a huge reception out in the hallway. 

One thing that was interesting about the afternoon was the people who would come by and ask if we had extra tickets. I can't judge them, because I tend to be a procrastinator myself. Some said their so-and-so relative just got back from Afghanistan and they needed a ticket for him, or they had heard that all the reps had to reserve tickets for military. Some just admitted they were making the rounds to all the offices to scrounge for tickets if they could find any. Harvey told the ticket-hunters to stop back by at 5, and if we had any tickets that were not claimed, they could have them. But later on, the other staffers decided they wanted to make sure they contacted all the people who didn’t show up for their tickets before they passed them out to anyone. I’m not sure how all that turned out. All I knew was that by 6:00 I was worn out and the kids were about done and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. We had a big day ahead.

Inauguration invitation

Invitation up close

Our tickets