The big day is tomorrow

10:45 p.m.

What I thought was going to be a relatively calm day on the eve of the inauguration turned into a pretty long one. After sleeping in to try and catch up on the lack of sleep the day before because of the concert, we decided to pick up our tickets at Congressman Anthony Weiner's office which is located right next to the Capitol Building, the scene of tomorrow's historic events. We took the Metro down to the Capitol at 2 p.m. and when we got off the train, we were stuck in a mob scene created by people unaware of how to use the D.C system. Unlike the Boston and NYC subways, the Metro requires each rider to have their own fare card and you must enter the card you used to ride the train in the turnstiles as you exit the station.

Once on street level, I was shocked at the mob scene outside. I hadn't realized that most of the representatives in the House of Representatives had their Washington offices in one of three large buildings located right next to each other. With 240,000 tickets being distributed today, you can imagine the scene. Couple that with the "airport like" security getting into the building, and that equals longs lines outside all three buildings. Weiner's office was located in the Rayburn Building, the largest of the three. It took us over 2 hours to get into the building, one that we were only in for a total of 10 minutes. We received our tickets in a large envelope that included the actual tickets, a program of events, and portraits of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We were given Silver tickets, which designate "Mall Standing." This is the ticketed section furthest away from the Capital, located directly behind a small reflecting pool on the capitol lawn. Although these tickets aren't ideal, it still gives us a better view then millions of people located in the general admission area.

On our way back to campus, I saw a few of the floats that will be seen in tomorrow's parade. George Washington University also has a float in the festivities and we stopped by a student event in one of the quads that showed off the final product.
Tomorrow is going to be another long day. We are planning on getting to the Capitol at 5 a.m. tomorrow. The gates are opening at 8 a.m. and the program will begin at 11:30 a.m. Barack Obama will be sworn in at noon and will deliver his inaugural address right afterwards. The city is advising against using the Metro unless you absolutely have to, but I'm hoping that because we are leaving so early, it won't be too much of an issue. I hope everybody watches tomorrow. It really will be such a historic event.

-Jake