Inauguration Hour-by-Hour

Jan 20

6:30 pm: Home. Metro was fine. Hot shower and bed. Pictures hopefully up tomorrow!

5:10 pm: Okay, I'm exhausted and want to go home. I can't cross Pennsylvania Avenue, so I'm going to head south and try to cross Constitution to get to a metro.

4:50 pm: A friend just emailed this picture - it is a shot of NBC news showing the Archives, my window, the 75th anniversary banner, and the Obamas.



4:12 pm: Oh my god!! The Obamas got out of their limo directly in front of the Archives - literally right outside my office window. We all went nuts like a bunch of lunatics. We could see the girls in the car. Great photos! Then we all stampeded down the hallway to get to the next set of windows, and the next. I pulled something in my calf - an Obama injury!

3:12: The crowd outside is getting restless. And frozen.

2:27 pm: A guest in my office opened my window. So far, the three snipers we can see have not shot him.

1 pm: Our guests are arriving and staking out window space to view the parade.

12 noon: Watched the ceremony in our fancy reception room with a few other people. Could hear the roar of the crowd from both the screen and the street. What a speech.

10:57 am: Bush-Cheney-Obama-Biden motorcade just drove past on the way to the Hill.

10 am: Just got my picture taken removing the George W. Bush portrait from our lobby!!

9:30 am: Just got back from walking around the building taking pictures. It's cold out there! I hear people are having trouble getting through the checkpoints. Aretha Franklin is playing on the sound system.

8 am: Got woken up by security. Slept for 8 solid hours!

Jan 19

11:11 pm: Thinking about going to bed. It's kind of fun to be in your pajamas in your office.

10:04 pm: Barack Obama's motorcade just drove by my window! How cool is that?

10 pm: Dang, the cable doesn't work.

9 pm: Just went out on a reconaissance mission. The streets have thinned out but the restaurants are full. Plenty of women in beautiful ball gowns and strappy little sandals. Brrr. Helicopters are circling. Where did all the homeless people go?

8:15 pm: The key to spending the night at work: good "pre-positioning." We were told that we probably couldn't bring big bags through security today, so last week I "pre-positioned" two childrens' sleeping bags (couldn't find an adult-sized one), a pillow, towel, pajamas, a change of clothes, shampoo and soap, two Lean Cuisine meals, a Slimfast breakfast bar, two 6-packs of Diet Coke (one with caffeine, one without), and the new In Style magazine. I'm ready.

7:30 pm: Ah, I just found the tv that has cable and a DVD player.

7:15 pm: I just finished eating dinner sitting at a window in the Archivist's Office at the corner of 7th and Pennsylvania. Bird's eye view. It's loud out there. The streets are now closed to vehicular traffic, but there are people and police cars everywhere. I'm the only person in our office suite, which has been decked out with gigantic televisions. Unfortunately, they seem to get only one station - the local CBS affiliate.

6:30 pm: I'm in my office at the Archives building on Pennsylvania Avenue. I'm spending the night because I'm working an inauguration function tomorrow. I took the Metro in, and got off at Chinatown. The platforms were already packed, and the streets were too. I walked the gauntlet of vendors down 7th street ("Obama pins, $5! Obama t-shirts, 2 for $15! Reduced! Obama light sabers!") I wandered around for awhile - big crowds, tons of police cars - and saw the most amazing thing: Obama's motorcade! Unfortunately, it came down Indiana Avenue, which was blocked off by security gates, and had to turn around. The crowd went wild, but I bet some security person is in big trouble!