I know, I've completely disappeared from my blog. The reason is not because I have nothing to post (I have lots actually) but because I am inundated with work. I am trying to finish a book design in record time. I work late almost every night and by the time I get home, I typically want to do exactly nothing. The book needs to be finished enough to go to an indexer on March 9th, I hope to make an appearance on my blog around then.

Thanks for checking in!

I've been swallowed up by a new book design. Please check back on Monday. I hope to have some new posts up by then.

On Monday morning I said my last goodbye to my car. Because it would have been so costly to repair the car, it made more sense to sell it to my insurance company. I can't believe I would have such feelings for an inanimate object, but that last farewell was pretty sad.

More photos of our day at the Inauguration. President Obama spoke from the red curtained area.



Security:


Former President Bush and Laura Bush flying away:

At 11:19 a.m. we were still making our way through the crowd to get through security. I started to prepare myself to miss the Inaugural Oath and President Obama's speech, but when the crowd started taking on the form of a line my hopes were lifted. Before long, we were making our way through the metal detectors.



We were elated when we finally got to the Capitol.









More to come!

THE 44TH PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
Tuesday was an unforgettable day. Among an estimated 1.6 million people, Ryan and I witnessed the Inauguration of Barack Obama. Moreover, we were part of a very fortunate group of people (240,000 total) who had tickets, placing us on the Capitol lawn for the event. And while the ceremony was momentous and unforgettable, so was the adventure of getting to the National Mall.

After spending the night at my office in downtown D.C., Ryan and I set off from 9th & G streets NW in an effort to make it to 1st & Independence SW. At 9:30 a.m. the security gates for those ticketed with Blue Tickets opened. We set out at 8:30 a.m.

Stepping out onto the street, we were astounded by the amount of people that had come into the city. Despite the media hype, there was no way to prepare for the millions of people that descended upon Washington, D.C. We were also a bit surprised at how difficult navigating the city on foot would be. I knew there would be many road closures, but I assumed that the roads would be closed to traffic, not pedestrians as well. At one point, we found ourselves in a very tight spot as we tried to cross a street that was jammed with hundreds of people vying for a position on the parade route. Once we hit hwy 395 (closed to traffic) we started to make progress.

The map below depicts our starting point, a bit of the back and forth downtown, and finally, the route to our destination. Click to enlarge.


As we emerged from the highway tunnel at 9:45 a.m., we heard the music being played at the Capitol and we thought we were home-free.

We were wrong.

Though we could see the gate for the Blue Ticket Holders, there were hundreds of people moving in one huge mass toward the security tents. There was nothing to do but join in and hope that the very slow shuffling would have us at the gates by the time President-Elect Obama took the oath to become President Barack Obama.



To be continued...