Doesn't seem like it should be the hard part, since we knew we had 'em coming, but things aren't always what they seem. See, when we first walked toward the Library Of Congress, we could see buildings off to the right with massive lines of people. Well, I mean, you can see from the picture what I mean, and that was taken after the lines had gone down somewhat. "I'm sure as hell glad we're not going THERE," I said to Chris, looking at the lines.
When we got out of the Pre-Inaugural reception, we learned a few things. How to get out of the building we were in, where Bart Stupak's office was, that it wasn't getting any warmer outside--and that the lines I was so glad to be avoiding were the lines we needed to head for. They were made up of people who were waiting to see their Congressmen to pick up their tickets for the Inauguration. What a mess!
We started walking toward where we thought the end of the line might be. Since we couldn't actually see the end of the line, it was a daunting task, especially because there were at least two lines wrapped around the building and it wasn't clear where they were going. As we walked, we asked every fifteenth person or so what he or she was in line for, to be sure we hadn't moved on to some other group of people entirely. I thought of catching a cab to the end of the line, but I didn't think that idea would go over well with Chris. He doesn't like it when people seem weak.
Eight or ten years after we started walking the length of the line, we found the end. A man got in line with us and asked to use Chris's phone to call his wife, since we had left his phone at home. We ended up having a very nice conversation with him, which included various phrases like, "Did you guys work on the campaign? My wife did. I went to Arkansas, too, to work on the legal end of things, since I'm a lawyer. My wife ran the campaign in Arkansas." When you gave up your entire life for four months to work on a campaign and are feeling pretty satisfied with yourself for it, there's nothing like someone who ran the campaign in an entire state to take you down a notch. He then continued to tell us that his wife had graduated from law school with Hillary Clinton and had gotten her to appear at a fundraiser in Arkansas where they hadn't done too bad--they'd managed to raise $400,000. And he went on to explain that he had been at the opening concert the night before on the National Mall and had been seated next to John Cusack. By the time we finally got in the building a couple hours later, we were feeling properly humbled.
We had fun inside. Didn't take us long at all to find Congressman Stupak's office and get our tickets. They invited us to have a bite to eat, which was absolutely perfect because we hadn't had a bite to eat up until that point in the day, and it was approaching 4 pm. It isn't often that I've gotten to settle into the leather chair in a congressman's office with chocolate chip cookies, Coke Zero, crackers, and cheese to watch CNN, but that's what we did. We were watching, on CNN, the things that were happening right across the street, so we could have seen them anyway, but it was much nicer to watch them from inside.
We hooked up with a bunch of people who had worked on the campaign with us or who we had met at home at various times- lots of people our ages, so that was kinda cool. Gave us someone to talk to and we made some connections so we wouldn't find ourselves searching for a table at the Inaugural Ball. All in all, it was the best part of the day. It may have been because we in the presence of such highly esteemed people in such a historical city on the eve of such a historical day.
Or it might have been because I finally got to sit down, and because in Congressman Stupak's office, I was discussing the state of the world and the nation instead of chasing Chris across Washington. It was nice to feel respected and appreciated for a few minutes.
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