After supporting and working for Barack Obama for two years, it was time to celebrate! After 4 days of events, parties, waiting, standing and wearing layers of long underwear, it was a time to dress up.Last night, Cathy and I donned our formal attire and made our way via the Metro to the Washington Convention Center. We were guests of the Inauguration at the Mid-Atlantic Ball.
These Balls have a strange reputation. The wisdom of veterans of Balls is that the food is minimal (and hard to get to), the drinks expensive (and hard to get to), and the coat check lines are massive (and impossible to get to). Yet, it is worth it to come celebrate and welcome the First Couple as they do their First Dance.
Our Ball matched some of these predictions. So, our strategy was to eat before and after, skip the bar, find a space close to the stage and bring along a huge amount of patience.
The Ball started with an incredible set of music from Wyclef Jean, who blended funk, improvisation, soul, hip hop, rapping and latin music to get this dressed up crowd of several thousand rocking. As a long time supporter of Obama, Wyclef infused the new President's words and spirit into the entire set of rocking music.
The second set was a bit strange. The Dead, yes, the remaining members of the Dead, played a long set. Personally, it didn't work for us and for many of the non-Dead fans, but hey, that is what diversity is about, I guess.
The thrilling moments were when the Vice President and Jill Biden .. and then President and Michele Obama came, spoke and danced.
Michele and Barack were a couple in love, in tune and impressive. People had their cameras out and captured every moment of the First Dance.
Afterwards, the toughest part was recovering our coats. Imagine several thousand people heading to the coat check all at once. It was a mess and we almost considered leaving our coats as donations. But, that is where Patience came in handy.
And, at 1 am, we left the Ball, walked four blocks to the Metro station and were drawn to Chinatown, right next to the station. Boy, were we hungry. And, we joined dozens of other tux and gown attired couples, straight and gay, eating Fried Rice and decompressing from the weekend.
So, the day started at 4 am when we woke up to head to the Swearing In and ended when we got back to our hotel in Bethesda at 2 am. Twenty two hours of history, of celebration, of reflection and of emotion. And Cathy looked awesome!
