Getting back to 'normal'

After three days of inaugural activities, it looks like the party is about over. In Washington, roads and bridges are again clear, commuters are commuting, and the Federal government is open for business. But what a couple of days!  I'll be doing a few posts to wrap up what I saw and heard from January 18 - 20.

For me, the festivities (and work) started with the Opening Ceremonies, a free concert, at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. Earlier this month, I was one of 11,000 people selected from the 80,000 people who offered to volunteer during the inauguration. I was asked to work at the Opening Ceremonies concert, so I attended one training session, then arrived on the mall at 10:00 a.m. on January 18. By that time, thousands of people had already arrived, and they continued to pour in the gate where I was stationed until it was closed by Secret Service at 1:00. Scores of baffled people stood outside the gate on 17th Street until they realized they weren't getting in and moved across the street to watch the three jumbo screens facing the Washington Monument (one of the best vantage points, I thought).

With no work to do, I wandered the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial and found a spot where I could sit, hear, and watch the concert on a giant screen. (There were more than 10,000 invited guests up front, so the other 290,000 of us basically watched the show on the screens.) 

You've probably seen the concert or excerpts by now, so I'll just say from within the crowd the highlights seemed to be Bob Marley's "One Love" sung by Sheryl Crow and Will.i.am with Herbie Hancock, Garth Brooks (really!!) getting the crowd dancing with "American Pie" and "Shout," and U2 performing "Pride (in the Name of Love)," their majestic ode to Martin Luther King. As with everything Obama, the choreography was great. For the most part, speakers like Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington,and Jack Black (what??) did a fine job reading about important moments in American history and presidential actions in times of crisis over well-edited video segments.

Despite an odd segment with a bald eagle, the show moved along quickly though some people got restless and started to trickle out about 1/2 way through. I was surprised that some even left during Obama's short speech, but I'm sure they had something really important they needed to take care of at that exact moment.

Suddenly, a volunteer team leader found me and I was called back to work, forcing me to miss the "This Land is Your Land" finale with Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce's "America the Beautiful." But thanks to the wonder of youtube, I feel like I was almost there.