Obama's Infiltration of DC

Obama has definitely made his presence known in the city. As if the witnessing the inauguration with 2 million enthusiastic people in Washington DC yesterday, watching the main roads get entirely closed off two nights ago when Coco and I were walking back from Whole Foods, and seeing his face everywhere on everything since arriving here were not enough confirmation for me, I have more.

Two of my roommates saw him in person during the parade yesterday! He got out of the car on Pennsylvania Avenue, and they were only 20 feet away from him at one point. I basically freaked out when I got the text from Danielle. As I talked to more people today, I found out that several others actually saw him yesterday too. I don't want want to sound like a celebrity-frenzied teenage girl by any means, but it's crazy to me that several friends saw his face yesterday when we are all so used to seeing him through the lens of a camera. He has got to be one of the most significant historical figures of our era ... and he was literally HERE last night!

I had wanted to go to bed early last night after a chaotic inauguration day, but I ended up working on transcribing interviews from yesterday and blogging later than I should have. I actually went to bed at 2 a.m., hours and hours after all my roommates, which was horrible considering my 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to go to a chili place -- that story will follow later. But anyways, I was still awake and typing on my laptop at midnight. I always hear sirens from nearby streets when I'm in the apartment. And the sirens here are really, really annoying. Their tone varies from vehicle to vehicle, and the worst ones sound like little, yippy dogs that could drive you insane -- no joke.

I heard sirens going on in the background while I was working last night, and I didn't pay attention until they got louder and louder and kept going. Finally I realized that there were multiple sirens going off on MY little street! Thinking that someone had been murdered, I ran to the window and look down to see the longest procession of police cars and security and protective vehicles that I have ever seen. The sound was deafening, and it took me a few minutes and the American flags on the black vehicles to realize what was going on ... the president and his security were driving down 8th street right in front of our apartments! I have never seen such a sight on such a tiny, primarily residential road!

I was pretty excited. And once again, I'm not trying to sound celebrity-stricken, but it really is crazy trying to comprehend that this man who is changing history, who I've read about and watched on the news for years, is HERE. It's absolutely amazing to me that so much of our nation's history occurs in this city where I'll be living until May. Oh, DC ...