Inauguration Countdown: Day Three

Three days before the inauguration.

We spent most of the day at the National Building Museum, the official location of the Commander-In -Chief's Official Inaugural Ball. We took a tour of the facility, which has been one of the primary locations for the Inaugural Ball since it was built in the 1800s as was the location of the Inaugural Ball of Grover Cleveland. I took tons of photographs even though tonight they were setting up for a Mayor's Association event. Although you usually can take photos the night before the ball, security is so tight the museum will be closed after tonight.

I finally found the Obama t-shirt I was looking for. At the event in Indiana, I saw a shirt with the red, white and blue drawing of him above the word "HOPE." I didn't buy it then because the vendor said it was up on the website. But when I checked, no such shirt. Today a vendor right outside the Metro was selling one. Now I have that t-shirt, an Obama bobble-head doll, a new Obama/Biden Inaugural sweat shirt and an inaugural wool hat. Guess that's enough Obama-memorabilia for one trip.

Inauguration Countdown

I arrived in Washington at about 6 p.m. on Thursday. Snow was falling lightly. I had phoned in a prescription earlier to my pharmacist, only to realize I wouldn't have time to pick it up. Darn.

The train was packed. The plan was I would stop at BWI to wait for my friend's plane to arrive. But the only available train got me there two hours before. So I decided to just head straight to the hotel instead. I was hungry and tired. Sitting for two hours at the airport just did not sound like the best way to spend two hours. When she arrived, I was sitting at Union Station, waiting for the Red line to take me to the hotel.

The trip to Washington was uneventful, really. I found a seat, sat down. I brought my computer, of course, but didn't feel like writing on the train. I also brought a host of DVDs with me and didn't want to watch them, either. Whomever was sitting in those seats before me left a pretty big mess...water bottles left in the seat compartment on the back of the chair where magazines should be. I've had this thing about public trash, a compulsion you might say. I was thoroughly grossed out, but decided to try to ignore it and focus on removing the lint from my wool coat.

Union Station was busy as it always is. I arr ivied around rush hour, so it was full of commuters. I called the hotel ahead of time to find out the Metro train to catch to get me to the hotel. Bought my metro ticket with the help of a busy commuter I let go ahead of me in line. Then I headed off to Woodley Park station to wait for the hotel shuttle.

Hotels should take note. If you have a shuttle, you should at least tell your guests what to look for when they're taking it. An unmarked black van was parked at the curb when I got there. So was a white one and a blue one. Neither of them had the name of my hotel on them. Since all three were down a flight of stairs and I had lots of luggage, I was not too keen on venturing down, only to find none of them were looking for me. So I stood in front of the station, as I was directed by the hotel, looking like a damsel in need of rescue by a hotel van.

Needless to say when I called back 20 minutes later, the hotel said the van had come and gone without seeing me there. And sure enough the van I was looking for was the black unmarked van I had seen earlier. I got to the hotel, had dinner and went back to my room.

I have to mention that when I checked in, I was so hungry and tired that I checked in, got my key, went up to my room and came back looking for the restaurant. It was only then that I realized there was a life-sized standee of Barack in the lobby. Life-sized! And standing right by where I checked in.

I walked over to the attendant to ask if it had been there when I checked in. He assured me that it was. Aye Carumba...

Dinner was great. Funny how a hamburger and onion rings hits the spot. After coming back to the room, my friend finally arrived...hungry and tired. Back to the restaurant again.

Tomorrow, I'll sit down and figure out what we're going to do in the days leading up to the inauguration. Another friend is picking up the tickets on Monday. Sounds to me like we're as far away from the Capitol Hill steps as you could get.

Bought an inaugural sweat shirt and hat. Now I need inaugural mittens, LOL.

More later...

President-elect Obama addresses U.S. economic crisis.

I found this latest announcement very encouraging:

Delaware's Joe Biden

Here's Joe Biden's new commercial ad....WONDERFUL!

The Indiana Diaries: Working with the Obama Campaign

Countdown to Election Day

Tuesday, October 28

The election is exactly one week away. Last night I finally saw an ad contradicting the smear ads now running on local television. FINALLY!!!! They were very well done and very effective....

The website http://taxcut.barackobama.com/ is online and it allows everyone to plug in their own personal information and see for themselves what their tax cut would be under the Obama plan. Very cool. Also http://stopthesmears.com/ helps dispell all the rumors. Luckily AOL also ran an article today that helped identify all of the lies currently flying around.


Monday, October 27

Very busy today. We had volunteers making calls all throughout the day. The guys left early to go to a training session in Muncie at 9 p.m. WHEW. It's a 30-minute drive and they have to be back in the office the next day.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

No heat this morning. But I really didn’t notice. I was checking my clothes for more creepy crawlers. Didn’t find any, thank goodness. We had a slow day at the campaign office. More calls and more volunteers to try to schedule to help get out the vote.

Saturday, October 25

Today was very busy. We had a number of volunteers come to the office for training on working the polls and on how to canvass. At noon we had a Early Vote party. I realized that all five of the people who attended were new volunteers contacted by me, either by the web listing I posted or through Rebecca. Two additional people came in to see Jake and we corralled them in to voting.

I hate to stereotype, but as I suspected, I had to do some last minute running around to really get us ready. The pulled pork sandwiches arrived sans rolls. We had no dessert or side dishes and utensils were scarce. I ran out and got potato salad, bowls and serving spoons. Julia, one of the democratic committee leaders here, got potato chips, ice and sodas.

Adam fired up his i-pod for music and we had a good turn-out. We got a new volunteer to phone bank, the son of one of Becky’s friends. I think it was the first time he voted, which was pretty cool.

The canvassing training was interesting. We had one girl who was pretty chatty. I asked her to pass out stickers to volunteers and she really grew in to that role. I was proud of her and our team.

Tonight I found a huge centipede in my room on the wall near the door. Needless to say, I slept on the couch most of the night, next to the living room light. I did go back into my room around 4 a.m., but I slept with the light on and on top of the covers. Why they created centipedes is beyond me. I wonder if it’s a sign that I need to move. I wonder if I brought the creature with me in my luggage, since I have been constantly fighting to get rid of them at home. EEEYOUUUUU!!!

Friday, October 24

Called in to John Watson’s talk show on WILM-AM today to promote the Drive for Change in Delaware. I wonder if it did any good????


Thursday, October 23, 2008

On Thursday we travelled to Indianapolis to hear Senator Obama address a crowd of approximately 35 thousand people. We left bright and early at 6 a.m. in the morning and got there around 7.

Although we had to stand for several hours straight, we were right in front and well positioned to hear him speak. It was encouraging to see so many different types of people there, Black, white, Hispanics of all races, Asian. His message was one of unity and cooperation, a far cry from the hateful, devisive tactics used by the other party in recent years. Here are some photos from the event:

Monday, October 20

My first day at the Anderson Field Office was awesome. They got me set up to make telephone calls to prospective.

Becky invited me to attend the NAACP debate of local candidates. More than a dozen people lined up on the stage to state their case for office. Interestingly enough, there was a live radio show that broadcast during the second hour. They stopped the debate for each commercial break to work around his schedule.

A group of us ate at Red Lobster and talked a little politics. Day two in Anderson, my first full work day mission accomplished.

Sunday, October 19

It took me two days to drive 10 hours, but I was glad I paced myself instead of trying to drive all of it in one fell swoop.

Google maps is pretty phenomenal. You can print pictures of key intersections for visual landmarks each step of the way. That’s pretty cool.

I rolled into Anderson, Indiana at around 4 p.m. and first stopped at a Big Lot’s to get a few supplies. I met my house-mate, Becky, and we seem to hit it off well. I think it’s going to be a great two weeks and a great experience over all.

We went out for a late nite dinner at Appleby’s. I had a shrimp and spinach salad. First night accomplished with a flourish.

Saturday, October 18

I've finally been deployed to help with the Barack Obama Campaign for Change. Destination: Anderson, Indiana. I'm "fired up and ready to go...."

I stopped overnight at a Holiday Inn near Wheeling, Ohio. Treated myself to a movie and laughed my way through Beverly Hills Chihuahua before going to bed early.