Rihanna Finale

We next hit the Rihanna/RIAA party (where she performed amidst intermittent power failures), and then ended up at some random HRC(?) event at the local club (though we missed Cyndi Lauper's earlier performance--damn).

All in all, an amazing experience.
Happy Inauguration, everyone!

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West Ball

A grown up ball!!

We hit the West Ball, with a couple thousand of our closest friends to partake in the Obama glory.

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We Did It!

General revelry by the reflecting pool.

The highways were closed....so we could walk home. Here's Charlie as we turned onto his exit. :)

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More from the Inauguration

The crowd stretched behind us, way back to the Washington memorial.

But we got to do a little dance on the frozen reflecting pool!

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Inauguration

Absolutely incredible.

The area around the reflecting pool was fenced off, but it didn't take long for the crowd to spill forward, closer and closer to the capital building.

We made friends, shed some tears. It felt truly historic.

Surprised at how moved I was by the invocation. When he said bow your heads and pray...we all did. Somehow this was the most shattering. Blessing a new leader. This particular leader. The racial sybolism. Very powerful. Everyone around wishing for the brightest future.

The crowd was vocal! Cheering and whooping. (Everyone started singing "Na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye" when Bush appeared).
And there were some boos for Cheney, Bush and Lieberman (!). But for the most part everyone was very respectful and just thrilled to be there.

First pic is us waiving our ticket in the air amongst the throng of people.
Last pic: note the folks in the trees.... :)