Alexandra M. Svokos STAFF WRITER
View the inauguration sequel here.

It was a weekend of Priuses, fur coats, and chili burgers. Yes, it was a weekend of Barack Obama. Having been invited by a family friend and through some stroke of mad luck, I was able to go to the inauguration and events surrounding it with my mother and aunt – sorry, sisters!! We drove down on Saturday immediately following my fencing meet and arrived that evening. We were staying at a Marriott in the center of the city where all (subway) roads meet for that first night. If we wanted to stay for the subsequent nights, it would have cost $500 for Sunday, $800 for Monday, and $600 for Tuesday. So yeah that didn’t happen. Anyways, at the Marriott they had complimentary commemorative inauguration chocolates. I took five.

After checking in, we went to the metro station, Metro Center, and bought some passes which, incidentally, were commemorative inauguration passes with a glorious black and white photograph of Obama. I didn’t take five.

We wanted to buy these passes before the masses of people arrived and blocked everything in the metro system and it worked out very well. We took the metro to the Washington Convention Center. That night, there was a kick-off dance thing with DJ Cassidy. OMG DJ Cassidy he sounds like I…know him from somewhere? Is he famous? Kinda, he djs a lot of big events.

We get inside and it’s a nice-looking room with lots of starry lights and there’s some 70’s music playing.

Chips and guacamole delicious, but that’s base all the food. People are standing around, lots of drinks, some brave/potvaliant ones have jumped onto the dance floor and boogie. There’s a mix of people, mostly twentysomethings with some older. Apparently no one is certain what “party casual” means; some men wear suits, others sports jackets, some girls wear jeans and a blouse, others prom dresses. I went with jeans and felt infinitely cooler then this poor gaggle of girls in ridiculous dresses. My aunt, mother, and I were standing lamely to the side when I decided that we should dance. DJ Cassidy looked incredible bored and above it all, just throwing some clichéd disco songs at us.

But it was fun music, so we danced till the end – although overall I would have to give this event a big “LAME” stamp. Nevertheless, it was the first time my aunt danced in quite some time, so for her I’ll consider it a Big Night.

That was Saturday. Much more to come with Sunday, Monday, and of course Tuesday!<
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your senses have been lovingly popped.