Thanks to a wonderful facebook app that allows you to upload photos very quickly and easily from iphoto, I am able to share the best of the graduation pictures the same day they arrive!

It was a wonderful week, and I think everyone really had a lot of fun, both at the parties and at the ceremonies!

Graduation Photos!

Anne has told me this is way overdue. I agree--I've actually had it drafted for a while, but there's a lot here! And since I discovered the iPhoto upload, I thought I'd go ahead and get this done. Plus, it's so much more fun than studying elements of criminal charges! :)

All pictures are here.

Pardon the long (and extremely delayed) entry, but I wanted ample space and time to truly process what happened that weekend (and then I just got busy and forgot). It was absolutely awesome--in the true sense of the word--and on some level I still can't believe that it happened. To help with the length, I'm putting quite a bit behind cuts, so as not to take up all of your friends page!

First, a bit of housekeeping. For those of you not familiar with the layout of DC, here's a brief summary.

( Getting Around DC )

Things started off on Sunday, with the concert at the Lincoln Memorial. I had to be at church in the morning for the service and for a short while at the post-service congregational meeting, but I was still able to get over to the site by 12:30 or so. I was with a group of other young adults from church, and we were all very excited to be there.

I loved being at the concert. We were pretty far away (on the other side of the WWII Memorial), because going up closer would require going through the long security line (with no guarantee of making it through security), and we still would have been very far away from a jumbotron. So we stopped where we could watch the big screen and at least pretend that we could see the stage. Of course, the huge bank of cameras kept us from actually seeing anything on the lower portion of the steps, but whatever.

On Monday, I went downtown for several purposes. The Michigan Congressional delegation was hosting an open house, and I wanted to go say "Congratulations" in person to Mark Schauer. I worked for Rep. Schauer when he was in the MI state senate, and I think it's completely great that he's now here in DC. Of course, the Metro was PACKED, and there were long lines everywhere, but I was able to get in and see him--and some others connected with him.

Then I met my aunt, and we wandered around the east front of the Capitol, reaching the west front in time to witness the practice of the quartet that performed at the ceremony. I could see Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman! There were also a lot of people wandering the Mall, scoping it out for the next day, I guess. We had lunch, and then walked down to the American History Museum, collecting some free souvenir buttons along the way. We checked out the bottom floor of the museum for a bit before heading back to our respective "homes."

Finally, it was Inauguration Day!!!! I got up at 5 am and left by 5:45, getting to the Mall shortly after 6. By then, the crowds were already crazy, and in many spots you were moving forward, not really pushed, but still moved along by the crowd. I managed to get in at 9th St., and worked my way down until I was stopped by the barricading of 7th St. If I had been there just a few minutes earlier, I would have been able to cross 7th and therefore gotten even closer, but oh, well.

The crowd was incredible. I was in a spot where, for the most part, I could see a big screen and even see the Capitol. Plus, with all the people, I was the protected penguin in the middle of the huddle, screened from the wind. There were cheers, singing, and boos (for GW Bush and Cheney), and you just had this sense of being in something HUGE. Of course, by the time noon rolled around, my lower back was in serious pain, and it was becoming more of an endurance event than a real celebration.

Until the Obamas came out. That's when the excitement kicked in, and all discomfort was gone. The crowd talked through just about everything (including the musical performance), until the oaths started. Then, no one was talking. AT ALL. Of course there was cheering during the speech, but no one around me moved while he was speaking. There were some incredibly rude people who started to leave just after the oath of office and then stopped when he started speaking--in my way--but the majority of people were frozen (not from the cold) in place until after the address.

I didn't take many pictures during the ceremony, because they wouldn't have really done anything to capture the moment. So I just took it all in, and have the official photos and my memories to cherish.

After the ceremony, I went home, changed out of the gazillion layers of clothes I was wearing, got some food, and declared I was not moving from the couch for anything short of an emergency. So I stayed warm and napped until the parade (which I watched on TV)!