Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

One of the prominent features of many pickups and SUVs in the Philadelphia area are these huge Eagles stickers that people place in their back window. They are pretty cool and Charlton loves them. The funny part is he insists they are Condors and not Eagles. We try to tell him they are Eagles and that the football team is named Eagles but he will not hear of it. The other night Rob and I had tix to see a preseason Eagles game. I told Charlton that a babysitter was coming and that mom & dad were going out for a date. Of course he asked to come but I told him that it was just for mom & dad. He then asked if we were going to an adult movie. He always talks about movies as adult or kid movies because we once used that phrase with him. Its okay if he uses them together in contrast but he never does and it always sounds like we're into porn films. Anyway, getting back to the Eagles story, I told him that we were going to see an Eagles football game. He just stared at me with a quizzical look on his face so I repeated it. The stare continued. Finally I told him we were going to watch the Condors play. Ohhh, he says. Now he understood. So around here its not the Eagles who are flying, its the Condors. Go Condors!

The Inauguration. Here's how it went down. On Sunday night, January 18, 2009 we were enjoying a great evening at the Montgomery's. During the visit, our good friend (and even better friend now!) Amanda Hucklebuckle called to let Kay know she wasn't going to be able to use her tickets to the inauguration. This was an excruciatingly painful call for Amanda because she had schemed for months to secure these tickets. She offered them to Kay and I. We were stoked! I didn't even have to make arrangements with Rob to watch Charlton. He was so happy for me he just said, GO! You have to GO! You can't pass this up.

So we took off the next morning about 10:00. The ride down was exciting, just talking about the inauguration and politics. Kay is one of my very few lds friends who actually leans left and its nice to have someone to talk politics with whom I feel completely at ease being myself. This is likely insecurity on my part that hit its height during the summer of 1999 when I lived in DC and clerked in the White House. For the two fast Sundays I was there at least three people (two of them my good friends) stood up and basically bore their testimonies about how my boss was the devil and the Constitution was hanging by a thread and that our country was going to hell because of him. It was a really uplifting and faith promoting experience to say the least. I do realize it was 10 years ago so I should probably be over it by now but obviously I'm not yet that mature.

Anyway, we had to get downtown to the office of the Senator who was providing our tickets by 4:00pm. We weren't taking any chances on the roads or traffic, as we knew that many of the roads into the District would be closing at 4 so we thought we would park at a Metro stop and ride the train in. OH MY GOSH! Bad bad idea! By the time we were able to park and get to the train it was 3:00pm and the line had to have at least 1,000 people in it trying to by tickets for the next day. It was unbelievable and I wish I would have taken a picture. We waited about 1/2 before deciding to risk driving into the city. It turned out to be no risk at all. The media did a good job of scaring everyone away from driving because as we drove down 66 into the city there was NO ONE on the roads. There were not even a few cars here or there, we went through stretches where we did not see one car. It was actually kind of spooky but I didn't have too much time to be spooked because I was driving as fast as possible without risking our lives too greatly. We drove right up to the Senate Office Bldgs and Kay ran in to get the tickets. It was nearing 4 and we were really afraid we would miss our chance. I waited in the car. I was so nervous and excited. Finally, after I had convinced myself we had missed the cutoff, I saw Kay coming down the street looking for me with a big white envelope in her hand. I jumped out of the car and she started running down the street waving the tickets in the air screaming "we got 'em, we got 'em". We ran to each other and hugged and jumped up and down. It was really beyond silly and we were laughing so hard. Everyone on the streets starting clapping for us. Its was so funny. When we got in the car and opened the envelope, there was a beautiful invitation and 3! purple tickets. Now let me tell you, the purple tickets were the best tickets that regular people could get. We couldn't believe it, we thought at the best we would have silver but they were purple. And there was an extra. We called our friend John who was coming down with a group of UPenn law students on a big bus the school provided. They were going to be in the standing section way in the back so we told John if he could meet up with us the next morning he could have it. He was so happy.

After we got the tickets, we drove down to Alexandria to Misty's house where we were staying. Misty was one of my roommates in Boston. We dropped our stuff off and then decided to go back into the District to see what was happening. Misty lives close to the Metro so we walked over, bought our tickets for the next day and headed downtown. It was really fun. There was just electricity in the air. Everybody so happy and excited. Thousands and thousands of people all laughing and joking and friendly. The friendliness was what struck me. Usually big events like this are filled with lots of excitement but also with a lot drunk people and those busy doing their own thing. Not like that here. Everyone was talking with everyone. We stopped to eat at a restaurant and folks at the table next to us started up a conversation. They had come from the Carolinas and one from California. They were very jealous of our purple tickets. We told them we had purple tickets and like every head in the place turned around. They were saying, "You have purple tickets! Who do you know???" I was actually glad that we had left them at Misty's because I was afraid these friendly people were going to jump us. Eventually the whole restaurant was talking to each other, all the tables talking to the tables next to them. It was something you don't see everyday. We walked down to the Mall and saw Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly filming. The monuments, White House and Capitol were all so beautiful lit up at night. Although it was freezing cold we stayed out for several hours before heading back around 9:30. We tried to go to bed early, as we had an early start the next day. I had the hardest time falling asleep though, as I always do when I'm excited and last looked at the clock around 1. We woke up the next morning around 4:30 and were dressed and on the Metro by 5:30. What happened next was unbelievable. But I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow because I'm burning myself out with all this typing. Stay tuned, I promise it will be worth it!

Kay and me outside of Misty's

The Purple Tickets

Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Charlton's 3!

Fly Condors Fly

Obedience

Sunday, August 9, 2009

One more thing

Paul & Lisa's Wedding

The Inauguration - Part I

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Why wasn't my music teacher this cool

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