Inaugural preparations

Friday afternoon Lucas and I headed over to Capitol Hill to physically pick up our inauguration tickets. Abel was on the Hill already so met us there. I'm so glad he did because those office buildings are like mazes and he knew exactly how to get to each office and through the tunnels between buildings. Another bonus was that we had an early dinner together (before he went back to work) which was a treat since he's been working so many late nights recently.

It ends up, dear readers, that we secured a grand total of 6 inaugural tickets. It was a true bounty. The first four, which we've known about since December, came courtesy of my sister having requested them from her San Diego Republican representative the day after the election. The last two were a huge surprise and came from my own congresswoman because of my political and community activism, along with early support for her campaign.

While I was incredibly grateful to have an abundance of tickets, it also left me in an extremely difficult situation. You see, everyone I know is desperately seeking one of these 240,000 tickets which give you entry to the closest viewing points of the inauguration. Back when we had just 4, we promised 2 to my aunt and uncle. After much deliberation and a good friend deciding the cold and crowds were too much, we gave the other 2 to my cousins so that whole family will be able to enjoy the inauguration together. Abel and I will be taking the slightly better tickets from our rep. If there's one thing this experience taught me, it's that I don't think I every really want to win the lottery because the decisions about who to give gifts/money to would just kill me.

So yesterday we headed out to one of those outdoors stores to purchase wool socks, hunter-type (but not camo) long underwear and hand warmers. I feel slightly prepared for the hours and hours of cold weather we'll be exposed to.

Then, last night at approximately 9pm, after finally securing a babysitter, we decided to attend an inaugural ball tonight! I can't believe how calmly I'm taking this spontaneous plan but I'm actually really looking forward to it. Abel already had the tickets through work and was planning to go solo (and mostly work/network there) but once we had the babysitter and he mentioned that Marc Anthony would be performing. Well, come on! Let's do it! I have a dress that will be fine. It's not floor length but I can't tell you how many black-tie events I've been to in this city where women have worn not-to-the-floor dresses.

So I've added a new item to my inaugural prep. checklist: get pedicure!