| Random Trips - Inauguration 2001 |
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Like it or not (and I like it) Dubya is now our president. I spent the weekend of the
Inauguration down in Washington D.C. By checking out the buttons above, you can see this has been my
third trip down to DC for the festivities. This trip was the most interesting, mainly due to odd cast of
characters this time around. In addition to myself, I was there with Eric Johnson (my best bud), Trish & Mike Cardin
(Eric's sister and brother in law), Sarah (a fellow teacher of Mike's) and 18 wild and crazy Granby High School students.
Here is a few quick tidbits and pictures of what I saw.
Friday: Got to DC about 4 in the evening and checked into the hotel. The
rest of the gang was somewhere in the city and I hoped to catch up to them, or else it was an evening of barhopping
in Georgetown all by myself. I hopped onto the Metro and wound up running into Trish and Mike at the
American History museum. They were suprised to see me and invited me on a bus tour of the city that
evening and dinner at the Capital City Brewing Company. Naturally, I accepted. We met the rest of the
gang at Union Station and I was introduced to Sarah and the rest of the students. 18 teenagers!
They were more than a handful, ut all in all good kids. The trip was rather uneventful,
except that our trolley broke down. The real fun started when we all returned to the hotel.
After the kids went to bed all the adults and me went down to the bar to grab a drink and talk
about stuff. One thing I forgot to mention, Mike is a Democratic Representative to the CT House of
Representatives and Trish is also pretty liberal. They both were dealing with all the Republicans
running around the city in their Stetsons and boots very well, until we went into that bar.
Inside was a group of very, very drunk republicans, known as the Freeps (for FreeRepublic.com).
Just close your eyes and imagine this odd group of people. One man (in his 40's or 50's) in black
leather pants, black cowboy boots and a brown bomber jacket. An older lady in a red spaghetti
strap evening gown with combat boots and red socks. Some of the others were wearing T-Shirts eblazend
with Anti-Gore slogans and all were drinking shots of Tequila. As I stood there, talking to Sarah, a
dude in an Anti-IRS hat started talking to me. He had nothing to say, but would not go away. And
being the team player that she is, Sarah let me flail and didn't save me (hey, thanks kid).
Eventually he went away. Our next run in was with a stumbling drunk Indian gentleman who put his
arms around us and shouted 'F***ING CLINTON IS OUT OF THE F***ING WHITE HOUSE!' and then walked
to another group of people and yelled 'F***ING CLINTON IS OUT OF THE F***ING WHITE HOUSE!'.
This went on and on, and this was not the last we heard of this guy. Next someone tried to sell
Trish and Mike an Anti-Gore t-shirt. Trish looked horrified, but she wound up talking with the guy for
a little bit. His friend (the girl in the combat boots) got us all together for a picture,
and insisted on standing next to Sarah, because she was 'prutty'.
Poor Mike, if that picture gets out his career in the Democratic Party is over. Toward the end of
the night, the drunk Indian guy started to dance and sing (it was horrible to behold!)
All of us wondered what the heck he was singing and then it hit me... Who let the dog's out?
Woof Woof Woof Woof became: Who kicked the Gores out? BUSH! BUSH! BUSH! BUSH!
We had all about had it, and when people starting holding thier 3 middle fingers (looks like a W)
up and chanthing 'dubya', 'dubya', 'dubya' we had to call it a night.
Saturday: Not as exciting as the day before, but I did get to watch the new Prez get sworn in which
was cool. All of us got to the capitol at 9:30, Mike & gang had tickets to a VIP section and I was stuck with the common folk in
the standing room only section. While waiting the 2 1/2 hours in the cold and rain I struck up conversations with the people around
me. Unlike the night before, everyone here was pretty normal and in awe of what was going on. Of course, there were many Anti-Bush
protestors wandering around chanting and hollering. In the sea of people, two things really stood out: Stetsons and Texas flags. I
think that half the state came up to the capitol for the weekend. Once Bush finished speaking, we headed out a little colder and damper
and, in the case of Eric and I, a little happier. While on the Metro someone mentioned that God was crying because of a Bush
presidency, hence the rain. At that point Eric piped up, 'You are right, God is causing the rain but it because he is cleaning out
the filth from the Clinton presidency.' That evening we hit my old haunts in Georgetown and upon return to the hotel were very
disappointed to see that the Freeps were no where to be found.
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