Breakfast with Harriet and Ted .... The King and Queen of Hospitality...Ted informs us it is 12°F but it will warm up.... Full Page ad in the Washington Post today about the Sunday Obama welcomes you to the Capital.... and the time ...finally we know it begins at 2:30 and a huge list of folks who will be coming for this historic event..... 2:30 means getting to the Mall, very very early on Sunday and knowing it will be cold cold cold....
Metro into Union Station walk to the Supreme Court.... cold, cold... windy cheeks burning..... 2 scarfs don’t seem to h
elp....11AM Supreme Court.....empty steps, empty area below the steps... no one there except a couple and I overhear what sounds like Italian. I ask in Italian if he is Italian.... He is!!.. oh my!!.. We chat briefly he shows me his cell phone.... A picture of Obama with an all caps THANK YOU under it.... and then we all take the tour of Supreme Ct chambers with perhaps 15-20 folks... John Marshall... Marbury Case .... made the Supreme Ct what it is.. .the true 3rd branch of the govt/ After the tour we get in conversation with the Italians again... Ugo and MariElena...... they have come all the way from Turino, Italy to be part of the historical and hopefilled inauguration of Barack Obama... Ugo has been a believer since before the first Iowa caucus....MariElena tells me later that he is the dreamer ....she the practical one (Barack is black ... and can not get elected, she thought....but she gladly paid off the lost bet about the election) ... and now they are here... .
Ugo and MariElena come with us to the Capital... we get on an earlier tour and they are able to come with us. They are loving it... we are loving it.. we finish the tour and it seems as tho the Senate is in session, Mark, our tour guide says we just need to get a pass from our Senator so we bundle up and go across the street to the Dirksen Senate Office Bldg and get to Barbara Boxer’s office and get 5 passes. They are beautiful and we trudge back to the Capitol just in time to find out that the Senate is no longer in session.. What !!..
So we are told that perhaps the House is in session.. we walk along toward the house but have no desire to bundle up again to go a much longer distance to the Rayburn House Office Bldg to get persmission slips from Barbara Lee’s office, so I go up to a red coated Capitol employee and explain that we have just gone to get Senate passes only to find out that the Senate is no longer in session.... can we use these to go into the House.They pull some House passes out of their pockets and say how many do you need?? So now we can go in to the House which is actually not in session anymore today anyway .... but they will allow you to come in to see. Ugo says that he and MariElena have never been to the Parliament in Rome so its fascinating to be going into the US House of Representatives. He has seen it on CNN many times and then talks about seeing the steps to the Capitol in many movies.. especially in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911.. and the scene when Michael is asking House Representatives if they would allow their child to go to Iraq.... and none will speak to him. He also informs me that In Italy they have 300 Senators and 600 Representatives ( or there abouts) and that they just seem to argue among themseves and get nothing done.
We leave the Capitol and decide to go for some coffee... we find out that the coffee shop in the Capitol is overpriced and not very good from the gal behind the electronics check in/pickup place.... and she suggests Pennsylvania Avenue.. which we do... it is cold and windy but blue sky and gorgeous naked tree limbs against a late afternoon Washington DC skyline...... we are all feeling so very good about the serendipity of our day... chance meetings.... dreams coming true.... Everyone, from security folks, Metro workers, tour guides .... all exude happiness, helpfulness big smiles.
We exchange phone numbers and arrange to talk again tmr.... and get together again over the next few days....We meet at Levante in Bethesda Md for dinner with Ted and Harriet... a fabulous Turkish meal and again we are falling in bed full and exhausted and exhilerated...
I am currently sitting on Sat AM in Union Station at a wifi coffee shop. Eric Ross, an Oakland teacher has just called, Ugo the Italian has called and we have met an English couple from London who are here for the events that Beth was just speaking with. Everyone so happy, helpful, and still it feels calm and manageable.....
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