history being made

11:15a

sitting in the dorm, tuned to cbs. waiting for the real stuff to start.

right now all the various important people are arriving. it's actually pretty boring.

i'm reading stories online. ces's is doing her housing application.

rather ordinary right now, if you ask me.

i can't help but think of the last time something monumental happened in my lifetime: 9/11, all the way back in 6th grade. i was in ms mcshane's english class, and there was an announcement over the pa that told teachers to turn on the news. and we watched the events unfold.

i remember later on in the day, in chorus. plenty of students had already been called home for whatever reason. and emily was trying to get in contact with her family because she had an uncle who worked in new york, or was on a plane, and i think her dad worked near the pentagon.

11:20a

george h w bush just came out with his wife. things are picking up!

11:21a

bill and hillary.

"i keep on forgetting he was here," ces says. and i just remember he was, and we went to that. and it was pretty awesome.

go history!

11:26a

obama's daughters are 7 and 10. if he serves a second term [which, you know, he totally will] they will spend their teenage years in the white house. amazing

11:31a

ces just left with jenny to go eat. but i'm not going anywhere.

jo pointed out that michelle's outfit is a gross mustard yellow. which it is.

obama is being sworn in on the lincoln bible, which i think is pretty appropriate.

11:35a

bush and cheney have emerged. cheney's in a wheelchair from straining some back muscles while moving. i find that oddly hilarious. since, you know, he's satan...

11:39a

biden, various important congress people...

11:43a

obama!!!!!!!!

11:44a

and so it begins...

11:53a

aretha franklin is singing "my country tis of thee."

11:57a

biden is being sworn in.

12:00p

apparently, at noon biden is officially the president because bush's term officially expired.

12:04p

HERE WE GOOOOOOOO!!!

12:06p

it's official: our first african-american president has been sworn in.

i took pictures of the tv...

he had some trouble talking, he was so nervous. it was... kind of adorable!

12:26p

what an awesome speech.

now that everything has calmed down...

news article

It was interesting walking to class last night. I was going down the same way I had 18 hours before, only this time I wasn't screaming my head off with excitement.

Basically, at midnight when everyone started projecting Obama as the winner, nearly every VCU freshman flooded out of the dorms and into the streets. I stood outside of Johnson taking it all in, texting, and screaming. I ended up across the street with Cesley, Laura, Tempest, Jenny, Anna, Angela, Nathan, and Kori. We were chanting and screaming and taking pictures and videos.

Probably around 12:30 the police showed up, but not in any violent way. They ended up shutting down Broad Street from Belvidere to Lombardy for our screaming peaceful rioting. They were just there to make sure we didn't do anything violent or dumb. And we really didn't.

Before long we were running down Laurel to Broad, and down Broad towards Lombardy. It was me, Cesley, Kori, Angela, and Tempest by this point. We were about in the front of the middle, and by the time we were just past the Seigal Center the front had turned around and was flooding back towards us. I have to say, it was pretty scary to have a couple hundred people running toward you. So we turned around and ran back with them.

We stopped in front of the entrance to Seigal and had a massive chanting-drumming-screaming party. According to the news, there were around 2,000 people out at the height. And we were part of it.

The group started to continue back the way we'd come, and there was talk of marching all the way to city hall. We were at the front of the group, and we were indecisive. We took some pics of the mob coming at us, slower this time, and continued when it had caught up to us. When we got to Laurel again, we weren't sure if we wanted to keep going to city hall or not. I was done, but I hung with them as they decided.

While they thought, the entire crowd passed us on their way to city hall. And the choice was made for us. We hung around, watched a guy climb the pole for the traffic lights, and finally made our way back to Johnson.

When we got back, we caught part of McCain's concession speech. I sent all my pictures to my email, since all I brought with me was my phone and ID.

Around 1:30 the crowd had made it back to where it started. We got some pictures out the window of the crowd, still going strong. And we went to bed at 2.

Apparently, once at city hall they attempted to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." And the party didn't stop till probably 5 or so.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG OBAMA WONNNNN!!!!!

And VCU went crazy! All of Johnson, Rhoads, and Brandt emptied as we all ran outside to celebrate. We ran down Laurel to Broad, went down Broad to almost Bowe St Deck, then turned around and ran back. We partied in front of Seigal before coming back. We were at the front, and they were gonna go all the way to the capital building. We couldn't decide, so we hung around at Laurel until we'd been passed by, then went back to Johnson. Now there's still a party going on outside from all those who went to the capital, and I don't think they'll be stopping anytime soon!



pictures:
top: jenny, angela, cesley: PROOF THEY WERE THERE!
second: angela, cesley: party at seigal center!
third: me! SO EXCITED!!
last: the crowd when it came back from city hall, from jenny & anna's window