Life of Brian: Going to the Inauguration - Day 1

Check out this picture! No - I did not score tickets... read below for the story.

My day started at 5:00 AM with the shuttle pickup to Burbank airport. For those who know me and mornings, it was not pretty! I flew out of Burbank (great little airport) and the guy sitting next to me turned out to be a high level Obama coordinator for Nevada. His name is Ian and he had been involved in politics before going to the Iraq war, and when he came back, he was so inspired by Obama that he moved to Nevada for 6 months as a coordinator for a Nevada region. Ian is definitely a fascinating guy. I found out he had innauguration tickets as well as tickets to 3 balls! He was nice enough to let me drool over them and shared a picture he had taken (I asked if I could take a picture of them). If the resolution was higher and I had a color printer while in DC.... er, bad Brian! Just kidding of course (that is addressed to friends and any secret service reading this)! I was so engrossed in my conversation with Ian that I left my ipod on the plane (first drama of the day) but discovered my blunder in time to get it back fortunately.

Here I am in stop 1, Dallas before I am off to my next stop in wintry Columbus. The last leg of my flight changed airlines so I was very worried my checked bag and probably for good reason. I had to get my United ticket in Columbus and asked the agent about my bag transfer. She ended up making a series of online checks and calls to make sure my bag had made the transfer. The nice part is that its such a small airport, the agent called the baggage area and talked to an actual person she knew (try that in LAX!) and walked over to the American agent to ask her to call her people and make sure my bag was transferred. As we walked out onto the tarmac and I spotted our teeny little plane for the final leg to Washington, I got to experience the joy of 10 degrees in Columbus. So why did I move to California again... but I digress. Our flight was held on the ground for a late Chicago flight to drop off some customer. The innovative crew had them literally pull the plane up next to ours and let the folks directly disembark from the other plane right onto our flight. I sat next to a woman who had a 3 leg flight like mine originating in California to Chicago to Columbus to Dulles. Our insane flight paths led us to the same conclusion - apparently airlines are using all possible combinations to get people into DC once standard flights were sold out. In her case her daughter was a friend of the Obamas back in Chicago and that was her link in. I also met and very nice Republican couple ... they told me - it wasn't obvious... ;-) and their daughters breaking a few stereotypes but not only going to the Obama inauguration, but an HRC (gay rights) ball that night as well.

An hour later I was in Dulles - gratefully looking at my bag that had actually made the transfer (thank you un-named United lady from Columbus!). It was bustling and of course met another cool activist / participant in the festivities tomorrow enroute (you can meet a lot of cool people at this methinks)!

After a long and very hot SuperShuttle ride I was at Casa de "Ruth" (my friend's sister). Ruth is really going above and beyond and letting 9 people crash at her condo (she even bought some air matresses). Her graciousness has been amazing! Here is a small part of the gang (more coming Sunday):

OK - its now 1 AM somewhere...actually here and our Sunday plans are not finalized and could be an early attempt to get into the concerts I mentioned yesterday so after 4 hours of sleep I am going to bed! Bon soir!