I haven’t even left cloud nine yet. That’s where I’ve been since last Tuesday, when I arrived in DC after a 90-minute metro ride (which should have been only about a 10 minute ride). I was blessed enough to not have gone back to school yet, and my best girlfriend Maggie and I were fortunate to have the day off from work. We spent the entire wonderful/overwhelming/spectacular/tear-jerking/historic day standing in a rather snug (and wind-free) crowd of millions of people in 27-degree weather. Our toes got almost completely frostbitten under three layers of socks, two pairs of pants, two long sleeve shirts, my dad’s old-school down vest, and a ski jacket. 

Anyway, after we barely escaped the fenced in area where we were literally trapped for an hour like cattle being herded, and the toes continued to freeze, we finally made it to Independence Avenue, where we walked all the way from the National Mall between the Capital and the Monument, around the Monument, past the WWII Memorial, along the reflecting pond, down to the Lincoln Memorial, and then finally up and down M street to Georgetown.

We then proceeded to get drunk at two in the afternoon. It took an hour and a half to get my cheeseburger, with no ketchup or tomato (they were all out in house) at McFadden’s. Not to mention the mob scene at one of the only metros that would let you get the heck out of DC, Foggy Bottom. At one point, we were about to walk across the Key Bridge into Virginia, where I live and could finally catch a ride home. But instead we decided to stay for five hours and watch the new love of my life—oops, I mean, the new President of the United States—parade around DC, and then took the metro later when it was less crowded, and we were a lot warmer.

All that aside, I was completely overwhelmed with joy and happiness, and that warm and fuzzy feeling you sometimes get. I’m still on the verge of tears, can’t wait to share this story with the kids.

-Katherine Neubert