Exhaustion has hit

More about the adventures of my day. The energy was electrifying as I stood in line for entrance. I honestly have NEVER seen so many people in one area. It was very overwhelming... when there are people lined up in every direction as far as you can see and it's not even 30 degrees outside, you know that you're a part of something huge. The whole city was literally buzzing with anticipation. I headed out at about 7:30 a.m. to the spot where I was supposed to enter the inaugural site. Turns out, the so-called press passes Anita and I got were not only for the press (oh, the deception); hundreds of other people were going through the same entrance as we were. You could just give up on the concept of personal space. We stood in line in the same spot for literally an hour, then moved inch by inch by inch. I did meet a woman here from Africa for the ceremony though. She made me realize that as big of a celebration as we're making this inauguration here, in her country it's even bigger.

"This marks a new time for my people as well," she told me. "The Americans have given my country hope by electing Barack. It is like a dream to us."

There were absolutely no police officers directing my group where to go, and 30 minutes before the ceremony was to start, we all discovered we'd been in the wrong place ALL morning, and that now it was too late to get in line. And they'd closed the Mall so we couldn't go there. Though I must point out that in the beginning of the whole process, we were all told that we were in the right spot. By this point I couldn't feel my face, my fingers, or my toes. For a brief moment I seriously thought I might have frostbite.

So for awhile, I didn't think I was going to get in to the ceremony. The crowds went absolutely insane. I went into panic mode. I didn't know where Ashley and Anita were, so all of these terrifying thoughts were running through my head about having to run an AP story about the inauguration because none of us could hear, or our fingers being too frozen to write, or the crowds rushing the stage at the Capitol in anger and getting trampled. I thought the people who just camped out on the Mall and had no tickets at all were going to be able to have a better view than me. The irony of the situation was almost enough to make me laugh. Then I remembered the 3 hours I stood in line.

But I ended up being able to go in, thanks to a merciful security guard. Obama is just as eloquent in person as is on TV. It absolutely blows me away. I thought about my new friend from Africa while I listened and knew that while we were separated by continents, this experience would bond us together for a lifetime. A thousand emotions were present, floating around us, within all of us. And as we stood there, half-frozen, on the lawn of the Capitol, we became a part of history.

--Sommer