well. The weather was beautiful. It was a great turnout. We had a lovely time. But...

Yesterday morning we had a nice breakfast of bagels and cream cheese and chatting. Tom and I went to the grocery store and bought bread and meat and came back and made sandwiches. J. works at the Justice Dept. and therefore can park near the action, so she drove us down. We could see lots of people walking, some carrying chairs, many in costume, lots of signs. We joined the crowd (the 4 of us) and ended up in the midst of a standing room only massive number of people at 7th street. We could not see the jumbotrons or hear what was being said. We could not easily move in any direction. Eventually the sound was made louder and we heard Jon Stewart, Colbert, and many others, but we still couldn't see anything and couldn't always follow what was happening. Much of it was the silly pretend bickering that Jon and Steven do. There was Jusif (formerly known as Cat Stevens), Ozzy Osborne (I'm told) and the OJ's, singing Love Train. After about an hour and a half, we began to make our way out, having a desire to sit down and a touch of claustrophobia. It was not easy and we got separated, but we knew where we were meeting up, so it was not a problem.

We set up our chairs in the sculpture garden, ate our lunch and watched the people going by, admiring signs and costumes. Jocelyn had to go, to take her daughter to the airport to visit a friend at Smith, one the places she is applying for college. Tom decided to head to Reston to visit his brother and nephews. Ray and I wandered around the ages, occasionally catching a glimpse or a sound, but not getting into it again. We decided to visit the Museum of Natural History and stood in line there to have our bags checked. The guard found my nail file, which is over 3 inches and said I would have to give it up if I wanted to go in. I decided I didn't. We wandered around some more. We wanted a place to sit and have a snack and a drink, but downtown DC is not good for that. It has always annoyed me. You can buy things from vendors on the street, you can go into a museum and eat there, but no cafes or coffee shops or restaurants within walking distance of the mall.

We went into the Museum of American History, first secreting the offending nail file in a flower bed. We stood in line to get in, we stood in line a long time for the cafeteria, but eventually we sat down with a quite tasty cupcake to share and a hot chocolate and a root beer float--for $12. Everyone we saw was from the rally, some still in costume, some with signs, many talking about it. After a good break, we decided it was time to head to Vienna on the Metro. The crowds were still everywhere, gradually moving away from downtown DC. On the platform, we had just missed an orange line train, but we could see that it would have been impossible to fit on it anyway. After a while,  a Yellow train showed up. The announcer clearly repeated, Orange Line to Vienna, so we crowded on, not quite as close as on the mall, but standing room only. As we got further along and people got off, we were able to sit most of the way. The train was slow, with people trying to get on at every stop and a delay because someone in the previous train was sick and had to be taken off the train. I thought maybe she had claustrophobia.

When we got to Vienna and got off the train, later than we had thought, there was a crowd trying to get out, filing up the stairs and waiting to go through the turnstiles. It was another 20 minutes, I think, and then I began to get a bit claustrophobic...trapped in the subway station. The train behind us arrived and people streamed out, merging with us and all trying to get through the same four or five gates. An attendant opened a gate and we headed that way, but he wanted to take our tickets, which still had money on them, so we went back to the massive amount of people and did finally get through, even though one of the turnstiles apparently stopped working.

Paul met us and we drove a few minutes to his house. He told us that he usually rides his bike, about 17 miles, to work, unless it rains and he takes the train. He also teaches OWL--sex ed at the Unitarian Church in Fairfax! Ah, yes. We had a nice chili dinner with Paul, Maureen, and Linden, who is 15. She played the cello beautifully for us and they talked about their trip to Ireland in August, where they lost a day because their flight from DC was delayed enough that they would have missed the connection to Shannon in NY and so they went home and came back the next day, only to be sent to Laguardia instead of JFK, and then take a taxi with their luggage. Another harrowing story of air travel. The trip sounded lovely other than that and we admired the photos.

Paul drove us to Bethesda, something that would have made me quite hysterical--traffic, construction late at night. His mother lives in Bethesda, though, so he planned to stop by after he dropped us off--only another 20 minutes away. His new Prius is bluetooth enabled, so the phone rang, it showed on the screen who it was and we could all hear his mother talking. The stuff of sitcoms, but pretty handy.

We got home about 10 and watched a little Jon Stewart on TV, then went to bed and slept well.