So, the plane ticket to the inauguration of our noble president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama, costs around $800. If I spend it, I'll miss out on:
-Three days of work, unpaid.
-Either a Buenos Aires or Salvador da Bahia add-on to my end-of-the-year romp in Brazil.
-A trip to Cuba in February with some of my best friends from the States.
-New York for Spring Break.
-A new digital camera (the one I have now is very "first generation").
-A new iPod (well, an iPod, as I currently don't own one and this Discman is looking more and more like an 8-track player every day).
-Possibly Mexico in March with another one of my cool peeps.
Now, I know you're thinking that all these things couldn't possibly be worth $800, which is true when considering the individual price of each item. However, when taking into account the accrued interest, fees, and surcharges that go along with robbing Peter to pay Paul, the end amount spent becomes compounded.
If I do go, I'll be making a long-overdue and much-needed visit to Washington, where I lived as a sometime political operative before moving to Colombia. I'll be amongst virtually all of my very best friends in life (and get to see my undergrad university especially represented since our band, the world-famous Marching 100, has been invited to perform). And we'll be witnessing the one and only time that the first black president of the United States is sworn into office. I mean, I'm the history teacher for chrissakes...shouldn't I be there for this one and only history-making life-changing event?
I have to decide by next week.
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Note: If this post sounds strange and flighty to you, then you should know that I am indeed a sufferer of vagabond neurosis.
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9 comments:
take the Buenos Aires option...you won't regret it!!You have plenty of time to catch up with Obama...
you must really like crowds.
i had [still have, actually] the option to be there. flight on a buddy pass if i so desire.
however, everybody and their mother is going to be there, which is more than enough reason for me *not* to be.
were you in dc for the million man march? did you try to do *anything* in dc that involved being in the middle of town that day? hell, that entire weekend? [i was there. heh. i flew from south africa to make it there, too.]
remembering trying to maneuver dc at the MMM is more than reason enough to not see him up close and personal to get sworn in.
a very close second is, well, it's washington. in january. um, no.
i see your point, but tivo and the innertubes are your friends. you can watch it on a big screen and be warm or you can watch it on a big screen and be cold [you close do you physically think you will get?]
i'm not trying to sound like a naysayer or anything. it's just my inner agoraphobic weather wuss sounding things out.
Tough decision. I live only a few blocks from where all the action is going to happen and I seriously doubt I'll be able to see anything up close with the wave of people that are flooding this city. In addition, it is already FREEZING here so spending HOURS outside clinging to a space in the crowd does not sound like a party to me, historic moment and all.
That said, it definitely is going to be a moment of a lifetime!
Hey Fly-Bro....
I say GO! This is the most monumental global event happening this century. You must be there. Ok...you will be forgoing some leisure time and some cool electronics...all of these will ALWAYS be available...even if you do have to save (back) up for them. However, the event on Jan 20 in DC has been being saved-up for since our ancestors came to the Middle Passage. Take the $800 and get the tix before they get any higher. You will not regret it.
hmph - well, let me know what you decide - I'm curious.
I thought about going - but it's gonna be waaaay too crowded, right? Plus with all the TV coverage I can chill at home in the warmth and still see what's happening.
That's a hard decision but weighing all of the options, I think you'll regret not going to the innauguration. Buenos Aires, Salvador (all that laying around that you said was not for you) and Mexico aren't going anywhere. The Obama innauguration however, will. You will never get the opportunity to witness that history mr. history teacher, again. You'll also regret seeing your band and all your best friends in DC. It's like passing up the King March on Washington for a trip to Jamaica with your friends. My mother made the decision to go to the march instead of the trip with her friends and now she has a historic story that she tells her awe-struck kids and grand kids. Some how, a story about the adventures she had with her friends would'nt have left as much of an impression.
After living through so many such events big and small in DC myself, and 9 out of 10 events of great import to I ended up having to watch on TV in my DC apartment, I can just imagine how nuts this one is gonna be. I would say you'd better choose DC only if you have 5 other very important reasons to be there other than to fight the crowds everywhere you go (including the parties, the restaurants, the Metro, the cab stands, the corner Starbuck's etc).
Like, me and Vini went by Rockefeller Center last Wednesday with the idea we might see the lighting of the Christmas tree. We ended up trapped at a badly-organized police barrier at 6th and 48th and got trampled and crushed trying to get around it just to cross the street. I would have preferred to watch it on TV :)
The inauguration might be history making and life changing for you, but think about how it is to be appreciated best by you, as a black man and as a history teacher. And also remember that money doesn't grow on trees...
Thanks everybody for weighing-in. I think, in the end, the cost will determine whether or not I go. I'm not as interested in seeing him up close as I am in absorbing the energy of the crowd, the city, the country. I mean, to be in that space at that particular time...I can't imagine anything like it, at least not in the States. The cold wouldn't bother me, nor would the crowd. I just want to be recharged, re-energized, and most specifically, be around MY people again.
Just came across your blog, and am really enjoying it. At the very end, thanks to ou, I identified myself as a vagabond neurotic.
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