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Sanity/Fear Rally Was Insane!

Sanity/Fear Rally Was Insane! published on

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I thought I was so smart. I had it all planned out. Booked the hotel a month in advance. We would drive to MD early Saturday morning, leave the car at the hotel and take the metro into DC.

I overlooked one thing. Everyone had the same plan.

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When we arrived at the Silver Spring metro station, there was a line down the block. Ok, it’s just a ticket fiasco. We’re New Yorkers. We can navigate this line and get to the platform. (*Note to any budding DC entrepreneurs: Scalp metro tickets during huge events.) BTW, we did do a good job getting to the fastest line.

Platform was mobbed. After letting 2-3 trains pass with no chance of getting on, the husband had a great idea. “Let’s go the opposite direction!” shouted he, for all to hear. Whether everyone took his advice or copped on for themselves was never determined. We barely managed to get on the train to take it back to the first stop. Lucky for us, they didn’t make us get off before heading back to DC, because the train was completely full.

We were on our way! By now, we knew we were going to miss the National Anthem (I was sure Bruce Springsteen was going to perform that) and sadly, Father Guido. The “kids” on the train weren’t too disappointed with that as they had never heard of him. Ugh, youth.

Luckily, one of those little smarty pants was able to stream the rally live on his non-iPhone PDA, so we caught a bit of what we were missing.

Yada, yada…we get there about 2 hours late. Had to stop at the Smithsonian to pee, find a way in.

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Can’t see or hear a darn thing.

Well, what did we expect?

One thing I did manage to hear from a mile away was Tony Bennett. I can now cross that off my bucket list. Seeing (or hearing) Tony Bennett live.

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Anyway, it was pretty awesome to be there! Lots of fun. Great experience. Really effin tiring walking around the city afterward trying to find a place to sit and have a drink or food. The lines were out the door at EVERY. SINGLE. PLACE. If the city was so overrun by this rally, I can’t imagine what the inauguration was like.

The next morning, I was chatting with a woman at Starbucks. A young, black, well educated woman who informed me she was a tea party conservative.

I didn’t even ask her WTF?  It was all very civil.

Perhaps a bit of sanity was restored.

(PS: I also believe she was a plant. An actress. But that’s just my theory because I can’t believe…..you know.)

More photos on Flickr.

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Rally for Sanity and Fear:DC Info

Rally for Sanity and Fear:DC Info published on

Rally to restore sanity

Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert take Washington on October 30th and FYI, hotels are starting to book up already.

Any time I’ve visited DC in the past, I didn’t have to worry about finding my own way. It was all school trips or staying with friends and family.  Yesterday, I spent waaay too much time figuring out where to stay for a single night. When I finally narrowed it down, the places I liked didn’t have vacancies.

I’ll pass on the few tidbits of information I came across.

It was originally announced that the rally was being held 8am-5pm. Now both sites say 12pm-3pm which makes more sense. There is still some confusion and I hope I’m not wrong because it’s a matter of going down the night before or the morning of.

Getting there. Amtrak is about $100 round trip. There are many bus companies leaving from NYC (and everywhere!) but that’s more hit or miss. Best thing to do is check Yelp. Apparently, some of those Chinatown buses are kind of gross, although some of these people may just be whiners.

There’s a carpool group on the Rally Facebook page.

There’s also a separate information page set up on FB for the rally. This has transportation and lodging links.

The Colbert Forum has some good Fear March info, including transportation.

Washingtonian and their “Best of” is really informative when it comes to getting a feel for the different neighborhoods. My original thought was that I wanted to stay within walking distance of the rally, but now I know that the Metro is King. Anywhere within walking distance to the train is golden, whether it be DC, MD or VA. Tip: According to Washingtonian, Silver Springs has lots of vintage shops and ethnic restaurants.

Lodging. Apart from the usual places to book hotels (Orbitz, Side Step, Hotels.com), don’t forget about vacation rentals and B&B’s. AirB&B lists people willing to share rooms or their entire apartments. And don’t forget Craigslist! If all else fails, people are willing to give up their bed or couch to earn a quick buck.

Now it’s your turn. If you’ve got any info…spill it!

Reclaim the Dream

Reclaim the Dream published on

August 28th marks the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. I’m sure you’ve heard about Glenn Beck’s (aka Howard Beale) rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I won’t even dignify that by going on a rant, but I do have a couple of side notes. 1. Money is being collected “for the troops”, but the fine print states that it’s only the money left over AFTER the event has been paid for. 2. Um, I think God told him to do this and may make an appearance. Something along those lines. Let us all pray for The Rapture this Saturday.

A couple of anti-hate rallies:

Al Sharpton’s National Action Network is holding their own rally tomorrow to commemorate the King speech. No need to drive to D.C. Bus service is available and listed on their site.

Celebrate the Dream is holding a ceremony on the National Mall to dedicate a 4 story high people’s memorial to Dr. King.

If you can’t make it to Washington this weekend, please feel free to share the video of the speech on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere you can think of. Spread the love. Not the hate.

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