Brown Bettie Beautifully
Our Brown Bettie Keena Ferguson traveled to President Obama’s Inauguration in Washington, DC and kept a small diary. Here is Day 2 of her travels with boyfriend, Ajamu:

Day 2:
We had a few hours of sleep and were up early to have a little breakfast and we were off on the subway to pick up our tickets from the Senator’s office. The subway ride was quick and easy and I assumed it would take us all of 15min to pick up our tickets because it was the day before the election. Clearly everyone else was early and prepared and already picked up their tickets. Well, we walked up and there were hundreds of people in different lines around the building. I couldn’t believe it…why weren’t these people prepared and early?! I thought I was the only one waiting ‘til the last minute. Needless to say, there was no charm that could work to get me in front of the line so we waited, but still in good spirits because what…we were picking up tickets for the Inauguration! So we waited and met some nice people in line…get this a Black couple from North Dakota. Wow I didn’t really know there were Black people there, (I mean I did but only a handful) anywhoo, they were originally from Chicago but moved to N Dakota and they had 3 kids. They said they both received full scholarships to get their BA and their Masters because they are trying to promote diversity. They confirmed that there aren’t many of “us” there and that this cold DC weather was nothing for them because it has been -60 degrees there. “Are you freaking kidding me?” I said; negative 60 what in the world, how do they ever survive? Ok I digressed…so after a 45 min wait we finally got in and went to our Senator’s office and picked up our tickets and we were on our way. With tickets in hand we went to a great dinner and then headed home to prepare for the ball with Stevie Wonder performing. My girl Kwanda got us the hookup on this ball and so we decided to drive into the city instead of taking the train. (We were staying in MD) We got there and it was fabulous. It was open bar, free hors d oeuvres, and a performance by Stevie Wonder and another set by his band. We had a wonderful time and the energy of hope and inspiration was in the air of what was to come the next day. Just to give you an idea of how many people were in DC from all over I ran into a good friend of the family’s from Jefferson City, MO. I mean everyone was there in DC with a great attitude and a sense of, “it’s a new day.” Once it was time to leave we got back to the house but on the way back we passed the metro station and there were already cars lined up trying to get in for people to head downtown. “Oh my gosh!” I was thinking we are going home to go to sleep and these people are already going to stand in line for the ceremony. We slept for an hour and got up at 4:30am to head downtown.