I live in D.C. Needless to say, like everywhere else, people are talking about the President Elect. But here we also talk about jobs and a real estate boomlet as the old administration leaves and the new one comes in. There's going to be quite a change here after January 20th, both in national / international policy, reversing some of Bush's mistakes, mending some international fences. But before all that begins D.C. has to have an inauguration, and the talk is, it's gonna be a blowout.

I've been watching the local news and apparently since election night Tuesday, most hotel rooms in the city have been snapped up. The hotels in the inner suburbs are close to being gone too. The only hotels available for someone who wants to attend this historic event are in the outer suburbs and Baltimore, and they are pay in advance, expensive, and non refundable.  

Some reports indicate that people are renting out their Capitol Hill townhouses for serious dough. I suspect that others will rent out rooms when the word really gets out. 

There's an article in the Detroit Free Press that interviews Crystal Smith, coming with a large crowd on several busses. Having no local hotels wasn't a bad thing, "because we can sleep on the bus. We can camp out on the buses, take blankets and leave the heat on, and we'll have bathrooms on the bus."

Besides the historic aspect of all this, Barack Obama's inauguration is really going to be fun. I will attend, just to say I went, but i suspect Barack will be the size of a molecule to me as far back in the crowd as I'm going to be. Hope the sound system is good.  I guess enjoy it now, the real work starts the next day, and there's a lot to do.