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Sparkle (3)
I didn't want to go this morning. I woke up late after having this dream about wanting to take home a vomiting cyclops guinea pig from a pet fair held at the local middle school, which had been redone to look like a mall. The cyclops guinea pig had seen me walking below (his cage was high up near the ceiling), and he had taken a running leap out of his cage to land in my arms. I was cradling him on his back so I could see when he was about to throw up and lovingly tipping him towards the ground so the vomit landed away from us. Seriously, how could you get out of bed and shlep yourself down to a rally after having a dream like that?
But, of course, I hauled myself out of bed, showered, packed up my reasonable sign, and explained to the twins why we were shlepping down to the rally -- and in explaining it to them, it sort of became clear to me and was the fuel I needed to get in the car and stand on the chilly Mall with other people desiring the same thing.
Because reasonableness is like that cyclops guinea pig, and it needs me to love it and cradle it just as much as my vomiting pet.
Or something like that.
On the way to the rally
Turning onto the Mall
Hey, I found Lindsay in that sea of 200,000+ people
*******
The crowds began around Kalorama Heights. Anyone familiar with Kalorama Heights knows that it is nowhere -- NOWHERE -- near the Mall. It would probably be over an hour and a half walk for someone with legs as short as mine. But the sea of people began in fits and starts in upper northwest, and continued in fits and starts all the way down to the Capitol. We had a brilliant plan to park the car at Josh's office, walk to the Metro, take it a few stops to Chinatown, get off and walk a few blocks to the Mall -- perfect. Except that the Metros were so packed out in Silver Spring -- as in, suburban Maryland -- that people were waiting in long lines just to enter the stations, much less ride the trains. We gave up this idea when we saw the Dupont Metro.
So we walked. With the rest of the costume-and-sign-holding crowd. And there was something exciting about walking through this city that I love with this person that I love going to a rally that is proposing an idea that I love.
I had so many people on the sign that I needed to also use the green back...
Thank you to everyone who came with me in spirit.
The crowd around us. The Mall was so packed that it was difficult to move around.
*******
On any day of the week, there is a rally in D.C. and the participants dress up to make their point, since rallies are sort of like D.C.'s version of a theater scene (hey! D.C. has a vibrant theater scene!). Therefore, on any day in D.C., it is possible to find something like a woman dressed as Fidel Castro in knee-high boots wearing an enormous diaper. This is not something that would make me slow down or think twice (well, okay, I do have to admit that I've contemplated why Fidel Castro would be wearing an enormous diaper or knee-high dominatrix-like boots).
But because the rally was a day before Halloween, it was impossible to know what was a Halloween costume of someone who happened to be walking in the direction of the Mall and what was a rally costume. And did it really matter?
The costumes
