Just Another Day in the Capital City - NOT

"Why are you actin' like you know where you're goin'?" was a wife's sassy remark to her husband this morning as thousands of completely lost but thoroughly determined travelers, like myself, tried to find their way to The National Mall to watch the inauguration.

And NONE of us knew where we were going. No matter how much we thought we did.

Volunteers in red beanies were our only beacons of hope, holding signs that said "Mall this way" - and they were surprisingly upbeat. But that was a recurring theme at the disgusting hour of 6:30 a.m. At the time I would regularly be grumpy and non-verbal, everyone was upbeat and excited - and it spilled over. There was so much energy in the air that I couldn't help but let the anticipation slowly melt away the fact that I had woken up far too early and not gotten any caffeine.

It was all worth it. Once the initial "grumps" were over, I realized I was experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity. So were hundreds of thousands of other people. But it became fun instead of dreaded.

I really blame the hot chocolate kid for making my grumpiness disappear. As my group and I were walking down Maryland Ave., we passed a young teen boy selling hot chocolate in front of his house. I was so highly impressed by this level of entrepreneurship and enterprise that this young guy had, I couldn't help but see hope for the future of the country. Apparently, that's all I needed.

Although, actually purchasing a cup of the hot chocolate might have helped even more.

But it turns out I didn't need too much help. Between trampling all the foliage in the greater DC area and trying to find a "Hello my fellow American, my name is..." nametag with Obama's face on it, I didn't have time to be grumpy or irritable. There was patriotism and a turning of the tide in the air!

I'm going to make the assumption that you watched the inauguration, or at least have seen a little bit about it. If you haven't, I would recommend getting on that ASAP. It was pretty cool.

There was even cooler stuff that went on in the crowds. Around 8 a.m., they played the video footage for the poor freezing people (like myself) from the concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial that happened on Sunday. This resulted in full crowd sing-a-longs to "Shout" by the Temptations and "American Pie." You haven't sung "American Pie" until you're belting it with hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans.

It was also extremely exciting to find myself smashed between people that were literally touching me in every direction possible. You can't get that experience while watching the inauguration in your living room. The lady behind me kept pulling my hair. I have no idea how this was happening - it just meant that she was way closer than she should have been in a normal circumstance. And if anyone in the middle ever needed to go to the bathroom, they fought their way out, parting people like they were parting the Red Sea. Not an easy task on either side, believe me. And it occurred only too often. I became very friendly with the people around me.

And these people were electrified! I heard a number thrown around that nearly 92 percent of Washington, D.C. voted for Barack Obama. That makes this one very happy city, and that doesn't even include the numbers of people who traveled from outside of Washington, D.C. to be there for this historic day. Everyone there genuinely wanted to be there and they were happy with what was happening. A little too happy, considering the amount of "boo"s that Bush got every time his face was on the Jumbotron.

But my favorite moment had to have been at the end of Rick Warren's absolutely beautiful and fitting prayer, when he began to say the Lord's Prayer. To my absolute shock and wonder, people all around me began to join in with his prayer, saying the words perfectly. I joined in myself. And we, representing the nation, lifted the Obama family up to the Lord in the way that we are supposed to pray - the way we were taught to pray. It was breathtaking. I hadn't expected so much religion and spirituality to be present among the people of this celebration.

So apparently, religion is still very relevant, wouldn't you say?