Written by:
Demetria Daniels

P: 212-332-9991

718-885-6576 A chatty, informative column of New York events featuring places, people and personalities and celebrities. demetriadaniels@gmail.com

 
I went to the INAUGURATION and it was truly fantastic. Not having made any reservations I wound up having an exciting time. First, in the elevator at my hotel someone asked if I was going to see the searing-in ceremony. I said I didn't have a ticket and I was with two other people. Well, Celia C. Ramos, Administrator of the Burlington School, Inc. from Los Angeles said, " well here are three tickets to get in. Wow, what a surprise. I got my friends and we walked over a few blocks to the yellow entrance. Getting in was a wait but once on the lawn we were right in front of the Capital and the ceremony was just beginning. After the swearing-in of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, under a sunny sky, the President spoke. A few of my favorite lines were "no one is fit to be a master and no one is deserves to be a slave" and ' the fire of freedom will erase the darkness of the world". He spoke too of the expansion of freedom which will create peace and if countries stand for liberty, we (the USA ) will stand for peace.
On to the parade route where again by accident we wound up in the guest bleachers watching the parade go by. LAURA BUSH , looking beautiful in white,and PRESIDENT BUSH waved to the crowd. The Crawford high-school band marched and played and Wyoming paraded by. It was getting too cold for me so we went back to the National Press Club, where we met some wonderful people like the past President, John P. Cosgrove, and the very helpful evening manager Joshua R. Funk.
The night before, we attended the Illinois ball which had taken over the entire Grand Hyatt with two dance floors, a riverboat room, a 50-s room, my favorite where we danced the night away and drank root beer floats. Gerry Frank and Jeanne Jacob co-chaired this marvelous event and pointed out to me that Abraham Lincoln was from Illinois.
I also made it to the Constitution Hall Ball where SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZA RICE was in attendance. A rock band was playing and they were serving my favorite Greek dessert -baclava.


posted by Demetria at 1:18 PM