Hail to the Chef

Guess who I saw yesterday?  If the guessed The President of the United States you are right!  If you guessed The Vice President of the United States you get vegan brownie points.  If you guessed The Roots maybe you were there too.

In the beginning minutes of yesterday, a friend of mine told me that Obama, Biden, and The Roots were going to be in Germantown for a rally.  I was invited to come along and I was pretty excited!  I got up around noon and got dressed up in a black dress that I had only wore once before.  I considered wearing jeans and such but as I thought, "It's the President of the United States!" I just couldn't go in my street clothes.  I even wore my fancy stockings!  As I clipped my stockings to my garter belt standing in front of my Marilyn Monroe poster I smiled to myself thinking of her signature song.  I used to have normal stockings but once I got into Rocky Horror, my stockings from my preteen years and before just couldn't compare.

So, my friend Jared and I hit the road at around 12:30 and we got to our destination at around 1 pm.  As we walked up and down some streets looking for the right entrance, one of my garter clips unsnapped and my stocking was sliding down slightly.  I was annoyed but my dress was knee-length and I thought maybe no one would notice. After being turned away from one entrance for not having tickets, Jared and I walked up a ways.  There were some high school aged kids sitting on a stoop joking around and as I walked by one mischievously called out, "Your stocking is falling down."  Fantastic.

As Jared and I turned on to the street we would wait on for a few hours, we met Stan.  He lived close by and was our age.  He was going to the rally too so we all waited together.  Stan told us about his travels to Japan and his studies in French, Russian, and Japanese.  Jared and he swapped stories about McDonald's in Hawaii and Japan.  Stan asked me questions about my heritage and was jokingly exasperated about how far removed I am from my Japanese roots.

When we were let into the park where the rally was held, we were about 75 feet away from where the podium was and slightly closer to the stand where The Roots would play.  At the time, I could see things pretty clearly and my feet were feeling fine in my heels.  The three of us waited longer, with Jared sharing news updates he got from his iPhone.  There was a DJ playing music and a bunch of speakers that everyone was angry to hear from.  There was a Temple student, Governor Ed Rendell, Mayor Michael Nutter, Joe Sestak, and some other people.  Whenever someone was introduced, everyone got very rowdy.  Everyone would yell, "Where's Obama?!"  After standing through various speeches about getting everyone to go out and vote, The Roots were introduced.  I was excited to see them mostly because of their connection to Jimmy Fallon.  I liked the songs they played although I had never heard them before.  I had a pretty good view of stage, despite the fact that a bunch of jerks had pushed their way to the front.  After The Roots played, Joe Biden came out and everyone was excited to see him.  I had a worse view of the podium now but I was glad that I had worn my heels.  Stan helped me find holes in the crowd so I could see.  Joe Biden talked for a little and then he introduced our President.  Obama came out and the crowd lost their mind.  It was unbelievable. Through the crowd, I caught a glimpse of him.  I smiled at the sight of him.  I couldn't believe I was actually seeing him.

He talked about stuff.  About how we (the voters) had defied the odds two years ago and how we could do it again.  Something about how change starts from the bottom up.  I thought of veganism.  At one point, some people held about some signs saying "STOP GLOBAL AIDS: What happened to the 50 million you promised?!" and started shouting.  People behind them start shouting louder, "Put those signs down, we can't see!"  People on either side of them shouted, "Yes we can!  Yes we can!"  The signs and shouting went on for about a minute and the people put them down.  Not long after, a girl in front of me got up on the shoulders of her boyfriend.  This resulted in her butt being right in my face.  There was an older woman standing next to me who immediately complained, "Oh no!  You're butt is in right in my face!  Get your butt outta my face!  Your ass is hanging out of your pants and everything!"  I was cracking up!  Here I was, I had waited for 3 hours to see the president, he was talking in front of me, and I was looking right at this girl's butt.  I found the situation genuinely hilarious.    

After about 30 minutes or so, Obama wrapped up.  He shook the hands of everyone in the front before leaving.  I wasn't close enough to feel it was worthwhile to stick around.  On our walk back, we exchanged contact info with Stan because we had all talked about wanting to go to Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert's Rally.  So maybe we'll wait together again.

Later that night the Phillies and the Eagles won.  I guess that's pretty cool.           

Something else I have to share is I had some amazing vegan shrimp two weeks ago!  Two weeks!  And I cannot stop thinking about it!  If anyone wants to give it a try check out Kingdom of Vegetarians at 129 North 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.  Hail to the Chef!

On another note, I'm moving to New York City on the 23rd.  I'll give more details later when I haven't see Barack Obama the day before.