I can’t believe it’s been a year…
October 17, 2005, 3:43 AM
I can’t believe it’s been a year, but it has. Right now, one year ago at the time of this writing, I was just leaving the house to head to Washington DC to attend the Million Worker March. That was quite a day. I met Jess for the first time at the Million Worker March. I also consider it the moment that I became part of the DC activist crowd, because it was at the Million Worker March that I first met a number of people that I later got to know more extensively at other protests and at the Infoshop. Speaking of which, this was also the first time I’d ever been to the Infoshop. Jess introduced me to the Infoshop for the first time after the Million Worker March.
I just can’t get over that it’s been a year, though. That was also the only protest I’ve been to where something didn’t go wrong either on the way up or back. Since on the drive to or from protests, I usually have something weird happen to me. My very first protest, on April 12, 2003, I got a speeding ticket on the way up. June 5, 2004, I soaked the undercarriage of my car on the exit ramp for Vienna, which caused the car to strain at 25 mph for the final little bit to the station. October 2, 2004 (Day of Activism), I got sick and threw up at a rest area near Manassas (most likely due to nervousness). Then October 17, 2004 was the Million Worker March. Nothing. Since then, on January 20, 2005 (J20), I had an awful time coming home due to snow. Then on April 16, 2005 (A16) with Sis, the car initially didn’t want to start up in the morning (it performed fine the rest of the day). We also forgot to turn on the heat, and wondered what was wrong with the heat because it was still so cold in the car. We figured out that we’d never turned the heat on (despite thinking we had) about halfway to DC. Then on September 24, 2005 (September 24 Protests), I nearly got physically sick again on the way up.
Still, that day was something. It was the most fun I’d had all year in 2004. The whole thing was just like a dream, and I was honestly sad to return to real life after it. And let me tell you – I will never forget that day.
And how am I celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Million Worker March? I’m going to work. It is Monday, after all.
Web site: My photo set about the Million Worker March
Song: Protest chants: "We're here! We're here! We're here for the hotel workers!" - This was what we were saying on the way to the Hotel Washington.
Quote: "So what do you do for a moment? Crash, of course, as Jess demonstrates for us." - Photo caption from the MWM photo set. Jess took a moment and was lying down in the street.
Categories: Activism