We're about 36 hours away from inauguration, and I thought I'd take a moment for a few random observations.

• The people at the Ritz-Carlton are amazing. There's basically an entire platoon in the lobby waiting to help you. I went and asked for a bottle of water, and four people sprinted at me in order to be of assistance. Strangely though, there's a giant chia-Donkey in lobby, like something out of a midwestern county fair: 

Weird, right?

• Overheard the other night: "I've never hear the word 'balls' so much in my life. Balls, balls, balls!"

• My old college roommate Stefan facebook messaged me about the largest-gathering-in-the-western-hemisphere question. He says that 2 million people regularly show up for new years eve in Rio de Janeiro. He also tipped me off to this great wikipedia page, listing the largest gatherings in history. Apparently the biggest one in the Western Hemisphere was about 3 million, so if more than that show up on Tuesday (not likely) we could break the record. The largest one-day gathering in the world? On April 5th, 2004, 30 million people showed up for the Hindu pilgrimage Kumbh Mela.

• Our driver today told us that the night before the inauguration, they take out all the traffic signals on the streets where the parade route runs along. Workers then seal the holes with manhole covers. That night, they replace the traffic lights. Why do they this? Our driver claims it's for aesthetic reasons, but this answer struck me as a little hollow. Anyone out there know why?

• Oh, and through one of my many powerful connections within the Washington establishment, I was able to snag a ticket to the inauguration. So I'm pretty excited about that.