Yuppiestock 2010

Last weekend I was in DC for The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, and of course to visit Christina, who hosted a sign-making party the night before - fun times! Check out how sane/fearsome the party was! There might have been a little more fear than sanity, though...dipping marshmallows in caramel all night, then eating such a thing actually gives you a hangover. TRUE STORY.

Not only were there marshmallows to dip into caramel at the sign-making party, but there was sign-making. Our signs:

• Christina: Let's trade signs
• Sarah: Let's be friends
• Kristy: I had a one-night stand with Christine O'Donnell (she wore a witch's hat, too)
  
• Laura: Proud to be within 2 standard deviations (with an illustration of a Gaussian distribution)
  
• Katie: Git yer Gov'mint hands off my medicare!
• Livia (not pictured): I forgot what her sign said...
  
• Duane (not pictured): They Took our Jerbs!
  

That picture is the ladies that survived the party and tried to hitch a ride on the DC Metro in the morning. About that...no luck. All trains heading that way were packed. Oh, and it was Howard's homecoming parade that day, so the street was partially blocked off, and elsewhere in town they were setting up for the Marine Corps Marathon, so yeah transportation was a problem. We ended up taking the #70 bus.

Once we got to the mall, it was shoulder-to-shoulder from there on out. We were in a standing room only crowd of 250,000 of our closest friends. A quarter million, 10 million, who's to say. There were people climbing every available tree surrounding the mall, with cheers whenever someone would make it up. Oh, and good luck getting AT&T service there that day...that many yuppies means hella iPhones uploading videos to YouTube.

I call it Yuppiestock 2010 because there were droves of 20- and 30-somethings with signs adorning Internet references in one hand, and a tall Starbucks in the other. One of my favorite memes-on-a-sign (yes dawg I just put a meme in your meme) was the "no rageguy." Electronic fist-bump, bro. Anyway, it was a fun time had by all. You can read all about the musical guests and specific acts that appeared elsewhere, like Kid Rock getting a lukewarm reception (let's just say polite), and the Mythbusters crowd experiments that really did loosen up the group. It was great.

The whole point of the rally is best explained by Jon Stewart himself, at the rally: