[Washington, D.C., January 20. Image via Getty]

[Washington, D.C., January 20. Image via Getty]

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: Spectators sit in trash and debris along the National Mall after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama became the first African-American to be sworn in as president in the history of the United States. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

[Washington, D.C., January 20. Image via Getty]

WASHINGTON - JANUARY 20: A choir performs ahead of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the West Front of the Capitol January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

We'll be collecting and posting photos all day in a gallery. In addition to your images — people, places, parties, tchotchkes, etc — please send your first name and/or commenter name, the location/event seen in the photo, and the time it was taken. Feel free to share any and all random thoughts. You can send pics to tips@jezebel.com; start sending them early, and keep sending them late.

Weirdest moment of last night's Huffington Post ball at the Newseum: New York Times politics reporter Jeff Zeleny back to back with the guy from that new romcom with crazy Katherine Heigl. Neither had any idea who the other is. He's hot, even if he is the poor man's Clive Owen. Right by them was former MSNBC head turned publicist Dan Abrams. Blecho. Robert DeNiro and his lovely partner Grace Higjtower were in good spirits; Martha Stewart, who is always at these DC parties, and always dressed in the same 70s-era nature tones (running the gamut from peach to beige to ecru) was down by the door by midnight, undoubtedly waiting for her poor driver. This was a confusing party. The guest list was literally as thick as a phone book. This party existed, I think, to convey Arianna's social dominance but i'm not sure that message got across: not exclusive enough, and, relatedly, too crowded. The coat check alone was the size of a NYC block. Arianna made a couple of unintelligible speeches. If she was smart, she was appearing via satellite from home! Getting home from the Newseum, which is on Pennsylvania Ave and fifty feet from the Mall, was a horrorshow: fences and barricades and cops and, well, wow. DC is very nanny-state. The automated voices on the Metro are like something out of Robocop, repeating endlessly as people get trapped in the doors. The trashcans in the museums actually say "thank you" when you put trash in them, which is gross. But nothing can disrupt the glee today! Not crowds, not cold, not annoying social control measures. Today is awesome!

—10 minutes later—

Okay I have NO IDEA where I am but there are a LOT of people here. Some white ones too, as they did not stay home. But what is genius is that there are volunteer greeters everywhere who are like, HI, GOOD MORNING, WHHHOOOOO! Which reminds you that this is a party and you are supposed to be happy and nice to everyone. It's yet another brilliantanifestatiom of the Obama organizational machine. OMG MY HANDS ARE COLD.

My favorite picture ever. The ad on the back of the rickshaw, by the way, is an anti-fur ad. Also the brother in the fur coat is smoking. The black woman next to me waiting to cross the street was dying laughing. I believe we were totally both thinking, "Yeah, pedal faster, cracker!" Because we are both racists.


Binoculars! So you can look at the Jumbotrons through them! Worst deal EVER.


The change we can believe in is now when we take photographs of
strangers on the Metro, we show them to them! Then become friends. Maybe go to dinner together!


No they didn't.


On the Mall, MSNBC's set-up is getting picketed by Jesus freaks. SUCK IT, JOE SCARBOROUGH!


The shirt industry is out of control — and it looks like every shirt was made from a version of Obama's face on another shirt, so he starts looking less and less like him and more like some sort of guy from outer space.


These are the seats for the rich white people tomorrow.


Um, this is a sculpture of Raquel Welch in the National Portrait Gallery. I mean, it has nothing to do with the Inauguration but isn't it BANANAS?


Everybody's got something to sell. Exuberantly!


I don't know. Maybe these guys are in the West German army circa 1978. Or maybe the freaks are finally coming out.


These Obama belts for sale on the mall? They are actually awesome. I
will go back and get at least two.


Fur coat. Fringe purse. Fringe boots. Result: HEAVEN.

[Enroute from Birmingham, Alabama; January 19. Image via Getty]

IN TRANSIT, UNITED STATES - JANUARY 19: Torri Tippett (L), Tammarra Tippett (2nd R) and others ride on a bus from Birmingham, Alabama to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama January 19, 2009 In Transit to Washington, DC. Birmingham, along with Selma and Montgomery, were touchstones in the civil rights movement where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led massive protests which eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ending voter disfranchisement against African-Americans. Obama will become America's first black president 45 years after Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream' civil rights speech in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

All quiet in Arlington, except for the power-walkers! Apparently people still do that. D.C.'s glory days were the 80s, and they never passed, which Burn After Reading exhibited quite nicely. (Brie-passing at parties!) So driving into DC last night was a trip. There were all these helpful big light-up signs that said "NO PARKING IN DC" and stuff like that, which was hilariously unuseful. We came in through NorthEast and can I just say something for our friend Sister Toldja? It was a black people party! Totally excellent. The thing about this inauguration is: yes white people will come in droves. But also they won't leave NW, Chevy Chase and Arlington for one second. So they are easy to avoid. Also I saw a graffiti swastika in a rest stop bathroom on the way down but mid-day tomorrow, it will disappear when racism ends with our new awesome President.

"Black And White" by "I Must Be Dead", via Flickr.