Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Bloggees-

It is 4 am, only 20 hours to go.

I am outside the Capitol building with hundreds of my news compadres waiting for my favorite, most frequent activity, the Secret Service sweep.

I am wearing, in this order, the usual unmentionables, and long underwear, a blouse, a sweater, a wool overcoat a pair of jeans,, two pairs of socks, long fleece-lined UGGS, a pair of "silk" gloves underneath fleece mittens, a wool hat, two wool scarves, all reinforced with foot and hand warmers...

So, I am standing out in the pre-dawn inauguration day hours thinking, "What's the opposite of hypothermia?" I feel like Lucy the time she and Ethel got stuck inside wooden sauna boxes with their heads sticking out.

I would once again ask that you send cheese for this whine, but the official Secret Service rules state very clearly, "No Strollers, umbrellas, thermoses, drink containers, poles for carrying signs, bicycles, knives, guns, laser pointers, pets, alcohol, back packs, big bags or cheese platters."

Inauguration goers were already on the street here at 4, looking to stand in front of the security to get in early when they were up and running.

Travel tip: if you have never seen your U.S. Capital lit up at night or as the sun rises from the East, put it on your list. I guarantee the wow quotient.

Please come.

And now, here I am on the steps of a building built by slaves to watch the swearing in of Barack Obama. Living history.