Maebi Richards of Laureate Alpha Epsilon attends the Presidential Inauguration

Maebi Richards could star in a MasterCard commercial. You know the kind. Round-trip airfare to Washington, D.C.: $600. Tickets to the Bolshoi Ballet’s production of “Man of La Mancha:” $65. Taxi fare, meal prices, souvenirs: $200. Being in the nation’s capital for President Barack Obama’s inauguration: priceless. “It was definitely worth it,” Richards said. ““The whole thing was really exciting: the crowds, the energy. … I would have spent much more if my daughter (Andrea Reese) didn’t live there. It was great.” The South Valley woman, who many Rio Ranchoans know from her yoga instruction at Meadowlark Senior Center, didn’t want to miss the hoopla going on in Washington last Tuesday. It all took on a special meaning for Richards, 60, a native of Austria who immigrated to the U.S. in 1977 — and just became a bona fide citizen last September. “Me and Arnold Schwarzenegger came from the same town — Graz, Austria,” she said. She married an American studying medicine in Austria, and the couple moved to Massachusetts in 1977. “I really wanted to vote,” she said, relating how she attached a note — “Please hurry; I want to vote” — to her citizenship form. “The person who interviewed me said, ‘I read your note. We’ll squeeze you in.’ ” And he did. And then she did — vote for Obama. And then she planned a trip to see the inauguration, along with a record crowd of 1.8 million who swarmed Washington’s National Mall last Tuesday. “I just thought it would be really great because I voted for him. I wanted to soak up the energy,” she said, recalling how beautiful Washington looks at night, with its plethora of stately buildings and monuments reflected everywhere in ponds, pools and the Potomac River. Her son-in-law works for Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, so the small entourage got to be inside on the frigid inauguration day, watching from a building that houses Senate conferences, she said. “We watched through a window; it was an awesome view,” she said, admitting she came close to tears. They attended the Western States Inauguration Ball, one of 10 balls attended by the new president and first lady. And Richards got to see the couple drop in. “It was very quick,” she said of the cameo. “I could see them but they were (so far away) they were very tiny. “He talked to us a little bit and introduced Michelle. I think he said the same thing every time,” she explained. “They danced and he stepped on her dress. It happened at each ball. And Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez were there and they sang.” The rest of the time, she said, the city was almost too crowded to go anywhere. As cold as it was, they walked briskly. The next day, she was back at the airport, boarding for her return flight to the Duke City. Memories of the trip will last forever, she said, and it was fun sitting next to a woman from Farmington on the flight back to Albuquerque. She had also attended the inauguration, so the two had plenty to chat about. A day later, she was back at Meadowlark Senior Center, teaching yoga. She’s lived in New Mexico since 1980, teaching yoga for “25, 30 years, off an on.” Yoga, Richards explained, “makes me feel good all over, balanced, flexible. It keeps me young.” Indeed, she said she feels more like 30 than 60 — and she felt young enough in D.C. to fit in well with her daughter’s friends. -Published in the Rio Rancho Observer, January 26, 2009