Convention - Day Four

Got up early for the special delegation breakfast at the Cheers bar (which is meaningless to me, as I've never seen the TV show, but there's a lot of really special guests there). Another typical disorganized event - they told us to be there at 7:30, but they don't start serving (and won't let us in) until 9:00. So I went down to the credentials office to get my credential instead. I was hoping that, since I signed as an alternate last night, I'd get a delegate credential, but no such luck - another green hall pass, not a red floor pass. Dammit! I know I said I'd step aside and not run for delegate next time, but you know, I really want to go as a full delegate, so I suspect I will be running again in four years after all.

Paul caught me when I was in the credentials office and asked if I'd do a phone interview with KIRO Radio back home. I talked to them for about 20 minutes, then went up to the room and told John about it via IM. He turned on the radio, and later told me he heard about a one-minute snippet (the part where I talked about Washington being regarded as an important swing state and what great seats on the floor that got us).

Headed back to the bar a little after 8. They didn't bring us coffee! This was just cruel and unusual punishment - and for the Washington delegation, for heaven's sake! Who cares about the fancy yuppie food, bring me some damn coffee, even if it's Taster's Choice dry on a spoon! I need my caffeine!

The speeches at breakfast were quite good. Maria Cantwell spoke, and Governor Locke, and several others. I got a good picture of myself with Senator Cantwell, so I now have my picture with both female senators (see the bottom of this post). Only a handful of delegates can say that!

I checked through the papers for pictures of our delegation, and collected a few, including one from the New York Times that showed only my wrists and hands (Luis was between me and the photographer, and he's a very big fellow). I could recognize it because of my wrist tattoo - my tattoo made the New York Times!

I'd promised on Monday to do an interview with Sirius Satellite Radio's Out-Q channel, but I was just too beat. I bailed on the interview and gave the guy's card to Lawrence Winnerman, who agreed to go in my place.

I took it very easy after breakfast - I was half-hallucinatory from sleep and food deprivation. There was a choice of a Boeing party at the Rock Bottom at 3, or going to the Fleet Center at 3 to save alternate seats in section 135 again - apparently, no one was going to send pages to save the alternates seats, so I opted for good seats for the convention rather than another corporate-sponsored party.

There was a Green Party street demo right outside my room while I was getting ready. The helicopters were so bored they were covering it. It wasn't very big. There were also two nuts in the Abortion is a Holocaust! and Homosexuality is a Disease! vans parked outside, watching the Green Party march by. They sure parked badly - everyone was honking and yelling at them. Way to park there, Ace! I think they're from Westboro Baptist Church, that lunatic Fred Phelps. Why he's out without a keeper is beyond me.

I didn't get to the convention as early as I'd hoped, because I missed the 3:00 bus (by seconds, the bastard pulled away as I was running up to the bus!) and the taxi dropped me outside the security perimeter just as a big protest started. I had to go about a mile and a half out of my way to get inside, and was too late to get front-row seats, although thankfully, I did manage to get into the club seat section.

Thursday night's convention - I did manage, through sheer stubbornness and lying through my teeth ("He's just gone to the bathroom, he'll be right back!"), to save four seats in section 135. I was terrified I wouldn't be able to keep them, but Ralph thankfully showed up about 4:15, Matt about 5 (by which time people were screaming and getting really hostile about the saved seats), and Nicole didn't come until 6. She's lucky both Matt and Ralph are big fellows; they were able to preserve her seat for her, which I'd have been unable to do. We were offered floor credentials, but they were offering a credential swap and no seat, which meant we'd have been vulnerable to being thrown out, and we wouldn't have been allowed back into the club seats, so we'd have watched the rest of the convention from the hallway on the TV monitors. We staged a second Rebellion of the Alternates and refused to move.

That turned out rather serendipitously, as the luxury box suite next to us started filling with celebrities - among them, Puff Daddy, Ben Affleck, John Cusack, and the coup de grace, Hillary Clinton. That was an unexpected bonus. :-)

We lost Nicole about 7:00. She went out to get us pizza, and wasn't allowed back in. The Fleet Center was so crowded at that point that they weren't letting people move around at all. We were in quite a panic for a couple of hours until she was finally permitted back in, with our cold pizzas. We couldn't even locate her, as she'd left her cell phone in her bag with us! The only thing we could do is call her boyfriend, way up in the nosebleeds, to find out if she was with him, so all we did was worry him too. We were all really relieved when she finally was allowed to rejoin us.

Our delegation was the only ones wearing the requisite convention hats. Nearly everyone's got broken down on the floor, though, as they're styrofoam and the floor was horrendously crowded. I actually managed to get mine home unbroken and will keep it as a memento. I got a picture of me in the convention hat with the floor in the background - see the bottom of this posting.

Others have written reams about the final day of the convention itself, so I'll just stick to saying that the bit with the Swiftboat vets and Max Cleland was by far the most moving part of the evening. The balloon drop was grotesquely screwed up - I've never seen one done so badly - and there were still balloons coming down and exploding during the priest's final benediction, which was really tacky.

After it was over, I went down to the convention floor to see if I could snag some of the better signs, collect some more confetti from the floor (I want to throw it in the air on November second!), and see if we could find some of our delegation and try to wangle invitations to the farewell parties. I had ZERO invitations to anything, so I was feeling sorry for myself. Got myself invited to the big party of the evening, the firefighters' big shindig. They weren't going to let me in at the door ("tickets only!" and I didn't have a ticket, but two of our firefighters came and whisked me in. And wow, what a party that one was! Kevin Bacon's band was playing in a back room; they were astonishingly good.

Like every Boston venue, they kicked us out at 2:00. Went back to the hotel for a final farewell round of drinks with some of the delegation in one of the rooms. I didn't get back to my room until 6 in the morning (by which time John was purely panicking), and fell soundly asleep. Thankfully, no breakfast meeting awaits.

Picture with Senator Maria Cantwell:


Picture of me in the traditional convention garb:


It's finally over. Tomorrow I go home. What an experience; I don't know how I'm going to manage to adjust to real life again - but I have to admit, the idea of being able to sleep and eat and drink again is pretty attractive!