Ray came over to tell me I made the Tacoma News-Tribune this morning, both my mini-profile/interview and my picture.
I skipped out on the Women's Caucus today to try to get some rest and maybe do some tourist stuff. I tried to nap for about an hour after breakfast, but ended up IM'ing with John, updating my blog, checking my email, etc., instead. Decided to try to do some tourist stuff and walked over to Boston Common. I got about halfway through the Common and realized I was going to faint. I hadn't eaten since my room service dinner the night before, hadn't had any sleep to speak of in three days, and nothing I saw was really registering. I actually made it as far as Filene's Basement, where I wandered around in a horrible daze, wondering if I was going to pass out. I didn't see that it was any great shakes - kind of a low-rent version of Nordstrom's Rack, from what I can see. I wanted to make it over to Faneuil Hall, but I just couldn't do it. I went back to the room and started to get ready for the convention.
Now, they told us at breakfast that all the alternates and guests should try to sit in section 321. Matt and I had been in section 314 the night before, which were actually pretty good seats, albeit quite high up. What we didn't know was that alternates could sit in the club seats just above delegate seating; guests couldn't, but alternates could. Organization is a bit lacking, especially for the alternates; we really seem to get overlooked a lot. We got to 321 and were disgusted - the seats were AWFUL. Really bad. They started doing brief credentials swaps to get the guests on the floor - the goal for Tuesday was to get all the guests at least a brief time on the floor. Now, I started getting more and more furious, because they were seating all the guests (including one person's 10-year-old kid, who spent the ENTIRE night on the floor!) and forgetting the elected alternates. I understand that they were trying to make sure all the Dean folks' guests were on the floor for Dean's speech, but they were giving them precedence for all the speakers over elected alternates - plus there was no reason we had to sit in those horrendously bad seats just because they had to.
I finally threw a fit, and Matt and I decided we were going to stage a rebellion the next morning at breakfast. Because I was making such a fuss (via Matt's cell phone - bless Matt for helping enable my temper tantrum and for being willing to do all the calling to convey all the messages back and forth to the floor), Cathi Bailey came up and traded me her credentials, with a strict injunction that I HAD to get them back to her in time to hear Ted Kennedy, or she'd never forgive me. As it turned out, I was down on the floor to hear Teddy too, as Ray went up and traded with Cathi.
I went over to the Colorado delegation and tried to find my friend Criz Stoddard, but she wasn't in her seat and no one knew where she was. I was disappointed, as most of the time when I'm on the floor, I don't have a real credential and can't move around much. Went back up into the nosebleed and traded Ray back his credential so he could be on the floor to hear Tom Daschle.
I was seriously debating bailing out on the convention and hitting the Democratic Underground party at Clery's. I really wanted to meet the DU folks who were there, but didn't want to miss Ron Reagan or Teresa Heinz Kerry. Then Barack Obama spoke, and the Democratic Party had a new rising star. What a speech! Phenomenal. I won't try to reproduce it here; there's plenty of places on the web that have transcripts of it. I'll just say that, even up in the god-awful seats we were in Tuesday night, to be in that convention hall during that truly historic speech was an awe-inspiring experience.
Ron Reagan's speech was wonderful; thoughtful, sensitive, heartfelt, and with only one sidelong dig at those who'd put mere ideology above science.
Teresa...what can I say about Teresa Heinz Kerry, other than to say that anyone who left that hall without being in love with that woman is not human. Like every speech I've heard her make, that one was clearly not political hot air, but heartfelt, every word of it. "My name is Teresa Heinz Kerry, and by now it should come as no surprise to any of you that I have something to say." I'm hanging onto my We Love Teresa floor sign for all I'm worth - that one won't go to the district to auction off, that one is MINE.
Left the convention debating whether or not I should try to head out to Clery's to meet the DU folks. I had one ticket to the Planned Parenthood party, and was considering taking a taxi over there, but fell in with Lindsay and Reverend Lisa Domke walking out of the Fleet Center, and asked if they minded if I tagged along with them. They didn't, so I went with them to the NARAL party (Lindsay had to attend that one, as a NARAL board member). We got a DNC staff car rather than a taxi because the driver kind of took pity on us. That was a nice surprise!
The NARAL party was something else - it was packed! The speakers were great - Bill Richardson, Tom Daschle, lots of others way up in the hierarchy of Democratic politics. The food was good, the drinks were free, the music was loud, but it was way too crowded to dance and all three of us were wanting to dance.
We headed outside, intending to try for the Planned Parenthood party, when Lindsay got a call that Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Seattle City Council President Jan Drago could get us into Obama's party. Man, that young lady has CONNECTIONS! Now, this was definitely the hot event of the night, so we raced over there, met them, and then started a half-hour wrangle to get into the event. We did get in, to find a very odd party. It was in a closed shopping mall of some sort - strange venue. Upstairs, where Obama was, was too crowded to move, too dark to see, and too loud to talk. Again, it was too crowded to dance, and the drinks weren't free there. We decided to bag it and try a small club nearer our hotel.
Got to that little club, and it was hoppin'. Great music, nice dance floor, and we discovered Robert Byrd of our delegation there. The four of us danced for hours. I had a major panic when my bag disappeared, with my purse and everything in it, but Robert was an absolute sweetheart, going around with me to talk to all the bartenders and security folks about it, and calming me down. I finally had the sense to go ask Lindsay, and thanks be to all that's holy, she'd moved my bag and hidden it so she could put her own purse in it. She got a big bear-hug for that! That was quite a relief.
Like every Boston club, this one closed down at 2 a.m. (man, you can tell this city was founded by Puritans!), and threw us out. We were starting to migrate toward the exits, and ran into about half our delegation, who'd been in one of the other rooms of the club dancing. There was much talk of finding another party or something, but when we got back to the hotel, I decided I was just too wiped out and went to my room. Spent hours on IM with John. I'm so worried about him - he's tremendously depressed about not being here, and he should be here. There's so much focus on veterans, and so much he could be doing during the day, at the caucuses and the training sessions. It's really a major shame that he's home suffering a horrible depression when he could be here.
and my picture with Patty Murray:
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