http://www.tribnet.com/news/government/story/5344383p-5282728c.html
http://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/5340714p-5278877c.html
(The News-Tribune also had a different picture of me, and a very nice one, but the online version doesn't appear to have it, and I can't find any link on the USA Today website. Oh well, my husband's saved dead-tree copies of all of them.)
Well, here I am in Boston, and am I ever overwhelmed. Flew in yesterday morning on the red-eye. That was a BIG mistake. Didn't manage to sleep at all on the first plane, to Chicago, then dozed intermittently on the short flight to Boston. Got to the hotel without a hitch, only to discover (well, DUH) that I couldn't check in, as they were fully booked and had to wait for everyone to get out of their rooms before all the early-arriving delegates could check in. So after getting no sleep the night before (and very little on Friday, because I was too excited and nervous), I was faced with a 4-hour wait before I could lie down! I was sitting on the hotel couch (I was too exhausted to do anything else), wondering if they'd kick me out if I lay down on it, when thanks to all that's holy, Ricardo Polintan came by and saw me looking pitiful. He said he was leaving his room anyway, so would I like to go up there and lie down. I managed to get 3-1/2 hours of rest thanks to his kindness, for which I am very grateful.
The trip out itself was quite unremarkable, except for the complete jerk of a Florida delegate who shared the cab with me. Now, we're supposed to double or triple up in the cabs so that the drivers get a fair reimbursement (they only get $12 for an airport trip on a delegate voucher, and the fare's normally about $21). This turkey had a guest with him and me sharing the cab, and sat there arguing with the driver that he ought to just take one voucher for all three of us! I said, "c'mon, we can't re-use the vouchers anyway," and handed the driver my voucher. The driver went and got the cab stand supervisor who said, yes, both delegates needed to hand over their voucher and the guest passenger needed to pay $12. The Florida delegate was all pissy about it, which I do not understand. What WAS his problem? I gave the driver a nice tip, since I doubt that creep gave him anything. Doesn't the guy understand we're representing the party here? It's important to leave a good impression, as this whole convention is going to be a huge inconvenience for the city of Boston.
The gift bag they gave us was WEIRD. Half the stuff doesn't have anything to do with the convention or the campaign - it's kind of HUH? Why'd they put THIS in here? A little sample bag of Dunkin' Donuts coffee (for delegates from Seattle, that's laughable!), a razor, weird stuff like that. I can't even donate that useless crap to the district to auction off. There were a couple of books, a toy, and a few tchotchkes I'll donate to the district.
Got my room at 3:30, just in time to quickly change for the welcoming party. Didn't even get a chance to look at the room, let alone unpack or hook up the computer. Then we sat on the bus for almost a dang hour, which was annoying.
The party was great - the music was really good and the food was good. And a no-host bar is always a plus.
Had a nice talk with Congressman Norm Dicks and Washington state Treasurer Mike Murphy at the party, and Congressman Dicks' wife Suzie. I forgot the dang camera, so didn't get any pictures of myself with them. After the party, there was a Boston Pops concert for the delegations, but I decided to go on an adventure to Dorchester, to the Firefighters' Union Hall, with some other delegates. We took the subway on the advice of a Boston cop, then a taxi from the subway station to Dorchester. The taxi driver hadn't a clue where the Firefighters' Union Hall was, but through sheer luck, we managed to find it. The party was kind of what you'd expect; Cathi Bailey and I were practically the only females there. I got in a discussion with an older firefighter, a captain, who described himself as the token conservative. He also claimed to be an independent, but was talking the whole Republican line about Iraq, so we had a friendly argument about that for a good while.
I looked around and didn't see any of the others I'd come with, and got a trifle worried they'd ditched me (it was a skanky part of town, and I wasn't looking forward to trying to get a taxi there in the middle of the night). Captain Stafford offered me a ride home in his truck. I was a bit hesitant to accept that, and wanted to find out if Cathi, Ray, and Craig (a firefighter delegate from Idaho who'd accompanied us) were still around. Finally rounded everyone up, and we took off with Captain Stafford, who was a character and a half. He was quite possibly the most Irish person you could find on this side of the Atlantic - more so even than my own family! - and had a story for everything. He took us on the grand tour of the historic firehouses of Boston, and we ended up at Ladder 15 (the oldest firehouse in Boston, which is saying something, as they all appear to be a thousand years old) for a good while, shooting the breeze with the firefighters and cops working there that night. I got one of their T-shirts, which makes a cool keepsake - not very many delegates left Boston with a Ladder 15 shirt. Finally, I pleaded extreme exhaustion and we started to head back, but detoured for a viewing of the memorial to the firefighters who died in the horrible Worchester warehouse fire (and a story about the travails of getting that memorial approved by the Boston architectural and historic authorities).
Back to my room to get the computer hooked up and get on IM with John for a couple hours. Poor John. He's having a really hard time of this, my being gone and him wanting so desperately to be here. He doesn't want to say so, but I can tell he's horribly depressed.
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