Code Neon Blue!

Wow, what a weekend THAT was! Decades from now, those of us who were there can be telling new bees about the State Convention of ‘08, where we had to walk six miles uphill both ways barefoot in the snow…and that was just to deal with the parking!!

I was foiled in my intent to liveblog due to not being able to connect from either my hotel room Friday (not even using the Doubletree’s $10 broadband!) or the convention floor Saturday. And then yesterday I had to phone in ded. But I have all these notes and a few pics, so I thought I might as well do a write up anyway.

So here we are from where I left off Friday evening. The one post I managed took us up to the start of the JD 15 meeting at about 6:00. Our main order of business there was to vote in Debra Gunkel from Springfield as the Dem candidate for DA.

The Prowers delegation now had a window of free time (more like a double set of patio doors than a window, but we didn’t know that then), and most everyone decided to go over to the Hampton Inn, where the presidential campaigns were having parties. I didn’t want to walk that far. I have Bureaucrat Legs: they don’t work well with with any of the other body departments, they do only the minimum in their job description, and they complain loudly about doing that. So I decided to represent at Betsy Markey’s Marilyn Musgrave Retirement party, over in the hotel bar. It was crowded, but I got a sliver of tuna fish sandwich and a handful of veggies, and a CHAIR, so I was happy.

Re-fortified, I decided to go up to my hotel room and drop off some of my gear. Just before I left Lamar the UPS had brought my new toy, a wheeled cart with a fold out seat! Sadly, the plastic hinges broke during our time in line that afternoon, so now it was only good for toting my computer and Stuff. Less Stuff to haul sounded like a real good plan.

While I was trying fruitlessly to get connected in my room, I got a call from one of our delegates. There was some kind of error in the VAN database, and they couldn’t give him credentials. So I went to find Randa and see what could be done tomorrow. I didn’t bring my computer or camera for this trip because I thought I would just dash up and grab it later. I am such an optimist.

CD3 was just getting started (in OUR 8:00 time slot), so several of us decided the bar would be a really good place to wait. Unfortunately, someone else somewhere decided it would be a better idea to call all the CD4 people together into the not especially spacious Windows room (insert your own joke here about crashing or whatever) so we would all be in one spot when CD3 got done. Well, two spots, actually. They called the Hillary folks out to, I think, the lobby, possibly because the Grumpycrat faction was rising steadily in the polls and it seemed like a wise idea.

People HAD been waiting around for a long time, which is trying to the patience. Just as it looked like things might get feisty, a man in a pink shirt, whose name I did not catch, stepped up on a table and addressed the crowd with humor and good sense. It really did help, so thank you, Nameless Man! Then they brought in a surprise guest speaker, Federico Pena! I kicked myself for leaving my camera up in the room, because I was only about six feet away from the chair HE was standing on. His speech was good too, but he had to cut it short because we were FINALLY being called down to the Park/Grand Ballroom!

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I was one of the many, many people shut out of the Doubletree parking lot. An extremely friendly and helpful hotel person had suggested I would be able to get into the lot once the people from the other CDs started leaving. I had resisted the temptation to duck off early, but as we CD4ers got down towards that end of the hotel, closer and closer to where I’d come in that afternoon (all innocent and full of hope and joy), I gave in and make a break for it.

Happily, my car Dreamcloud was faithfully waiting where I’d left him. As I drove out onto the street, I was tempted further by the sight of the Arby’s sign. Telling myself I’d have an even better chance of getting a space in another ten minutes, I zipped into the drive-thru to score a bag of sustenance. Since it was now after 10, Arby’s had been reduced to slicing up tag-ends of their roast beef, so the sandwich had a slightly more robust texture than their usual. But mmmmm, sustenance!

I found an EXCELLENT parking spot, and then a blessedly free chair in the meeting room. As I’d hoped, I only missed a few speeches. The business part started rolling like a boulder going downhill, which I think most people were glad about. Billy Compton came in to explain the actual voting process: Go to the rows of people working computers in the balloting room. Let them scan and X your credentials and give you a ballot keyed to your choice for presidential candidate. Go mark it, following the instructions. Sign it. Put it in the silver box. YAY, you’re done for the day!

Since I FELT like I’d been done for the day at about, oh, 6:45, it felt good to be finished. I staggered back to my room, failed one last time to connect to the intarwebs, typed out a few quick notes and plopped into bed like a tree crashing in the forest. But more quietly.

The check-in line of DOOOOM. This is probably about 1/8 of the whole thing, from where I was standing, clear around the lobby, and off the right edge of the pic in the distance. Note how at least two people who entered here abandoned their Hope.

(Stay tuned for Saturday, and then, the Analysis!)