One of the reasons I booked our flight on the airline I'm currently very mad at is that they have DirectTV at every seat. Of course we won't let Lucas watch TV the entire time but it will serve as a good distraction for at least part of our cross-country journey. Yesterday afternoon I realized that while Abel and I will use our ipod ear buds, Lucas needed his own set of headphones.
Where in the world do I find toddler-sized headphones, I wondered. I dashed off a quick e-mail to our trusty parent listserv. Help! Need toddler headphones! With no answers from that always-helpful-group, I realized Target, Target would be the answer. I decided to forgo my weekly nap and head to Target. I needed to stop by there anyway to pick up a few cheap toys to help distract Lucas on the plane and some Annie's Cheddar Bunnies (the best snack ever!!!) which are almost $1 cheaper at Target than Safeway.
I don't know why I thought child-sized headphones were such an unusual thing--there were several options at Target. I opted for the $17.99 Sony version (which was on sale from $21.99) over the $14.99 version-of-a-brand-I-didn't-recognize. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who thinks more expensive = higher quality.
Currently in the Target $1 bins are some cute board books including Sesame Street books on counting, shapes and ABCs and Halloween books. I picked up 6 board books for $6. Yeah, they're fairly lame but if we leave one behind somewhere it won't bother me in the least.
When I got to the register did I have in my cart only the headphones, Cheddar Bunnies and board books? Oh no. I had lots and lots more, taking my approximately $26 shopping trip up to $111.
The Law of Target was in full effect yesterday. I blame it on the fact that this was my first Target run in ages without a bored toddler in the cart. I was all alone and free to linger, compare, walk by something then go back! It was heaven!
When I got home I greedily took everything out of the bags to admire. I put out my new door mat (hey, I needed a new door mat!), admired the cute birthday gifts for my niece (they were on clearance! Her birthday is fast-approaching at the end of the month!) and was all set to check out those headphones.
Wait? Where were the headphones?
Not in any of the bags. Not in my trunk. But, still showing up on my receipt.
UGH!!!
I called and explained that I purchased and paid for headphones yet they were not to be found in any of my bags. Come on back and pick them up, I was cheerily told.
UGH.
Back in the car, drive to Target, park, walk to Customer Service, explain again.
Now, wouldn't you think that my cashier, upon finding that she didn't give me the bag with the headphones, would have taken that bag to Customer Service where it would have sat, waiting for me to come back and get it? Wouldn't that make sense?
Apparently no.
When I got there I had to walk through the entire store (with more things calling out to me--buy me! buy me!--I resisted) to the audio department to get another set of headphones and bring them back to customer service where they rang them up as a return/exchange (which also doesn't make much sense to me).
Headphones secured, I got back in the car and drove home to pick up Lucas from the babysitter feeling totally annoyed about the whole thing.
After dinner when I plugged them into my ipod for Lucas, the look of pure delight on his face was worth every second of aggravation. He loved them. He called them "MY telephones!" and danced all around the dining room. On a slow song he closed his eyes and swayed just a bit with the most fantastic little smile.
Man do I love those headphones!
P.S. Oh, Abel, I'm totally exaggerating. I only spent like, um, $75 at Target. Oh, I mean, only $50. Yeah, only $50.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
On the road again...
Later this week we hit the road again. This installment of Adventures with Smiling Mama takes us to San Diego, CA. More specifically, to Poway, CA to visit my lovely sister and her "two BIIIIIIG dogs" as Lucas calls them. Sarah's husband recently deployed to Iraq and so we wanted to get out to visit her in early fall. And, lo and behold, Ohio State happens to be playing USC this Saturday so WHAT PERFECT TIMING that we're going out there this weekend of all possible weekends.
I booked our plane tickets in March with Abel swearing he'd be able to score us tickets to the game (you see, a holiday weekend would have been a much more convenient time to visit my sister who is a teacher). He pulled through (more specifically his friend Doug's dad pulled through) so he and I will drive up to LA Saturday morning for the game.
It ends up that quite a few of our Buckeye friends are also flying in for the game so it should be a lot of fun. And, Sarah won't miss any quality time with her nephew as he'll stay with her so I don't have to feel guilty for being gone for approx. 30 hours of our already-too-short visit.
What I am upset about, however, is our stupid airline. As I mentioned, I booked our tickets in March. A few weeks ago I received a phone call and e-mail that they changed our flight. I'm outraged and told them as much in the following message:
To Whom it May Concern,
Last March I booked three tickets for my husband, toddler son and myself to fly from Dulles, VA to San Diego, CA on YOUR AIRLINE. Despite the fact that the YOUR AIRLINE fares were slightly higher than other airlines, we chose to book our flights with your airline because we wanted a direct flight.
You see, we are flying cross-country with a 2 ½ year old and we figured it was worth it to pay a slight premium to have the lowest travel time and not have to change planes. We flew YOUR AIRLINE once before and enjoyed our experience. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we recently opened our first-ever airline miles credit card, a YOUR AIRLINE American Express.
Recently, I was informed that our scheduled flights were changed. We were moved from direct round trip flights from Dulles to San Diego to flights which took us through Boston.
Previously we left Dulles at 5:50pm and arrived in San Diego at 7:56pm. On the new flight we will leave Dulles at 2:50pm, connect in Boston and arrive in San Diego at 8:31pm. With this change, our total travel time increased by more than 2.5 hours.
On our return flight, we initially left San Diego at 10:30pm and arrived in Dulles at 6:24am. With the change we depart San Diego at 10:45pm, connect through Boston and arrive at Dulles at 10:45am. With this change, our travel time for this leg increased by 3 hours.
That is a total increase in travel time of more than 5.5 hours.
I find this to be unacceptable.
When we were informed of the change we decided we would cancel our YOUR AIRLINE flights. We found comparably priced direct flights on Southwest. Upon calling customer service, however, I found that we could not get a refund, that it is your prerogative to change our flight.
I am so angry. I don’t understand how you can move us from a direct flight to a stop-over in Boston, increasing our travel time by 5.5 hours and still charge us the same price as our original flight.
I feel we deserve compensation for this dramatic increase in our travel-time. In the meantime, I plan to cancel my YOUR AIRLINE American Express card and will think twice before booking a flight on YOUR AIRLINE again.
Sincerely,
Smiling Mama
I booked our plane tickets in March with Abel swearing he'd be able to score us tickets to the game (you see, a holiday weekend would have been a much more convenient time to visit my sister who is a teacher). He pulled through (more specifically his friend Doug's dad pulled through) so he and I will drive up to LA Saturday morning for the game.
It ends up that quite a few of our Buckeye friends are also flying in for the game so it should be a lot of fun. And, Sarah won't miss any quality time with her nephew as he'll stay with her so I don't have to feel guilty for being gone for approx. 30 hours of our already-too-short visit.
What I am upset about, however, is our stupid airline. As I mentioned, I booked our tickets in March. A few weeks ago I received a phone call and e-mail that they changed our flight. I'm outraged and told them as much in the following message:
To Whom it May Concern,
Last March I booked three tickets for my husband, toddler son and myself to fly from Dulles, VA to San Diego, CA on YOUR AIRLINE. Despite the fact that the YOUR AIRLINE fares were slightly higher than other airlines, we chose to book our flights with your airline because we wanted a direct flight.
You see, we are flying cross-country with a 2 ½ year old and we figured it was worth it to pay a slight premium to have the lowest travel time and not have to change planes. We flew YOUR AIRLINE once before and enjoyed our experience. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we recently opened our first-ever airline miles credit card, a YOUR AIRLINE American Express.
Recently, I was informed that our scheduled flights were changed. We were moved from direct round trip flights from Dulles to San Diego to flights which took us through Boston.
Previously we left Dulles at 5:50pm and arrived in San Diego at 7:56pm. On the new flight we will leave Dulles at 2:50pm, connect in Boston and arrive in San Diego at 8:31pm. With this change, our total travel time increased by more than 2.5 hours.
On our return flight, we initially left San Diego at 10:30pm and arrived in Dulles at 6:24am. With the change we depart San Diego at 10:45pm, connect through Boston and arrive at Dulles at 10:45am. With this change, our travel time for this leg increased by 3 hours.
That is a total increase in travel time of more than 5.5 hours.
I find this to be unacceptable.
When we were informed of the change we decided we would cancel our YOUR AIRLINE flights. We found comparably priced direct flights on Southwest. Upon calling customer service, however, I found that we could not get a refund, that it is your prerogative to change our flight.
I am so angry. I don’t understand how you can move us from a direct flight to a stop-over in Boston, increasing our travel time by 5.5 hours and still charge us the same price as our original flight.
I feel we deserve compensation for this dramatic increase in our travel-time. In the meantime, I plan to cancel my YOUR AIRLINE American Express card and will think twice before booking a flight on YOUR AIRLINE again.
Sincerely,
Smiling Mama
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Thursday: DNC at Invesco Field
Once we got our credentials we immediately headed downtown. A huge perk of the delegate credentials (v. the community credentials) was that we could take the DNC Shuttle right to the stadium parking lot. Otherwise all traffic was stopped approximately 1 mile from the stadium and those poor souls had to hoof it in.
Here's the police officer on our bus heading to INVESCO Field:
Here's the police officer on our bus heading to INVESCO Field:
Once we got out of the bus we hit the line:
Which wrapped around the stadium:
But, we only stood in that line for about 30 minutes. Then we realized that there was essentially no line up a hill. We scaled the hill via a concrete drainage thingy and got through security in literally minutes!Woo hoo!
Our level of credentials got us into general seating in approx. 8 different sections in the 100s and 200s. We snagged these seats, just three rows off the field right away:
But, our initial excitement at being so close to the field faded when we realized that the main podium was blocked by all those pesky media cameras. So Abel went on a scouting mission for better seats. We ended up in a 200 level section with an amazing view of the stage. And, since we were in the stadium about 5 hours before Obama was slated to speak, we were lucky to enjoy some great people-watching in that celebrity section right below us!I'll tell you, those five hours went by pretty quickly. There was great entertainment including Stevie Wonder and Sheryl Crow. And great speeches by people like Bill Richardson, Ike Eisenhower's granddaughter, Al Gore and Barney Smith.
By the time Barack Obama walked out onto the stage the crowd was electric. I've been in football stadiums with 100,000+ cheering people before, I've been in a baseball stadium with 45,000+ people praying with the Pope, but I've never felt anything like what I felt that night. To have all those people united in a common purpose. It was truly amazing.
There were times I was waving my flag while cheering while tears were rolling down my cheeks. I truly knew and felt that I was part of history. I kept thinking of my grandmother and that I would one day tell my grandchildren about this moment.
And it will feel even better on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama becomes the President-elect!Monday, September 8, 2008
Thursday: Securing Credentials
Oh my gosh. What happened to Thursday? I blogged about Tuesday and Wednesday. You mean to tell me that my little blogging elves weren't typing away my thoughts as I tossed and turned in the middle of the night composing Thursday? They are definitely getting fired. Okay, you're right, maybe that is a little extreme. They are getting a strong talking-to. That's for sure.
So, Thursday. That's August 28, 2008. A day for the history books. The day that Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States of America.
And we were there.
And it was amazing.
When we left for Denver we didn't know what events we'd be able to get into: everything was up in the air. My mantra was that I wasn't going to worry about anything. Except, that is, getting in to Thursday night. I told myself that if we got tickets to INVESCO field that would make the whole trip worth it.
We thought we had one ticket. Earlier in August the Maryland State Party held a drawing for their guests (e.g. those who didn't get credentials because they were official Delegates) and Abel's name was drawn to win a credential for Thursday night.
We were pretty sure we had another ticket as well. On Tuesday we had traded two VIP tickets to the Boyz II Men event for one (or hopefully two) credentials for Thursday night.
The problem was that literally no one actually received any Thursday credentials until Thursday morning. So, until we had them in our grubby little hands we weren't counting on anything.
Thursday morning we made sure to get to the Maryland Delegation breakfast first thing. I'm glad we did because it was by far the best breakfast of the week. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman sponsored it and he invited his brother and president of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Doug Ulman, to speak. (I'll tell you what, these are two incredibly impressive brothers.) The other keynote was Congressman Elijah Cummings. Wow. He's amazing. My first tears of the day flowed during his early-morning incredibly-rousing remarks.
By the end of the breakfast we had a piece of gold in our hands--one credential for INVESCO Field.
We got back to the house and found out that our other trade had come through--with not one but TWO credentials!
Then, a friend called who had an extra credential. Do we want if? Of course!
At 8am we had zero credentials. By Noon Abel and I had secured a total of four.
Wow!
That meant we could take the best of them for ourselves, two credentials that gave us access to the delegate transportation to/from the stadium and seating on the 100 or 200 level of the stadium. We were also able to give the other two to our host who gave them to his 16-year-old son and a friend, allowing these two African-American teenagers to be part of history.
At 1:30pm, with credentials proudly displayed around our necks, we were off!
So, Thursday. That's August 28, 2008. A day for the history books. The day that Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States of America.
And we were there.
And it was amazing.
When we left for Denver we didn't know what events we'd be able to get into: everything was up in the air. My mantra was that I wasn't going to worry about anything. Except, that is, getting in to Thursday night. I told myself that if we got tickets to INVESCO field that would make the whole trip worth it.
We thought we had one ticket. Earlier in August the Maryland State Party held a drawing for their guests (e.g. those who didn't get credentials because they were official Delegates) and Abel's name was drawn to win a credential for Thursday night.
We were pretty sure we had another ticket as well. On Tuesday we had traded two VIP tickets to the Boyz II Men event for one (or hopefully two) credentials for Thursday night.
The problem was that literally no one actually received any Thursday credentials until Thursday morning. So, until we had them in our grubby little hands we weren't counting on anything.
Thursday morning we made sure to get to the Maryland Delegation breakfast first thing. I'm glad we did because it was by far the best breakfast of the week. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman sponsored it and he invited his brother and president of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Doug Ulman, to speak. (I'll tell you what, these are two incredibly impressive brothers.) The other keynote was Congressman Elijah Cummings. Wow. He's amazing. My first tears of the day flowed during his early-morning incredibly-rousing remarks.
By the end of the breakfast we had a piece of gold in our hands--one credential for INVESCO Field.
We got back to the house and found out that our other trade had come through--with not one but TWO credentials!
Then, a friend called who had an extra credential. Do we want if? Of course!
At 8am we had zero credentials. By Noon Abel and I had secured a total of four.
Wow!
That meant we could take the best of them for ourselves, two credentials that gave us access to the delegate transportation to/from the stadium and seating on the 100 or 200 level of the stadium. We were also able to give the other two to our host who gave them to his 16-year-old son and a friend, allowing these two African-American teenagers to be part of history.
At 1:30pm, with credentials proudly displayed around our necks, we were off!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Busted!
While we were in Denver hanging out with Boyz II Men, Hillary and Obama, Lucas was with my parents in Pennsylvania. My mom's a teacher and although they just started back to school this week, she had to go in for a few meetings last week. My aunt (and her twin sister) who we all call Mikie was more than happy to hang out with Lucas during those times (and as much as possible throughout the week!). Here's a cute story that she sent to me via e-mail.
(Note: Lucas calls my aunt and uncle Great Mikie and Great Dave. Before he was born they decided they'd be known as "The Greats" which I think is so cute!)
We had a great time with Lucas. What an angel. He is so damn charming. One day I was putting him down for his nap (with no problem at all...he only said "I not tired a few times.")
He had two little match box cars with him that he wanted to take to bed and I was concerned there were "chokey parts" on them. I asked him if he is allowed to take them to bed.
He said, "Well, mama says no but grammy says yes." I put them in his crib and then we read a book on the big bed and when I put him in the crib I discreetly put the cars in my pocket.
He lay in his crib and said, "Great Mikie, I think I hear my cars in your pocket." (I heard them too. The wheels clashed as they went into my pocket.) He said it so matter of factly, no anger, just a statement.
So of course I was "busted" and said, "Yes they are in my pocket" and that I thought it was best to leave them there.
He said, "No I think they should be in my crib."
So I gave them to him and told him not to put them in his mouth.
He said, "I won't do that" with that look as if I was saying something truly ridiculous.
(Note: Lucas calls my aunt and uncle Great Mikie and Great Dave. Before he was born they decided they'd be known as "The Greats" which I think is so cute!)
We had a great time with Lucas. What an angel. He is so damn charming. One day I was putting him down for his nap (with no problem at all...he only said "I not tired a few times.")
He had two little match box cars with him that he wanted to take to bed and I was concerned there were "chokey parts" on them. I asked him if he is allowed to take them to bed.
He said, "Well, mama says no but grammy says yes." I put them in his crib and then we read a book on the big bed and when I put him in the crib I discreetly put the cars in my pocket.
He lay in his crib and said, "Great Mikie, I think I hear my cars in your pocket." (I heard them too. The wheels clashed as they went into my pocket.) He said it so matter of factly, no anger, just a statement.
So of course I was "busted" and said, "Yes they are in my pocket" and that I thought it was best to leave them there.
He said, "No I think they should be in my crib."
So I gave them to him and told him not to put them in his mouth.
He said, "I won't do that" with that look as if I was saying something truly ridiculous.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Name that Celebrity!
I have to admit I'm having a hard time writing my post on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. Our Day 3 was Thursday. THE DAY. The historic day when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States. As I've already mentioned, we were there, in the stadium, for the speech. And it was amazing. So amazing that I'm having trouble getting it down in words.
So, as I work on that. And, as a break for any of you not so interested in politics. Here's a post about celebrity sightings! Real celebrities!
You see, the section right in front of us seemed to be chock full of celebrities. Some were easily recognizable like Susan Sarandon and Dana Delany. Others looked familiar. We were certain they were famous. But, we couldn't quite place them. But, we confirmed they were, in fact, important when the entire group got up and was escorted to better seats!
So, today I give you "Name that Celebrity!"
Join the fun by naming these celebrities in the comments section.
Celebrity A:
Celebrity B:
Celebrity C:
So, as I work on that. And, as a break for any of you not so interested in politics. Here's a post about celebrity sightings! Real celebrities!
You see, the section right in front of us seemed to be chock full of celebrities. Some were easily recognizable like Susan Sarandon and Dana Delany. Others looked familiar. We were certain they were famous. But, we couldn't quite place them. But, we confirmed they were, in fact, important when the entire group got up and was escorted to better seats!
So, today I give you "Name that Celebrity!"
Join the fun by naming these celebrities in the comments section.
Celebrity A:
Celebrity B:
Celebrity C:
Celebrity D:
Celebrity E:
Monday, September 1, 2008
Democratic National Convention: Day 2
On Wednesday, after about 5 hours of sleep, we got up and headed to the Maryland Delegation hotel for the Delegation breakfast. We had to be there because immediately following breakfast each day, they opened up the sign-up sheet for the lottery for the extra credentials. Credentials, you see, are like gold. They are what get you into the actual Convention. We were desperate to get some.
Although we were exhausted, we were energized by that morning's speakers--Governor Duval Patrick of Massachusetts and Speaker Nancy Pelosi!
From breakfast we headed downtown to try to crash the Creative Coalition event for the movie 14 Women, a film about the 14 women U.S. Senator's in the 109th Congress. We got in! And, so Abel and I found ourselves in the same room as Tim Daly, Anne Hathaway, Annette Benning (who was being honored), Susan Sarandon (who walked right by me!), Matthew Modine and Angela Bassett. I also got to chat with Senator Debbie Stabenow which was extra-exciting for me because I worked for her campaign when she first ran for Congress.
After that star-studded event we walked over to the Denver Convention Center (not to be confused with the Pepsi Center where the actual Convention was taking place). We had heard that Hillary was going to have an event for her Delegates that afternoon. And, we heard that they weren't going to be checking names to get in. So, of course we wanted to be there!
On the way to get in line for the Hillary event, we literally ran into Speaker Nancy Pelosi signing her new book. Of course I jumped in line! Her daughter, Christine, was there signing her book as well. I bought both and got them both signed. In the brief seconds it took them each to sign my book, I took the opportunity to mention that Speaker Pelosi and I share an alma mater!
Books in hand, we continued down the hall to discover that, despite it being more than two hours before the Hillary event was slated to begin, there were literally hundreds of people in line already. I guess we weren't the only people to find out they were planning to let everyone in!
We got in line.
And stood in line.
For two hours.
I was very tired and very hungry. I started to feel it wasn't worth it--even if they let us into the room on time, I knew the program would start late. It was going to be a standing-only event. So, we got out of line. And, as we were about to leave, we saw two friends working the door for the press. They waved us over and put us in line at the back of the press. The best part? The press were the first ones let into the room! We ended up getting standing immediately behind the up-front section reserved for wheelchairs. I was still tired and hungry and we still had to wait another 45 minutes before Hillary came into the room. It ended up being the speech where she officially released her delegates and we were right up front! It was truly an historical moment. I'm glad I was there.
We grabbed a quick slice of pizza and made our way back to the house where we were staying. Desperate for a nap, I laid down for about 45 minutes when Abel came in to tell me that someone else in the house had given us their credentials for the convention that evening. Woo hoo!
We left immediately.
It ended up being a huge disappointment. First, due to several delays including protesters on bicycles blocking traffic, it took forever to get there. In security, my Sigg water bottle got confiscated. It ended up that our "Special Guest" Hall credentials were the lowest of the low. By the time we got there the Fire Marshall had declared the conventional hall to be over-capacity so all we could do was peek in over the 5-10 other people peering into each opening. Our only real option was to watch the speeches on TV from the hallway of the Convention!
Willing to try anything, I stood by the down escalator and asked everyone with "Floor" credentials (the best ones) if they were leaving for the evening. If they answered yes, I asked if they would give us their credentials. After about dozen no's (yes they were leaving, no they wouldn't give up their credentials--I knew it was unlikely as they're major souvenir items but a girl's gotta' try, right?) the security guard told me that even if I did get Floor credentials it was too late and they weren't letting any more people in, now matter what credentials they had.
Eventually, completely deflated, we left and headed over to that night's Maryland Delegation party hosted by Governor O'Malley at Fado. O'Malley is a musician and at one point two other Governor's were on stage playing with him.
Even though the actual convention was a huge disapointment for us, it was an incredible day.
Day 2 Fun Fact: Wednesday morning we received our 3rd canvas "swag" bag since arriving. That's 3 bags in about 22 hours!
Although we were exhausted, we were energized by that morning's speakers--Governor Duval Patrick of Massachusetts and Speaker Nancy Pelosi!
From breakfast we headed downtown to try to crash the Creative Coalition event for the movie 14 Women, a film about the 14 women U.S. Senator's in the 109th Congress. We got in! And, so Abel and I found ourselves in the same room as Tim Daly, Anne Hathaway, Annette Benning (who was being honored), Susan Sarandon (who walked right by me!), Matthew Modine and Angela Bassett. I also got to chat with Senator Debbie Stabenow which was extra-exciting for me because I worked for her campaign when she first ran for Congress.
After that star-studded event we walked over to the Denver Convention Center (not to be confused with the Pepsi Center where the actual Convention was taking place). We had heard that Hillary was going to have an event for her Delegates that afternoon. And, we heard that they weren't going to be checking names to get in. So, of course we wanted to be there!
On the way to get in line for the Hillary event, we literally ran into Speaker Nancy Pelosi signing her new book. Of course I jumped in line! Her daughter, Christine, was there signing her book as well. I bought both and got them both signed. In the brief seconds it took them each to sign my book, I took the opportunity to mention that Speaker Pelosi and I share an alma mater!
Books in hand, we continued down the hall to discover that, despite it being more than two hours before the Hillary event was slated to begin, there were literally hundreds of people in line already. I guess we weren't the only people to find out they were planning to let everyone in!
We got in line.
And stood in line.
For two hours.
I was very tired and very hungry. I started to feel it wasn't worth it--even if they let us into the room on time, I knew the program would start late. It was going to be a standing-only event. So, we got out of line. And, as we were about to leave, we saw two friends working the door for the press. They waved us over and put us in line at the back of the press. The best part? The press were the first ones let into the room! We ended up getting standing immediately behind the up-front section reserved for wheelchairs. I was still tired and hungry and we still had to wait another 45 minutes before Hillary came into the room. It ended up being the speech where she officially released her delegates and we were right up front! It was truly an historical moment. I'm glad I was there.
We grabbed a quick slice of pizza and made our way back to the house where we were staying. Desperate for a nap, I laid down for about 45 minutes when Abel came in to tell me that someone else in the house had given us their credentials for the convention that evening. Woo hoo!
We left immediately.
It ended up being a huge disappointment. First, due to several delays including protesters on bicycles blocking traffic, it took forever to get there. In security, my Sigg water bottle got confiscated. It ended up that our "Special Guest" Hall credentials were the lowest of the low. By the time we got there the Fire Marshall had declared the conventional hall to be over-capacity so all we could do was peek in over the 5-10 other people peering into each opening. Our only real option was to watch the speeches on TV from the hallway of the Convention!
Willing to try anything, I stood by the down escalator and asked everyone with "Floor" credentials (the best ones) if they were leaving for the evening. If they answered yes, I asked if they would give us their credentials. After about dozen no's (yes they were leaving, no they wouldn't give up their credentials--I knew it was unlikely as they're major souvenir items but a girl's gotta' try, right?) the security guard told me that even if I did get Floor credentials it was too late and they weren't letting any more people in, now matter what credentials they had.
Eventually, completely deflated, we left and headed over to that night's Maryland Delegation party hosted by Governor O'Malley at Fado. O'Malley is a musician and at one point two other Governor's were on stage playing with him.
Even though the actual convention was a huge disapointment for us, it was an incredible day.
Day 2 Fun Fact: Wednesday morning we received our 3rd canvas "swag" bag since arriving. That's 3 bags in about 22 hours!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)