9:45 am: Boarded American Airlines flight 327 for Dallas en route to Denver. Wearing my tiny discreet "Women for Obama" button -- but it feels like everyone around me must be able to read my excitement at finally being on the road for the DNC.
Before checking my bags, a member of the ground-crew staff asks my destination. I blurt out, "Denver: I'm going to the convention!" (What she really needed to know was Dallas, my first destination.) She smiled and indulged me anyway.
5:45 pm After a largely uneventful couple of flights book-ending a long-ish layover in Dallas, I arrive in Denver. Whisked away efficiently by a SuperShuttle, I check into the Renaissance Denver Hotel in Stapleton, which is billeting the Massachusetts and Maryland delegations. The hotel is abuzz with people -- it must be a sellout week all over town. The first thing I see when I walk in the door is a big banner, "Massachusetts Democratic Party," where a tableful of staffers are checking people in and providing useful information. Before I have a chance to check things out, I hear my name called and state committee member Kathy Pasquina is embracing and welcoming me. (Kathy and 1st Essex-Middlesex publicity liaison Nancy Weinberg arrived on Friday.) Kathy re-introduces me to Joe Kaplan, another state committee member whom I had met the evening of our platform discussion in Boxford. (As a member of the national Platform Committee, Joe came to observe, listen and participate in our discussion.)
Tonight there will be welcome receptions by Senator Kerry for our state delegation, and afterward an Ice Cream Social sponsored by both Massachusetts and Maryland delegations. So far, the convention seems like one big party.
6:15 pm Just officially "checked in" with the state party at the lobby registration area. Advice, friendly faces, and a gift bag awaited. Still not sure how possible it will be to bring my laptop with me into the convention building itself; blogging will be a bit of an adventure. At least the hotel room is set up with free wi-fi, so filing a blog from there (as I am doing now) will be easy.
Met three friendly Maryland delegates on the way up the elevator, one who grew up in Duxbury! Massachusetts is never very far away, it seems.
For pictures of the day's events and political celebrities, please click here or go to www.nancysnewsnetwork.blogspot.com.
3 comments:
Have fun Marianne! Would love to be there, but someone's got to hold down the fort on the North Shore! LOL!
Best,
Marsha Finkelstein
Salem, MA
Marianne, this is so exciting! I am glued to MSNBC so wave if you get a chance. The MSM is trying to hype DIS-unity. Wha vibe are you picking up?
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