cold and locked out
So, I'm relatively apolitical, but that's been changing now for a while. And I was sort of excited about the prospect of seeing Bill Clinton stump for Hillary tonight at UW's Multipurpose Gym. Kaijsa and Cass got in line around a quarter to 4, and I caught up to them about 20 minutes later. There might've been 300 people ahead of us in line. Slowly--painfully, brutally, slowly--we made our way towards the doors. The line wound around the law school to the corner of Willett (our starting point), then down Willett all the way to 22nd. I wished for an ice-cream truck to come by so I could warm my hands on a frozen fudgesicle--it was a perfectly windy Wyoming day, clear and bright and sharp like mountain stream water. Brrr.
Finally we got inside the doors: only 60 feet stood between us and entry to the big event. Then, 40 feet. Then just 20 people or so. And then the doors closed, after we'd been standing out in the fuggin' cold for an hour freezing off our bits.
So the campaign volunteer staff -- essentially, one girl in a "Hillary" shirt -- let us know that there would be a 'data feed' into the overflow area. So they opened the door to the Field House floor, with one tiny set of bleachers to sit on and a couple of speakers so we could listen to the audio feed.
Maybe this is just 'the way things go' during campaign season. Maybe I'm too used to my mornings on the ski trails, when I only have to share with a handful of people. Maybe I'm just a whiner. But it was cold, and poorly planned, and not exactly the best of first encounters with national politics on the local scale. Not sure I feel like standing in line for two hours tomorrow to try to see Obama. I think I'll go skiing instead. I should have the trail to myself.
Finally we got inside the doors: only 60 feet stood between us and entry to the big event. Then, 40 feet. Then just 20 people or so. And then the doors closed, after we'd been standing out in the fuggin' cold for an hour freezing off our bits.
So the campaign volunteer staff -- essentially, one girl in a "Hillary" shirt -- let us know that there would be a 'data feed' into the overflow area. So they opened the door to the Field House floor, with one tiny set of bleachers to sit on and a couple of speakers so we could listen to the audio feed.
Maybe this is just 'the way things go' during campaign season. Maybe I'm too used to my mornings on the ski trails, when I only have to share with a handful of people. Maybe I'm just a whiner. But it was cold, and poorly planned, and not exactly the best of first encounters with national politics on the local scale. Not sure I feel like standing in line for two hours tomorrow to try to see Obama. I think I'll go skiing instead. I should have the trail to myself.
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