Red, white, blue and green in Denver

By Julia on August 28, 2008 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today, I am blue. And green. It is a picture perfect August day here in Denver, Colorado--brilliant sunshine, cloudless blue skies, and an ideal 71 degrees, with a whisper of a breeze and characteristic low, low humidity (why am I sitting in my office instead of out in the garden?!). You'd think the DNC had struck a bargain with Mother Nature to make sure Denver provided the perfect backdrop for tonight's acceptance speech by Barack Obama. And Denver has made sure that all the delegates, reporters, and other visitors will leave the city thinking they might want to move here (the low humidity is sooooooo seductive!). Before calling the moving van, they should know that a day like this in August is not the norm, and that a month ago, it was 104 degrees.

So why am I blue and green? Well, I'm a liberal Dem who is blue that she did not grab a ticket to tonight's event when a block of them were offered to the community, and green with envy that my stepdaughter and her mom are going to be at Invesco Field this evening for Obama's historic acceptance speech. The 80,000 tickets for the event, which were snapped up in no time flat, have long since been distributed and it's far too late to change my mind, so Rick (who is squeamish about crowds and is not the least bit disappointed not to be going) and I will be watching from home. I'm so glad we have a high def TV for this! And we can have the beautiful Denver evening to enjoy--we'll just keep the sliding glass door open to the backyard--they are on the north side of the house in the direction of the stadium. Sometimes, even though we're about 10 miles away as the crow flies, we can see fireworks from the stadium...

I think I'd not have had second thoughts if it hadn't turned out to be such an amazing day weather-wise, and if some of my favorite artists weren't playing! I've had MSNBC on TV today, and they've been broadcasting from the stadium, where Sheryl Crow, Michael McDonald, and Stevie Wonder have been doing sound checks. My inner, youthful JFK and MLK-loving idealistic, rock-concert loving self finds the combination of Obama invoking a future where we are united and taking care of one another and big music outdoors very stirring.

But the truth about the whole thing is that I never really felt inspired and energized to seek tickets when I had the chance, so I do trust that here at home is where I need to be tonight. I've been writing some on the EW book, and I'm still playing with the art pieces, and with our trip to Michigan coming up, I am starting to feel the tiniest bit of time pressure. Going to the big event would definitely take a chunk of time (doors open at 3 pm!) and a chunk of knee power that I may want to reserve for the extra walking I'll soon be doing. And I'll get the scoop about it from Stepdaughter #1 after the fact. But dang. I have always hated to be left out of a cool party, even if I left myself out!

P.S.You can find some cool photos of the convention "circus" taken by regular folks here. As I was looking at the official schedule of events for the DNC, I found this that was interesting! So glad it was included: Meditate '08

2 Comments

Rick said:

Just to be 100% accurate, I'm not all that squeamish about crowds. I simply don't like them. A lot. Avoidance of them is something I am good at!

August 28, 2008 2:35 PM

Julia said:

I rest my case.

Love you, Sweetie.

August 28, 2008 2:50 PM

Red, white, blue and green in Denver

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