President Obama in Golden, Colorado

It happened! I got to see the President! Unlike last time when I was stuck trying to just listen to his speech from a speaker, I actually had good "seats" to watch President Obama speak on Thursday. My coordinator gave Andrew and me priority seats, and I ended up just 50 feet away from the podium. Sweet!

The forecast for the day was high 50s and cloudy. We were going in the morning, so it was even colder. Oliver stayed with Grandpa Paul, and we dressed Jo head to toe in fleece to keep her warm.

Check out this cutie!

Well, the forecast was wrong. There were almost no clouds. The sun started to beat down on us before 9am, and temperatures quickly reached the 60s. Oops. Jo was quite unhappy. Andrew took her home. I called Phuong, who was there with a standard ticket, and told her to come join me. I don't know if it's allowed (probably not), but I had Andrew's priority ticket stub and gave it to her. And, so, I ended up getting to watch the President with my best bud.

We got to listen to Ken Salazar speak about clean energy--specifically, all of the jobs created in Colorado from our wind energy tax credit.

Then, one of the other coordinators at the campaign office I volunteer at got to speak. What an amazing opportunity for her!

We listened to a teacher in Jefferson County introduce President Obama. Check out the crowd here in Jefferson County!

Here are the photos I took of the President. His speech was very motivational. Although he addressed sobering issues regarding Libya, he also talked about renewable energy, benefits and help from returning servicemen and women, national debt, women's health, and gay marriage.

Phuong took a photo of me so I could be content knowing I have a photo of myself "with" the President.

After the speech, we took a stroll around historic Golden and got some lunch. Oliver was sleeping back home, so it took a few hours for Andrew to get back to pick us up. I can't complain: the scenery was beautiful, lunch was tasty, and the company was welcome.

President Obama in Colorado

I feel so disappointed. Just... really heartbroken.

I usually keep my political opinions out of my blog. Political opinions tend to push some people away, and that's not what I want for my blog.

This post isn't about my opinion on issues; it's about my experience.

I support President Barack Obama, and I am a campaign volunteer for him. At least once a week, Andrew watches the kids in the evenings for me so that I can get to the campaign office and make some calls to people in my area. I love reaching out to people and talking about the issues.

Well, about a month ago, President Obama came to Denver. I got a call from my volunteer organizer, and she told me she had a VIP ticket for me to see the President. One of the hardest things I've ever done was turning that ticket down. You see, I had anniversary plans with my husband to go up in a hot air balloon. When I got back to the campaign office, everyone was talking about how they got to meet the President and First Lady. I don't think I've ever been more jealous of anything in my life. I mean, I'm glad I got to celebrate my anniversary with my husband. I was just sad about what I gave up to do it.

Well, today, the President came back to Colorado. He came to Boulder, which is about an hour away. It's out of our area, I guess, so my campaign office didn't get tickets. So, Andrew and I drove up to Broomfield on Thursday night (when the tickets were released) and picked up two tickets for my friend Aminta and me.

The doors opened at 10am. Aminta and I got to Boulder at 8:15am.

Here I am in my Obama outfit:

We waited in the hot sun to get in, but it was totally worth it. Although there were hundreds of people ahead of us, we had amazing "seats." By seats, I mean a place to stand! We were about 20 feet from the stage.

Here's Aminta! "O" for Obama, of course! You can see we beat the crowds. 

The event was to start any time between 10am and 1pm. At first, we had access to a free water station. Before long, the crowds filled in behind us, and we couldn't get water unless we wanted to abandon our awesome spot. In all, there were over 13,000 people there.

The crowd behind us:

Here was my view of the podium:

We waited and waited and waited. Around noon, my breasts started to ache from not nursing Jo. Then, I started to get sick from the heat. I had stomach pains and was dizzy. I kept holding out. It was going to start any minute (I thought). Sometimes, clouds rolled in and gave us a break from the heat. Most of the time, though, we were just standing there underneath the hot, hot sun. A few EMTs were running into the crowd to help people who were overheating. I thought I could make it.

One o'clock came and went. I started shaking and had to leave. I told Aminta to stay because she was doing OK. I left around 1:15pm and pushed my way through the crowd to the water station. People were exhausted from the heat and wait and were pretty hostile to me. I finally made it and poured cup after cup of water straight down my throat. After swallowing about a liter, I filled my cup and took it to the shade. I was so far back that I couldn't even see the stage. There was no way I could get back to Aminta.

This was my view after I left the stage area. Boo.

A few minutes later, they started announcing speakers. I sat near a speaker and listened to Senator Michael Bennet and Governor John Hickenlooper. I worked my way around the crowd, trying to find a spot where I could see the stage. I couldn't see anything. After a few more speeches, they announced President Obama. Everyone was so excited and cheering, but I was fighting back the hot tears in my eyes. Hours in the hot sun, waiting for that moment, and all I had was a speaker to stand next to to listen to him.

He gave a great speech. He talked about some of his experiences in Boulder. He talked about Obamacare and his work to help college students pay for school. It really was amazing, and I tried to appreciate being there, listening to the President live. I really am an optimist, but it was too hard for me to be optimistic. I was so disappointed.

Aminta got to see President Obama. She didn't have a camera but snapped a cool photo with her phone.

When the speech started to wind down, she came and found me near the back of the field. People back there were talking a lot, and we could no longer hear the speech. So, we decided to leave. On the way out, I was able to find a spot where I could see through the crowd to the stage. It sounds stupid, but I was so happy to at least get a glimpse of the President. I felt like I at least got something special from spending all day there. Here he is (under the tree), with my camera zoomed all the way in:

It was about 3pm when we left. We made our way to the car, stopping for a snack on the way because we hadn't eaten all day. It was a good thing we stopped because we got to see the President's motorcade drive by. One of the tinted cars had a flag with the Presidential seal. I assume it was President Obama in there. Pretty cool, huh?

I know I should be thankful that I got to be there in person to hear our President speak. I am trying to be. I'm sure once the pain of disappointment passes, I will feel glad I made it at all. In the meantime, though, I think I need to have one good cry. Then, it'll be back to volunteering this week! Who knows? Maybe there will be another chance to see the President speak. We are a swing state, after all!

Healthcare Changes, Dirty Needles, and Me

Within the past month, I received two important letters in the mail.  

The first was a letter from my insurance company.  It stated that the health care law has some new requirements going into affect at the beginning of August.  They will now be covering all costs for birth control, sterilization, well women visits, tests for gestational diabetes, HIV testing, HPV testing, and more.  

Most of that doesn't effect me personally. We're done having kids, and my husband has already had his vasectomy  Still, it made me feel good to know that other people out there will be better off. I felt good reading the letter, knowing people would get the preventative care they want and need.

Then, last week, I got another letter in the mail. It's very personal, and it's very scary. It came from the Colorado Department of Public Health, and it informed me that I might have been exposed to foreign blood from reused needles back when I had my wisdom teeth removed in 2003 (news story here).  It recommends I get tested the viruses Hep B, Hep C, and HIV.  It also remarked that I am responsible for the cost of testing.

Baby Book Keepsake

Just before Jo was born, I'd found out that the White House will send a letter of congratulations if you mail them a birth announcement along with your return address to:

White House Greetings Office
Room 39
Washington, DC
20500

I finally got around to sending Jo's announcement just before Christmas. Today, this arrived for her in the mail:

You're Protesting What?

I'm amazed at how many parents are protesting the broadcast from President Obama to our schools. On the radio, people were calling in and saying there should be permission slips to parents so they can opt their children out.

In our public school system when I was growing up, we frequently had speakers. I remember listening to Miss America in 5th or 6th grade talk against drugs, and I remember hearing the fire chief discuss fire safety. Speakers were in and out all the time, and they never caused a commotion.

President Obama is speaking to our kids about staying in school and the importance of a good education. How is this topic controversial?

I read an article today where they interviewed a man who said it scares him that there's a direct communication line between the President of the United States and students. Why is that scary?

It's true that I'm politically quite liberal. Still, when I was in school, I would have been thrilled to have the chance to hear any president speak, whether I agreed with him politically or not. As it stands, however, the president is not speaking on controversial issues that have partisan divisions. He's simply speaking about the importance of an education. Isn't it an incredible opportunity for our students?

I brought the subject up to some of my coworkers today. I told them how weird it seemed that so many people are up in arms over this stay-in-school broadcast. The drug rep who provided lunch said she didn't approve of the move because the President was going to have celebrities on the broadcast who are pro-UNICEF. I didn't argue with her, really, but all I could think was, "Who can be against UNICEF? Do you not want to prove food and health care to poor children around the world?" Instead, I said, "There's no speaker that everyone will agree with, but I think it's a wonderful opportunity for students to get to hear directly from our nation's leader."

It's so bizarre what some people take issue with.

Still No Tickets to the Convention

I'm a little disappointed. As an Obama supporter, I've been on the list of emails for all of the important information in his campaign. A little more than a week ago, when they opened up their site for people to sign up for tickets, I was one of the first on and entered. I crossed my fingers, and...

...I made it onto the waiting list. I knew approximately half of all the tickets were going to people from Colorado, and since I was so early with registration, I thought I'd have a good chance. They must have some sort of selection process, though, because I told a girl I work with about the website. She signed up one day later than me, and she managed to score tickets to the event of the decade.

I suppose there's still a chance I'll make it. When people don't pick up their tickets, they're redistributed to others on the waiting list. Still, with less than a week to go, I'm less hopeful than I was earlier.

On the positive side, Andrew wasn't looking forward to the crowd and chaos, anyway. He simply agreed to go with me because he didn't want me going by myself. If we don't get tickets, I suppose we can pop some corn and watch it from the comfort of our living room. Not quite as good, but still memorable.