This was my day...I hope I bring it alive for all that couldn’t be there…
I started out wanting to be at the site, which was the Florida State Fairgrounds, of Hillary Clinton’s rally in Tampa by 8 o’clock in the morning, so I left my house at 7:50 as I only live 10 minutes away. Didn’t work that way as there was a Jehovah’s Witness grouping going on that morning next door to Hillary’s venue. I ended up sitting in traffic for 45 minutes. I saw 10,000 cars...I kid you not and my first reaction was oh my god, I’m never going to get in to see Hillary...Here’s a pic to prove my myopic view...
After sitting in traffic for 45 minutes I finally got onto the FSF(Florida State Fairgrounds) area...but low and behold no one directing traffic had any idea where I was supposed to park for Hillary’s Rally so I wasted another 15 minutes driving around and around the JW traffic jam.
Finally...Got to park and join the first few loyal Hillary people…
The young man sitting on the right on the upturned receptacle arrived at 6am, the two next to him( girl in the brown top knows Markos) arrived at 6:30...The others between then and when I finally got there at 8:45.
I was happy and relieved upon finally arriving and finding out that I was top 9 and there was no way I would miss out being near Hillary.
Me being the gregarious nut you all know me to be hit it off right away with all of the early arrivals. They all asked me about the poster I had made which if you haven’t seen it before the woman in the white pants and blue top asked if she could take my pic ...I stupidly said yes...I got the sad news that I wouldn’t get to bring my sign inside not longer after this..:(
We all sat around and talked for quite a while before others started showing up. I found to my chagrin that I had no signal to access the internet….I gave in to the reason being that there were power lines directly overhead. It didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for my reason for being there but it did bum me out that I couldn’t keep in touch with everyone throughout the day like I had intended…
I’ll give everyone a reprieve from my boring commentary and post some pics from later in the day showing the crowd thickening….venues selling Hillary paraphernalia..and the venue itself...
I walked around for hours toting my poster as I knew FG and Diogenes2008 were supposed to be there...Found Diogenes but never hooked up with FG, which was all my fault as the night before I added a larger memory card to my phone and somehow displaced my sim card...(You all can quit LOL)...LOL...I didn’t realize this until after I got home so I want to apologize to FG for not being available and to you all for my lack of electronic wizadry…
So I am wandering around with my sign...back and forth looking for FG and Diogenes2008 and hoping they would see the sign and hit me up...I was near to giving up when Diogenes and I were walking past each other and she did a double take and I froze….WE MET….Hoohah...
We hit it off pretty nicely and talked off and on throughout the day and when inside up until we left...Nice, finally putting a face to a name from our diary’s.
Finally ready to get inside which turned into a clusterfuck because no one had any idea what they were doing and everyone there to see Hillary kept crowding forward to the entry and the metal detectors...No one was moving past me though...not if they valued their life…:)
I got in, rushing to the front of the stage where a bomb wouldn’t have uprooted me...Knew I was in for a longer wait but I couldn’t have been happier.
Now to the meat of the day...The speakers…Sorry for any shakiness...kinda hard when yelling and shaking from the momentous moments and words.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn...Very funny guy...Well worth a listen!
Senator Bill Nelson...Good speech...short and to the point!
Our reason for hope...The first woman that will become our 45th President...Hillary Rodham Clinton...Great presence and a wonderful and formidable speech...Which is paused because I hit the stop button in my teary going crazy moment...To be continued…
The finish of Hillary’s speech….Thank god I recovered swiftly…
It was a wonderful experience...One I hope I get to relive again soon…
I’m going to close with my three favorite pics of Hillary,from the day, one you’ve see before and two you haven’t…
Well...hope you enjoyed my day as much as I did living it….See everyone on the SJ’s EE tonight.