Cock-Blocked at the Obama Rally

Sigh.  What a day.

We found out that Barack Obama was holding a rally today at Reunion Arena. We decided to be crazy and pack up Bridget and go. Sure, we figured, it would be a mad house and she’d probably get cranky or hungry or tired or otherwise toddlerish. But in 30 years would we remember that she cried a lot, or would we remember going to the event? Decision made.

We arrived to see a line wrapped 437 times around the arena (only a slight exaggeration) but we decided to park and chance it. We followed the line and the slew of volunteers across the street and into the parking garage, then up and up and up and finally up some more. We joined the end of the line on the top level of the parking garage. I can honestly say that I have never seen a line that long in my life. I was immediately discouraged and was trying to get Jake to leave, very subtly. I mean, I was hungry and it seemed fairly obvious that we were not going to get inside for this thing. But he convinced me to stay. Eventually the line did start to move and we meandered our way down the ramps of the parking garage. We were picking up steam and enthusiasm as we got to the bottom and started to approach the arena. We were so close! The doors! We could see the doors! We were at the doors!

And then they locked the doors right in our faces. Literally we would have been the next ones inside. Some jackasses behind us actually leap-frogged over Bridget’s stroller and made it inside somehow. But we didn’t.  We were left standing outside pathetically hoping the flingin’ flangin’ Fire Marshall would decide that 17,002 people was actually the right number of people. Alas, it was not in the cards for us.

I’d be really disappointed but I’m glad we went and were part of the process. We didn’t get in but we did make it known just how many supporters Obama has in Dallas. And it was really amazing to see how many people were there and how many different types of people were there. Yes, there were a lot of African-Americans but there were also whites, Hispanics, Asians. The crowd was young and very old, men and women. There were tons of kids from local schools who were bused in to be part of the event. Even though we were cock-blocked, it was still an exciting and amazing day.

And in case you were wondering? Bridget was a dream the whole time. She sat in her stroller, she chewed on a teether, she drank some juice, had a snack and flirted and waved at everyone around us. God, I love that kid.

Filed under Mommy Zombie, Political |