Flashback
Friday: Went to payless to buy sneakers because I didn’t pack mine. Successfully navigated Denver public transportation. Ended up buying four pairs of shoes. For $50. I’m amazing. Came back to the dorms, went to the CDA community service project, which consisted of weeding and trellising tomato plants at an organic farm. Many dirty jokes about hoeing ensued. I remembered to get and use sunscreen, however, I didn’t think to do my back, and consequently got a nasty burn where my shirt rode up when I bent over while I was picking weeds. So basically I have a tramp stamp sunburn. Pictures are available here (of the whole excursion, not the sunburn):
Showered, went to the Convention Center, registered with CDA, spent a lot of time hanging around being awkward, eventually just sat behind the registration table and pretended I was CDA staff. This is a charade I’ve kept up all week, greatly assisted by the Staff badge Mike bequeathed to me when he needed me to make copies. Have since started hanging out in the CDA staff room, which is misleadingly labeled “DNC Training Room,” for some reason.
Attended CDA opening ceremonies, gave my contact information to Jackie (who runs the internship program and basically the whole DNC) on the off-chance she’d take pity on me and give me office credentials (which she didn’t, hasn’t, and probably won’t), and listened to a couple of CDA speeches, including Howard Dean.
Bailed on CDA party for state staff party I organized for Lindsey, which was fun. Met Mary McCall, who is hilarious, cool, and my new favorite person in DA, which are not mutually exclusive qualities. Got terrible blisters from one of my new pairs of shoes, which was unfortunate as it was the first day of convention. Bummer. The other pairs of shoes seem to be okay, much to my delight.
Saturday: Met Mary and Lindsey at the Red Lion at 9AM to put together welcome packets for our delegation. Much hilarity ensued. Missed out on a free CDA breakfast at the Women’s Caucus, but got to the convention center in time to snag a lunch and go to some trainings. I hit “Writing a Speech and Framing a Message,” “Successful Fundraising,” and “Mobilizing through New Media.” All were interesting, but the messaging one was the best, because it was run by Parag, who does amazing trainings.
Following that, I got a little lost on the way to the Meditate 08 opening ceremonies, but eventually made it. Heard a rumor Gov. Dean’s wife was there, but I have no idea what she looks like, so I can’t confirm that. The event was at the Denver Aquarium, which is kind of out of the way from the rest of downtown, but it was a nice walk crossing the Platte river. Only stayed for about an hour though, both because it was too crowded and very uncomfortable, and because it started to feel very cult-ish, what with all the chanting and talk of being one family.
Had really good Mexican for dinner by the aquarium, and took a cab back to the convection center/CDA office around 8. Met Mike, who was dealing with the never-ending housing crises. We talked about going to parties, but ended up just going out for dinner by the University of Denver. Then I hung out in his and Jason’s room until the wee hours, doing DA work while they worked on straighting out the rooming situation. Helped them sneak in several people over the course of the week – I know, I live on the edge.
Let’s see, you’ve already got the first half of Sunday, so look forward to posts about Sunday afternoon/night and Monday coming up soon.
