Convention update – thru Tuesday

OK, so I’ve mostly been using Twitter to keep y’all up to date on what’s been going on. Truth be told, I’ve been too tired to spend much time blogging. I’m taking it all in, though, and will be having a bunch of stuff when I get back.

Since I last posted, I found out that the Pepsi Center does have wireless access. I’m going to give that a shot tonight, especially since we have to be over there when the session opens at 3pm MT (5pm ET). So I should have some spare time, which truly has been in short supply.

So to catch y’all up:

Monday evening –  I gave up on the live blogging thing, both because it was too slow over BT and because it the environment simply wasn’t conducive to blogging. After the convention closed, I headed over to a reception hosted by Governor Tim Kaine’s Moving Virginia Forward PAC. The place was jammed and they had a live band. Late in the evening, former NBA player Charles Barkley showed up. Funniest thing I saw: for once, it was Kaine who was trying to get his picture taken with somebody 🙂 Barkley is HUGE – I saw him stand next to Brian Moran, who certainly isn’t vertically challenged – and he was a good 8″ taller.

Tuesday – after the delegation breakfast, I attended the Women’s Caucus. Afterwards, I headed over to the LGBT delegates’ luncheon with Congressman Barney Frank and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. The surprise speaker there was Michelle Obama.

At the same hotel as the luncheon was an Emily’s list event with speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Yeah, I got an invitation. No, I wasn’t paying to see Pelosi.) As I was leaving the event, there was quite a bit of stuff going on outside. There were several different groups demonstrating – so many, in fact, that I couldn’t tell who was yelling at whom. Lots of people hanging out watching. The police – who seem to be absolutely everywhere – actually looked overwhelmed. That didn’t last long. They called in the calvary – literally, officers on horseback. And they were followed by a police swat vehicle, with menancing looking guys dressed in all black uniforms and riot gear. Yeah, it was overkill. And yes, I have pictures 🙂

I went back to the hotel to change and headed over to an event hosted by Mark Warner’s PAC. From what I hear, they invited a bunch of people but only planned for about 250 – until they got over 800 RSVPs! Needless to say, it was quite packed. I saw a few folks and then headed over to the Pepsi Center for the evening’s events.

The VA delegation was given Mark Warner for Senate T-shirts and most of us wore them in honor of the former governor’s speech. Did y’all see any of us on TV in the shirts? 😉

As for Warner – he did quite well. The shame was that there was a lot of talking going on while he was speaking, so I’m not sure many people really heard his speech.

As for Hillary’s speech – well, I think she hit it out of the park. More on that in another post.

Celebrity sighting – the person next to me nudged me and asked me who the actress was standing behind our seats. I turned and spotted none other than Jane Seymour. I’m told she’s been on Dancing with the Stars but I remember her best from Dr. Quinn. She looked absolutely amazing! She was joined in a few minutes by David Keith, who is equally easy on the eyes 😉

Brian Moran hosted an event after the close of the convention. Brother Jim was there as well. David Keith joined us at some point. Seems like a really nice guy. Late in the evening, Mark Warner showed up, basking in the glow of his speech earlier.

I packed it in about 1am.