Thursday Night My BODY Needed Mending

I don't know how long it has been since I've slept so little and done so much.

Every morning we get up closer and closer to the 7 am breakfast meeting. Today we tried to decide whether or not to go to the Women's Caucus. When our breakfast meeting ended early, we gave green light. Tanisha got out earlier than I did on the bus (I took the light rail) and saved me a seat in the ballroom. Once again, a full room by the time the speakers began at 10, I'd say over 1,000. We were right up front, and had a great view for Lily Ledbetter, Ashley Judd, Jill Biden and Michelle Obama's presentations. This is the Year of the Woman, no doubt.

We got back to the hotel for a quick clean up and dress up for the BIG NIGHT. Tanisha had a fine hat her grandmother gave her to wear for the occasion. Her grandmother is a hat lady, and wanted her to have a proper hat. It was beautiful.

Karen Russel had on a fabulous Donkey Head Hat.

Format was a little different tonight. There were some warm up speakers. Then James Taylor held court, strode onto the stage, approached the chair waiting for him, and announced something like "I think I'll just SIT on this chair". He wooed the crowd with Carolina In My Mind, How Sweet It Is, You've Got a Friend...ah, JT. Then he told the diverse crowd of 20,000 "I'm an old white guy and I'm for Barack Obama". Excellent. Mary J. Blige rocked the house for her set, and Foo Fighters rounded out the music breaks.

Then we had the presentation of colors and National Anthem sung very well by Marc Anthony. But no pledge...hmmm....we'd heard a rumor about the pledge...they were saving it for prime time. For good reason. Gabby Giffords walked out under her own power, accompanied by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and recited the pledge along with a visibly moved crowd.

Massachusetts was well represented during the convention with Gov. Patrick, Joe Kennedy III and Elizabeth Warren last night. Tonight early on we had Mayor Menino (whose speech was unintelligible) and Barney Frank (whose wandering from his script caused the teleprompter to go black after about 30 seconds). Barney was definitely being Barney. Hey, he's retiring after long and outstanding service, he gets to go off script! The guy sitting next to me said, during "Mumbles" Menino's speech, "Aren't you from Boston? You don't talk like that." I told him I'd been away for a long time, but to rest assured that NO one in Boston talks like Menino. Later we had John Kerry, who is VERY understandable. He actually smiled. And made some jokes. And gave heartfelt thanks to our nation's soldiers and veterans, along with the entire arena.

There was a big focus tonight on veterans, the military, don't ask don't tell, marriage equality, more auto industry. And women, of course. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, running for Senate in Wisconsin, was one of the stars of the night. Also giving a barn burner speech was Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan. And Caroline Kennedy, always wise and graceful.

The videos were excellent, as they had been all week. Heroes, Stronger Together, American Voices, all bringing the themes together. We also got to see the Fired Up, Ready to Go video again, that we'd seen at the Women's Caucus earlier. Edith S. Childs was sitting a few rows behind us, in her beautiful church hat, in the SC delegation. You have to watch this one. I just love it.

The Biden and Obama families were sitting right in front of us as time for Joe's and Barack's speeches were coming up, having moved down from the sky boxes behind us. We were so lucky to have such great seats. Then it was time to Fire It Up, Ready for Joe!

When Joe was done, we couldn't wait for President Obama to take the stage. FINALLY! His speech was very good. I hope everyone listened to it, and watched it, rather than depending on the talking heads and newspapers. I don't understand how anyone can doubt the intent and competency of this man. When the families joined Obama and Biden on the stage, we were buried in a storm of confetti. It was an incredible moment. A transcript and tape are here.

I'll post some video clips of the night when I get them edited.

The Time Warner Arena that night was crazy when we were leaving. I got separated from Tanisha, finally got her via phone, but decided it was too hard to find each other. She ended up in a sea of people heading to the buses, I ended up in a sea of people heading to the light rail. My claim to fame on the way home was walking to and through the Convention Center behind Ashley Judd. The clock hands passed into the new day as I got on the light rail.