Rachel Fool's Day!

It's April 1, the day after I risked my health in 3 hours of rain, chatting it up with the mentally unhealthy on both sides of me in line for tickets to see the President speak on healthcare. The text has since been changed, but I coulda sworn that the Chellie Pingree site said that once you have tickets, you are guaranteed a seat for the speech, I mean, it's the least they could do for the 3 hours in the rain thing, right.


Portland welcomes President Obama, but Rachel does not.

I offered my father the other ticket and we figured, we had tickets, doors opened at 1:30, showtime was 3:30, there might be a bit of a line, but we weren't the Salahis, we had TICKETS issued to us by the White House so we were good to go, right. Well apparently so did a special set of "Blue Ticket" folks and I'm not sure how these people got their privileges and their short line and their magic tickets, but something tells me that The Freeman Perspective (google it) might have an opinion.

We arrived into the general vicinity at 1:25ish, we raced through the Tea Party so no one, like the media, would catch us with them...





About a quarter mile later we thought we were close to joining the end of the entry line:



But we were wrong, the line bent around the corner and extended another 1/4 mile:




Dad iPhones his experiences from the back of the bus.

Everyone around us was nervous, we weren't sure if we'd make it inside. 2.15 hours later as we were stalemated 500 feet from the door we got the word that nope, we weren't going to see the president, that the Secret Service wasn't accepting anymore ticket holders in, if we didn't have Blue Tickets we were SOL. Only, the Secret Service didn't come out and tell us this, nor did any event coordinator or policeman or anyone! Hundreds of us were all just left to stand there, it was pretty RUDE, imho!!! (Mm, hmm!)* We had to get the information from other in-line suckers who had phone access to people who were already inside.

So, five total hours of line-standing-in for nothing. What a jip! The only redemption I could salvage was a glimmer of hope that the presidential cavalcade would drive past my house on the way to the airport. We were back at the house in time to watch the speech on TV, and I got a little excited when I noticed police vehicles preparing the roads for the presidential exit...right outside my house!

So I stood and waited, and waited, I tested my camera's movie function, I stood closest to my house because I wanted to know that the President was breathing the air around it. It made sense in my head. I saw a handful of people gathering up at the corner, but I wanted the full-on Rachel Perspective of him driving past my HOUSE.

Once I saw them coming I soon learned they weren't scheduled to drive down my street, they were instead taking the ramp to I295. The footage I took stinks, I would have had a better view of the departure from my kitchen window. Sigh, it just wasn't my day.

We did make the best of it still. The weather was beautiful and Dad and I both got to enjoy a couple dog/toddler-free hours, so that was nice. All of us in the "cheap seats" got a good laugh as this Work Hard/Play Hard kinda guy drove by, gawked, tipped his phone away from his mouth and shouted "Dick Cheney!" Ha! And even if our day didn't go as planned, I feel worse that the girl who was first in line for tickets, 11 hours in heavy rain, was also shut out.

Maybe next April Fool's Day will be better.....

*PS, you know what else is rude? Walking up to a 1/2 mile line of people who previously stood for 3, 4, 11 hours in the rain for tickets and asking "Do you have any extra tick-ahts? Scuze me, does anyone here have any extra free tick-ahts??" Uh, NUH!