October 9, 2008
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Sooooore!!!
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As you can see from the map above, I had quite a walk today, not counting any walking around during the speeches. JB and I went to go see Barack Obama speak today. I parked where I did hoping I could go up Principio, but I just followed the crowd, which was all going in the other direction. (I later learned that the side of the park by Principio was blocked, so I would have had to go around anyway.) At least it was a beautiful day, not too hot or cold. Sure was a lot of walking though, I don't know how anyone with disabilities would have done it!
I met my friend M there and our kids amused themselves quite adorably while waiting for Obama.
See, here's Liam giving JB some sage advice...
Here's some good pics of the crowd, many more than the 25 my boss predicted.
More cuteness! (That's his girlfriend Megan on the left, she's 2 months younger than him.)
Can you see the podium? Yeah, we really couldn't either. This is where we ended up sitting though, right next to a bitch that was telling JB to keep it down and not bump into her. Thank God M was there to make my apologies, 'cause I was sorely tempted to say some unkind words.... I mean c'mon, they're kids! Do you think they care about some guy waaay down there that they couldn't even really see giving a speech? No, they cared about playing in the wood chips that were under the tree we were trying to get some shade from, and poking sticks in the bushes. Aka- being kids! They weren't screaming, or really running around much, in fact I thought they were being quite good.
And how could one resist a tree????
(No, the bitch isn't pictured. She was on the other side of us, we tried to keep the kids away from her, obviously.)
Of course, when he did finally get up there, his foot got stuck.
(After this my camera card was full, so no more pictures.) Overall I'd say JB did great considering he didn't have a nap. We had to wait awhile after the speech for the motorcade to go through before they would open up the side to go down Principio. I wasn't going to walk all the way around again! While waiting something that I had eaten earlier wasn't agreeing with me, so although I normally would avoid the port-a-potty I didn't have much of a choice. Of course when I started to sit down the sippy cup that was in my pocket popped out and fell into the port-a-potty.
I had no desire to retrive it, sorry. On the bright side, at least the contents of my other pocket, my cell phone and camera, stayed firmly in place. Then when they finally did open the side of the park again, JB was then happily playing in the water fountain. It was really hard to pull him away from that. Of course on the way back we had to walk by the play area, and JB wanted to play. I was really worn out by this time though, so I told him we'd get back to the car first and get my book and then we could come back and he could play. But this is where I goofed. I'm not totally familiar with the area, so somehow I read the street sign for Principio as pointing down Heekin. I didn't realize my mistake until all the way down the hill. Thankfully there was a woman with a toddler walking behind me who took pity on me and told me how to go around in a relatively flat manner so I wouldn't have to go all the way up and around the hill again. At some point I realized that I had lost his sun hat, but by then I really didn't care. It sucks though, because it was really cute and he was just getting to where he would actually wear it. Oh well, I'm sure someone will have found it and made good use of it.
When we did finally find the car I had promised him that we would drive to the playground, so that's what we did, we looped back around. He played until dark, while I read my book or followed him. I tried to see if I could spot the hat on the way home, but it was already dark and I had no luck. I was far too tired to cook and we were both hungry though, so I stopped at Wendy's for a quick bite to eat. I was impressed that he didn't fall asleep on the way home, even though I took a circuitous route just for that purpose. Oh well, he fell asleep at a reasonable 9:15, so that's good. Oh yeah, and I got a $5 Obama shirt for $4, 'cause that's all I had. Of course right after I bought it I saw a cooler shirt at the next booth, but that's always how these things work, isn't it?
On a final note, on the way home I heard that today is International Mental Health Day. 1 in 4 adults suffers from some form of mental illness during their lifetime, although most never seek or receive treatment. Someday, hopefully the stigma surrounding mental illness will lift.
