eclecticism

05/26/2004 |

My plan for the morning was to wander down the hill and see Kerry speak on today’s swing through Seattle. It even looked like I was going to be able to pull it off — I set my alarm an hour early, actually managed to haul myself out of bed, and was out the door by 8:45am.

Springtime in Seattle, though, doesn’t always have the best weather, and today is definitely one of the drearier days. Grey, windy, and rainy. I wasn’t terribly concerned about this on the walk down the hill, as one of the first things I learned about being a Seattleite is that an umbrella is a necessary part of one’s supplies. I walked down Pike to the Pike Place Market, took the stairs down through the market, and crossed Alaskan Way to head to the pier. One of the police officers on duty directed me to the line, and I started working my way down…

…and down…

…and about five blocks later or so, finally found the end. Still, I’ve got no big problem with queueing up for something that interests me, and I’ve been curious for a while as to how Kerry would strike me in person. What little I’ve seen of him (generally during snippets on CNN while I’m eating lunch, as I’m without TV at home) hasn’t really impressed me to date, but I also know that many people can come across far better in a personal appearance than in a compressed 15-second news soundbite. So, I staked out my spot in line and waited.

And kept waiting.

An hour later, after having moved only about the length of two blocks, it became very clear that chances of actually making it into the designated area when Kerry was still around were getting slimmer and slimmer. The final straw, though, was when word came down the line that due to security measures, umbrellas were not being allowed into the secure area. Bags not being allowed I was expecting — that had been mentioned on Kerry’s website — but umbrellas? Sure, I’m not going to melt, but that doesn’t mean that I particularly relish the idea of standing out in the wind and rain, either.

So, I gave it a few more minutes to think it over, decided that it wasn’t worth it, and wandered my way back home. On the way out, I passed the solution to the umbrella situation: a huge pile of umbrellas at the bottom of a lamppost close to the screening area at the entrance. Ugh. Talk about a quickly improvised and badly thought out solution. I was not impressed.

So, that was my morning adventure — an aborted and unsuccessful attempt to form better impressions of the Democratic nominee for the 2004 election cycle. Hopefully I’ll have another chance before November rolls around (and if I do, I hope it goes better than this one did).

iTunes: “Heartbeat (Armand van Helden)” by Somerville, Jimmy from the album Platinum on Black, Vol. 2 (1995, 4:53).

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2 Responses to “So much for that idea”

paul Says:
May 26th, 2004 at 1:25 pm

Hmm, the first thing I learned about umbrellas is that only tourists carry ‘em …

Seriously, it’s too windy for them and most of the time it doesn’t rain that hard. Moving here from the Deep South, I’ve seen rain that the natives here would regard as apocalyptic. There, an umbrella makes sense … (I’m not complaining: I’m OK with the mild climate we have here.)

myko Says:
May 26th, 2004 at 2:17 pm

Try sneaking a stroller in. I turned back to leave it in the car, got back (much earlier than you arrived) and ditched before the umbrella fiasco due to a toddler that insisted on letting the rain soak her instead of wearing her hood.