20080201-Hillary’s Visit

My parental units and I decided to see Hillary Rodham-Clinton today at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center of 235 N. Market St. in San Jose, California. After having lunch bought from the 99 Ranch Market and covering the birds for later on this evening, we left the house at around 02:00PM. I sort of knew my way around downtown because I used to visit the main library during college. The tall buildings were not there twenty years ago.

We were undecided on the parking fees of the convention parking garage but took the card anyway. The arm went up and we found ourselves in the darkened, middle section of the garage. So we asked direction from ‘Rich’, a facilities guy working to our right. He was nice about pointing us to the double yellow doors to our left that lead to the lobby of the convention center, twice because I was too slow to understand. We got the disabled parking lot as usual nearest the double doors and made our way to the directory located straight ahead from the double doors and on the far side of the wall.

We looked around and wasn’t sure until we decided to ‘take a dump’ at the restroom. Five of the six double doors didn’t work, except the automatic one which opened on the farthest right. I didn’t know about that door until I exited. I took my time and made several flushes to be sure the stinky smelly results went all the way down in the sewers properly. ‘Maw’ spoke to a blond lady in her polyester-looking, American flag jacket. ‘Paw’ was already out and waiting against the wall, along with another tall guy waiting for his wife and youngling.

So we still weren’t sure where to go but used our logic and followed other people making their way out the glass doors leading to the sidewalk. The tented building was about two blocks from where we parked. I saw people in campaign buttons who gave us papers to fill out with our name, address, phone numbers, emails and of course our reasons why we where there along with our signature. We got free ‘Bic’ pens for sharing with others. ‘Paw’ forgot to hand those three pages to the volunteers, who don’t know how to answer a simple question like laptop usage.

We followed the crowd to the end of the line, which was along Balbach St.  We stood near the first street light that road. Approximately thirty people were already waiting in line to go through the front door. We waited for about one hour from 02:30PM to 03:30PM in cold of wind and gray clouds with my back against ‘Maw’s to keep her warm until an Asian volunteer by the name of ‘Jeff’ escorted ‘Maw’ up front due to her being disabled. ‘Maw’ convinced the young lad to take ‘Paw’ and me along. He smiled and agreed, which was good. Another old, white lady by the name of ‘Ruth’ took the left arm of my ‘Maw’ and escorted her to the rest of way while ‘Paw’ and me followed close behind. We got in front of a bunch of union members in brown shirts with yellow logo.

We entered through the front door and a tall white guy had his electronic scanner on hand, which he used on our fronts and backs. There were slight beeps made upon my ‘Harmonic Pendant’ (created by CC) which I wore as well as my magnetic bracelet I bought from the Great Mall in Milpitas, CA. He asked me to open ‘Maw’s purse and then rummaged through anything metallic, like key chains and the metallic aluminum container which he took away. It was a diet Mountain Dew soda for ‘Maw’s diabetes. Next time I’ll plan on using plastic containers instead. All three of us were good to go and we were then escorted to the disabled section of the bleachers, three or four steps up. In relation to where the stage was, we were to the left hand side with us viewing to our right hand side.

We used the bathroom twice (up the disabled compliant ramp into a stand alone unit) before the arrival of Hillary at approximately 06:20PM. When each of us returned, the volunteers confused us about that stupid orange wrist band, which we refused to wear. Prior to that, there were a bunch of council members from around the Bay Area. They spoke and got the crowd excited. The mariachi band members played many times and the band members are taller than me, too. The Independence High School Band played also. The sound system was not provided to them and most of the sound was muted or barely audible due to the expansive interior of the tented building.

My fidgety nature wouldn’t allow me to sit still. I jiggled the big poster board in my hands and made lots of smiley faces, assuming the media (which was located straight ahead and slightly to the right from us in an angle) would be taking pictures. I danced while sitting as well as while standing on the bleachers to the music playing in the background, such as Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz’s 1993 song ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ (as the ending theme of tonight’s campaign) and other popular songs, one of which I remember was groovy. I could dance to the groove well, if y’all know what I mean.

I took lots of photos with my camera phone because the low battery indicator of my main camera was flashing! Most of the shots were muddy, dark and blurry. I wonder if this was all another weird joke by TPTB. All I know was that my camera phone is better during bright light and close up photos and not for far away because it cannot zoom at all! My main camera simply wouldn’t focus! I was upset tonight but had lots of fun.

Yeah, I remembered the days of being in the ‘Pep Club’, an offshoot version of the cheerleaders’ squad which I didn’t make in high school. So my ‘fire nature’ is indeed somewhere inside of me regardless of my mostly shy and quiet demeanor. When I’m put in a crowd I could make lots of noise.

But tonight I held back my potty mouth and loud hollering because, once again, I sat among old timers! We were seated in the disabled section and with the Latinos. ‘Paw’ put our names on the Latino roster and for whatever weird reason the lady said it applied to the ‘Asians’, too. Although we were invited twice (one by woman and later a man) to sit among those who wore the white t-shirt with blue letters reading ’Asian American for Hillary’, ‘Maw’ got mad and insisted she won’t be told what to do. An old white guy in front of me whispered something about mothers having their ways, which is true.

I received a phone call from ’WinTea’ about being invited to dinner at ‘Razor’s house. I didn’t tell her we would make it but told her I’ll tell my parental units and call her back. I might have to decline because the boy has not yet learned his lesson and is perhaps using the stupid girl to try to make us feel like we are welcomed in their stupid house. It’s not going to work after all that has been done or said and I’ll have to play the devil’s advocate once again until both stop being airheads!

So Hillary’s speech went well and she addressed most of the issues clearly and with much enthusiasm. She did hit the mark squarely on my areas of concern: health insurance, Iraq war, green environment, immigration, cronyism and the tax breaks associated with the [ahem!] oil companies and other amenities befit hard working citizens of the United States. Damn! She’s really good and she looked sharp tonight with her dark blue outfit, dark brown, low-heeled pumps and a shiny silver colored necklace. Her hair style is also impeccable.

Oh and by the way, I was the girl holding the poster board vertically on its side with the ‘H’ appearing on the top and during the initial part of Hillary’s speech. I guess I was too short to be seen with all the other union members BLOCKING my line of vision to the stage. I love attention as long as I’m among crowds so as not to be ‘targeted’ for anything out of the ordinary. I swear those secret service agents standing at ground level looked serious as they stared away from Hillary’s stage and onto the crowd. I counted three obvious ones - two at either side and one in the middle. The one nearest us scratched his nose as others among the crowd with me knowing all too well. Yeah right: I assume too much but could feel some stares. Nah: I’m imaging again.

Anyway, at 06:55PM the speech was over. The crowd behind the railing to my left dispersed; some school children were still at the base of the stage; some of us slowly filtered down from the bleachers, turned a sharp left around back through the doors where we initially entered to be scanned and left out into the night.

We walked down this empty, service road next to the tent annex and I stopped to take one picture of the electronic billboard showing Hillary for President. I finished my shot and started walking towards Market Street when last of the orange streetlights blinked off. I turned around, pointed and said, ‘I didn’t do that’! I knew I did due to being a ‘SLIDER’.

So off we went into the night, past the glass doors of the building to our left prior to Viola Ave. and paid our $13.50 parking garage fee at this automatic booth near the double yellow doors. The toll booth man waved us past the raised arm of the garage and I got lost by turning left instead of right. I ended up pass 4th St. and into Brokaw Rd. instead of Hedding St. near the Berryessa Flea Market, which is our nearest route.

Overall, Hillary’s visit tonight might signify her victory as the next president in this upcoming November 2008 election. I am reminded years ago of my getting out of the white, 2-door Honda Accord car in the middle of the onramp leading from Ellis St. to the south gate of Moffett Field when Bill Clinton rode and waved from inside this LONG, black limousine. The security folks were walking along the streets and this tall white guy behind shades hollered at me to get back in the car. I wouldn’t budge from my standing position as he started to make his way towards me of about five cars filling back into HWY 101. He stepped back a little as soon as I returned back in the car. Bill won the presidential race that time, by the way. And so will Hillary this time.

Copyright © 2008 by Fluffy von der Flynn. All rights reserved.