I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this absence!

Well, way back at the beginning of the presidential campaign, I promised O that we'd go hear his candidate, Barack Obama, before election day. AND TODAY WAS OUR DAY! Here's the story...

I got an email Saturday evening that Sen. Obama would be appearing this morning in Canton. Inside. In a theater. With real seats. Yeah! So, we flew down to Canton right that minute to pick up tickets, just making it to the campaign office before they closed at 8pm. We were literally running down the sidewalk in downtown Canton to make it in time--P sick with a sinus infection, O dressed as Harry Potter because we'd just picked him up from a Halloween party, and me on an amazing adrenaline high! I'm sure we scared all the nice campaign volunteers, but oh well.... we got our tickets! On the way down we'd called the Hursts from our Obamamobile to see if they'd like to come with us for the event, and of course they were in. I figure this kind of history lesson is better than anything the boys would have learned at school today, right?

So this morning O got to come to school with me for awhile because Jeff had to go in to take a science test. O read stories at circle time and helped me help the kids scoop out our class pumpkin. Fun! Then we picked up Jill and went to pick up Jeff from school. Oh, did I mention this was when it started snowing?!?

The doors opened for the event at 10:30 am, which was about an hour before we got in the very long, cold line to wait to get in the building. Things moved much faster than when we went to see Hillary, though, and within 40 minutes or so we were through security. Then we followed the flow of the crowd to our very-far-from-the-stage seats. But at least there were seats!!

There were a few warm-up speakers, most notably John Boccieri (trying to be the first Democrat to represent the 16th district since 1948). Followed by some chanting & a "wave" that took awhile to get going, but ended strong. Yeah for us! Then after a long, dramatic, fifteen minute pause, out came the next president of the United States...

It was a great speech, and longer than I had anticipated. The media was billing it as his "closing arguments" on the campaign, and it lived up to the billing. He covered pretty much everything, in his smooth, elegant style, punctuated by long rounds of applause. It was one of those experiences that's hard to encapsulate, which is not good for a blogger! Suffice it to say that it was all I'd hoped to hear, all I'd hoped O would hear, and what I think we need to hear as a country. Yes, We Can!!

We stuck around awhile afterwards to bask in the glow and check out the press corps. We got interviewed for NewsRadio AM 1480, but I'm sure you all heard that fine piece of journalism already, right?

We also met a very nice Secret Service agent who gave the boys some pins that he produced out of thin air. Seriously, neither Jill nor I could figure out where he got them from! Anyways, it was a long, politically charged day, and an amazing experience for the boys. They will never forget the day their super-cool moms let them skip school to go see history in action.... and that's because we'll never let them forget!!