As my post from yesterday stated, it was a pretty crappy day. I don't know if it was a my nerves about the Out for Hillary Debate Party that Blanche and I were throwing last night, or if it was just a general sense of burnout with my job, I think it was probably a mix of both. To alleviate the burn out, I decided at the last minuted to take Thursday and Friday off, which is the main reason I'm not blogging until now, and even though I've been to work for a little bit to do some things, I am generally happy with being on a pseudo-vacation.
I left work around 3:30, and I promptly fell on the couch and took as long of a disco nap as I could. Even though Wednesday is a designated skip day on the new workout plan and I was even a good boy and went to bed early on Tuesday, after a fun dinner with Sassafras, Guitar Hero, and American Idol. However, I was still exhausted out of my mind. Again, I think this may have been a symptom of the stress from work and the fear that the Out for Hillary event could either be a bust or a debacle of biblical proportions.
Around 6:00, I met up with Yoplait to pick up his karaoke equipment so we could have a sound system at Olly's. He runs Karaoke at the Metro on Tuesday nights and Olly's on Wednesday, but since we needed it earlier than he is normally there, I offered to pick it up. This didn't take very long, so I pulled up a stool at Olly's and started downing cup after cup of......coffee. Yeah, there was no way I was going to get trashed before the debate started (that came later). I just took a moment to organize my thoughts and just comfortable with what I was going to stay for my welcome message. I'm good at the public speaking thing. I've just found, that as I have aged, I tend to ramble if I do not plan things out. So, I definitely didn't want to do that. Blanche and Mom arrived shortly there after, and that is when the over all queasiness reached a fever pitch.
As we started to set up, we found out that Olly's had decided that we couldn't do anything overtly campaign oriented, which kinda negated the whole purpose of what we were doing. I know they were afraid of people being offended, even going so far as to hang signs next to ours stating their position (or non-position) on the race. However, I was taken a bit aback at the restrictions. Plus, I had heard that some Obama folks were planning to crash the party, and had even met at lunch that day to plan out their attack (ah, unity...gotta love it). After a few minutes of indecision, we decided to take over the largest booth in the place, and that became Clinton Country. It was then that I just decided to roll with it, and make do with what we have. Luckily, making do meant the bar was packed with Hillary supporters, and there was nary an Obama fan in sight. Everyone was respectful to each other's opinions, at least as far as I saw, and I made sure to point that out in my opening statement. The good thing about democracy is that you have a right to support whomever it is you choose, and while I would love it if everyone was a Hillary fan, I'm not going to fight with someone to change their mind.
I honestly didn't get a chance to see the entire debate because I was mingling and getting interviewed for a conservative blog (!), but I will make a few opinions about it. Barack Obama looked dead tired, and he didn't come off as the affable guy he purports to be. Yes, the moderators hammered him over seemingly trivial and non-policy related things (Rev. Wright, "Bitter," and William Ayers), but come on, do you think these things are just going to go away? They are going to be front and center in the General Election, and if he, as the chosen one, cannot answer them better than he did last night, then we are pretty much screwed! I'm being serious, too. That in and of itself is an decision the Superdelegates need to decide upon. Hillary, as usual, mopped the floor with him on the details. The woman is brilliant, and frankly, I would rather have a smart pragmatist at the helm in these tough times than a smart dreamer who thinks he's going to fix Washington on top of fixing all the problems in America. Something has to give!
All and all, the evening went amazingly well. We filled up Olly's, and we got confirmation from the staff that it was certainly not even close to a typical night. I have to think the owners will be happy with the rise in revenues. I just wish they had trusted us more. I certainly understand where they were coming from, but they made it pretty impossible for us to do anything. The thing that made the night for me was when an undecided person came over and thanked me for organizing this. Even though she is still not sold on Hillary, she was happy to see people taking charge and trying to energize the gay community. That to me, made it all worth while for me, and I am happy that it all turned out well.
I'm going to write more tomorrow about a group that spoke during one of the commercial breaks, The Indiana Fairness Network. Stay tuned!
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