I went to my 1st major rally today to go see Barack & Michelle Obama downtown Columbus at the Statehouse. Of course it was stacked and packed, and I wasn't even about to go because I am not one for the crowds, and I had a Lantern article due that day, but I thought this would definitely be a historical moment whether he wins or not since he's already raised the most money as a presidential candidate and has gone the farthest as a Black person to the Presidency.

My friends and I thought we were really doing something by trying to get to the rally at 11:00am when it started at 1:00pm, but NOT with the Obama crowd. You literally had to have been there the night before and camped out on the lawn. I had gotten up early too so that I could go to the 7:30am Church service, even though people said if you were not downtown by 8:00, then it was pretty much a wrap for you trying to snag a decent spot. The Statehouse lawn didn't have a slope or a dip so that you could look over the person in front of you, but everyone was on the same level, and you needed to be Yao Ming to see anything. We pressed on through the crowd as far as we could go and ended up being stuck in an unmoveable maze (so you couldn't be claustrophobic at all). The only way you could get some type of view of Barack speaking was to stand on your tippy-toes, raise your hands up super high, take a picture and try to zoom in to find the Obama's.

Barack and Michelle spoke for a good while and they had just came from Cincinatti, and were on their way to Cleveland next. Almost all of High Street downtown was shut down and there were big jumbo-tron screens to view their speeches as well. It was funny to see vendors non-stop on every corner and all throughout the rally persistently selling Barack buttons, T-shirts, hats, mugs, and you name it. I saw a lot of OSU people in the crowd, and the City of Columbus definitely showed the Obamas some love.

We couldn't even get on the bus at the end of the rally. We had to walk all the way from Broad Street and High to 11th Avenue (approx. 3.02 miles to be exact!) and I felt just like one of my mom's old stories of how she used ot have to walk 10 miles in the snow just to get to and from school and in a dress! So I can't complain too much, the weather was lovely and there were a lot of us making the walk back to campus. We did finally make it back almost an hour later, and I was so glad I wan't trying to look too cute at the rally and wore heels.

But sadly when I got back, I couldn't just chill since I had my first Lantern story of the year (that I volunteered to write) due that afternoon, and I hadn't even started! So of course I was typing frantically and the Arts Editor said my story would just be saved for Tuesday's paper. I had to brush off my old article writing skills and put myself back in the seat of the reporters that I am now grading as a T.A. but everything came along, and I eventually finished the article that night.
So here's the story I wrote on a Senior dance project: http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2008/11/04/Arts/Seniors.Performance.Redefines.Dance.Project-3522057.shtml