Wait for it...

Man, what a long but ultimately rewarding day. The doors for the Obama rally at Target Center weren't set to open until 1:30pm today. With seating limited to the first 20,000 lucky people, and me not wanting to miss out, I headed out at 11am.

Boy was I glad I did.

I hopped off the light rail at about 11:30, ducked into Jimmy John's to grab a sandwich, and by the time I got to the line, I was already a full block away from the door. The line quickly formed behind me, and I saw several friends and coworkers pass me on the way to the back of the eventual 1 mile long line. Alison had to work, and the friends I was going to go with didn't feel as urged to show up early, so I was on my own. While in line, I met some friendly seniors from Cretin Derim Hall, and a teacher from Eagan High School and her friend. We waited out in the cold together for almost 2 hours before we were let in. It was amazing to watch the actions of thousands of very diverse people, which helped make standing in the cold bearable.

Once we got in, I grabbed a bottle of water and found my seat atop of the 2nd row of stands in the Target Center. I had a direct line of sight to Sen. Obama, save a giant light pole blocking some of the view. While they tried to get 20,000 people into the arena, we were treated to music by Golden Smog, and tried to pick out local political celebrities in the crowd (Rybak, Ellison, McCollum).

The place went as nuts as a bunch of reserved Midwesterners could get when Obama came out, and his speech was well received. It firmly solidified his place as my candidate of choice, and I am firmly convinced that if given the chance, he could really do something for this country. The Audacity of Hope, indeed.