My Obama Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.

Matt made me a cake:

Me and my Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting
(Rob is in the background)

After dinner and cake we went with Matt's mother (Anne) to future president Barack Obama's rally in Boston. We had to stand in a really long line.

The Line

The line was actually a mile long:

The Line (route)

(Interactive version/source: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1602668 )

We were near the end. It took us something like 2 1/2 hours to get into the building (Boston's Seaport World Trade Center), probably due to a slow security process. We persisted, along with thousands of others. At one point, while Matt held our place, Anne and I went inside a T station entrance to warm up. That's when I took this picture:

Persistent Good Citizenship
(and the line outside)

I think it shows how much people were trying to put their trash in the right place, even though the right place was overloaded. It would have been so much worse if all that was lying in the street. Not everyone was this good, but a police officer who spoke to the line at one point said "You're an excellent crowd."

Finally, we got inside. The view wasn't so good:

The View


Anne in the Crowd

But we did get there in time to hear Govenor Patrick, and Senators Kerry and Kennedy speak, leading up to Obama's grand entrance.

He's a terrific speaker. I usually get bored listening to other people give lengthy speeches, but Obama held my attention. I really think he's more thoughtful about real life and less caught up in the game than the vast majority of politicians. I recorded a couple of videos (bad picture quality, okay sound). I may post the best of them later.

Afterwards, we walked to Park Street station, stopping by the water for a photo shoot. I'm holding my shoes because my feet were so tired I decided to take them off to walk to Park Street. The heels helped me get a better view, but they were a bad idea otherwise.

Shoes in hand with Matt

We got home at about 2 am on Super Tuesday.

Time to VOTE!