A Life Post

*Update: I was finally able to find the remaining parts of Hillary's speech. Part three shows "Bill for First Lady". :) AND immediately following that (exactly 36 seconds into clip three), there is a gentleman holding up a sign that says "I love you Hillary". Three people to the left--that's me!!! :) My husband is wearing a blue shirt and tie (i'm to the right of him) and my mom is wearing a navy sweatshirt and she is to the left of him! :)

I apologize. I realize this post has nothing to do with travel, but i felt like it would be a disservice to not blog about my ridiculously awesome experience yesterday. As I mentioned, I got to witness history in the making last night, and it was absolutely unbelievable. :)

So, my mom, husband, and I arrived at the convention center at 1:00 pm yesterday. Yep, that's right--1:00 pm. It meant that we spent EIGHT hours sitting in unpadded convention center seats with 20,000 other people. But, you know what? It was totally worth it! (and we got great seats courtesy of my husband who arrived 10 mins before us!)

I won't share my opinions on the candidates here, because this post is not at all meant to be a representation of my political affiliation. Instead, I'll let you judge for yourself. :) Both speeches are posted below following some photos, courtesy of The Grand Forks Herald. *Note: Unfortuntely, at this time, Hillary's speech isn't posted in its entirely. I suspect, however that is because this just happened a little over 12 hours ago. As soon as I can get my hands on the whole thing, I'll update this post. I'll also post some personal photos soon, but the ones I have from my point & shoot aren't great. My mom did bring her film SLR with a telephoto lens, though, so as soon as we get those back, I'll post some of those as well. :)

Check out the sea of people! This is not even 1/4 of the crowd! I've never witnessed something like this in Grand Forks! Hillary commented that she didn't know there even WERE this many democrats in North Dakota! (we're a traditionally red state, though it should be noted that there's a real chance the ND electoral votes could swing blue this year--one of the reasons that ND was a bit more important to the Dems this year.)

Here in Grand Forks, we LOVE our hockey. ;) In fact, next Thursday, our beloved Fighting Sioux play in the first round of the Frozen Four!

Seated to the right of Barack, is the ND congressional delegation (yep, we're a small state). All have endorsed Barack and are close friends (big hugs all around). And nope, you didn't read that wrong, and nope I'm not crazy--we're a red state with a long standing blue congressional delegation (recently ranked as the second most powerful delegation in the country). This will also explain the introductory speech you'll see from Senator Byron Dorgan at the beginning of Hillary's speech.

This man is UNBELIEVABLY charasmatic--even more so in person than on TV!

Hockey sticks all around!

The Clintons are actually quite familiar with North Dakota. They are close friends with former governor George Sinner and his wife Jane. Additionally, in Part 1 of Hillary's speech, you'll hear her reference the great flood of 1997 in Grand Forks. The entire community was wiped out, but is now completely rebuilt. Many-an-article/essay/statement have been written about the comparison between the reaction and recovery by the government (local, state, and federal) in Grand Forks versus that of New Orleans. The disasters were similar in scale, yet there was no loss of life in Grand Forks and absolutely no living conditions like those that followed in New Orleans.

This sign flashed on the mega-tron during her speech, and Hillary actually lost her composure and started laughing. :)

Hillary was so much more petite in person than I had pictured!

This woman kids you not about being a fighter. As much as Barack is charasmatic in person, Hillary is a spitfire in person. She made reference in her speech about getting knocked down and not staying down--we all know what that was reference to.

Barack's address in its entirety:


Hillary's address Part 1:


Hillary's address Part 2:

Hillary's Address Part 3:

Hillary's Address Part 4:

Hillary's Address Part 5:

Hillary's Address Part 6:



What I will say is, no matter what your political affiliation is and no matter who the candidate near you is, GO SEE HIM OR HER. Even if you don't share the same ideological beliefs, it certainly makes the election feel more personal. I have always had a high interest in politics, but seeing it live makes it feel that much more like its happening in YOUR back yard.