Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Bottled Pepsi

bill rappleye

filled to the brim

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the delays in getting into the Pepsi Center…so I was prepared on the four block long walk into the building last night for the Hillary speech.  I groaned internally when I saw the line outside the security gate backed up with hundreds of people, and despaired that I had no chance to get in for the start, scheduled for twenty minutes from then.  Then I heard a cop say the busses lined up on the adjacent road would take us to another checkpoint.  Big choice…take a chance on whether that unknown entrance would be a quicker option…plus the bus ride.  I made the decision, got in line, and waited anxiously to board a bus, while watching the other line, and second guessing myself.  But the bus came, drove about three minutes to the other side of the Pepsi Center where there must have been twelve rows of metal detectors and attendants, and bang bang, I was through, inside the perimeter, and walking briskly toward the Center.  I’d heard it was tight going into the front door…but I stepped right in with the crowd, climbed on an elevator, and next thing I knew, I’d found a seat on a stair in a jammed stadium in time to hear Governor Deval Patrick and Montana’s Brian Schweitzer before the Clinton introductory film, and then her speech.  It was actually easier than getting into the conventions in New York and Boston four years ago, when hundreds or more were locked out hours before the main speeches.  So give the organizers here in Denver kudos for getting the crowds into the building.