Clickege: Waiting for Obama: Life in a Line

"They say good things come to those who wait..."

When you wait, your day starts at 6.

When you wait, you eat breakfast at McDonalds.

When you wait, you stand in line for three hours.

Then two more.

When you wait, you get to see the President of the United States.

This is the story of those who wait.

They are called Waiters.

They are weird.

They are cool.

They may or may not be Democrats.
They wait, they observe, and they exist.

The alarm went off at six o' one in the morning. That's early, especially for a teenager.
I sleepily got dressed, and drove to pick up the team (friends) at their respective bases (houses). We drove to the place called Mickie D's, and ate Egg McMuffins until we were actually awake enough to speak. Then we drove down to The Location.
That is when the waiting started.

As the tickets above say, the doors open at 10 AM. We were there three hours early, so we fell under the "weird people who get up too early" category.
But it also got us a pretty good spot in line. To the right are the only people in front of us.
So basically, after many hours of standing and awkwardly squatting on the wet ground, we would have a good "seat" to see the leader of the free world, President Barack Obama.

The first strange thing we encountered actually occurred before even getting into line. There was a sprinkler, on full blast, not moving, spraying straight into the side of a old grey van.
A pretty interesting start.

Then, after only minutes of standing in line, the sprinkler behind us spazzed out and decided to give us a quick shower. Only us ("the team") and not any of those other even weirder people above.

But after that, the next three hours were fairly boring. Someone further back in line passed out, and that required two firetrucks and an ambulance to come, the strange sailor boy featured in the video below, and we got to see some guys carry in the big flag (left) and a strange guy with an interesting shirt (below), but besides that, nothing that interesting.

Finally, at 10 AM, right on schedule, the "doors" opened, and we were ushered through security.
Strangely, security to stand right in front of the President was much quicker and easier than airport security. Just hand a guy the stuff in your pocket, and then walk through a metal detector, and then get your stuff back. Then you're in.

The shirt read: "I voted for Obama and all I
got was this historic victory on health care"

Sure, there's tons of guys in black suits with guns, huge binoculars, dark glasses, and all sorts of training in ways to kill you around, but... well, you're safe.

So we're in the place. People are pouring in. It should be starting soon, right?
Wrong.
It's another two and a half hours.
Yep, not until 12:30 do the Obamas show up. Then they talk.

During this additional two and a half hours, two more people pass out, and paramedics rush through the crowd to get to them. Exciting! (Sarcasm)

But, after five and a half hours of standing, they arrive. They were right there.
Actually, they weren't. People cheered, then more cheered, but then it turned out it was just a car.

But then, after five hours and thirty-seven minutes, it happened. The bus pulled up. The Obama-nators cheered. He talked, and we viewed.

The waiting was over. Our legs were sore, but we had done it. We had seen the President of the United States of America.

Then, it was off to lunch with a congressman...

(I'll be uploading Michelle's ten minute speech soon, by the way.)