I am in Winnipeg. At the Conservative Convention '08, as a Youth Delegate. My name tag says it and everything. Dad says his should say, "Old Delegate."
Day #1
4:10 am - out of bed. This is an insane hour for ANYONE to be out of bed, cheap flight or no. I had to do some considerable coaxing to make it up, and then run around crazily trying to pack all my last-minute things. I still forgot my camera charger, but hey, it's only three days.
4:30 - meet with our convention buddies, drive to the Park 'n' Ride, and get on a shuttle to the airport.
6:00 - board plane, after several failed attempts at coffee and a hasty perusal of a newspaper. Wedge self in the middle seat, contemplate the insanity of rising at 4:10 am.
6:30 - take off. I did write 1100 NaNoWriMo words at this point, which was good.
9:10 [now on Winnipeg time]- land. Take limo (!!!) to hotel/convention center - they're connected - meet Mike, and discover some of our rooms aren't ready. Therefore, congregate in the one that is.
10:10 - start discussing some of the touchier things in the constitution packet. At this point I was finding it hard to focus because all I'd eaten was a package of cookies on the plane and a Christmas orange.
11:30ish - wander down to the lobby, coincidentally happen to see the Prime Minister arrive at the hotel. That was kinda cool. Because I was dying of hunger, we went to Subway, and *gasp* someone actually knew how to use two Subway giftcards at the same time! (This is quite a problem. Nobody seems to know and it makes giftcards just slightly useless.)
12:30 - make it over to the convention center to register. Here we got our lanyards, a package with a bunch of documents and some ballots, and various other miscellany.
After 12:30 - hang around on floor 12 of the hotel, designated hang-out area with coffee of varying kinds and comfy chairs. Finish Merlin, second book of the Pendragon cycle.
2:00 - discuss more policy and constitution.
4:00 - spend a long time looking for the Radisson Hotel to attend a Cabinet Minister's presentation on multiculturalism. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't had to try so hard to stay awake. Dad and I left during the comments portion of the presentation, because the comments were desperately long and boring. People do not know how to be concise.
5:20 - find another Subway, try to use giftcards and fail, unhappy Dad and I. Get sandwich anyway.
5:30 - wolf sandwich down in hotel room.
6:10 - head down to get seats for the Prime Minister's keynote address. Or in my case, a very random seat after being accosted by a volunteer going, "Oh we need youth delegates to come sit over here so it looks like there are young people!" Cue me in between a guy who refused to give me the aisle seat like the volunteer wanted me to have, and a lady who was busy talking to someone else. I twiddled my thumbs until shortly after 7.
Shortly after 7 - an amazing routine by a couple of gymnasts, the Underground Circus, involving two ropes of colored cloth hanging from the ceiling and some absolutely amazing acrobatics. Then some singing by a girls' group, including the national anthem. Some people whose names I don't really recall spoke, and then Laureen Harper (that was kinda cute. I like her.) and then FINALLY the Prime Minister. He mentioned Mike's campaign manager in his speech! And how she made pies to raise money to send us to convention! Or *cough* how she's planning to. Anyway, it was really an excellent speech. I kept hoping he was going to exit via the bleachers, where I was, but he didn't, which begs the question - why the heck was I even there?
Shortly after 8 - hunt up Dad, hang around a bit getting progressively more tired and not liking the loud music and the bright lights. Finally decided to come back to the hotel room.
9:58 [now] - by myself, on my laptop, much happier.
High point of day 1: getting to read Merlin for the first uninterrupted stretch of time in a while. Also, of course, the Prime Minister's speech.
Low point: being hungry and tired.
So far, not gonna lie, it's not the most riveting thing in the world. But hey! That's why I have a book and my laptop.
No comments:
Post a Comment