Peenie Wallie

Update: I got booted out of the CNN Luxury Suite, eventually. (I know - big surprise, right?) I was sitting there, charging my laptop, downloading photos. Walking around and shooting photos of the speakers. But eventually, while I was sitting at my laptop, minding my own business, this woman came up and said, "Who are you?"

And I introduced myself and she told me that I was in the luxury suite was only for people with CNN, and I feigned ignorance and apologized profusely, but the guy next to me (his name was Rob) said "It was a nice try" and he was being sincere.

So, I left the CNN luxury suite and started wandering around the convention, but gradually I came to realize that my "Area" press pass only gave me access to wander around the arena. I couldn't actually go into any of the sections and sit down, which really sucked. I had deliberately copied the "Arena" pass because I assumed I could go anywhere in the arena. Wrong!

So, I just kept trying section after section and finally I tucked my tail between my legs and climbed up to the nosebleed sections where I figured they'd be less picky and pretty soon, I found myself sitting next to some nice people who weren't too sure who I was or why I was there, but they tolerated me fairly well.

I had my hind-end in a seat and I was tired anyway so I just sat there with them and made small talk. As it turned out, they were delegates to the convention, but not on the floor for reasons that weren't entirely clear to me. But at least one of them had floor passes.

"If you give me your floor pass, I'll go down there with my long lens and get some shots and give them to you," I offered. And they all agreed it was a swell idea and handed me a floor pass and I grabbed all of my gear and left.

Now, a less honest man would have just kept the pass and never gone back but instead, I just shot several close ups of it, front and back, so that I'd have the right credentials for the next day, anyway.

But when I tried to get on the floor, the guy said the fire marshall had closed the floor and no one else could go out there, which was probably a lie, but what can you say? The convention guy is saying "No" and there's a wall of police behind him wearing gloves with the fingers cut out and tapping their 3 ft batons on the concrete and so I went back and returned their pass and told them I couldn't get on the floor.

I met this chick named Kim with some passes to go to some party at Coors Field but I was like..."it's past my bedtime" and I came home. I've looked through my photos tonight, but I'm too tired to stay awake any longer.