Conventional Wisdom

The drive up to San Jose was amazingly easy. We left just 30 minutes later than we’d hoped and made good time, thanks to light traffic and clear skies. We hit Silicon Valley around 11:30, dropped in on our family friends (who are graciously allowing us to use their home as our base), and got to the Convention Center in time to grab some lunch with two MOMocrats extraordinaire: CityMama Stephania Pomponi Butler and Sheila Bernus Dowd (Xiaolin Mama).

One big surprise for my daughter was the news that USA Gymnastics is hosting an international meet here in San Jose, concurrent with the state Democratic convention. In fact, we followed half the likely women’s Olympic team as we looked for a café to eat (and discovered where they are staying).

Megan jumped out of her seat at the sight of Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson (her favorites!) and ran out to snap their photo… but was too late.

She spent the rest of the lunch nagging me about getting tickets to see the meet (which is not the reason we came here). I finally relented (somewhat) by telling her that if she finished her project early rather than later – and the tickets don’t cost too much – maybe we would take some time out to go. (Guess you can tell that the material she dreamed didn’t pan out so well.)

We later discovered that the San Jose Convention Center is the site to see the women's and men's rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline events... but the artistic gymnastic team events are over at San Jose State (not far, but not in the same building).

Coming to an event like this one with your family is not the same as when you are alone. I was very much more of a MOM than a blogging Democrat. I knew that would be the case when I decided to bring my daughter. I spent much of the afternoon helping her with her project (which still isn't done, despite those wild dreams of hers).

When she wasn't writing about te life of Cleopatra, Megan was collecting campaign buttons and autographs of Super Delegates (this will be the subject of a post on the MOMocrats, but as it's past midnight now, I'm afraid I don't have the brainpower to do it justice). I left the convention feeling frustrated with technology:

For one thing, the press room in the Convention Center has no wi-fi. Delegates and media can, however, log on from the meeting rooms and ballrooms on the second floor.

Except  for me.

The internet connection in the Exhibit Hall (where Nancy Pelosi gave a rousing speech) didn't like my computer -- or maybe that was the other way around. I would get on and then lose it, only to receive an error message that indicated that the signal was too low, or I was too far away from the router. Stefania and Glennia (one of the other rockin' founding MOMocrats) were live blogging away on their Mac books. I felt like John Hodgman in one of those Apple commercials; stymied by the inadequacies of the Windows system while the Mac users were sailing high.

After such an early start, I was feeling tired. I begged off a planned MOMocrats dinner at Sheila's house, thinking Megan and I could grab a quick bite and return home to my friends' house (where I might be able to steal a little Internet access for the first time all day). This was a HUGE miscalculation, because the quick bite did not happen.

The plan was thwarted, first by the crowd of delegates waiting to dine at the hotel restaurants, then by a parking fee machine that refused to accept my credit card... and finally, by the GPS unit I'd brought with me for this trip, which suddenly stopped giving me directions.

I ended up horribly out of my way - somewhere past the 880 and nowhere near the 101, which is the route I needed to take to get back home. Eventually, we found a shopping center where I felt safe to park, and Megan (of course) showed me how to get the GPS unit talking to me again.

She ended up with a nutritious (ha!) Happy Meal for dinner. I ate two diet protein bars on the drive home.

The one good thing to come out of my technical and social incompetence is that we got back to our friends' house in time to actually socialize with them a little (instead of just using their place as our hotel). I had a little wine... and ended up talking to their youngest son for about 90 minutes, all about the wonders of blogging and social networking.

And so here I am... past midnight... bleary-eyed... ready to go to bed. And still without a convention related post appropriate for the MOMocrats.

There's always tomorrow. And while I couldn't get a table at the restaurant in the Marriott, it looked like they have good, working wi-fi in the lobby.

Comments

[PunditMom]

Wish I could have been there with you gals!