Saturday, July 24, 2004

A gleaming stack of cell phones
Posted by ekdurand@yahoo.com">Emily K. Durand at 9:49 PM -

First post from Emily, Beantown Buddy for the New Jersey delegation, and crazy enough to have planned to move from Somerville to Watertown today, the day before the Convention starts.  Not recommended, especially in the pouring rain!  But I made it, and I'm resting up for tomorrow and the week ahead.  Hey, if the Red Sox could win that marathon game today, I can put on a smile for the 146 delegates I'll be shaking hands with tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday, I stopped by the Boston 2004 volunteer headquarters to pick up my Beantown Buddy accoutrements.  Now that, after endless months of planning, the Convention is about to start, I admit I was hoping for a bit more fanfare to kick it off.  But I caught the office in a rare quiet moment -- just a few people working the phones, in a large conference room overlooking the Prudential Mall and Boylston Street.  There were all the signs of a large event, or even a political campaign, in progress: a random assortment of chairs and desks; stacks of Diet Coke in cans and packets of M&Ms; scores of cheerful college students huddled together around clipboards.  I asked for my credential and my cellphone, and a somewhat frazzled coordinator handed me the top phone from a stack of shiny Motorolas (just on loan for the week, of course).  Hmmm, I guess I really *will* be available 24/7 for this gig...

The volunteer credential is cute, red white and blue, and will get me absolutely nowhere near the Fleet Center or any of the zillion "delegate-only" receptions this week.  But that's fine with me -- I went to the DNC in 1992 at Madison Square Garden in New York, and I did enough celebrity spotting to last a decade.  I'm hoping to bump into Janeane Garofalo, Hillary Clinton (not too likely, I know), or maybe Michael Moore around town.  Or even John Kerry, what a concept!  In the meantime, I'll be giving the NJ group (several hundred strong) my recommendations on where to eat, shop, and hang out around Boston during the day -- when they're not attending those swanky receptions, that is.  The mayor of my hometown is one of the delegates -- maybe I'll get to take him out for coffee.  More updates as events warrant...tomorrow night it's off to the U.S.S. Constitution Museum for the welcome party.   

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