Texas is Hill-Country!

Guess where we went last night?

We went to the IBEW Local Union 716 to see her - Madame President! Hillary was in town.

It's our second outing this week - we saw Obama Tuesday night (and I haven't even had a chance to blog about it - suffice it to say, it was very cool).

This is the first time the primary in Texas has mattered since 1976. So Obama and Clinton are both working hard to win votes. We have seen an ad blitz, and they are all over the state. Bill and Chelsea were here last week; Michelle Obama will be here tomorrow night.

And frankly, I am loving it. I like seeing the commercials, getting the attention. I like the visits. I am enjoying being wooed.

So last night, we let Camp Hillary woo us. Though it was sort of last-minute and disorganized - first e-mail said at some hotel; an hour or two later, new e-mail - CORRECTION! CHANGE OF LOCATION! There was some bickering/disorganization in the party, among local organizers.

We ended up at the union hall, which is not very big. We went early, after the Obama gathering; he filled the 19,000-seat Toyota Center, with people waiting three to four hours to get in. We weren't taking any chances.

And we even remembered the camera.

We waited in line for a l-o-n-g time, more than two hours. But there is a lot of energy at these things. And since you're among your people, it's fun to visit with the others in line. I figured out pretty quickly that the Latinas are definitely for Hillary. And, as our newest friends assured us, she has the Gay and Lesbian vote (well ... at least two gay and two lesbian votes - !)

They gave out signs - yay! I snagged one!



Finally, they opened the doors - more than an hour late, but that's pretty typical for these events. I was relieved to just get in - the place was not that big, and the line was huge. At least 1,000 people did not make it inside. It was SRO by the time we got in, but I didn't mind - we weren't very far from the front.

She's here! She's here! Finally, at 9.40 p.m., she made her appearance. We were very close - can you see her? (Look just under the blue sign, lower RH corner - yep, that's her face.)



She is a great speaker - it was very exciting. She's a bit blurry here, but you get the idea.



And, as if it weren't exciting enough to see Hillary, look who she brought - it's Chelsea! She must be exhausted. But she looked lovely.



Hillary even hung around and signed some autographs. If I'd thought about it, I would have grabbed my copy of It Takes a Village. But it never occurred to me that we would be that close. I tried to get my sign up there, but I just wasn't able to get close enough. That's Mr. Secret Agent Man looking stern behind her.



We didn't get to shake Hillary's hand, but look! We got to chat with Chelsea! She was extremely gracious, and actually did chat with people. I thanked her for her hard work to put a woman in the White House, told her I wanted my daughters to see a woman president. "Me, too," she answered. And posed for a photo. Signed an autograph, too.



(The freaky stalker guy in the background? My husband.)

Fun, fun time. My feet were killing me - I wore nice shoes to see her, and we stood for more than four hours, so I was beat. But it was worth it. We watched outside as we were leaving - we could see the cars lined up - but finally decided to just leave. But as we pulled out of the lot, the police cars stopped us, and we got a great view of the motorcade - her windows were not tinted, and with that red jacket we could see her. Very exciting.

We chilled at Joe's Crab Shack afterwards - it was nearly 11 and it was the only place we could think of that might be open. So we ate shrimp and chilled, basking in the glow of meeting the next president.

There really is an electricity in the air this primary season. I'm feeling lucky to be part of it.