The Room Was Spinning

Wisconson was whip-cold and I was tired.

I’m not sure how long I’d been on the road, at this point. But I was SO EXCITED and ready to rally myself awake so I wouldn’t miss one morsel of what was going on around me. It was a Democratic Presidential Debate between candidate/former-NY Senator Hillary Clinton and progressive Dem Bernie Sanders. I would have the chance to be in the spin room, with media who’d gathered from just about every corner of the country.

I wore all black. I was defaulting to wearing ‘blend in’ colors since I didn’t know what to expect. Were there protocols? I wasn’t sure. But there were familiar faces hithering-and-thithering with a sense of purpose all around the room.

As an electoral politics enthusiast, I was pinging with GLEE!

The spin room had mounted televisions, on which we’d later watch the candidates debate live as PBS anchored the event.

I squished my backpack, my winter coat, and other junk into a chair towards the center of the room and plunked down in the adjacent seat, pulled out my laptop and set up a workspace. Settled in, mostly, I dashed to the loo before the debate was going to get started. On my way, I passed an open door next to the spin room, and quickly doubled back to look inside. I smelled FOOD!

There was cornucopia of food and goodies. A row of chafing dishes FULL of gurgling bubbling hot delicious goodness and tray-bowls of sweets— cupcakes, cookies, red/white/blue chocolate-dipped strawberries —sponsored by Facebook, which was apparent at every turn. There was also SOOOO.MUCH.CHEESE of so many varieties and presentations (melted, cubed, sliced…). We were in Wisconson y’all. So the cheese was cheesing and so were all the rest of the yums. I grazed.

And, as if we were the behind-the-scenes ‘sexy’ folk, the greenroom commissary (what I’m calling it anyway :) also had SWAG. Don’t mind if I do! The phone monopod came in handy and so did the wool “Facebook elections” hat since I’d left mine in an airport somewhere. The yo-yo was for fun! The mug… a pain in the behind to now pack and carry to my remaining seven state journey.

I was on a casting trip for a micro documentary about first-time young women voters that I would be calling: “Party Girls: Exploring Politics Across America”. My journey was just about to get interesting too.