Hillary Clinton Comes to Wausau

It's primary time here in Wisconsin so some of the Presidential hopefuls were in Wausau recently. Huckabee was here and so was Obama, but his meeting was held at North Central Technical College by private invitation only.

It was Hillary that I really wanted to see. Mostly because my Mom had seen her speak in my hometown, around the time of the Iowa caucuses, and said she was a very good speaker. So Senator Clinton was scheduled to speak in Wausau on Sunday and I made plans to go. Allie overheard me talking about going and said "Hillary? I know her. We talked about her in school". So I took her with me. But it was not to be...no airplanes were coming in or out of Wausau due to the snowy weather and she wasn't able to make it.

By this morning, the rally had been rescheduled. The kids were off of school today, for President's Day (how ironic). I dropped the girls off to stay with Grandpa while Grandma Sharon and I headed downtown. We had to wait in line for what seemed like forever. We were actually not too far back from the front of the line. See the blue arrow? That was not the end of the line, it continued for another block or two.

Once we got inside of the building, we signed in and made our way to the doorway that lead up a flight of stairs. Before we got to the stairs, we were stopped and told they weren't letting any more people in. The fire marshall was taking a count of how many people were already up there. The three people in front of us got mad and left. So there we were, first in line if they let any more through.

After a few minutes, a volunteer worker asked if anyone would be willing to help carry up a few more folding chairs. So Sharon and I each grabbed two chairs and started up the stairs, past all the people still waiting to get inside the room where Hillary was to speak. We got some annoying looks but we continued on, straight into the meeting room. Two men graciously took our chairs from us, and then proceeded to sit down in them! So we stood in front of them until some nice woman brought us our own chairs.

We were actually very close to where Mrs. Clinton would be standing. We couldn't believe our luck! We waited and waited until she finally arrived, well over an hour past the time she was scheduled to appear. She gave a great speech. And even thought I know absolutely nothing about politics and am very undecided about it all, I felt so proud to be there, informing myself about who this person is who wants to run our country.

After her speech, she took some questions from the audience and announced she would be greeting and signing autographs afterwards. I wasn't about to let our luck run out just yet. Sharon and I jumped up, headed towards her, and eventually pushed our way through the crowd. I stuck out my hand and Hillary shook it! Then I nudged Sharon in front of me and Hillary shook her hand too!

We may have shaken the hand of our next Democratic Presidential candidate or even our next President...but at least we can say we shook the hand of a former First Lady!