President Obama’s Arizona Visit
Last week when I first heard President Obama would be making stops in Denver and Phoenix as part of his stimulus bill ‘roll out’, I thought, how cool that would be to see him when he was here. Then over the weekend, I heard he would be signing the stimulus bill in Denver and rolling out the foreclosure rescue plan here. Now, I thought – this would be really cool to hear him speak on this, as I had experienced the foreclosure crisis both on a personal and professional level.
Sunday it was announced that he would be speaking at Dobson High School – that’s five miles from my house… I had to find out if, how, when, one would go about getting in to see him speak. I read Sunday night that they would be giving out 300-400 tickets to the public, at the school, starting at 10am Monday – first come, first served. After hearing people had already started lining up… I was up and at Dobson High School at 2:30am, bundled up for the chilly 44 degree temperature.
When I got there, people were lined up as far as I could see… where did I fall in line? Was I under that magic number? Talking to those around me, found out that some guys were coming around numbering hands, so no late comers would be able to cut in line. I got my ‘unofficial’ number at 5:30am – #463… if it was meant for me to be there, then, 463 would be good enough for a ticket – I’d have to wait and see.
10am, they started the ticket process, 20 people in at a time – one ticket per person. Name, address and phone, written down for each ticket. We moved up quickly, not knowing for sure where exactly the cut off would be – we heard everything from 200–600 actual tickets being given out – shortly before 11am, I got my ticket!
Walking back to my car, past where I had spent the last 8 hours and an additional 800+ people had lined up hoping to get tickets – it started to sink in what I had just done… Never in my life had I stood in line for anything… not a concert ticket, not a sports ticket – and I am a major sports fanatic… nothing, ever! Now I have a ticket to hear the President of the United States speak in person, to a limited number of people, on a topic so important to me.
Ruth Lamb – BuyerTours Team, Homesmart
