WHITE NOISE INSANITY

What a day! I was in complete awe to be with Chellie Pingree & Ned Lamont for the afternoon yesterday. At one point I thought to myself that it’s the power of blogging that has brought me here in the company of these two great progressives. Blogging has been an amazing ride for me and it’s one that I don’t want to get off of right yet! It’s been a lot of fun so far.

The weather couldn’t have been better in Portland for Chellie’s mini-fundraiser. We (Chellie’s daughter Cessie also joined us for lunch) were able to have our lunch on the patio at Mim’s, which is a small restaurant on Commercial Street in Portland near the ocean (the other side of Commercial Street has the fish/lobster piers, more restaurants, and access to the ferries etc.). (The empty table on the right in the foreground of the following picture is the table we sat at) The afternoon sun with a light breeze coming off the ocean made for a perfect backdrop for Chellie’s future in politics. She is going to be the light we progressives and other Americans will need to move forward on Iraq, on healthcare, and on the environment, and she’ll be the light breeze at the right time when needed. It’s her levelheadedness, warmth, and compassion for these issues that is her beacon and will be the light of her campaign.

Chellie is definitely the salt of the earth for sure. She’s genuine and real.

Are you curious as to what Ned Lamont had for lunch? He had Egg’s Benedict, which is a much better lunch than what George Bush served the French president recently at Walker’s Point. Georgie served hamburgers and hot dogs for President Sarkozy. What? No lobstah?

Here’s my view across table at Mim’s. Not bad, huh?:

I sat directly across from Ned Lamont and I have to tell you….he is full of energy, curiosity, and passion in everything he believes in. While sitting together, we talked about his run against Joe Lieberman and I asked him how he felt when Lieberman won that election in the end. Ned basically said that moving forward and helping out other candidates for future races (he has also done some fundraising for Cong. Tom Allen to help kick Sen. Susan Collins out of office and will be doing it again for Allen this week while he’s in Maine) to get elected has become his main goal. Ned spoke highly of the Netroots throughout the whole day and he said a few times that it’s the Netroots who will continue to make change and hold our elected officials accountable for their votes and decisions they make. This is what he likes about Chellie and why he took time out of his vacation here in Maine (he has a summer place in North Haven, which is where Chellie lives) to raise money for her. She’s a real progressive who holds the same stances as Ned does about the Iraq occupation, about the corruption in DC, and about how the current crop of democrats in Washington need to be stronger against the right wing machine in DC or else they won’t have a job in the future. Both Chellie & Ned believe that pushing for more REAL progressives in government is about the only thing that will save the republic at this point. I agree with that!

After lunch, Chellie, Ned, and I decided to walk to the Space Gallery where her fundraiser was held. On the way is the Maine Historical Society and Ned asked Chellie if it would be okay to stop in and take a look inside. She said, “Sure”, and off we all went! It was 15 minutes before show time, but that didn’t stop Ned’s continued curiosity about Maine, Portland, and what makes our city/state tick. So…..we walk inside and there are two men sitting behind the counter looking bored beyond tears. Chellie & Ned immediately introduce themselves and the guy in the blue shirt does most of the chatting with them. The guy sitting down? Not so much. He hardly says a word or even moves, which I found to be so funny, but then again, it was Sunday and he was probably in a coma from boredom, because really…I bet no one but us had entered the building all day! Anywho…Ned paid the $9.00 for us to look at the Longfellow exhibit. We slapped our entry sticker on our shirts and went in.

Note to self: When Ned Lamont is in town, brush up on your Maine history prior to his arrival! Oh gawd.

Ned was so curious about Longfellow that at one point I thought my head was going to spin off it’s axis and fall onto the floor from all the questions he was asking! Luckily, Chellie was there to answer most of his questions (another reason why I’ll be voting for her in 2008! She’s smart!), because all I really know about Longfellow is he was a great poet, but other than that, I don’t remember his history at all (it’s studied in the lower grades here in Maine). Oopsie. I was thinking as Ned was reeling off his conveyor-belt-questions that a laptop & Google would be good right about now. Actually, it was great fun being in his midst and witnessing his zest and curiosity about everything!

Before we left the Longfellow exhibit, I asked Ned if I could take his picture with *motioning with eyes* that woman in the dress *motioning with eyes* over there and he gave me this action:

…and then we were off to the fundraiser.

(Believe it or not…the dress in this picture is @ 200 years old and it could literally be worn today and no one would think that it’s ancient! The design, the fabric, and the stitching was incredibly modern by today’s standards.)

Space Gallery is where Chellie’s fundraiser was held (Chellie also announced the opening of her new office on Congress Street in Portland and darn it…I didn’t take a picture of it! I will at some point and will post it). Space is a neat place. It’s a place for local artists to rent to introduce their artwork, their music, and poetry to the people of Portland, or it can be rented for a fundraiser of any kind. What a great concept this place is! Renting space for self-promotion may already be done in other cities across the nation, but for Portland, I think it adds to the character of the city. Portland truly enjoys their local artists of all kinds. And plus, we love Chellie, so her campaign using this space in Portland is definitely a nice fit.

I would say about 25 people showed up to Chellie’s fundraiser, but for a hot Sunday afternoon when most people would be thinking of doing other things, I thought the turnout was pretty good.

Chellie is a terrific speaker and as usual I found myself nodding to everything she said. Like for instance, she likes the idea of a real universal healthcare system; I nodded. She wants our troops home from a war that never should have happened in the first place; I nodded in agreement. Chellie knows that Americans are tired of the ’same ole, same ole’ in Washington and are craving change; I nodded. She also understands that our nation currently has zero respect around the world because of the actions of the Bush Administration and she understands that our country cannot be safe because of it; I nodded once again. Chellie is the kind of person who loves the idea of sitting down with people and hashing out ideas to make positive change and when she is speaking to a crowd, you get the feeling at times that she wants to do just that right in the middle of her speech! I’m serious. She is such a great speaker and she brings you in with her every word which is what a good, rational, person does. Salt of the earth that Ms. Chellie is.

Here’s a picture of Chellie, Mainefem of Turn Maine Blue, moi, and Ned at the fundraiser…

By the way, I did not wrap my leg around Ned while hugging him! Though, I did think about it.

Ned’s energy level is the same energy level that is reflected by a winning team during the game and at the end of the night after the game is won: constant high-fiving each other & belly bumping. He truly is on ‘high-five’ mode constantly, though, he doesn’t actually high-five anyone. Does that make sense? Let me put it this way…being around him you just want to run up and hug him and say, “Great game Ned!”, even if he’s knitting a sweater. That’s how much energy this man gives off when he’s in a room. I’m serious.

It was so wonderful being with Chellie & Ned for the afternoon yesterday. The two of them are a benefit to our country no matter what they are doing in their lives from one moment to the next. I get the feeling that neither of them have ever said to themselves, “I can’t believe I just wasted 5 minutes of my life doing ____ or ____”. I bet neither one of them has wasted a minute of their lives doing something that wasn’t productive or wasn’t positive.

After the fundraiser, Chellie & Ned left to head back to North Haven, so I asked Mainefem if she wanted to go out for a drink, since she had driven down from the Bangor area (2 hours or so away). I figured she’d probably would like to spend some time here before heading back to her hometown. We went to the Foreside Tavern in Falmouth, Maine, which is only a few minutes from Portland, and hung out there for a couple of hours. We had a blast. She and I are two peas in a pod, because we are both feminists, we smoke, and we both want Chellie Pingree & Tom Allen to be representing our state in 2008! Hey, not a bad combo I must say. It could be worse….only one of us could be a smoker. I took this picture of her outside the restaurant when we were having one of our smoke breaks. We gibber-gabbered all night, because quite frankly, that’s what we women do, right, because we’re good at it. Right?

It truly was a wonderful afternoon and evening with all of you! I am so thankful that I could be a part of it. Without political blogging in my life, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet all these wonderful people. What a day it was!