Bill Clinton Ruined My Day

Well, Bill Clinton ruined my day. I like saying that. I feel like only a privileged few have actually been able to say that and mean it. I have to admit that Bill didn't actually ruin my day, but I felt like the headline packed a punch.

Bill Clinton came to Bloomington yesterday to campaign for Hillary. I decided to try to catch him on my lunch break because he was supposed to speak at 2 pm. Honestly, my vote is still undecided but I really wanted to see Bill speak. It felt like something I shouldn't pass up when he was speaking 5 minutes away from where I work. Some friends and I headed out of work to catch him and stood in line outside of Assembly Hall (where the Indiana Hoosiers play basketball). We were herded like cattle up the to seats and I thought we would get some pretty bad seats. But for some reason, the ushers kept telling us to keep walking down the steps of the stadium. Soon we are on the floor and quickly ushered to our seats on the side bleachers. Our seats were amazing! I had my camera phone ready and was excited to see former President Clinton. The only downfall was I never got to see Bill Clinton. (Cue the Debbie Downer music) My friends and I sat, sat, and sat some more. We tried to be patient as our bottoms grew numb on the hard wooden bleachers. We all felt so cramped and were packed in like sardines. I was really getting sick of the two 12 year-olds taking pictures of themselves with their camera phones in front of me...non-stop. I know that age is pretty self-consumed, but sheesh! Enough is enough. Also, there were only so many times we could hear the same songs repeat on the campaign CD. Eventually, our excitement turned into annoyance and anxiety. I had visions of my phone ringing off the hook, the receptionist paging me, and my inbox full of panicked emails. I guess the others I was with thought the same thing...after a while we exchanged anxious looks and headed out. We couldn't wait for Bill any longer. Way to ruin my day, Bill Clinton!

When we returned to work everyone was asking, "How was Bill?" We had to say, "We sat there for an hour and half and decided to come back to work. No Bill..." I heard he showed up 2 and a half hours late, but gave a good speech and agreed with his daughter Chelsea about how Hillary would be be a better president than he was. He also cracked a joke about how "No Child Left Behind" has not been successful which drew applause from the audience. He said he could be standing in the middle of Idaho without a Democrat around for miles and that an elk would applaud him for that stance. That kind of made me laugh when I read that because I really liked the way Bill painted that picture with words.

My dreams of seeing a former President with my own eyes were crushed, but maybe another opportunity will arise. Until then, I will keep a personal grudge....how many people can actually say they have a personal grudge against him? Well probably a lot, so I'm not that special. But anyway, he like totally ruined my day...