Day 7: It Starts

The convention started yesterday, and I don't think anyone could have prepared me for the madness that ensued for roughly 8 hours straight. I'm sure many of you watched the Convention from home regardless of your political affiliation, but for those of you who did not see what it looked like, just picture a thousand chickens running around in a living room. If you can picture that, you've got what it's like on the convention floor. I don't know who's in charge of floor passes, but whoever they are, they need to be fired. Every person and there mom was on the floor just walking around aimlessly and getting in the way. Now I understand if they're delegates than they deserve to be there, but I just wish there was a better system then the one implemented currently. I had to push old women and shove through mass swarms of people just to keep up with my crew. It was madness!

I'm not whining or complaining, I'm simply relaying to you the insanity of the convention. Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome sight to see and experience. I don't have to be at the Pepsi Center until about 12:30 in the afternoon now because we don't have much need for floor units before the convention begins, so I was able to sleep in yesterday which was nice. I left to go to work and like I expected, I had to go through some serious security. There were three checkpoints just to get to the CNN headquarters, or the CNN Grill as some of you have seen on the television. When I first arrived, the Wall engineer, Josh, had me help him again by setting up the RSS feed for CNN's Political Ticker, and sending it to this guy so that we could have it flashing up at the CNN Grill too. I was in a world of different languages. The techno talk is definitely something I need to work on. I found another problem with the "baseball cards" for the wall, and I went back to checking all the states on the floor map, and as I was checking them John King came up and we chatted some more. It's cool how I'm just one of his helpers now.

But then before I knew it, it was showtime. At first we did some shots with our reporter on the floor Jessica Yellin, but then after the center became completely full, it was a mad dash to get shots of crazy supporters, politicians, and to set up shots for the headliners like John Legend, Ted Kennedy, and Michele Obama. Before the convention began, I was able to meet and hang out with Dave Modell, Art Modell's son, and he let me put on his Super Bowl Ring! I think it was bigger than my head. The thing was enormous. After chatting for a bit, he asked about the magic wall, so myself and Josh tinkered on the Magic Wall and showed off our skizzills. Dave actually gave Josh his card because he is thinking about taking that software and design and using it for NFL coaches. It was fun listening in to his ideas and just getting to meet him. As a Ravens fan, I was stoked.

Now there were a lot of different people I met or brushed shoulders with, such as Madeline Albright, Caroline Kennedy, Omarosa, some WWE Wrestler, John Legend, John Roberts, as well as some other politicians I didn't know off the top of my head. It was madness, but so much fun all at the same time. I won't lie, I'm excited to see the speakers tomorrow and experience the atmosphere, but I'm definitely not looking forward to the craziness of running through mobs of people. But hey, I'm interning with CNN at the DNC, I can't complain.

It's the chance of a lifetime. Look for me today, I know some of you saw me last night on TV.