Couldn't Murphy's Law be suspended, JUST THIS ONCE?? Nope. Crap.

[DFW]

My wife and I are flying back to Dallas for a few days next Monday. We were invited to a small reception with Michelle Obama, who will be in town for some campaigning and fundraising. It was scheduled for the evening, plenty of time for us to clear customs and get to the house and change.

Now, suddenly there has been a schedule change, and the thing we were scheduled for has been moved up to 3:00 PM. Our plane from Europe doesn't even land until half an hour after that. We miss the whole thing. Just.

The Dallas Democrats have been sending me all sorts of apologetic emails.

None of them have been very consoling.

[bluesbassman]

1. That's a bummer.

Hopefully the next one will be just as good.

I get a kind of vicarious sense of pride that one of our own gets to hang with that crowd and I enjoy the anecdotes you can share.

You and Mrs. DFW have a safe trip.

[DFW]

2. Thanks, my friend, we'll try.

Even though Howard is no longer DNC chairman, I still have some friends in the DNC. I haven't chatted
with either the President or Michelle since the Denver convention, and this is now 4 years ago. I can't
make Charlotte, either, although I don't think the atmosphere will be quite as electrified as it was in Denver.

This trip is mostly for personal stuff, and although I'll probably see Helen Thomas, as usual, I don't have
any eyebrow-raising meetings planned. One of my nephews is graduating from college, and we are keeping
our promise to be there if we possibly could. Since my wife hasn't been to Dallas for a few years, we are tacking
a few days on at the beginning (the Michelle Obama thing was a pleasant surprise, and now it no longer is), as
well as a few days in NYC on to the end to visit with my elder daughter and my sister. Then it's back over here
and my leisurely two-or-three countries a day grind. I think tour guides have it easier.

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. In D.C. once, I absolutely HAD to be out of the office the day Pete Seeger came to spend a few hours

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Anti-synchronicity? Couldn't one or the other events been two hours earlier? Two hours later?
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I STILL feel the disappointment of that day.
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[DFW]

4. I hate stuff like that, and you never DO forget it do you?

WAAAAAAAAY back in 1967, I was in a progressive rock band in high school, and by accident, we got
a few gigs in Washington DC at the old Ambassador theater, which was sort of a local Fillmore East
wannabe. A friend of ours had done their sound system, and invited us in to do a sound check. Imagine
a few high school kids being invited in to do a sound check for a stage where Canned Heat was going on
four hours later! Well, we sounded GREAT of course. With a sound system like that, who wouldn't?

Some guy came down while our sound tech friend was behind the scenes adjusting something or other.
He asked us who we were, and we told him. We asked who he was, and he casually told us he owned the
place. Oops. We apologized for the noise and said we were only there at the invitation of the sound guy,
and would shout down right away. He said, no, it's OK, and by the way, what were we doing that night?
As of that moment, NOTHING! As 15 and 16 year olds, we ended up backing up the Youngbloods, Junior
Wells and Canned Heat.

But what we MISSED was backing up Jimi Hendrix. Two weeks earlier, and we would have landed that gig
as well. The backup band always used to hang out with the main act in the small musicians' room offstage.

Talk about regret!!!!!!!!!!!!