On Thursday night, a bunch of strangers will come over to the house. And I’m really excited about it. Because they’re coming over to share in what I think will be one of those moments I’ll remember for a long time – Barack Obama’s acceptance of his party’s nomination as candidate for President of the United States.

This event will inevitably make me cry. I’m so stunned that this is happening in my lifetime and I’ve become quite a cryer in recent years. I think it’s stunning that we’ve gotten here. And I’m terrified about the outcome in a number of ways I don’t even want to talk or think about.

That this speech will take place on the anniversary of another stunning, amazing date cannot be ignored. I know from my own experiences planning events that planning this convention started so long ago, when no one knew who the candidates would be. Hell, no one probably had heard of Barack Obama. The DNC had to book Denver’s facilities years and years and years ago. So no one could have foreseen that this speech would take place on the very day, 45 years ago, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr stood at the podium on the National Mall at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in front of a quarter of a million people. Does that rock you? It does me. I’m 55 years old and I’m watching watching history being made. That’s a very weird feeling. I usually don’t give in to such dramatic pronouncements. Usually, I think, most of us take stock after something and think “oh wow, I’m not going to forget this but it’s been obvious as it happens. It was obvious from watching for months as we realized that it was going to be history on the hoof, we were gonna fucking be there as someone accepted the nomination and changed history, whether it would be a woman or a man of African-American descent. Holy cow.

So I got this email from Moveon.org, which has moved on from their origins as the “let’s get over it” group back during the whole Clinton/Lewinsky/impeachment debacle. And they’re huge and they’re progressive and they’re apparently organized. On that last, we are reserving judgment. Because I think they suck and I won’t be participating in any more Moveon.org-planned events.

The idea was to open your house Thursday to friends and/or neighbors so we could participate in this history together. I signed on after talking it over with Stu, who was concerned because of course he gets home late so I’d be coping by myself. But hey, the house is still pretty okay after the Vanguard party. So I put us on the list. And I emailed a few friends. And then waited as nothing and no one signed on. Welll, hell, we’ll be home anyway but it matters if it’s just the two of you, or if it’s you and 12 other people, or 5 other people. Whatever.

Moveon didn’t send out any announcement of these parties until yesterday, Monday, three days before. Sorry but that’s poor planning. People need more time to organize their lives, at times. Moveon has sent numerous emails about “don’t forget to read the guides” to running these things. Said guides were not available for days after I’d signed up. At last check, the “event materials” page was still “coming soon”. It’s now up. It includes a reminder to “attend a national conference call on June 25 25. Yes. That’s right. June 25.

That “conference call” wasn’t. After FIVE tries to get in, I got in only to hear that I was in “listen only” mode and no one would hear me if I said anything. And the guy was going to go over what we were to do Thursday. I hung up.

A lecture is not a conference. I already read the guide, the emails about the guide, the memos about the emails about the lists about the suggestions about the agendas about the websites. I don’t relish holding a phone to my ear if I have to listen to someone tell me what I already know.

So I wrote to the folks and they wrote back saying essentially, yes, it was a rehash of what I already had received. But, you see, they were swamped (which is why maybe I could not get in on the toll-free number) (oh lovely, and they knew TO THE nth degree how many people MIGHT call in) and golly gee, “we have so many new hosts, and there is so much information being imparted that we need to share it more than once and in different ways with our hosts.”

Golly gee. I missed the sharing part, I guess. Since I can read. The “conference call” was not described as a “rehash for those of you who can’t read emails/websites/printouts” but it was supposed to “Make sure you're ready for the big night! Please join a national conference call for all hosts this Monday. We'll go over everything you'll need to know to make your party fun and successful.” (that’s from the 8/21 email from one guy, not to be confused with the 8/23 email from another guy.

Monday, they finally sent out the email to folks signed on at Moveon.org about these gatherings and finally, I began to see that yes, people did want to come over and join us. I’m thrilled. I really am. I just think that watching this event in the company of other people will be the right and cool thing. And as I’m very much not a capital “d” Democrat, and was not really happy with the experience I had at the local district gathering I attended, I just don’t want to go to some legislative district or campaign gathering where, I’m sure, there will be lots of recruitment speeches and pleas for money. I mean, one of the most negative parts of that legislative district gathering came when those running for delegate slots said “vote for me, I’ve been working for the party/campaign for months ringing doorbells” and “vote for all these people who have been working for the party for months”. Sorry but that does not represent me. It does not tell me anything about you that I want to know. Sorry but I gave up on partisan politics back when I was in my early 20s. I’ve never dropped out of the process, I have been politically active for decades but I still hate partisan politics for many many reasons. Chicago was the trigger for that. Anyone who doesn’t get that is probably too young to remember 1968.

Happily, one of the people who signed up is connected to moveon.org and asked if she could bring flyers on how to get involved. I enthusiastically told her yes, and said how pleased I was that she’d do that, since clearly she could answer questions I would not be able to answer.

I’m really happy that at least 8 people (7 of whom are strangers, one is a neighbor) will be joining us Thursday night to celebrate. Will you be watching?