I have it!

I have it – that precious little piece of paper – that lets me in to the lecture on Friday by President Bill Clinton at Kansas State University. It required a night of no sleep – and I mean none, a long drive during the night/morning of no sleep, and waiting in line in the cold, but I have it.

They were distributed at 10 a.m. Friday morning, which I found out at about 11 p.m. Thursday night. So, I had to do the work I had slated for Friday in the overnight hours so it was done. I left for Manhattan, about 2 1/2 hours from where I live, about 5:00 a.m. Greg came up separately since I was not coming directly home. We were expecting the line to be very long, but it wasn’t too bad. Greg got there before I did so we’re not sitting together, but that’s OK – we both get to go.

We bought our tickets for the Topeka event, but I’m thinking Clinton may talk more in Manhattan and I really wanted to do both. The last time he was in Kansas – in Lawrence – I did not get to go. I couldn’t go stand in line the day they were handing out tickets that time and I didn’t get to benefit from any friends’ extra tickets. So, I missed out. I was really disappointed then, and I didn’t want to be disappointed this time.

I have been calling everyone I thought might have any connection to K-state for weeks, since this was announced, trying to get details on how to get tickets. K-state didn’t seem to want to share that information. Finally, late Thursday afternoon Greg got word from someone he knows who is a student that after the student distribution there were still tickets left for the public – then it was a matter of how to lay our hands on them.

It wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked it to be, but we got them.