Amazing - period

Amazing is such an overused word. Food can be amazing just as easily as a sunset. However, witnessing the Civil Forum, at Saddleback Church, live, was truly amazing.

We first drove into the entrance of the church campus, past of few piles of protesters arming the sidewalks with an array of signs. We then pulled behind a long line of cars which were being checked for having the appropriate tickets.

Once we parked and walked toward the Worship Center we stood in another long line, in the sun, noticing a plethora of officers and some snipers in combat gear positioned on the roof.

When we reached the front doors our I.D. and tickets were checked on a computer. We left our cell phones and my purse in the car after strict instructions to bring nothing into the building. The next step was to get "searched" by the secret service for any guns, ammunition, bombs, cow bells, wooden sandwich boards, metal tweezers, or sharp jewelry. I got the "go ahead" signal.

We journeyed toward our seats expecting the bleachers, but still thrilled to be in the same building as John McCain and Barack Obama. When we located our seats we quickly discovered that our two seats were separated by an aisle, and one of the seats was positioned so that the person sitting in the seat could not see the stage, and had to stare at the large screen instead. There was a wall that shot up from the floor of the Worship Center blocking the view. I was bummed out to say the least.

I decided to schmooze my way around the folks sitting in the floor seats in attempts to find two "up close" instead of "way back behind a wall" seats. After all, I had thirty minutes to kill before we were going to be asked to return to our seats. I found several "A-listers" who had spectacular seats. None of them had two extras. Bummer.

I returned to our bleacher seats continuing to grumble about the location. At that moment a very wonderful person, Yazz, offered her "center" bleacher seats which had full view of the stage and all of the Civil Forum activity. Gleefully, I accepted wondering silently if I could be kind enough to do the same for someone else. Hmmmm. We sat down, but continued to anticipate something in the floor section becoming available. Nothing did.

The Forum was outstanding. Before the senators came on stage they entertained us for a bit with some music. Our friend Tim Davis sang an awesome rendition of the National Anthem which brought out a resounding applause from the audience.

Each candidate did great, McCain, in my opinion did better, and the media most definitely supports this. Everyone was nervous at the beginning both Obama and Rick Warren received a make up re-apply during the breaks. At one point during the commercial break when McCain was up front, someone from the audience yelled, "We love you John!" He laughed.

After the final handshake they held us in our seats for fifteen minutes. They needed time to exit the "official people" properly into their helicopters. We left the building at 7:20 and filed through a deluge of live broadcasts with reporters stationed on the patio. This is where my "big break" comes in. Are you ready? Three people told me that they saw my husband and I on CNN during the ending commentary from the CNN host. We were walking along the roped area which divided the media from the exiting audience. Autographs anyone?

Since my husband taped the Fox broadcast and not the CNN broadcast, I never saw it. Hopefully I will during re-broadcast. My black and white patterned dress evidently stood out for viewers.

Down the stairs which lead from the Worship Center were about twenty interviewers with cameras and microphones stopping people and asking for a response. No one stopped us.

When we finally got back to our car, cell phones, and my purse, we sat in the parking lot for quite a while. We checked our cell phones for any messages and we both had the follow message which was sent at 4:40, 20 minutes prior to "show time" from a great friend of ours. "Looking for u I have 2 seats in the front row for u." To which we replied, "Thanks for trying!"

We missed out on our front row seats next to Cindy McCain and a host of other "A-plus" listers, but we still had a blast.

What an opportunity! Quite a historical experience. America rocks! Freedom rocks!!

I love my church.