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Dispatches from the Road
Tuesday July 6th
After a long separation, Heidi was on the road again. My new intern Jason and I set out for a long overdue reunion with Reggie the Registration Rig in Erie, PA. The local radio talk shows are holding a "Battle of the Broadcasters" Blood Drive. They are challenging the Blood Thirsty Conservatives and the Bleeding Heart Liberals to donate blood and put a dent in the crisis for donors that Erie is experiencing. Despite my debilitating fear of blood and needles, we couldn't resist putting Heidi into action and educating the blood donors of Erie, PA about President Bush's attacks on the Clean Air Act.
To make this event even more worthwhile - we gave Heidi a makeover. The decals that we spent 7 hours putting on the car in San Diego, CA were too time-intensive, so we had some really slick magnets made. Heidi got several thumbs up as we rolled into Erie. We're a little nervous that it's going to rain tomorrow, but we're heading over to the lake to enjoy some of the local seafood and learn our sound bites (hope there isn't any mercury in the fish).
-Meighan
Wednesday July 7th
The Big Day. Jason and I crawled out of bed at around 6AM and headed to Kinkos. We had some issues with the fax machine and we're a little bummed that our media list is so small. Heidi and Reggie had a brief reunion before it started to rain. Deke & Chrsitine (the Reggie truck drivers) were so excited to see us. Christine gave me a big hug and told me she had missed Heidi and I. They are so much nicer than Ed Gillespie.
The rain started to clear up around 10. Only 2 radio stations showed up to the event. Jason did a great interview with the local NPR outlet. Then he was thrust into the lion's den of the conservative talk radio. Basically they are Erie's version of O'Reilly and threw some real hard questions at him from right field. Those blood thirsty conservatives swore up and down that Heidi's hybrid technology was a bunch of gerbils underneath the hood. After the interview Jason got into some heated debates with the Bush-Cheney Campaign volunteers about the Clear Skies Initiative. The event ended in a draw, with both the Blood Thirsty Conservatives & the Bleeding Heart Liberals donating blood for a worthy cause and everyone showing mad love for Heidi.
-Meighan
Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
(in media res)
Today we took Heidi for a visit to the Sports Arena to get more details about Monday Night RAW. The nice folks at the Sports Arena didn't have much to tell us, but the Events Director offered to let us play in the wrestling ring. It was going to take another hour to finish setting it up though, and we couldn't spend the whole day at the Sports Arena just so Paul could fulfill his dream as a WWE wrestler wannabe so we headed back to Heidi's World HQ - Paul's house.
We decided to call WWE up directly and got in touch with Smackdown Your Vote, an organization registering young people to vote and get engaged in our democracy. Their Director was totally into our hybrid tour and can't wait to model our trucker hat at RAW. He also gave us a green light to lay the smackdown on Corporate Polluters on the big night. We're planning a press conference 2 hours before Reggie & the RNC holds theirs. We'll also be at RAW (we don't know what it stands for, maybe Rasslin' and Ass Whuppin'??) handing out trucker hats that say I Heart Clean Air and signing up rasslin' fans to get involed in the Sierra Club. Thanks WWE!
To celebrate our accomplishment, we went to the Beach and watched the sunset. Organizers have such hard lives :)
Reggie here we come!
-Meighan
Thursday, May 13th, 2004
Clean. Work. Freak out. Laugh. Relax. That was our day in a nutshell. The biggest news was finding out that Ed Gillespie will be at the Monday Night Raw press conference, resulting in all of us peeing our pants. After that, we got some ice cream to chill out. According to Paul, peppermint patties in mint ice cream is a sin, so I am no longer allowed to pick the ice cream. We got home, and Paul picked up his parents at the airport, along with his drunk cat. His mom drugged up his cat Molly so she wouldn't flip out on the plane. She was still out of it at home and couldn't walk a straight line. It was the funniest thing I've seen all week. The day ended with Roberto's Very Mexican Food and a soak in the hot tub. We hope Ed's stay in San Diego is as enjoyable as ours has been
-Katya
Friday May 14th, 2004
Today we had a crisis. We lost our press conference site and had to scramble last minute to find a new location for Monday. As always, Krispy Kreme helps a sista out; whether it's a matter of the munchies or needing a parking lot to hold your press conf - Krispy Kreme delivers. Despite the bad news with the press conf. location, we did score a wrestler for Monday Night RAW who will be canvassing the crowd, handing out trucker hats for RAW-goers. Smackdown is also treating us to a night of wrestling in its most exalted form - our very first Monday Night RAW! Katya and I want to paint our face with "Clean Air." Paul refuses to paint his chest. To celebrate our new location for a press conference and the new relationship with the WWE, we had lunch at one of the finest establishments San Diego has to offer - Chuck E. Cheese. I was a little angry because these four children started to follow me around and steal my tokens. One kid hit me in the face with a skee-ball. Katya scored the most tickets, but I still think I was the winner. Paul & Katya DQed me after they saw that I went to get more tokens. I still would have won without those 4 extra tokens.
Damn their eyes.
-Meighan
Saturday, May 15th, 2004
The weekend. We took it pretty slow today and decided to learn our soundbites at the beach. Katya & Paul had a great time catching some sun and learning the ins and outs of the Clear Skies Intiative. I hate sand and definitely am not a huge fan of the beach unless it's the Outerbanks in NC, but I sucked it up for the team and memorized my talking points with my freakish photographic memory. Afterward, we headed back to Paul's house for dinner with the 'rents. I decided to practice my spiel on Paul's cat, Molly. She seemed utterly convinced that President Bush's attacks on the Clean Air Act were outrageous and need to be stopped. Smart cat. We finished the night with some 'alone time.' I camped out in front of the TV and enjoyed the Real World vs. Road Rules marathon. Road Rules is kicking ass. I wish we had environmental organizing reality TV. If only Heidi was equipped with a webcam....
-Meighan
Sunday, May 16th, 2004
After a visit to San Diego's coolest breakfast spot, the Big Kitchen at about
7:30am the coffee was flowing in our viens, and we hit the North
Park Community Fair all day, parking Heidi in front of the San Diego
Sierra Club Chapter's office there. It was a fun day, but we
definitely got some weird questions about the car, and I totally felt like
some kind of salesperson for Toyota. While sitting in the car as people
walked by at the Fair, Meighan was freaked out by the many people who
freakishly stuck their heads in the window and asked some random questions
about the "microwave" car. After the festival, we spent a long hard study
session in the hot tub and studied our lines for the press conference
tomorrow. - Paul
Monday, May 17th, 2004
The big day! 5 AM we rolled out of bed to begin pitching & faxing for the
press conference. All three of us felt a little bit queasy from the caffiene and lack of food. The
pitch calls to reporters flew by and we arrived at the Sports Arena for
our press conference and were greeted quickly by ABC for an interview. We
think that almost everyone at the Sports Arena drove by to check us out
and were definitely a little concerned when we rolled up to the CNN
interview with none other than RNC Chairman Ed Gillepsie -- the attack dog himself. We weren't deterred, however, and even got a photo with him in front of Reggie. We also got a shot of Heidi and
Reggie racing, as wall as a shot with the Reggie truckers, Deke and Christine.
All of this was happening in the midst of a weird scene where various WWE Superstars professed their love and admiration
for President Bush. People were screaming acronyms (that were not
Sierra Club acronyms), holding huge gold belts in the air, yelling
obscenities, and we struck out big time in our "nascar" attire. After the
RNC event we moved on to handing out hats outside the entrance to the
Sports Arena with none other than the lovely and talented Victoria, WWE Women's World Champion.
Victoria hung out and signed hats. She even autographed Meighan's lid. Meighan says she's going to auction it off on Ebay. After a long day we proceeded back to my house to check out our interview on San Diego channel ABC 10. The
5:30 story turned out great and Gillespie was not prepared to answer
questions on the environment. His soundbites were awful! Despite the hard
work and long days spent laboring in the hot tub, the event turned out to be a really
bad ass project for the SSC.
Reggie, where ya going next?
Finally, a shout-out and thanks to the WWE's Smackdown Your Vote for all their
help. We also want thank Victoria, Gary from Smackdown, Mr. Gillespie,
Thom from ABC, and the whole WWE crew for their hospitalitiy. Did we forget anyone?
- Paul + Meighan
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