Suddenly, Rod

Liz had to go to the post office after work. Since she gets off a little before I do, we made plans to meet outside the Jackson Blue Line stop.

As I was walking up Dearborn, I heard a bit of commotion on the sidewalk. I looked up and saw a small group of people gathered, and what looked like TV cameras. Without really knowing who was there or what was going on, I pulled out my camera and started making my way over.

A view of the crowd.

Turns out, it was Rod Blagojevich. Which made sense, since we were standing right outside the Federal buiding.

It was weird walking up and worming my way between other people who had fancy cameras. Whenever I find myself at media type events like this, I always think back to the time that Mike and I snuck up to the fourth floor of the Merchandise Mart.

This was back in 2004, and there were a lot of press folks covering the Chicago Teachers Union. Then-president Deborah Lynch had locked herself in the office, as a form of protesting against recently-elected president Marilyn Stewart.

It’s the odd feeling of being an outsider, but then able to blend into a crowd almost effortlessly. A little like trespassing, or crashing someone else’s party. The only resistance I encountered was a guy near the car, asking me to step off the street and onto the sidewalk.

A few random and interesting facts about where we were located:

We were near Adams and Dearborn, close to where the bomb scare was located, last week. We were across the street from the Post Office, where I once saw a car rollover and seat belt safety demonstration. And inside the Federal Building proper, where Blagojevich just excited, was where I went for Jury Duty… and got a Contempt of Court Citation warning, regarding some blog photos I took.

Related:
Bomb Scare Near Work
A Lot Of Black Cars, A Lot Of Guys With Guns
Media Event: Chicago Teachers Union, Merchandise Mart
My Jury Duty Blog Photos – Possible Contempt Of Court Citation