My apologies to readers for not updating as frequently as I had hoped. While delegates were certainly in session from 3PM to 9PM every day, most of our free time was filled with receptions and after parties, along with lectures and seminars on issues and organizing.

Here's a look at some of the events I went to. Remember that expression "there's no such thing as a free lunch?" If you want to survive at a convention, learn to party hop.

Sunday ... Friends of New Orleans Reception
Monday ... AT&T Delegate Reception
Tuesday ... New England Caucus Reception at Johnny Rocket's
Wednesday ... Green Delegate Reception (Afternoon)
Labor/Vets Reception at Coors Field (Evening)
Democratic Gov. Assoc. Late Night Party (Ended up skipping)

Again, this post is coming relatively late. Thursday was beyond incredible.

I had been out late the night before, having a late night sandwich with Sam Spencer and Chairman and Mrs. Knutsen, and woke up early for the delegation breakfast. I had actually slept through my alarm the first few tries.

I had intended to see former Governor Michael Dukakis (D-MA) speak at Regis College that morning, but the event was cancelled. I e-mailed a friend from the NCSL who I've come to know through my work with the Legislative Youth Advisory Council to see if she could meet me for coffee.

We met at the Tattered Cover Book Store for coffee and conversed for a while, before I met my friends Kayla Benker from Nebraska, Tom Dec from Connecticut, and Robert Burack from Michigan, all friends I had met in Iowa, for lunch. The three were in town for the big speech (my friend at Tattered Cover had explained to me that it was a big issue when Mile High Stadium was renamed Invesco Field--and that Barack was wise to refer to it as 'Mile High.')

After lunch, I went back to the hotel, changed, and got aboard a bus with Ray Wynne to the home of the Denver Broncos. After quite some time in line (though paling in comparison to the wait of the several thousand non-delegate community-credentialed spectators), we walked on to the football field, through the mysterious underground of Invesco Field at Mile High.

As I walked in, Civil Rights leader John Lewis took the podium.

So it's all over. Exhausted, exhilarated, united$whatever the salient adjective of your choice to describe last night and the culmination of this 2008 Democratic National Convention$most everyone would have to agree that for many, many Americans, this is the most hopeful they've felt about the direction of our nation in a long time.

To battle the bus lines and security and logistical confusion of moving 80,000 people (or whatever the final count) in and out of Invesco Field was one thing. As a Mainer, whose largest events she attended growing up were UMaine hockey games and the occasional trek to Fenway, the sheer enormity of the masses who filled the stadium last night left me breathless. I simply couldn't get over it. The hours went by, but I couldn't get over the magnitude of what was happening at this small place on our big earth in Denver last night.

Barack Obama was one of the few people who could bring all of those people together last night$and then to back it up with a substantive explanation of why he, not John McCain, must, MUST be our next president, was the whole package. We heard from generals who support him, we heard from several brave everyday Americans from various states about their circumstances in life and how their country has not worked for them in these past 8 years of misplaced priorities, and then we heard from our nominee himself. Barack did not hesitate to fight back against John McCain's petty charges of late on issues like patriotism. He stressed that it is a candidate's judgment that we as Americans should use as a measure for the presidency$not fear. He did not shy away from talking about some of the most controversial and all too often divisive issues of the day: abortion rights, immigration, guns, and issues important to the gay community. He took those issues head-on and said while we may disagree to a degree, we can find common ground on many of these tough challenges that have divided us into red and blue states in the last decade.

So as we left the stadium to a chaos of buses and thoughts of airline flights home, I think we felt a little more hopeful, a little more encouraged about how government can be a force for good in Americans' lives again and not a 20th Century bureaucracy for the 21st century problems, as Barack said.

Now I head home, with less than 70 days until November 4th and with lots of work to be done$to not only elect Barack Obama, but to elect leaders from Maine who have shown similar judgment on the most important issues of our time. Leaders like Tom Allen have made the right choices for Maine in the last eight years, while Susan Collins has made far too many wrong ones$and especially at the times it mattered most. Obama will need Tom Allen as part of his team to execute the plan he so eloquently laid out last night.

Time to go to work!