Crashing the (Democratic) Party

Bonnie Levison — Crashing the (Democratic) Party 

So, it’s early January in 2009. I’m sitting in a New York City restaurant feeling really anxious. I’m waiting for Steven. He’s the man I’ve been dating for a long time and we haven’t been getting along for quite a while now. And I’m thinking maybe it’s time to just end it. We’re really different. He is a go getter, but he is a risk taker and he breaks rules and it makes me crazy and I’m the polar opposite. I’m kind of passive. I wouldn’t break a rule if my life depended on it and it makes him crazy. And I have thought about it and I just think tonight’s the night. We just got to end it right now, no matter what. It’s the right thing.

I see him coming into the restaurant and he’s coming towards me with a big smile on his face. I feel the dread. And he’s about 6 feet tall, he’s got a beard and glasses, wearing his usual outfit of a black turtleneck, jeans, baseball cap. I even tease him that he looks like the other famous Steven, Steven Spielberg. He sits down at the table and I’m ready to say what I want to say. And he says, ​“I’ve got news.” And I’m like, ​“Okay, okay what?” And he says, ​“I just got two tickets to the Obama inauguration [audience laughter] parties and a hotel and I want you to come with me.” [audience laughter] I know what I have to do and I dig deep and I just say, ​“When do we leave?” [audience laughter] 

Two weeks later, its inauguration day, we’re in Washington. We wake up early. The excitement is palpable. It is a freezing cold day, but it’s just absolutely gorgeous. We get on the shuttle bus to get down to the National Mall. We have yellow tickets. And we get out of the shuttle bus about three long blocks away from the yellow ticket holder’s area and we’re walking by thousands of people online and I’m thinking, thank God we have these yellow tickets because I’m not sure we’d get in. And we get to the entrance and my heart sinks because I realized that all those thousands of people also had yellow tickets. I’m like, ​“Steven, we got to go to the end of the line.” And he’s like, ​“No, we don’t. We’re cutting.” I’m like, ​“That’s what bugs me. That’s what bugs me.” I mean, he’s so aggressive [audience laughter] and he starts weaving his way into the line and it’s like an alarm goes off.

Everybody in the line says, ​“Don’t even think about it. We have our eyes on you. Get to the back of the line.” And I’m humiliated and embarrassed. I’m rolling my eyes and I’m like, ​“We got to go to the back line.” He pulls me behind a tree right next to the entrance, and he’s like, ​“Just wait a couple of minutes. I just feel like something is going to happen.” And moments later, he notices this large group of people, about 30 people, all ages, posing for a portrait, a picture. And he takes me by the hand and he says, ​“Just smile and act like you belong.” [audience chuckle] I’m incredibly uncomfortable. But suddenly we find ourselves in the back row of this photograph, being photographed. Someone has this picture. There we are in the back row, and then the group breaks up, and they all start heading towards the yellow ticket holder entrance. 

Steven says to me, just get in the middle of the group, smile and act like you belong. And we start walking along. I’m like, this is so uncomfortable. And I look around at these people, and I’m thinking, ​“They look familiar. Oh, holy [beep sound]. This is the Kennedy family. [audience laughter] We just had our picture taken with the Kennedy family.” [excited] And I’m in the middle of this group, and we walk right up to the entrance, and it’s like Moses and the sea parting. The line steps aside, and we all go in. [audience laughter] We’re the first to go through security. Not only that, they guide us into the front section.

Moments later, I’m standing at the foot of the steps of the Capitol, and above me is the enormous podium where Barack Obama will be inaugurated in an hour and a half. And I can’t believe this. We find seats and we start taking pictures of each other. I’m like, ​“Steven, take a picture of me here.” And suddenly, everybody’s all excited everywhere and they’re handing me their camera and saying, ​“Could we take a picture with him?” And I’m taking a picture. And finally, I’m taking his picture with this incredibly handsome marine. And I’m holding the camera, and these people behind me say, ​“Look, look who it is.” Oh, my God. They think he’s Steven Spielberg. [audience laughter] I’m looking through the lens, I’m taking the picture, and I see his big smile. He knows they think he’s Steven Spielberg, [audience laughter] but he’s not going to blow it for them or for us. And as I’m taking the picture, it occurs to me, ​“Maybe I should give this relationship a little more time.” [audience laughter] You know, he was willing to take risks. Yes, he looks like Steven Spielberg, but it works.

And maybe I’m the one that needs to change. Maybe I need to go out on a limb and take some risks. And not for nothing, he’s not the only one that looks like somebody famous. I have been told that I look a little like Martina Navratilova. [audience laughter] Thank you.