Up at 4 a.m. today. Hit snooze. Up again. Hit snooze. Up again. Ponder, ponder...should I go? I probably won't get tickets....but then maybe I will and I'd always wonder if I could have. Turn off alarm. Too tired.

Up at 5 a.m.! Wide awake without any alarm! It must be a sign from heaven. I relent. Throw on clothes, pack hot tea, food, folding chair and newspaper. Drive to Costa Mesa, CA---a 50 mile drive one way. Arrive at about 6:30 a.m. to see a very long line already. Tents, sleeping bags, and tired people hoping for a ticket to Obama's Town Hall Meeting in Costa Mesa on Wednesday.

The long line snaked around the parking lot and continued to grow throughout the morning.  People in wheelchairs, people with their babies and toddlers, and people of all ages joined the line. By the time I arrived it looked like there were already 1,500 recipients for the rumored 3,000 tickets, but we all waited anyway.

At about 9 a.m. a fairgrounds representative went to the end of the line to tell those people that there were not enough tickets for them for sure. This gave our part of the line hope that we might get in.

Then at about 10 a.m. someone came back to tell my part of the line that there were no more tickets left. They had been passed out already. Hundreds of us were left ticketless.

I went up to the front of the line to see what was happening. Voucher holders were taken in a few at a time and then the sliding gate was closed behind them. It was all very Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-like.

I met three very happy, young ticket holders. They had camped in the line since 6 p.m. the night before.

Then I went to ask people in line why they were still waiting. They had been told the tickets were gone, they did not have a voucher for a ticket, but they waited anyway. The group in one of these pictures had been there since 11 p.m. yesterday.

Many in the crowd complained of people cutting in line. The cutters snuck into the line in the early morning in between tents while people were sleeping. When the line began to move some people ran up and cut in that way.  Many in the crowd complained that the fairground employees should have handed out numbered wristbands as people arrived in order to eliminate confusion and the injustice of line jumpers.

Most of the crowd walked away disappointed. This president is just too popular. 

Note to self: buy a tent.