Steve

The Steve
Originally uploaded by fiveforefun

Doesn't he look proud?

The Macworld keynote was an interesting experience. Last night, Sis and I weren't sure if we wanted to do the whole "get up early (late?!) and stand in line in the cold" thing or not.

But then this morning at 3:45am it happened.

A garbage truck dropped a Dumpster outside hotel, shaking us awake. The garbage trucks appear to run all night long in the FiDi. But this was way beyond loud. I was instantly wide awake. It was all downhill from there.

So I got up and showered and got ready to go. By the time I was done with the bathroom Sis was about ready too. (She's a night shower-er. I still contend that one of us was switched at birth.) We headed down to the Moscone Center and arrived at about 4:45am.

Nothing, I repeat NOTHING is open at 4:45am. Not the Apple Store. Not Starbucks. Not even Walgreen's.

But there were a LOT of people at the Moscone Center. Yes, standing OUTSIDE in line. We joined the first line we saw - which was the correct one. That's right we were fortunate enough to be in the "Priority" keynote line, since we have Platinum and Super passes. (Thanks, boss!) We were about 50 people back, and thought that looked pretty good... and it was. We were informed that as long as we were last in line it was our job to let others know that this was the priority line and the regular line was around the corner.

I have never seen anyone's eyes go dead and sad, like the look some of those people gave me when I told them they had to go to the other line. Poor them.

Meanwhile we chatted with the other folks in line. Which is to say, I chatted. Sis isn't a morning person. (Come to think of it she isn't really an afternoon or evening person either. Again, I contend that someone was switched at birth.) Since the world is amazingly small, two members of the IT team from the Bend School District were right behind us in line. What are the odds?

Eventually it was time to go inside. Throughout the morning Macworld staffers had walked the line ensuring that we knew what would happen and "when-ish" (their phrase not mine). We were led into the Moscone Center and up the double escalators to the second level (two-by-two, stay in your groups of four!). Then we went down a hall, turned a corner, down another hall, around another corner, and down to the end of ... yeup! another hall. Roughly back to where we started when we got off the escalator. And then we waited again.

Shortly before 9am the VIP's and media were paraded past us, to rub in that they were getting better seats than us.

And then it was our turn.

We scored what I am pretty sure were some of the best non-VIP seats in the auditorium - in the second non-VIP row on the right side of the auditorium. We could see Steve clearly. We could hear Steve clearly. And when Randy Newman was rolled out to sing "You've got a friend in me" (from the movie "Toy Story") he was straight ahead of us so we could see and hear him clearly too.

And in case you haven't heard yet - we sat by Sinbad (the comedian some of us remember from the 80's). He is apparently a Mac Fanboy, and sat directly behind us taking copious notes and sending SMS messages from his, er, Crackberry. I guess Sinbad didn't get the memo about the iPhone. ;)

If you want to read more about the announcements I suggest you watch the presentation here, or read the summary here. Or, just visit the Apple website and look at what's new.

G'nite!