It’s cold.  It’s dark.  It’s freaking raining.  But hundreds of people are in line in front of the Comcast Center, drinking coffee and trying to figure out which security people are Secret Service.  Holy crap folks, Obama is really coming.

The line at the Comcast Center at about 5:20 a.m.

A little after 4 a.m., the line was modest.  About 35 people were chilling out inside the Lot 6 parking garage, putzing around and talking about how they weren’t expecting to be at the front of the line.  Freshman letters and sciences major Raquel Zuniga, who showed up at just before 4 after not going to sleep, was at the front of the pack.

“It’s a little epic,” she said. “He came last year and I missed it.  I’m not going to miss it this time.”

[a brief quiet period in which some more people stumble into the garage but nothing of significance occurs]

At 5 a.m., somebody at the front of the line thought he was being told it was time to go and triggered a stampede — the hundred or so people in line all snapped awake and jogged forward, which, it turns out, was not what the police wanted everybody to do.  A woman with a badge and a really loud voice informed everyone of such, and we were right back where we started, but now people were starting to come in pretty steadily.  I kept talking to people, and everybody said the same thing — Yeah, I’m here to see Obama.  Yeah, I voted for him.  No, I don’t really understand the health care debate.  He’ll explain it to me today.

Then some dude plowed into me.  I was having a perfectly enjoyable conversation with three women from Buffalo who travelled all over — Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina — with the Obama campaign for over a year when everybody started moving again, except with more gusto.  Officials were moving the line.

At first, everyone was pretty much maintaining order, moving down the hill to the bottom of the main Comcast Center steps, but when the crowd hit the main downhill section of the trip, things got a little hairy.

University of Maryland students calmly moving the line down the hill

Everybody was running, and these poor women I was talking to didn’t stand a chance.  One got lost and another lost the bag to her camping chair, and everybody else was either out of breath or way farther back in the line than when they started.  I went to the front to see how they fared.  Raquel lost her spot too.

[Time passes.  The sun comes out.  People continue pouring into the area.  I go to the roof of the parking garage.  The clock strikes 7:20.]

Also, if you have any pictures or interesting tales from the rally day experience, don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail — abdilldbk at gmail dot com, dude.  That’s where the party’s at.