I have found the secret “blogger area” and because I have a digital camera around my neck, and a laptop on my lap, I am blending in and nobody seems to notice that I’m in the lower “news service” caste. With the help of a help fellow Mac user, I have tricked the WiFi device into getting me online.

I have not been so brazen, however, as to have taken one of the official blogger desks. So I’m sitting in a yellow arena seat, perched high above the convention floor.

Speaking of which: more light has been shed on the credentials vs. access issue. In formal convention terms, there is a “floor” of the convention. This is actually the floor of the Fleet Center. It is red carpeted, and labelled with the names of various state delegations.

While I have Hall credentials, I do not have Floor credentials. Although apparently I can enter some sort of lottery by which I might acquire 15 minutes of floor fame. I believe, however, that this would also require that I anchor the NBC Nightly News. I’m not ready for that yet.

So here I am. Covering. The Convention.

It’s mid-afternoon, and the band is going through their sound checks. There’s a whole lotta singing of the national anthem — proudly hailing, and so on. Right now it’s Miss Teen New Mexico’s turn. If the sound checks are any indication, the anthem will be sung many, many times tonight.

More as events develop.

PS: I have not eaten or had anything to drink since my 4:30 a.m. trip to Tim Hortons. I think maybe I should go and do that now (that is Catherine’s little voice in my head speaking).