I’ve made it to the halfway point and I’m afraid I’m too exhausted to offer a thoughtful assessment of the week. Instead I’ll tell you how my day went.

Thursday morning, I headed down to the Pennsylvania delegation breakfast, where the speakers included Rick Santorum and West Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bill Maloney. Santorum broke some minor news by saying the presidential race was going to turn into a “bloodbath.” It was enough for a blog post. My colleague Jim O’Toole, who also was at the breakfast, wrote it.

I followed Maloney out. Part of West Virginia is in our circulation area and it's part of the western Pennsylvania regional economy, too. I’d seen him at some other Pennsylvania delegation events and I wanted to know why he’d been around so much. Read my Early Returns blog post to find out.

After that, I took a much-needed nap and started packing for Charlotte.

I’d been expecting to go to the convention floor to get Pennsylvania delegates’ reaction to Mitt Romney’s speech and feed quotes to Jim. Instead, an e-mail from my editor dictated a change of course; he wanted a separate story. It was already late in the day and I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get into the convention center, since this was the day the biggest crowds and the strictest security were expected. Fortunately, the talented and prolific Mackenzie Carpenter agreed to make some calls from the city room. Here’s the story we came up with.

Once it was filed, I went back on the convention floor to check in on the Pennsylvania delegation. I came back to the press stands, filed this blog post and waited for Mitt Romney to deliver his acceptance speech. I couldn’t get back on the floor  because all the passes for journalists had been distributed. Jim covered the speech. My job was done.
 

View of stage from PA delegation seats. #rnc twitpic.com/apec73

— Tracie Mauriello (@pgPoliTweets) August 31, 2012

An hour later, confetti and balloons rained down on the Republican faithful and as they fell, I couldn’t help but revel in the moment myself. It was a fitting end to a satisfying week for this convention newbie. I can’t pause too long to take it all in, because I’ve got a plane to catch.

Off to Charlotte for the DNC!

Follow Tracie on Twitter (@pgPoliTweets) for links to her work for the Post-Gazette and Newbie posts for NPF.
Read previous Newbie posts: 
Is she ready?
Blog post: 1, Coffees: 3
Local Quotes and Carrot Cake
Well- Laid Plans and the Weather
Meals Scarce, Coffee Count Rising 
On Political Language Barriers
Making Lemonade
A Hectic Day and More to Come
Electronic Connection fails; Personal Connections Succeed