Yesterday, I was able to stop by the Denver Tea Party for about 45 minutes on my way to Boulder. I was surprised and pleased by the large turnout. A Denver Post article estimates a crowd of “more than 5,000 people” in attendance. Ari Armstrong has more details, including a slew of great pictures. From what I saw, he’s right to call the event “a limited success,” I think.

I was frazzled and overwhelmed, so I didn’t spend much time passing out the fliers I brought with me. (Next time, I’d like to make that my primary purpose.) Instead, new doggie Conrad and I walked about, being petted by and chatting with people on occasion. (I’ll leave you to figure out who was petted and who was chatting!) Although one of many dogs at the event, Conrad attracted quite a bit of attention because he was the only dog smart enough to wear his own sign:

Here’s a close-up:

And here’s the other side:

As you can tell, I didn’t prepare these signs carefully in advance. The idea only really occurred to me as I was driving to Denver. I was able to buy the requisite paper at Kinko’s, then make them hurriedly in the car with some markers I brought with me.

Despite that lack of good preparation, I was happy with the results. Many people noticed my signs: we got lots of friendly comments. Conrad definitely attracted far more attention than I would have carrying my own sign. Next time, I’ll make better signs and attach them more securely to him. It helps to have a gimmick for these kinds of events, I think.

Oh, and in light of Flibby’s well-justified scolding about the use of “tea bag” as a verb, I couldn’t help but take a picture of this unfortunate sign:

Um, wow. And, uh, no thanks…