The letter “e” prevented me from seeing President Barack Obama give his speech Feb. 12 in East Peoria.

My co-worker, DeWayne Bartels, who loves to cover political events, called to tell me the President would visit either Peoria or East Peoria.

I could tell he was chomping at the bit.

I’ve never been big into politics. When President Bush came to East Peoria last year, I was not enthused. I felt a little different this time. I wanted to hear Obama speak.

DeWayne handed me a media instruction sheet that announced when the press should be at Caterpillar, what time the president would arrive and so on.

I remember the day an announcement was made over the loudspeaker at work, “DeWayne, you have a call from the White House.”

You certainly don’t hear that every day.

The person he talked to at the White House said he needed the names of those journalists who would cover the event. DeWayne had to e-mail him three names: mine, his and another co-worker, Donelle, who we were sending to the airport to take pictures of Air Force One and the president’s arrival there.

The big day arrived and my anticipation and excitement grew.

Of course, I told my parents, grandparents and aunt that I was going to cover the president’s visit. They were all excited for me and could not wait to hear about my adventure and see the photos.
When I told my aunt, she squealed with delight.

DeWayne said he would take a picture of me taking a picture of Obama. My mom thought that was really cool and wanted to get a copy of that keepsake.

My boyfriend was envious, and I even had people from the community e-mail me to say they were jealous that I was going to get to cover the president’s visit.

All of this hype made the event seem even more important to me — it was a story I could share. My family and friends could live vicariously through me.

Media was instructed to arrive at Caterpillar’s HH building at 2 p.m. I left the office at 1:15 to give myself plenty of time.

I did not know where building HH was, but it was not hard to find as a cop car was at the entrance as well as security. They asked to see my media pass and I was permitted into the parking lot.
I found a space and wolfed down the sandwich I bought along the way.

I called my mom to inform her that in 45 more minutes I would see the president.
I double checked to make sure my camera and video camera batteries were fresh.

DeWayne, who does not have a cell phone, was to meet me at the event.
The day was windy and brisk and I waited outside for 45 minutes with the other media.

There was a long line of people who had tickets to get into the event along a fence. The media was huddled toward the front. There was a lot of commotion as people got their names checked off a list and received a special orange and white pass from the White House.

I saw my former intern and some other media people I knew and spoke with them. I saw the East Peoria mayor, an East Peoria deputy chief and the East Peoria Chamber of Commerce director there as well.

I did not, however, see DeWayne. I started getting nervous, but I could not call him.
I thought if he didn’t show up, I could cover the event alone. It would be difficult to take notes, video and pictures, but I would manage.

Little did I know this would not be the worse thing to happen.
A few media people’s names were not on the list, including ours. Since we were not the only ones with this problem, I was confident it would be corrected.

One national reporter grew irritated when her name was not on the list and asked if she should get on the phone and start screaming at people. The event organizers told her yes. However, soon the national reporter was cleared. So were the other media who were not on the list — except us.
In the meantime, I received a text from Donelle, who was at the airport. Her name was not on the list. She could not get in with the other media.

Finally, I spotted DeWayne and frantically waved for him to come up front with the media. Once he got there, I told him we were not on the list. He assured me he e-mailed the White House with our names.

We talked to three event organizers, who double checked the list.

They told us to e-mail the White House again. We were running out of time. We had no computer with us. I told DeWayne I would go to the library and use a public computer. Instead, I called the library and a nice staff member typed my SOS to the White House for me. (Thanks, Tammy!)

I went back to the front gate where DeWayne was waiting. By this time, all the other media and the line of people had been let into the building. We were the only two left standing in the cold literally.

DeWayne pulled out the e-mail he sent to the White House and called there.
I heard him reading off the e-mail address he sent the request to.

I heard him say, “Ohhhh. So, there’s nothing we can do at this point?”
He hung up and broke the news.

He had misspelled the person’s e-mail address so they never received our request.

DeWayne added one extra little “e” to the address and that little “e” cost me a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Needless to say, we are not going to let DeWayne forget about his mistake. But, at the time, I didn’t want to give him too hard of a time since I was already certain he felt like a heel.

Donelle, who froze in a dress and heels at the airport, bought DeWayne a dog bone since he will be in the dog house for a long, long time.

As people called that night to ask me how it went, I told them it went all right — without me inside the building.