I knew I'd lost my chance. It was 7:44 am and I knew that the venue where Bernie Sanders was holding a town hall event today in my city had opened at seven to allow people to enter. I had meant to get up at 5:00 am, but I'd had a rough night. Pain in my shoulder, pain in my left hip, pain in my neck. The kind of pain that keeps you awake, that doesn't give you a moment's peace. Pain that was worse than usual for me, and a sure sign that my autoimmune symptoms had flared up.