2008: A Year in Review

The year started with Hillary shedding a tear for the press and saying, "This is very personal." On January 8th, she won the New Hampshire Primary, but she did not win in Tilton. Later that night, Barack called us at our return watching party to thank us for our perseverance and ask us to keep fighting. We did exactly that. 

On the 22nd of that month, Heath was found dead in his apartment at the young age of 28. The New York City medical examiner's office report read, "We have concluded that the manner of death is accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications." Accidents suck.

In February, I said goodbye to the Cult, and started a new job. Kerry got engaged to Mr. Right, Neal broke his ankle, Verge also got a new job, and Mike's friend dropped a tree on his house. I miss seeing those guys every day. They make me laugh. Hard.

I went to see 10,000 B.C. in March. Not bad.

I don't remember much happening in April.

In May, I saw Iron Man (my second favorite movie of the year) attended Free Comic Book Day at Larry's store, and watched Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian with Lindsay, Em, and Verge. The geek boys that sat in back of us that night were very funny. Em threw up.

The Obama campaign came back to the state in June, and we rallied the troops for the final stretch. Hillary and Barack had their event in Unity, but I chose to work that day. I got my name back that month as well. This time for keeps. I also drank lots of cold Mojitos. Lots.

In July I finally got to view, The Dark Knight. Wow- my favorite movie of the year. I hope they retire the Joker as an onscreen Batman villain. Who could top that performance? Seriously?

Lindsay also had a birthday party in July for her two beautiful babies, Darren and Abby. Later that evening, while sitting next to a fire, I fell over backwards in my lawn chair....slowly. And I do mean slowly. Dean was the one to offer a hand.

I had my heart broken in August. I lost my cousin Dale to cancer. It's still an open wound that is healing as time passes. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. 

Michael taught me how to boogie board on the ocean in August, and took me dancing high above the waves on the pier at Old Orchard Beach. Tears of joy and tears of sadness. It gets blurred sometimes, doesn't it?

September was a great month for the Obama camp, as Sarah gave a huge shot in the arm to the campaign. I was hoping for Republican homes to canvass that month, and giggling at the SNL YouTube videos. Good stuff right there.

In October I watched my Em up on stage and hoped this would be the year she would win the crown. She was the prettiest girl there, and had the hottest evening gown ever. She's just so beautiful. 

John's band released their first CD, and Verge and I were witches at the merch table. Boo- Yes.

Election Day was November 4th, and I spent 14 hours that day getting our supporters to the polls, canvassing the neighborhoods, and was an accomplice to killing a raccoon or two. I spent that night home alone, watching the returns on t.v., and crying. My 18 months with the campaign had come to an end. Barack won. Straight up.

December brought a horrible ice storm, and left over 400,000 homes without power. Michael bought a kerosene heater up in Maine, and drove it down to my house so my pipes wouldn't freeze and burst. Colter came over and got a tree off my roof.  John cut up the tree that had fallen in the front yard. Soon we were warm again. 

Christmas was at Lindsay's house, and she made the best turkey dinner ever. Santa brought me a 1966 Batmobile, the Joker, pearls, a microwave, and wine. We had cheesecake for dessert on Christmas. 

Mmmm........cheesecake.

The Shortest Day

"And so...the Shortest Day came and the year died

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive.

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, revelling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us- listen!

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,

This Shortest Day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And now so do we, here, now,

This year and every year."

Yes We Did

At 12:00 noon on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.

Shazam.

He promised us if we all worked everyday to spread his message of Hope, that Change would come to this country. He was right.

My experience with this campaign, the Primary and General Election GOTV staging areas, and Election Day 2008 are forever with me. 

I arrived at 4:45am to our staging area on Election Day. I was exhausted, excited, and yet ready to go. It had come down to the final few hours, and our country was about to elect its next leader.

Upon my arrival, my field organizer pulled me aside and asked me if I would be willing to be a jumper rather than a driver for the pre-dawn canvassing. She explained to me that there was a woman named Helen who was in her eighties and wanted to help distribute door hangers but only wanted to drive. I of course agreed and thought it was sweet and admirable she wanted to be a part of our movement.

Helen and I loaded up our materials, grabbed our turfs, checked our flashlights to make sure they were in working order, and wished the other teams good luck.  Team Obama was ready to roll.

Helen had a lead foot. I could have lived with that, but she also drove down the middle of the road. The punch line here is that even while sitting on a cat-print rocking chair cushion, Helen could barely see over the steering wheel.

So there we were, driving in the dark at light speed, in the middle of a windy back road, when suddenly I saw a family of raccoons ahead. I knew instantly it was not going to end well.

Sure enough, Helen never slowed down, not even a little, and we hit the biggest raccoon head on. I think some of the smaller ones went flying off the road as well. The sounds of the hit and the squealing were more that I could process at 5:10am. I could feel the pumpkin spice coffee start to come up into the back of my throat. 

"What was that?", Helen asked me. 

"You.... killed a raccoon. I think it was a mother. We sent some smaller ones airborne as well." I replied.

"Oh. What is the name of the first road we are looking for?"

I managed to stay in the car with her for an hour and get one of our turfs done. We drove on sidewalks and knocked over garbage cans- at least I hope they were garbage cans. I even received a goose-egg on my forehead when I leaned forward to get paperwork off of the floor....just as Helen decided to slam on the brakes. No kidding.

Finally- when I could take it no longer, I told her that we were going back to HQ and re-grouping. She wasn't pleased with my decision, but she complied.

I shared the experience with my field organizer and told her that I needed some time alone. I asked her to give me my own turf, explained I would canvass that area, go cast my vote at the polling station, and then return to pick up my team for the afternoon/evening canvassing.

The rest of the day went well, and I canvassed until 6:45pm before going back to our staging area, turning in the paperwork, and saying goodbye to everyone. I was toast. Burned toast.

I decided to go back to my house and watch the returns from my living room.  My inbox was filled with supportive emails from friends, and my cell phone was ringing with calls wondering how I was doing. My friends are fabulous.

 I will never forget when ABC News reported "Obama has taken New Hampshire." The tears started flowing down my cheeks and did so intermittently for the next 24 hours. I went to bed that night knowing that we had won New Hampshire and the country. I cried myself to sleep with tears of joy and hope.

The following day I received a congratulatory email from Kone' in West Africa. He wrote, "All my congratulations for the work you have done in New Hampshire for the victory of Barack Obama." 

He had watched the returns at the U.S. Embassy in Cote d' Ivoire, and wrote of the feelings there- "The joy was captured everything beautiful...the emotion was strong."

There was indeed dancing in the streets on November 4, 2008. Not only in Illinois, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania,  California, Florida, and New York, but all around the world. 

The Change that has arrived is for all of us~

GOTV

We've finally arrived at the Get Out the Vote phase of this campaign. It is a very exciting time for those of us who have been supporting Senator Obama since the spring of 2007. This is what we have been working towards and waiting for 20 months now.

Our GOTV staging area this time is a large, nine bedroom farmhouse that a kind soul was willing to share. Plenty of room for all of our out of state volunteers and campaign workers. 

This morning we have a bus arriving from Massachusetts with union labor members that want to come to NH and spend the weekend canvassing. My job will be to drive them to their turfs in groups of three or four, and then pick them up when they're done. I'm anxious to meet them and listen to their stories of why they got involved. 

Our goal is to completely saturate the state this weekend, and with the ground game we have in place, I think we just might do it.

On Monday, I will be doing data entry until 10:00pm, go home to get some rest and a shower (who will be able to sleep?) so I can return to our staging area for 5:00am. on Tuesday. My first assignment on Election Day is Lit Drop, and after that I'll be driving canvassers to their turfs, and voters to the polls.  

Once the polls close, I will be able to sit down, grab a glass of wine, and wait for the returns to come in. Our work will be done.

I've been with the campaign so long that I've been able to choose my jobs for GOTV. My days of phone banking, knocking on doors, and being yelled at by angry Republicans are over. The Pirate Queen commented that this was kinda like playing a video game and reaching the highest level. I can just have fun now, and enjoy these last few days with the campaign.

I love having geek friends.

A fellow supporter sent me a YouTube link this morning that is definitely worth sharing. My daughter recently remarked that she found it odd that McCain uses "my friends" so much in his speeches. Friends like that we don't need.

I'm Fired Up and Ready to Go~

Our Sense of Common Purpose

We are in the final days of this campaign. On Saturday morning, our campaign office received a busload of sixty college students from the Boston area.

I was amazed that these young adults would feel so strongly about Obama and his message, that they would give up a Saturday to come to New Hampshire and canvass in our communities.

When they walked through the door of our office, they were met by a loud round of applause from all of us. 

A moment that will always be with me.

The two students that I was responsible for had never canvassed before, but were very anxious to start their turf.  I gave them some suggestions- told them what has worked for me, dropped them off at Union Road, and wished them well.

One of the young adults is an exchange student from France. He's not even able to vote on November 4th.

This is a defining moment in our country's history~

 

Silly Silly Sarah

One of my well-meaning relatives gave me a gift subscription last spring to a conservative publication. 

That is clearly a story for another day...

Because of the gift, my name is on many Right Wing mailing lists, so my mail can be very entertaining at times. I recently received an envelope from Sarah Palin. I can't tell you how excited I was to open that mail piece, as I just could not imagine what her campaign would use as talking points.

A few quotes from that piece are:

" We Republicans reject the Democrats' fearful and pessimistic mentality. When we are able to get our message past the liberal mainstream media filter- directly to the voters- the vast majority of the American people agree with our confident, optimistic view of principled, conservative government and opportunity for all."

"But the Obama-Biden Democrats and their allies are set to raise over $1 billion to relentlessly flood America's airwaves with their negative and false attacks against our Republican candidates."

"We will make the tough decisions that will keep America strong as we face threats to our security from radical Islamic extremism, nuclear proliferation and tyrannical regimes.  But to do this, we must stop the Obama-Biden Democrats from taking control of our government."

"Please make sure we have the resources we need to get our commonsense, confident message out to the American people by joining the Republican National Committee with a contribution of $2,000, $1,000, or $500. today. Thank you."

I've got nothing to add to this post. I do, however, invite you to play the Palin as President game. Please know the door opens three times, and don't forget to click on the red phone.

Have fun~

The Name Game

Click here to view a fun YouTube video sent to me by a fellow supporter with the Obama campaign.

Was there ever a question that human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully?

Yeah...I guess that whole "harmony" thing is overrated, huh?