(no subject)
Hey!
You know, I think i might just be a bit excited after the past week... :) Let me tell you all about it:
So, I spent Halloween and the day after grading papers and entering grades into the grade program and bubbling in my kids' final quarter grades on scantron-like sheets (a ridiculously old-fashioned way of doing it, I know), since our quarter ended on Halloween, and I wanted to spend as much time volunteering as possible before the election. I had heard Obama was going to be making one of his last campaign stops in Manassas, Virginia, which is only an hour and a half from my apartment, so I left early Sunday morning to find their campaign office and see what I could do to help there. I got there, signed up to canvass that day, set up for the event the next day, and work all day in some way on election day. I went out and knocked doors in two neighborhoods, which felt really good; like I was getting to relive my experiences in Indiana and Pennsylvania during the primaries one last time. My favorite was the woman who took me into her house and gave me a glass of water, and told me "oh yeah, our whole house is voting for Obama, and we're driving a bunch of people from our work who don't have cars to the polls on Tuesday." She was awesome. I got back to the office and did some last-minute phone-banking (calling voters to make sure if they hadn't already voted, they were planning on doing so and were able to do so on Tuesday). While I was there, this dude with a camera and a British accent who said he was from the BBC stuck his big TV camera about six inches from the side of my face. He said he wanted to hear me do my answering-machine message, urging voters to participate in the "the most important election in decades," and to call some number if they needed a ride to the polls or had any questions at all. So of course I actually got ahold of the next two people I called, and it took like ten minutes of feeling all awkward and nervous about being on camera before I was finally able to leave a message for someone. I don't know if they used the footage or not, since I couldn't find any stories about Virginia on the BBC's website. Still, it was pretty cool.
After getting trained the night before and sleeping at Eva (the Latino Outreach Coordinator for the Obama campaign)'s home, I got to go to help set up Obama's last public event before Election Day... starting at 8 in the morning, by hauling and linking heavy lines of metal bike rack to form barriers between the crowd and the stage and the media and other members of the crowd. Afterwards, I made signs to guide the handicapped/disabled to their special areas, and made phone calls until the staff started letting people in through the security check-points. During the event, I got to be an usher, and told people not to run (which felt like such a teacher-ly thing to do), and pointed them in the best direction to go to evenly fill up the field the event was taking place in. When we were done doing our job, our leader led us through the crowd, and backstage, and up onto the risers that were set up behind where Obama was going to be speaking! So even though I was exhausted and all my muscles hurt from hours of signmaking and bike-rack moving, it was sooooo worth it. Right before he was set to come on, a couple of my friends called me from east lansing and were like "umm… are you at an Obama rally right now? Oh my gosh! I just saw you answer your phone on C-SPAN!" It felt pretty awesome. And his speech was the best of any I'd personally seen him give. Maybe not on the level of his 2004 address to the DNC or his best primary victory speeches, but pretty close. After everything was over, I found out that my brother and mother had emailed me a link to a local Virginia news station that showed me right over Obama's shoulder. You can see it here: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1108/566755_video.html .
After getting hardly any sleep at all, I got up and ran out to the polls at a high school to be a Spanish translator for voters who needed it. There were a lot of campaign people there from both sides, as well as two nice lawyers making sure there were no seven-hour lines (like there were at other places in Virginia) and that no one was getting turned away. It was cool, but toward mid-day the campaign had sent like, 7 people to that polling place, and almost all of them spoke Spanish. So I went to another polling place, where I was one of three people handing out democratic sample ballots, and the only Spanish speaker. I got to help translate the ballot for about ten people throughout the day. It was a really amazing feeling, and they were all so grateful afterwards that I was there to help them. And I think even the ones who spoke Spanish who didn't need me to help felt a little better, and more welcome, for there being somebody there smiling and willing to be there in the rain all day just in case they needed help. It was totally one of the coolest experiences I had all campaign long.
After the polls closed at 7, I drove home listening to NPR covering the election, and wished I could be at some of the election parties they were covering with my friends. But I got home, and put msnbc on my computer, and watched Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then Michigan, then New Mexico and Colorado and Florida go blue. The pundits were all just holding their breath at that point, waiting for the west coast to close its polls and make the win official. I was talking on the phone with my brother and friends back home, and IM'ing three more people, and watching as people filled up grant park in Chicago and the cameras were capturing people around the country celebrating. After they officially called it for Obama, I cried just like Jesse Jackson and Oprah and all the other people they were showing. It was incredible.
I'm still getting used to the idea that we're actually going to have a President Barack Obama. But I'm so happy, and I feel like the 8 weeks of my life I put into the campaign were totally worth it.