i had a dream you were two towns from me. got to sleep and spent whole night runnin'
Wow. I'm still on cloud 9. The final days in New Mexico were priceless. I spent five days in Silver City. I ate 6 burritos, canvassed up and down dirt roads and got rather intoxicated off white russians at a local bar dressed as Joe the Plumber, just dancing in circles with a plunger. The finals two days in Las Cruces were exhausting. We averaged two hours of sleep a night. Spent our mornings schmoozing with walk-in volunteers and our nights printing an entire forest worth of turf. I probably drank my body weight in Red Bull and needless to say, I enjoyed it all.
On the 3rd a friend and I cruised around Precinct 66, at the foot of the Organ mountains, just getting dirty, and listening to music, taking turns driving and running to doors, making sure to get out every last vote. That night I took a nap, we had a hope circle with flashlights where 100 or so volunteers expressed their joy with the campaign (meanwhile we had 100,000 door knockers to organize, so I wasn't too keen on the sappy moment--but it was nice in hindsight).
Election day was the longest day of my life. We got breakfast at Denny's at 5am then I (fake) smiled for every volunteer that came in last minute. Bri and I escaped and went canvassing one last time where we coined the term "drive and dive" where one of us would literally start driving and the other would dive in the back seat on top of door hangers, my laundry and lawn signs. For two hours of sleep, we were so happy.
Then the states started turning blue. First PA. Then OH. Then Virginia. And he won. Evan, Bri, Lani and I ran to my car to immediately start celebrating. The office was full of people off the streets and by 9pm John McCain was giving his concession speech. We hugged strangers and stood outside. We snuck into the office when everyone left and watched Obama's speech, alone, giggling and ignoring people knocking on the front door. I rode over to the Dem HQs with some random dude, immediately regretted my decision and walked back, talking to Ryan and Aaron and making jokes and consistently saying "Wow." We raced in the parking lot, tried to make prank calls to McCain supporters and drank champagne from Solo cups. The organizers started to drop like flies, across the couches and on their way home. I stayed up, laying on the floor, talking about something nice with wonderful people. Then we found Speed, an old guy from the 60s with a funny nickname, and he lit off three huge fireworks in the parking lot. It was an infinite feeling. Just watching explosions in the sky of blue and purple, while feeling drunk and fulfilled. I sat and talked to a woman from Sierra Leone, then chugged a gallon of water and went home. We slept three in the bed, well two and half 'cause Bri was in the crack. ("it's like Obama's tax plan, you're in the crack, but you still get a blanket!") woke up miraculously not hungover, went to the Bean with Gus one last time and said my goodbyes.
This post is for myself. You definitely had to be there. But I'm sure millions of Americans had equally incredible moments they will remember forever. One man brought us all together. Si se puede.
...and we did. more work lies ahead, but for now, the euphoric ride is unlike anything else.
On the 3rd a friend and I cruised around Precinct 66, at the foot of the Organ mountains, just getting dirty, and listening to music, taking turns driving and running to doors, making sure to get out every last vote. That night I took a nap, we had a hope circle with flashlights where 100 or so volunteers expressed their joy with the campaign (meanwhile we had 100,000 door knockers to organize, so I wasn't too keen on the sappy moment--but it was nice in hindsight).
Election day was the longest day of my life. We got breakfast at Denny's at 5am then I (fake) smiled for every volunteer that came in last minute. Bri and I escaped and went canvassing one last time where we coined the term "drive and dive" where one of us would literally start driving and the other would dive in the back seat on top of door hangers, my laundry and lawn signs. For two hours of sleep, we were so happy.
Then the states started turning blue. First PA. Then OH. Then Virginia. And he won. Evan, Bri, Lani and I ran to my car to immediately start celebrating. The office was full of people off the streets and by 9pm John McCain was giving his concession speech. We hugged strangers and stood outside. We snuck into the office when everyone left and watched Obama's speech, alone, giggling and ignoring people knocking on the front door. I rode over to the Dem HQs with some random dude, immediately regretted my decision and walked back, talking to Ryan and Aaron and making jokes and consistently saying "Wow." We raced in the parking lot, tried to make prank calls to McCain supporters and drank champagne from Solo cups. The organizers started to drop like flies, across the couches and on their way home. I stayed up, laying on the floor, talking about something nice with wonderful people. Then we found Speed, an old guy from the 60s with a funny nickname, and he lit off three huge fireworks in the parking lot. It was an infinite feeling. Just watching explosions in the sky of blue and purple, while feeling drunk and fulfilled. I sat and talked to a woman from Sierra Leone, then chugged a gallon of water and went home. We slept three in the bed, well two and half 'cause Bri was in the crack. ("it's like Obama's tax plan, you're in the crack, but you still get a blanket!") woke up miraculously not hungover, went to the Bean with Gus one last time and said my goodbyes.
This post is for myself. You definitely had to be there. But I'm sure millions of Americans had equally incredible moments they will remember forever. One man brought us all together. Si se puede.
...and we did. more work lies ahead, but for now, the euphoric ride is unlike anything else.
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