Election Day

All the work you do, all the sweat, two and a half weeks of pure team work, recognizing each others strengths and weaknesses, overcoming issues to deal with random strangers (some of whom hate you for no reason, other than your are a Democrat), is for one day, November 2, 2004.
On that particular morning, we awoke to frosty (pun intended), dreary weather. Undetered, we dressed in our Frosty best, hoping that the weather would remind people about MF. First up, the daily run to our friendly Oak Lawn Starbucks. Next, poll visibility for two hours. Crackberry kept us updated on the rest of the country, while we focused on reminding the traffic that they need to run to the polls and vote for FROST.
If there were passersby on foot, we would have regaled them with the story of how we rescued a lost dog, wandering aimlessly in the middle of a major street. We took the dog to the SPCA. Why? Because we are kinds, animal loving Democrats (except for one of us! ha, kidding, sort of...). The Pete Sessions people probably would have ran over the poor helpless creature. Back to the matter at hand...
After about an hour of waving signs like recently released asylum patients, Man Whore makes a visit to our corner. He asks me to drive a voter to the polls. I make Josh come with me, since I would rather no one else talk my ear off at 8:00am on Election Day. I drive our mini-van, a car that lacks anything anyone would truly desire in a vehicle, to the voter's house. Unfortunately, en route, I rear end someone driving a pick-up truck. Fan-freaking-tastic election day luck. We pull into a parking lot. Jose and Pepe exit the truck. In broken English, they mutter something to the effect of "We live nearby, we will return." They never return. The policeman, who offered me a job, hypothesizes that they are either a.) undocumented or b.) do not have insurance or a driver's license. They were charged with a hit and run, I received a small ticket.
Onward....
We retrieved our other team members at at McDonald's and continued back to headquarters where we received a list of houses to attack - we would descend on these houses with our 9 MM Glocks, forcing people to vote! I wish. But that would emphasize just how much their lives depended on it. As P. Diddy says "Vote or Die".
Josh and I were paired up, while Crackberry, Rob and Allison were grouped. Josh and I devised a marathon canvassing plan. Initially it began with both of us running (mind you, neither of us are in marathon running shape, maybe marathon drinking shape, but definitely not running shape), after that, we decided that me driving the van and yelling house numbers to Josh, worked most efficiently. If the next house was further away, I would yell "VAN!!", and Josh would come flying into the van. Josh finally wanted a break, and I took over, but for only one street.
At the end of the day, with our combined efforts and passion, the Horned Frogs (our team) hit 1200 houses!! We were pumped. Crackberry was giving us good news about exit polls from Florida and Ohio. Life was good.... Was good until about 9:00 PM.
We arrived at Tiki's, the site of the election day festivities for DCCC in Dallas. We watched as the returns trickled in, not looking good for Frost, who served the Dallas area for 26 years. He conceded at 9:00 PM. The room fell. Two and half weeks of ball breaking work only to have the outcome be a landslide defeat. Everyone was dejected. But there was still hope for Kerry...
Around 9:00 PM, more states were called, Kerry was not looking hot. We decided that we needed to head out for $2.00 margaritas.
As we drank, talk, wanted to cry, hugged and laughed, we realized that even though our candidates lost, it was not due to our efforts. We went out there and gave it out best. We went beyond voting. I am energized, ready for the next fight. The evangelical freaks who ran this election cylcle should revel in it while they can because it will be their last taste of victory.
On November 3, all 120 of us boarded our chartered SouthWest flight from Dallas to BWI. It was the saddest plane you have ever seen. The flight attendant was on our side and apologized that we had to experience the "Third-World State of Texas". It was only fitting that I sit next to D/Josh on the flight home. Everything came full circle.
Eventually, we arrived in DC. Dejected, yet resolved to fight the next battle. The planning stages begin Thursday, November 11 at Helix, at 7:00pm. Be there or be complacent.

Campaigns cultivate vices...

Campaigns cultivate vices worse than Spring Break in Cancun. Sex, alcohol and rock-n-roll reign supreme on the campaign trail. Some people maxed out their credit card on alcohol, others maxed out their libidos on gothic chicks, others maxed out their livers and lungs on alcohol and cigarettes. Everyone maxed out their cholesterol intake on pounds of Mexican and fried foods.
Some people were sexiled from their rooms. Some people ate so much that their stomaches would talk back, literally crying "help me! help me!". Most people drank so much that by the time the 2.5 weeks ended, no one had a hang over. We had developed into a group of junk-food-eating, chain-smoking, hooking-up, functional alcoholics. We loved every minute of it. The 5:00 am wake-up calls, the 18 hour days, the ghetto hotel, the life-long friends, the green light to eat pure junk, the adrenaline rush that came with convincing one person to vote for your candidate, the crushes, the heartbreaks, the hope, the fear..... All of which culminated into a sea of emotions and actions on Election Day.

Some Metros have all the luck....

When planning an event, one tends to be very optimistic about the outcome. One thinks in numbers - 5,000 - 10,000 people attending a block party(put on by the LGBT community), 25 people signed up to volunteer at said block party, 1 fabulous person trying to make it all happen. One thinks "Wow, we are going to sign up 100 volunteers for election day! Piece of cake my friend!". WRONG. This was my first lesson in volunteer recruitment. People seem to think that signing up to volunteer is altruistic enough, thus showing up would over extend their reach. The first set of volunteers to not show up were those who signed-up to attend the block party and to recruit for election day. Guess who showed up? My team and one of the senior campaign staffers. That's it. Fabulous. Way to go DCCC volunteers! Of course it shouldn't have surprised me since my team is the best. We had another senior staffer sign-up as well, but he didn't show-up probably because he had to tend to his man-whore duties.
We arrived in full force at the block party - me dressed as Orin-Ishi-i from Kill Bill (I ROCKED and Josh made a kick-ass sword out of a yard sign stake, duct tape, cardboard and mad whittling skills), Josh dressed as the metro that he is, Allison dressed as Cookie Monster, senior staffer dressed as a Democrat who wanted to eat all the cookies Cookie Monster had to offer, Crackberry dressed as, well, himself, and Rob dressed as himself as well.
I went to town putting stickers on everyone that walked by, telling them that the "VOTE FROST" sticker is the hottest fashion accessory in town and everyone was wearing it. Nuns walked by and I proclaimed "Nuns for Frost!". Jesus walked by and I said "Jesus loves Frost, even though he's a Jew." Drag queens for Frost! Dominatrices for Frost! Devils for Frost! Angels for Frost! Before you knew it, at least a third of the attendees had Frost stickers on them.
Meanwhile, Josh was signing up volunteers, risking life and, well, limb. Literally. His no-no parts were being grabbed more times than he cared to talk about. He took one for the team and for that we salute him!
In all, we signed up 34 volunteers and of those 10 actually volunteered on election day. Senior staff said that was what they expected. I knew about the lack of voter turnout, but I wish someone had informed me about volunteer turnout.