A Poli Sci Nerd's Christmas
As my one friend put it, poli sci nerds look forward to election day more than Christmas! Only it's like a Christmas where, between you and another person, only one of you gets gifts (and the other gets nothing.) Well this Christmas -- I got most of my gifts: the candidate my internship has been with WON the Mayoral election!!! :D
Let me tell you a little about how election day went down in my life. Woke up bright and early, like 6:15am (on a day I had class at 3.) Went to the polls looking dapper as I often do (you don't want to look like a crazy person at the polls, subconsciously I don't associate crazy people with supporting not-crazy candidates.) And just wished people entering the polling location "Good morning!" from more than 100 feet away, often accompanied by Council candidate Annie. We had a blast talking about all kinds of things, mainly local-politics related.
While she went to other polling locations, I stuck at this one: an elementary school, where I was soon making small talk with Annie's opposition and a school board candidate's husband (both of which I do not support.) Well, they had their interesting things to say, and felt like lecturing me because of my age for a lot of the time, but my Kiwanis-training helps me respectfully listen to opinions from old people I don't agree with. The husband grabs his lawn chair, and proceeds to tell me things I know are lies about the schools, unions, city workers, the city itself, President Clinton, etc.
Annie comes back, and my favorite part of the day arrives: a crazy old lady who is in love with the candidate's husband, and Annie's opponent. So I just respectfully keep my distance, safe to say I won't be winning her vote. Then she asks me: Quote of the Day: "Are you the live-in?!"
To which I politely responded, "I beg your pardon?" holding my candidate's sign up. "Her live-in boyfriend. I know she got one, I don't approve of that." To which Annie and I assure her, my candidate does not have a live in boyfriend (Certainly not myself, being ~20 years younger than the candidate.) That conversation kind of goes no where for a minute or two, as we are unable to convince her because "she knows!" and "she heard from someone." Oh well, another person we were never going to get the vote of anyway.
Still, for the rest of the day whenever it would get quite Annie and I would just laugh at that situation. Oh, but immediately after: the husband and the other candidate come up to me, and say that they had heard the same thing, "I was asked about it, and I don't know the answer, but I told'm 'Yeah, it's true' because I had heard it from 2 other people." WtF??? Dumb. People.
Anyway, had lunch with outgoing Mayor and some of the campaign people at a Chinese place which was fun. Lost track of time to the point where I would have been late for class because of parking, so decided to poll work for the rest of the day anyway. Then as the sunset, we decided to call it a night - and I went home to get ready for what was sure to be an exciting election night watch party!!!
My first job: get my laptop to show up on the TV set there. We reserved a room that fit about 28+ people (which turned out to be the perfect venue.) But my laptop was going to be the one we refreshed to get the election results! So I got to sit under the TV the whole night, guarding the Candidate's phone, and hitting refresh more often than not. A Bunch of people came in, the who's who of the campaign really, all people I have come to really respect and would like to call friends. The outgoing Mayor as always was a hoot, and a Councilman running for reelection was sure to constantly be over my shoulder reminding me to refresh (as if I could forget.) But it really was a blast!
Not all of our candidates won that night unfortunately, including Annie. But Sara did win Mayor! The school levy passed! And the Developmental Disability Department's renewal passed as well! And of course, Issue 2 failed miserably which is good!!! :D The bad parts are the council losses, and Issue 3. But election day is just the beginning: there is still a lot to work out, figure out, and be thankful for (how appropriate that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.) More great things to come I feel, as I enter the last chapter of my college life!
Song of the Day: "Fly" by Nicki Minaj ft. Rihanna. I have come, these past few weeks, to really like Nicki Minaj - who I once really hated. It really boiled down to slowing down and listening to the lyrics in her songs, and she's really not as annoying as she once was. Though she still is, in a funny way. Well anyway, this song is all about prospering in a time of defeat, seems Nicki's boyfriend or someone "abandoned" her -- and despite this or because of this her and Rihanna "win...fight...conquer...thrive...fight...prosper...rise," etc. Though my favorite line would be:
Dang, if I like any more Nicki songs I'm worried I may buy Pink Friday.
Picture of the Day: So College Dems have been kinda lagging this past semester, but I'm really glad we were able to paint the rock the night before election day!!! My fifth year, and this is the first time I've ever gotten to paint the rock actually - a tradition for student orgs at many colleges. (President Andrea, and Vice President me pictured. Our Treasurer's name is Al, our Secretary's name is Antoinette, and our most dedicated member is Angela: SO MANY A's!!!)
Let me tell you a little about how election day went down in my life. Woke up bright and early, like 6:15am (on a day I had class at 3.) Went to the polls looking dapper as I often do (you don't want to look like a crazy person at the polls, subconsciously I don't associate crazy people with supporting not-crazy candidates.) And just wished people entering the polling location "Good morning!" from more than 100 feet away, often accompanied by Council candidate Annie. We had a blast talking about all kinds of things, mainly local-politics related.
While she went to other polling locations, I stuck at this one: an elementary school, where I was soon making small talk with Annie's opposition and a school board candidate's husband (both of which I do not support.) Well, they had their interesting things to say, and felt like lecturing me because of my age for a lot of the time, but my Kiwanis-training helps me respectfully listen to opinions from old people I don't agree with. The husband grabs his lawn chair, and proceeds to tell me things I know are lies about the schools, unions, city workers, the city itself, President Clinton, etc.
Annie comes back, and my favorite part of the day arrives: a crazy old lady who is in love with the candidate's husband, and Annie's opponent. So I just respectfully keep my distance, safe to say I won't be winning her vote. Then she asks me: Quote of the Day: "Are you the live-in?!"
To which I politely responded, "I beg your pardon?" holding my candidate's sign up. "Her live-in boyfriend. I know she got one, I don't approve of that." To which Annie and I assure her, my candidate does not have a live in boyfriend (Certainly not myself, being ~20 years younger than the candidate.) That conversation kind of goes no where for a minute or two, as we are unable to convince her because "she knows!" and "she heard from someone." Oh well, another person we were never going to get the vote of anyway.
Still, for the rest of the day whenever it would get quite Annie and I would just laugh at that situation. Oh, but immediately after: the husband and the other candidate come up to me, and say that they had heard the same thing, "I was asked about it, and I don't know the answer, but I told'm 'Yeah, it's true' because I had heard it from 2 other people." WtF??? Dumb. People.
Anyway, had lunch with outgoing Mayor and some of the campaign people at a Chinese place which was fun. Lost track of time to the point where I would have been late for class because of parking, so decided to poll work for the rest of the day anyway. Then as the sunset, we decided to call it a night - and I went home to get ready for what was sure to be an exciting election night watch party!!!
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| Some attendees of the Watch Party. |
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| This pic is actually from StowPatch! Haha, I've made it into the background of a few of their pics. |
My first job: get my laptop to show up on the TV set there. We reserved a room that fit about 28+ people (which turned out to be the perfect venue.) But my laptop was going to be the one we refreshed to get the election results! So I got to sit under the TV the whole night, guarding the Candidate's phone, and hitting refresh more often than not. A Bunch of people came in, the who's who of the campaign really, all people I have come to really respect and would like to call friends. The outgoing Mayor as always was a hoot, and a Councilman running for reelection was sure to constantly be over my shoulder reminding me to refresh (as if I could forget.) But it really was a blast!
Not all of our candidates won that night unfortunately, including Annie. But Sara did win Mayor! The school levy passed! And the Developmental Disability Department's renewal passed as well! And of course, Issue 2 failed miserably which is good!!! :D The bad parts are the council losses, and Issue 3. But election day is just the beginning: there is still a lot to work out, figure out, and be thankful for (how appropriate that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.) More great things to come I feel, as I enter the last chapter of my college life!
Song of the Day: "Fly" by Nicki Minaj ft. Rihanna. I have come, these past few weeks, to really like Nicki Minaj - who I once really hated. It really boiled down to slowing down and listening to the lyrics in her songs, and she's really not as annoying as she once was. Though she still is, in a funny way. Well anyway, this song is all about prospering in a time of defeat, seems Nicki's boyfriend or someone "abandoned" her -- and despite this or because of this her and Rihanna "win...fight...conquer...thrive...fight...prosper...rise," etc. Though my favorite line would be:
"Cry my eyes out for days upon days,
such a heavy burden placed upon me,
but when you go hard your nay's become yay's,
Yankee Stadium with Jay's and Kanye's...."
Dang, if I like any more Nicki songs I'm worried I may buy Pink Friday.
Picture of the Day: So College Dems have been kinda lagging this past semester, but I'm really glad we were able to paint the rock the night before election day!!! My fifth year, and this is the first time I've ever gotten to paint the rock actually - a tradition for student orgs at many colleges. (President Andrea, and Vice President me pictured. Our Treasurer's name is Al, our Secretary's name is Antoinette, and our most dedicated member is Angela: SO MANY A's!!!)
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