(no subject)
the last couple days (outrageous):
-friday morning, i attended this breakfast for a congressional candidate. occasionally, for my job, i have to show up at these meetings and have no idea who is going to be there or why i should be. they just send me and i go. this particular morning, it was a meeting of union interests. the candidate was trying to lock up the afl-cio endorsement and wanted to get as many union leaders to this well-catered breakfast as possible. there were about 12 of us. the vast majority of them were built like linebackers. they were backslap-happy union boys with an easy demeanor and a winning smile. it was fun for a while to play the role of politico, but inevitably i came to realize that i'm just an awkward 18-year-old kid. surprise. i felt uncomfortable but i smiled through the whole thing just the same.
-friday afternoon, also for my job, i was registering voters at this downtrodden outdoor shopping center. i was literally the only white person there. the sun was sweltering at a constant 97 degrees. the humidity stuck to my skin. but i felt good about it afterwards. there were a number of really poignant moments. one that sticks in my mind is when this man walked up to within two inches of me. i could tell that he was in some way mentally retarded. he had the most sincere, desperate eyes as he asked me "do you think voting will help?? do you think it will help people??" maybe it was just the tone of his voice but it felt profound. maybe you had to be there.
-my parents left town on saturday morning. what a DUMB MOVE. like any predictable reckless kid, i held a party. i was expecting just a group of 10 or so old pals hanging around and drinking but it got significantly larger than that. my god there were so many intertwining social circles. work, towson and carleton all collided in the same place at the same time. it was pretty interesting for me. everyone was in good spirits, and, considering the amount of alcohol people drank, it was reasonably in control. there are so many details about it going through my head that i'm just going to leave it to all the other lj kids who were there to go into more detail. suffice it to say that i'm very happy to know all the people who were at my house last night.
-friday morning, i attended this breakfast for a congressional candidate. occasionally, for my job, i have to show up at these meetings and have no idea who is going to be there or why i should be. they just send me and i go. this particular morning, it was a meeting of union interests. the candidate was trying to lock up the afl-cio endorsement and wanted to get as many union leaders to this well-catered breakfast as possible. there were about 12 of us. the vast majority of them were built like linebackers. they were backslap-happy union boys with an easy demeanor and a winning smile. it was fun for a while to play the role of politico, but inevitably i came to realize that i'm just an awkward 18-year-old kid. surprise. i felt uncomfortable but i smiled through the whole thing just the same.
-friday afternoon, also for my job, i was registering voters at this downtrodden outdoor shopping center. i was literally the only white person there. the sun was sweltering at a constant 97 degrees. the humidity stuck to my skin. but i felt good about it afterwards. there were a number of really poignant moments. one that sticks in my mind is when this man walked up to within two inches of me. i could tell that he was in some way mentally retarded. he had the most sincere, desperate eyes as he asked me "do you think voting will help?? do you think it will help people??" maybe it was just the tone of his voice but it felt profound. maybe you had to be there.
-my parents left town on saturday morning. what a DUMB MOVE. like any predictable reckless kid, i held a party. i was expecting just a group of 10 or so old pals hanging around and drinking but it got significantly larger than that. my god there were so many intertwining social circles. work, towson and carleton all collided in the same place at the same time. it was pretty interesting for me. everyone was in good spirits, and, considering the amount of alcohol people drank, it was reasonably in control. there are so many details about it going through my head that i'm just going to leave it to all the other lj kids who were there to go into more detail. suffice it to say that i'm very happy to know all the people who were at my house last night.