Entry #1

I suppose that's cheating, but since I left off with my caucus day quandary I thought I should update on that, so the last bit of this entry is something I wrote upon returning home from caucusing. I have given up on apologizing for blogging slackerness, since it seems to be a pattern and not an aberration at this point. I am just waiting for spring, really... then everything will be better. I hope. It's actually snowing outside right now, and I want to crawl back into bed and not get up until the sun is shining and it's warm...

R has been sick all week with the flu. It's going around here, and I don't know why I haven't succumbed. It's not my excellent self-care habits, for sure - I've living on carbs and caffiene and my current exercise regimen consist of walks from my parking spot to class or work. Maybe I'm just lucky. R got sick Sunday night, and on Monday she went to class to turn in her papaer and tell her professor she was sick. On Tuesday night she was still sick -  achey, coughing, sore throat, feverish - so she emailed her professor and missed class again. She did, however, go out Wednesday night to see the Post Secret Guy, although she felt miserable, and because I was working that night I had to drop her off an hour and a half early. She went with a very brave friend, who I hope shares my ability to resist illness. R enjoyed it, but would have enjoyed much it more if she'd felt better. She got home at 9:30 and slept for 13 hours straight...

Today she is in class, because the professor takes 2% off of students' final grades if they miss more than 3 classes, and since she'd already missed two she was worried about missing another one later in the semester. I think that's a stupid attendance policy, actually, because she really is still sick, although she's better. We could have gotten her a doctor's note, but it wouldn't have mattered for this class - absences all count the same, sick or slacking. So I sent my sick baby off to trudge through the snow this morning...

Entry #2 (from 2/6/08)

Wow, Kansas is really for Obama! Our caucus site had the highest percentage for Obama of any caucus site in the state - 82%! (Edited to add that a site that just reported in Kansas City, Kansas beat us- they were over 90% Obama). Picture 2,218 people (plus uncounted children) driving through the sleet and rain, hitting major traffic jams, and then standing in lines for 45 minutes or more, much of it outside, in the sleet and then the snow. We caucused at the fairgrounds, so "inside" was actually a livestock ring, smelling faintly of cow and more strongly of pine-scented cleaner.

We all found our groups, then we were counted (we grouped ourselves in smaller groups of 25, but they didn't even count the Obamites - they had a total, because everyone had to sign in, and then they subtracted out all the non-Obama groups, and everyone left was for Obama). There was a little speechifying, and then a ten minute break during which everyone could change groups, and then we recounted again for the final tally. Our caucus site was worth 11 delegates to the state, which translates into some fraction of the delegates our state sends to the national dems. Hilary got about 18% of the people, or 2 delegates, and Barack got the other 9.

It was really a great feeling to be part of it, though - everyone was friendly, and it sort of felt like a big party. Next time we need food and beer, and nicer weather. Our town has a lot of old hippies and they all live on my side of town, so they were all at my caucus site. There were some kids running around, mostly little ones, and some guy in their twenties who had climbed up and were sitting on the lifestock gates, and quite a few older people who were in chairs... most of us stood, although there were also bleachers - there were just too many of us to fit. Here's an article...

Oh, and the doors opened at 6:30 and you had to be in line by 7:30 to participate, and we were done at 9:00... my friends and I arrived at about 6:45.