Monday, November 1st - Wednesday, November 3rd

The weekend before the election I was the manager (area head, coordinator, Allan and Shirin's bitch, call it what you want) for all of LCV's operations in Osceola and South Orange counties. We had a satellite office in a hotel off of 535 out by Disney. We canvassed 44 precints from Friday-Monday and on Election Day we were responsible for about the same number (although I don't know the exact total). It was hard work.

In addition to running the canvass, my team had to deal with the housing of 40 out of state volunteers from Texas, Georgia, and DC. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work.

On Monday, I started off in Osceola County and helped get all of our volunteers out the door. Once everyone was out canvassing, I had to drive back to the main office in downtown for the final planning meeting.

When I arrived at the office we found out that Michael Moore would be stopping in. I got to meet him and he signed my EVP T-shirt, my EVP flyer already signed by John Kerry, and my copy of Fahrenheit 9/11. That was my second favorite moment of the campaign. My favorite was when the Red Sox won the World Series.

We slept at the hotel the night before the election, getting about 3 hours of sleep each. We woke up at 5 to start and finish our GOTV efforts.

I was able to canvass two packets in Osceola county on Election Day. It was exhilarating work. I was so excited to be out there. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. I was convinced that we were going to win.

At 7 PM, I drove back to the office. I slammed three beers and drove over to Emily's apartment. I fell asleep within minutes.

When I woke up, I flipped on the news and found out that we had lost. I picked myself off of the couch and drove over to the deserted LCV office. There was a homeless lady walking around the office drinking whatever was left in the hundreds of solo cups lying around. The crazy old lady handed me a hand written resume and told me to give her a call if any jobs opened up. I told her she'd be on the top of my list.

People started trickling into the office. A lot of people had already left. The volunteers from DC and Texas were already gone. All of the local volunteers were at home. The only people that came in were the ones living in campaign housing who had invested weeks and months working on the campaign.

We watched John Kerry give his concession speech at 2 PM. I cried like a little bitch.

I stayed in housing until November 15.

As I wrote this, I realized how much I miss all of you. I hope that you are all doing well. LCV is getting back into action down here in Hurricane-prone Central Florida. We are in the very early stages of getting ready for 2006 and 2008. Shirin and I are the only ones in the office right now, but it looks like Jef Shelby wants to help out, so it looks like we are going to start growing and growing yet again. Don't be strangers! Come down and visit or send me an email.