Iowa and Beyond...
Well, it’s a mega bummer that the Dems won back the House and Senate in this past election, but I wouldn’t trade the campaign experience I got working with Gen-J for anything. I met some awesome people and made great friendships, had about 200 donuts and a dozen sodas every day, and watched UFC until 2:00 am in the morning every night. Lol, no, just kidding. What was really cool about the whole thing was campaigning for a guy who I knew was rock solid on practically every political, moral, and foreign policy issue out there. Those people are quite rare, and I’m extremely bummed Mike Whalen didn’t make it into office, but I’m glad he tried, and I’m glad my team did everything we could to help him.
So basically, we would start the day off with literature drops. Seven of us would pile into a minivan (I hate minivans, btw… just for the record) and would drive around using a map marked with targeted urban areas. We’d basically then get to a house, run up to it, knock on the door, and if nobody answered, we’d leave some lit on their door knob. If they DID answer the door, well… let’s just say I got extremely mixed responses to my little rehearsed speech:
Man number one: “Oh no, not you ---- people again! I don’t ---- want your ---- crap! Get the ---- off my property!”
Me: “Thanks for your time sir, you have a great day!” *leaves door cracking up*
Man number two: “Okay, thanks.”
Me: “Sure, have a nice day.”
Man number three: “Uh.” *slams door*
Me: “Riiiggghht… Wow, okay.”
Man number four: “Oh wow, thanks so much… I’d forgotten all about the voting! I’ll be sure to do that young man! Thanks again!”
Me: “Wow, are you serious? You wouldn’t possibly know the guy next door, would you?”
As you can all imagine, people in category four were inordinately sparse. Most of the people weren’t home, but if they were, I mainly got those who are classified in categories one and two.
After that, we’d head over the RNC headquarters and do phonebanking. This was undoubtedly the most tedious part of the day. Most of the people we were calling had already been called at least 5 times that day already and they were not in a very responsive mood. But there were quite a few people who were genuinely thankful for the information we gave out. I’ve gotta say, though, that when you are on the phone for 4 hours, you start to do mega weird things… and you lose hearing in whatever ear you are using. ‘Nough said.
So literature drops and phonebanking were all we did for the first several days. Then on the second to last day we got to do sign waving, which was by far the coolest part of the whole trip. We would go to a major intersection with signs that we either made or got from the RNC and we would completely flip out. Sign waving is the one time in your life that you can jump around, scream, and be a complete idiot without anyone thinking you’re mentally challenged or severely lacking in social skills. I had a sign that said “Honk for Whalen” that I’d written in big red caps, so we’d get literally hundreds of honks from people… It was awesome! After about one hour, we’d all be completely hoarse. Completely. So hoarse that when you talk to someone they think you’re trying to tell them a secret.
So that's the basic overview of what we did over there... The stuff we did wasn't hard, per se, but when you do it non-stop all day on 2 hours of sleep every night, it gets just slightly exhausting. :)
I managed to take a few pics with Chuck's old camera, so I'll post a couple on here, but if you want some better ones, Jenna set up a website where we can all contribute the pictures we took, so stop by at http://jennachristine.wordpress.com/ .
Okay, here's a couple:
Nick just a little surprised...
Colin hard at work signing signs...
Hi Jenna! (She's the tech geek of the group... :))
My brudders from annudder mudder: EJ and Morgan. Miss you guys!
Katie doing something with the coffee maker...
Me and my brudder EJ...
I finally got Colin to smile... He was one of my roomates.
Grant vegging out and watching UFC at 2:00 am... He was my other roomate. Fun times. :)
For some reason, this sign at the Denver airport just cracked me up...
When you're all by yourself in an airport for over 7 hours, you start to take very abstract pictures. This is a prime example.
Dude in a sweet orange shirt...
I spent a lot of quality time at this gate... Ha.
As a final picture, I thought you'd all get a big kick out of seeing my sweet shoes... Pretty darn awesome.
Okay, well, hopefully this post wasn't too incohesive... I'm still really tired and in a state of recovery, so you'll have to bear with me. :)
Catch ya'll later!
So basically, we would start the day off with literature drops. Seven of us would pile into a minivan (I hate minivans, btw… just for the record) and would drive around using a map marked with targeted urban areas. We’d basically then get to a house, run up to it, knock on the door, and if nobody answered, we’d leave some lit on their door knob. If they DID answer the door, well… let’s just say I got extremely mixed responses to my little rehearsed speech:
Man number one: “Oh no, not you ---- people again! I don’t ---- want your ---- crap! Get the ---- off my property!”
Me: “Thanks for your time sir, you have a great day!” *leaves door cracking up*
Man number two: “Okay, thanks.”
Me: “Sure, have a nice day.”
Man number three: “Uh.” *slams door*
Me: “Riiiggghht… Wow, okay.”
Man number four: “Oh wow, thanks so much… I’d forgotten all about the voting! I’ll be sure to do that young man! Thanks again!”
Me: “Wow, are you serious? You wouldn’t possibly know the guy next door, would you?”
As you can all imagine, people in category four were inordinately sparse. Most of the people weren’t home, but if they were, I mainly got those who are classified in categories one and two.
After that, we’d head over the RNC headquarters and do phonebanking. This was undoubtedly the most tedious part of the day. Most of the people we were calling had already been called at least 5 times that day already and they were not in a very responsive mood. But there were quite a few people who were genuinely thankful for the information we gave out. I’ve gotta say, though, that when you are on the phone for 4 hours, you start to do mega weird things… and you lose hearing in whatever ear you are using. ‘Nough said.
So literature drops and phonebanking were all we did for the first several days. Then on the second to last day we got to do sign waving, which was by far the coolest part of the whole trip. We would go to a major intersection with signs that we either made or got from the RNC and we would completely flip out. Sign waving is the one time in your life that you can jump around, scream, and be a complete idiot without anyone thinking you’re mentally challenged or severely lacking in social skills. I had a sign that said “Honk for Whalen” that I’d written in big red caps, so we’d get literally hundreds of honks from people… It was awesome! After about one hour, we’d all be completely hoarse. Completely. So hoarse that when you talk to someone they think you’re trying to tell them a secret.
So that's the basic overview of what we did over there... The stuff we did wasn't hard, per se, but when you do it non-stop all day on 2 hours of sleep every night, it gets just slightly exhausting. :)
I managed to take a few pics with Chuck's old camera, so I'll post a couple on here, but if you want some better ones, Jenna set up a website where we can all contribute the pictures we took, so stop by at http://jennachristine.wordpress.com/ .
Okay, here's a couple:
Nick just a little surprised...
Colin hard at work signing signs...
Hi Jenna! (She's the tech geek of the group... :))
My brudders from annudder mudder: EJ and Morgan. Miss you guys!
Katie doing something with the coffee maker...
Me and my brudder EJ...
I finally got Colin to smile... He was one of my roomates.
Grant vegging out and watching UFC at 2:00 am... He was my other roomate. Fun times. :)
For some reason, this sign at the Denver airport just cracked me up...
When you're all by yourself in an airport for over 7 hours, you start to take very abstract pictures. This is a prime example.
Dude in a sweet orange shirt...
I spent a lot of quality time at this gate... Ha.
As a final picture, I thought you'd all get a big kick out of seeing my sweet shoes... Pretty darn awesome.
Okay, well, hopefully this post wasn't too incohesive... I'm still really tired and in a state of recovery, so you'll have to bear with me. :)
Catch ya'll later!
posted by pete | 5:13 PM
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