I am struggling with my part in the pre-election season. Last Sunday I attended a house party for moveon.org and made phone calls to Moveon members, who are also Obama supporters, to make known to them opportunities to work for the Obama campaign. I was handed a script written by Moveon.org and a list of folks in Boulder to call. No trouble, right?

Part of the script was to ask folks if they've been following the campaign, and then to as a follow-up question or two. This implies that the caller has been following the campaign and knows enough to sound intelligent. I followed up with the next scripted line on the page. What a foul Obama supporter I am, or am I an Obama supporter at all?

I have very mixed feelings about having helped his campaign even for those two hours. It's not that I agree with the current administration. It's not that I think McCain will be any different than Bush, Jr. and therefore whole-heartedly support him. It's that I'm not sure Obama will be any different, either.

Maybe I'm too cynical to be alive, but what's keeping him from saying the right things now, and then changing his mind later? Or just not being able to carry through on his campaign promises? Really, what it comes down to is that I'm not sure I can get excited about another candidate; I'm still too politically tired from Gore's bid in '00. So, what to do? as the Nepali would say.

I've signed up to volunteer to register voters at Denver's Oktoberfest on Saturday. It's not a particular candidate's campaign, but it's still a contribution to the election effort. I won't have to make small talk about the presidential race I'm barely paying attention to. And I won't have to profess belief and faith in something I don't believe in. Although voting failed us in 2000, didn't it?

Shite. I wanted something to believe in.

It’s official, I’ve moved in

It’s official, I’ve moved in; I’ve started hanging pictures on the walls of my apartment. Found three crazy affordable frames at the Salvation Army on Colfax, took them apart, and reassembled them with my photos in place. I keep forgetting to take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of such projects to impress y’all. Dang it!

The job hunt is not going quite as well as the picture frame hunt. I’ve determined that I don’t really want to work, so I’m having difficulty mustering the motivation to get excited enough about a job to convey that excitement to a potential employer. Unfortunately, the funding to support my not working is quickly dwindling; perhaps once I start panicking about making rent, then the job-hunting motivation will kick in?

Actually, I have successfully convinced the Visiting Nurse Association that I want to give flu shots this fall. I’ve been to a day of training, mostly about company policies and procedures, and my first flu shot clinic is in 10 days. I also have the option of working at other ‘wellness’ clinics, such as blood pressure and cholesterol screening. So, technically I am not unemployed, but I am under employed.

I ran with the Denver Full-Moon Hash House Harriers on Thursday. The Hash was a bit disorganized, as the car of the harrier (the guy setting the trail) had broken down and he was taking at least two forms of public transport to get himself to the on-in (the start), but there was running and beer and rabble-rousing, so overall it was a good time. As a result of meeting folks there, I’ve signed up for HashSpace.com, the online community for Hashers. So, if I know you, come find me; my Hash name is ShaggyMama (of course there’s a story; I’m not posting it here).

Photo by Josh Bartok (www.shobophoto.com), framing by moi.

A little more settled

Last we spoke, dear readers, I believe I was apartment and job seeking. I've managed to lay the apartment seeking to rest; I moved in August 28th to a place close to everything. It's in a really quiet building on a noisy street; fortunately I'm a heavy sleeper. I've been struggling a bit with not having a schedule, but that may quickly be coming to a close as I had an interview for a registered nurse job this past week and I'll have an interview for a nurse practitioner position next week. YAY!

I've started running, and the breathing is getting easier, but I'm told it takes three months at altitude to get to 75% of one's sea-level conditioning... or is it 25% conditioning per month up to 85% and then *much* longer for that last 15%? Oh heck. In other words, it's gonna be a while before I'm running any marathons. The best part of the running is not the conditioning, but that I've found some folks with whom to run, as I continue to miss the camaraderie and the folks from the Himalayan Hash House Harriers. Unfortunately I haven't made it out to any Hashes here, so no drinking group for me... yet.

I've had a million and one ideas to blog, but now, of course, can't remember any of them so all you're getting is this mundane update on my life. I'll be more philosophical next time. Promise.