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.

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We have arrived

We have arrived. Saturday, actually. It will take me years to off-set my carbon emissions from towing a trailer with Sarah, my 1998 Honda Civic, but she survived and is resting in front of Julie’s neighbor’s house. The trailer is due back tomorrow; I’m hoping to have an apartment by then so I don’t have to pack and unpack my schtuff numerous times. The apartment field is not looking promising. Correction: there are lots of apartments I like, but no one is calling me back. Grrr.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, ‘bout what I want to get involved in here, ‘bout who I want to get involved with, ‘bout job prospects and apartment prospects. I’ve expressed interest in volunteering with moveon.org and signed up for the emailing list for the Denver Hash House Harriers. I know the dance scene already, but I think I’ll try to branch out a bit, and not get stuck in the “It’s [day of week], I must go dancing” mindset.

Even with all that thinking, being here still feels temporary. Despite the loooong drive, despite the trailer of schtuff, despite the job applications and the phone calls about apartments, the whole scenario feels temporary, as it has been for the past five years of visits. Julie says her move two years ago didn’t start feeling permanent until winter came along, but she moved in March, so had been in town for eight-ish months by the time winter rolled around. Granted, winter’s not right around the corner, but I’m not sure four months is long enough. I was in Nepal for four months; did that ever start feeling ‘permanent’?

In terms of social scene it did; with the Hash House Harriers and the American Club I got involved as much as I felt comfortable. However, each time I saw an ad for an apartment, I would have to remind myself that I didn’t need to look for my next place to live, as I was leaving. In Denver, it’s the opposite. I keep having to remind myself that I need a place to live, that I can’t be at Julie’s house for the duration of this visit, as this ‘visit’ doesn’t have a terminus.

So, back to craigslist I go…

Moving week

The road trip has commenced, yesterday actually. I decided to take route 90 to 80 to 76 into Denver. So, it's lodgings on route 80 for last night and tonight. Last night we stayed in Toledo, Ohio at the Howard Johnson's. Don't recommend it; breakfast was donuts and Capri Sun whilst the restaurant is renovated. Julie was quite upset about this. I was a bit annoyed, but realized that the problem isn't found in the actual breakfast, or the staff who decided that donuts and sugar water are adequate nutrition, but in our expectations of the breakfast. We read "breakfast provided" and interpreted that as "continental breakfast" and were disappointed when reality didn't match up to our interpretation.

Tonight we're at a the Red Carpet Motel in Walnut, Iowa (we've seen the breakfast area; there's at least cereal on the premises, although I can't drink milk and didn't bring any soy beverage). She thinks this a seedy motel. I think we have a (free) hot shower, cable TV, wireless internet, and beds with sheets and are therefore staying in luxury. What I am not happy about is the price of the motel; $60 for a motel in the middle of nowhere Iowa! The Super 8 (which we eschewed) was $80 for the night! Cripes. Something tells me we're not in Nepal, anymore, Dorothy.

Tomorrow hopefully we zoom through the rest of Iowa and all of Nebraska in order to get to Julie's house in Denver in time to sleep. It's slow going with the trailer attached to the Honda Civic, but we can hit 70mph on the downhills. In fact, it was really smooth sailing through Ohio, which I can now tell you is flatter than Iowa, with an average speed of 70mph. We're a bit nervous about the ascent into Denver, although neither one of us remembers it being a sudden incline. Maybe the final stretch won't be as slow as we're anticipating...?

JetBlue red eye

My time in Denver is drawing to a close... for now. My return flight to Boston is at 12:55am Tuesday morning (love JetBlue red eyes!). I'll be in Boston for a month and then Julie and I are driving my car with a trailer of my schtuff attached back to Denver. We're considering a route through Hanover, PA (Rt. 76); Peoria, IL (Rt. 80); and Omaha, NB (Rt. 80) to Denver (Rt. 76). Do you live in one of those places? Do you know someone who does? Drop me a comment via this blog!