ahora

This past weekend, Kent and I went caucusing. Yes, caucusing. I had never heard of that before and, if I had, had no idea what it meant before this past Saturday. Unlike Michigan, which only holds primaries for up-coming presidential elections, Washington holds a state-wide caucus as well.

Kent and I drove to the location nearest us and found a table marked with our precinct number - there were around 6 precincts there. We then signed up our names, other info, and who we voted for. After waiting about a half hour, we head the results of the tally of votes from our precinct only. At that time, they assign a number of delegates to each candidate based on popular vote. Then, anyone who wants to can get up and say why they are voting for their candidate of choice to try to persuade other voters to change their minds. I believe one woman changed her mind. Then, votes are re-counted, people split up into groups based on who they voted for, and then delegates are chosen to attend the next caucus.

It was really exciting. There's something about sitting in a room with a lot of other voters and feeling the excitement in the air - a sense of community - a sense of hope for the future of our country. It was also very meaningful because Kent's and my vote truly counted. I've always known that every vote counts (my mom works at a City Hall in Michigan and deals a lot with elections and voters and sees the direct results based on voters), but this time I experienced it with an immediate response. Our candidate of choice won in our precinct by 1 vote. If Kent and I hadn't been there, the other candidate would have won the popular vote, and therefore have had, at least in our case, one more delegate than the other. We felt important. We felt proud that we were physically there standing up for the candidate we believe in and got the results we had hoped for. It also made us both realize more clearly that it is important for us to not only be involved in the final election day, but in the process leading up to it, too. Every vote counts and will work to make our country either better or worse than it is today.

Later that evening, Kent and I went to grandma's house for dinner - as we do most Saturday evenings - and then went to some friends' house afterwards to play some games. The first game we played is called "Guitar Hero" - more or less a video game where you play a chordless guitar and push note buttons and a strum button at just the right time based on the colors you see on the screen to some rockin' songs. There are 4 levels of difficulty. I had heard of it from students and others, but had never played it before last night. It was a lot of fun! I didn't do to shabby either (unlike Kent who got booed off his first two tries...but got better as the night progressed).

The second game we played was "Ticket to Ride" - a board game where you have to collect cards and lay tracks to claim routes for specific destinations before the others finish. It is a strategic game and lots of fun to play with a small group!

It's a lot of fun to have a group of friends that Kent and I can actually call friends and hang out with just for fun. It has been a long time. I still miss my friends and family back home dearly, but this makes it easier to be here and makes it feel more like a home.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 10:28 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.