With a Little Help From My Friend

It's tough to be Far from the Pahk this year, the 100th Birthday of Fenway. I envisioned my 60th  birthday this year to be sitting in the bleachers on June 10th watching the Sox play the Nationals. Alas, that is not to be. The weekend of June 1-3, I will be in Seattle for the Washington State Democratic Convention. The next weekend we have friends coming into town for a family member's graduation.

Then there was the movement last year to have a Class of 70 Turns 60 Birthday Bash on June 30th. Not to mention the Sully Cousin Reunion we cooked up at my Dad's funeral. We Sullivan cousins have such a good time together, it's too bad we usually only see each other for funerals, or so it seems. There are 7 Walthams, 6 Concords (and one departed who will be there in spirit), and 5 Falmouths. Plus assorted spouses, significant others, children of the cousins...it goes on and on. SO, we decided that cold, sad Valentine's Day 2011 that around July 4, 2012 we would have a big cookout on the Cape, like we used to when we were all kids. Fortunately coinciding with my high school class party. So Fenway had to take a back seat to Gayle Avenue, where my cousin Tiba lives in the old homestead. My dear sweet Mama sent me an early birthday present last week: one of the several books to come out on the subject, Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America, by John Powers and Ron Driscoll, published in association with my dearly beloved Boston Globe.

My buddy Karen, also a Rabid Red Sox Fan For Life, had the great fortune to be at THE 100th birthday party game vs the Yankees. She made sure I felt the love, and now I have a collection of goodies that will make Rabid Red Sox Fan For Life Jill jealous (though my 'shrine' will never have such wonderful things as a ticket and program from the Impossible Dream World Series, the LP, and a bat signed by Bobby Doerr). A box arrived shortly after that game.

 Check it out (eat your heart out Jill). First, two wonderful shirts, one long sleeved, one short. A Rabid Red Sox Fan for Life can never have enough different Red Sox Shirts in her wardrobe.

But wait there's MORE: a replica ticket, a birthday bumpah stickah and commemorative magazine. AND, a very special plastic birthday toast cup complete with sparkling grape juice and instructions NOT to open and drink it before the designated time. Seriously! I'll save it until Karen comes to visit. I'll open some sparkling wine, and she can have the Welches, and we can toast Fenway AND our 60th birthdays from here. Happy Birthday, Fenway Park!
 

 

What Happens When Jaxon Appears on a Webcast

How did this happen?

Our Washington Democrats Executive Director Jaxon Ravens is a very persuasive fellow. This year, he did a live webcast of his How to Become A National Delegate session from the Annual Crab Feed and Grassroots Workshop...which I did not attend because it was far away in Lacey, and I had to be at the airport early the next morning to go to Austin to see Keara. But I did watch the webcast. It was later made into a more polished video production you can see here. Too late now! Better watch it by early 2016 if you want to make a run.

Jaxon made it seem like a possibility. I checked with a few of my favorite Democrats. They all said go for it. So, on the first filing day in April, in the throes of planning the precinct caucuses, I filed the Declaration of Candidacy for a National Delegate position. It wasn't much of a problem getting elected delegate to the County Convention and LD14 Sub Caucus. Then we elected 5 delegates and 2 alternates, a full slate for the Congressional District Caucus, which was held Sunday. Both of our alternates were seated due to absences elsewhere, which was very good for me - 2 more votes!

Now what? I spent Mother's Day creating a flyer and mailing labels for 125 delegates plus alternates. The next day, copies and stamps, folding and sealing, and all the letters were out by 3 pm. Next up was to make a postcard sized handout for the Caucus, and prepare a 2 minute speech. Do you know how little you can say in two minutes? My God, I talk too much. So I recalled Jaxon's advice to keep it focused, and tell people how you are different from the other candidates, so I hit on geography (only candidate from the new kids on the block) and Obama's win by 21 votes in 2008 in our 60-40 red county. County Republicans are still pissed about that.

The five minute speech went down to 3, then 2. I went to bed  early Saturday night...good thing, I woke up at 5 with new thoughts running through my head. I got up a half hour later and rewrote it. Our carpool to Vancouver was full of great conversation, and before I knew it, it was SHOWTIME. We walked into the school through a gauntlet of candidates. Hmmm, I guess I should be here, huh? So I passed out paper to delegates coming in, then made the rounds of tables. So far so good. Then we did our speeches. So far so good. Then the vote and announcements...Woman 1, Man 1, Woman 2, Man 2, no surprises so far in my opinion...then the big surprise....Woman 3 was ME!!!!

The Adventure Begins

Things have been busy around here lately. I just got a smack upside the head from Juanita Jean Herownself to get my fingers tapping. Now I see that Blogspot went and revamped their whole deal. That will teach me to ignore it for so long! But I digress...

The adventure actually began a few months ago, when I visited Juanita Jean for a cut and color. She and I fantasized about a little road trip for our Band., Bitchin Betty and the Sequined Backhoes. Our calendars both had blank spaces the beginning of September, so we threw a dart at the map of the good ole USA and it landed on Charlotte, NC. Why Charlotte? That dart was sending us some kind of message.

So we grabbed her Smarter Than I am Phone, and googled Charlotte September 2012. Lo and behold, some 35,000 people are going there at the same time. Well, Juanita and I figured that Charlotte isn't THAT big a town, so we'd better figure out a way to get hotel rooms. So we went to one of those cheapo hotel websites and every damn room for miles around was already blocked. That left us no other choice. We had to join the party that was already in progress. Imagine our happy hearts that we had joined that party LONG ago, and there was a way to get one of those reservations. We had to run as delegates to the National Convention.

Now it's a good thing we live in different states, because if I had to go up against my friend JJ, well, let's just say I wouldn't have a prayer. It was a long shot for me. I've only lived in WA for 5 years. I've packed a lot into that 5 years, and gotten to know many people in my legislative district and congressional district. But we were redistricted this year into both a new LD and a new CD. And the CD has so many awesome active folks, I really didn't think I had a chance. But JJ was waging her own little campaign, no easy task for her in Texas, so if she could do it, I could at LEAST try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

To be continued....