It's a really good thing that I am not afraid of public speaking. I did a lot of it today. My voice is hoarse and I am exhausted, but I went above and beyond my usual level of civic participation. This is the first time that I have lived in a caucus state, rather than a primary state, and I took the plunge and went headfirst into the melee. I survived, but just barely.
Today was supposed to be all about Rotary today, and I absolutely put it first in my priority list. I went to the luncheon, and got caught up with my new friends who I missed while I was in the hospital. Every moment I am with Rotarians, I experience such a strong feeling of rightness. From the moment they first recited the four-way test, I knew that I belonged in this group. Their motto is service before self, and I might as well have that tattooed on my body somewhere, I believe it so strongly. This evening I went through my official orientation. (For the record, I'm pretty sure I could see last week's hospital room window straight out from where I sat in the conference room for orientation.) There were five long-serving club members giving the history, mission, responsibilities, and opportunities to three of us pledges. Next week we will be presented with red-rimmed name badges, and in our orientation paperwork, we have a list of milestones to cross to fully integrate ourselves in the club, and earn our blue-rimmed badges. There will be a lot of talking to strangers, a lot of volunteering, a lot of nervousness to conquer. But it will be an exciting journey, and I keep finding myself grinning uncontrollably at the prospect of being part of this group. I can't wait to get going.
The orientation ended at 6:30 this evening, and I had to be in line at the caucus by 7 to get in. Luckily it was straight down one major crosstown artery, and I made it in plenty of time to drive in circles, park way out in a neighborhood, and hoof it to the line leading into the high school. Turnout all across the state has been crazy high. There were thousands of people trying to squeeze into the cafeteria in our school, grouped around tables for something like 32 precincts in one building. We could barely hear in the big meeting, but we learned that there were 10 "orphan" precincts, who didn't already have a chair who went to training to know what to do. So when 42 of us peeled off into our assigned classroom, we found that we were one of the orphans. We had no trained individual in our group. We needed a secretary and a chair. I raised my hand to do something unspecified, and the group unanimously appointed me as the chair. So I got to dig through a big packed of information, and read it out to the assembled group. I tried to go quickly, since we had started significantly later than expected because of how long it took to register the giant crowd. People threw questions at me rapidly, and it was obvious that everyone had shown up already passionately committed to their chosen candidates. There were no unaffiliated caucusers. I tried to remain calm, but this group was rowdy and ready to rumble. I was afraid that they would turn against me at any moment. One guy in the front row kept filming me with his phone to document the process. Our room was split 69% to 31%, and we had to figure out how to fairly divide up 2 delegates and 2 alternates. One woman who watched a video online today about how to caucus took the initiative and called one of the campaign headquarters. It was determined that we were to view it as .6 and 1.3 of 2, which rounds to 1 delegate for each. Crisis averted. No one left livid. They were still charged up to the very end, though. I was relieved when about a half dozen people thanked me for stepping up, including the videographer, and no one said "I'm going to report you downstairs for being awful!" All those months of public speaking to inprocessing soldiers as an education counselor and leading board meetings for our ladies group came in handy. I relied on both skill sets.
Now I am wiped out but feeling proud of myself for jumping back into the world with both feet. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as busy, but I may have time for a nap in the middle of everything. I'll need it by then.
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