Coincidences can be really creepy sometimes. I was trying to decide on a song for tonight, and was going to Google the lyrics to the song that I thought was by Paul McCartney, Someone's knocking on the door, and I had a moment where I just couldn't put it together with who wrote/performed it. I was riding down from the mountains, and just at the moment I gave up and thought I'd use a song from the conversation we had instead, the above-mentioned song came on the radio. Okay, okay. I can take a hint. Stick with my original plan.
I was happily ignoring emails for months, just sure that I had nothing to do as a precinct leader for my locality until the next election came around. I got a phone call while I was having my endoscopy from my area coordinator, but having had a tube shoved down my throat and pieces snipped out of the various pipes, I ignored that too, and slept away the day Thursday. She emailed me on Friday, asking whether I was going to the precinct leader "spring fling" training the next day. I found myself out of excuses. I promised to show up.
I seriously considered blowing it off when morning rolled around and there had been a snowstorm all night. But unlike further south in Denver, nothing accumulated to speak of in my town. The roads were wet but completely clear, and there was just a little wet slush on my car. Again, no valid excuses. The meeting was at the library that is at most a six minute drive from my house. I acted like a grownup and met my commitment.
I am fairly certain that most of the people in that room have canvassed neighborhoods before. They seemed to know the process and the basics of the technology available to help us. I sat near the back and assumed that most things would come clear as the meeting progressed. Eventually I got most of it, but when they started talking specifics on tech, I hit my absolute limit. I was tired and sore and my brain said no more. I tip-toed back to my area coordinator, who still sat at the check-in table, and begged off. I promised to write her and ask for a private training at a later date. She was sympathetic.
If I do as I am tasked to do, I will be walking around my neighborhood, knocking on between one and two hundred doors, introducing myself to people affiliated with the same party as myself. I'm supposed to ask them to tell me what their top priorities are, both nationally and statewide. In some ways, this will be great. It means getting to know my neighbors, and maybe building a sense of community. But it also means swallowing my terror of approaching strangers, and it means breaking out of my comfort zone of my immediate block. A few blocks either direction of my house and one can see evidence of the rough gangland past of my town. (Yes, mom, it's much safer now.) I think I can do this, but I am 99% sure I will need a buddy to go with me. I wonder whether I know anyone willing to be recruited.
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