7-10 million Americans live abroad

This is just a quick update because it’s late, and, well, I’m exhausted. I went to see The Bubble at UMD’s Hillel tonight. It was an intense movie. As Lila said, “Israelis don’t believe in happy endings.” I have to agree. I liked it better than the other Eytan Fox movies I’ve seen, Walk on Water and Yossi and Jagger. I only vaguely remember Walk on Water, and while Yossi and Jagger is an absolutely incredible movie, I thought The Bubble did a better job telling a story and showing the characters grow – even more impressive because there were four main characters to develop, instead of basically only two in Yv’J.

Anyway, here is the plan for the next few days. There are still a couple of posts I want to make about Dems Abroad voting stuff, so hopefully I can fit them in while I also blog about my experiences in the field. I’m going out to Fairfax, VA tomorrow, to start knocking on doors and making phone calls until Sunday. Lindsey (who’s currently in North Carolina) wants us to be in the office on Monday, to work on Turkey stuff, and then we’re both out in VA on election day. Oh, that’s right – I think I mentioned Turkey in one of my posts that got deleted. So for those of you that don’t know, Democrats Abroad is having a global meeting in Turkey after the election, and I get to go! I’m so excited, I don’t know what to do with myself. But let’s not get sidetracked, here. We still have an election to win.

I’ll be commuting out to VA and coming home every night, so expect my reports from the field late each evening from now through Sunday. Then, like I said, it’s back in the office Monday, out in VA again Tuesday. Don’t know how much blogging I’ll get to do Tuesday/Wednesday. For some reason, I think it might be a little hectic. But I’ll catch you guys up on state-side election stories (as opposed to Dems Abroad shenanigans) later in the week and over the weekend.

We leave for Turkey on the 11th, and I’m taking my computer to be able to post the full scoop on the meeting and any adventures I have there. Note to self: Brush up on Turkish. Of course, if there’s no internet access, I’ll write the posts, but I’ll have to wait until I come back on the 17th to put them online.

Then I hold down the fort from the 17th – 26th, while Lindsey stays in Turkey on a vacation with her husband. And then it’s Thanksgiving, I’m back in New York for good, and my life goes back to being boring and non-blog-worthy. It’s crazy how time flies.

Virginia has issue with some overseas ballots Well…duh.

I realized while writing this post that I need to start with a glossary:

FWAB: Federal Write In Absentee Ballot. The FWAB is essentially an emergency ballot. It’s used when overseas voters do not receive their official state absentee ballots in time to get their ballots returned to the States. More information about the FWAB is available on our Voting Action Center at “What is the FWAB?” (Written by yours truly, after getting so many questions about the FWAB I thought my inbox would explode)

FPCA: The Federal Post Card Application. It’s a special form overseas voters can use to register to vote and request their ballot, all in one shot.

The CNN article above outlines just one of the problems overseas absentee voters face in Virginia. In most, if not all states, if you haven’t requested an official state absentee ballot, you can’t send in the FWAB – it won’t count. In Virginia, though, if you haven’t sent in your FPCA to request your ballot, you can also use the FWAB as an application to request your absentee ballot. However, if you’re using your FWAB as your ballot and as your application for an absentee ballot, your witness needs to provide their address. But does either the FWAB itself or the instructions say that Virginia requires the witness’s address?

Of course not. (Thankfully, Demcorats Abroad is on the ball. Just check out Virginia in “State Specific Updates.”)

But oh, it gets better. The Fairfax County Registrar is not counting ballots that arrive without the witness’s address. The Arlington County Registrar hasn’t received any ballots that are missing the address, but if she did, she would count them. 

Is that not the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? Well, okay, Texas still takes the cake for me, but this is close.

Virginia, by the way, is also the only state that explicitly disenfranchises U.S. citizens born abroad to parents from Virginia. Right in the VA state constitution, it says if you’ve never lived in Virginia, you can’t vote there. So children born overseas, who have never lived in the U.S. (and therefore obviously never lived in Virginia), but who are American citizens, mind you – can’t vote if their parents are from VA. And of course, no other state will take them, why would they? Right to vote? Bah humbug!

Last night I went to “Sick and Broke: A Conversation About Health Care with Elizabeth Edwards” at GW hosted by Campus Progress. Before I go into it, I just want to say how much I love Campus Progress – during the summer, they have their interns compete in a “Free-Food-a-Thon,” and the intern who scores the most (and best) free food wins. It’s inspiring, I tell you. I modeled my strategy in Denver (where I managed to eat for free almost every day of the convention) off of the wisdom gleaned from their blogs. They also keep a daily calendar of free events going on in DC, and offer pretty great speakers and trainings. Amazing. But I digress.

The talk was really interesting – healthcare is not really my forte, so it was nice to get an introduction to the basic problems facing the system. Let’s face it – my mom works for the federal government, we’ve always had healthcare, it’s always covered what we needed, and what it didn’t cover, we could afford to pay for ourselves. I’d never given it more thought than having a vague impression that the healthcare system sucks. Why did I think that? Because everyone else said it.

But Elizabeth Edwards and Ezra Klein, the moderator, touched on everything from the candidates’ healthcare policies to the differences between the employer market for health insurance and the individual market, to potential ways to make healthcare less expensive. It all boiled down to one question asked by an audience member:

Is health insurance

A) a commodity people should be able to afford

B) a responsibility of the individual to take care of

or

C) a right?

Edwards was C, all the way. She called providing affordable healthcare our “moral obligation.” I don’t know if I’d go that far. (Gosh, how Republican of me. Shhhh.) But when the insured are paying an average of $900 extra a year to relieve costs incurred from treating the uninsured, it does seem like everyone benefits when more people are insured. And if people aren’t able to provide for their own, maybe the government should step in, within reason. (Phew, that’s more like it.)

She also strongly supported reforming comprehensive healthcare policies to include more preventative care, early intervention treatments, and diagnostic tests. Which makes sense. Even though it might be more expensive the first few years to pay for yearly mammograms for younger women who would ordinarily put off the test instead of paying for it themselves, in the long run, it could save a lot of money in cancer treatments. But then again, who decides when a test or treatment is overkill? Patient? Doctor? Insurance company? Government?

It’s also interesting how the healthcare issue affects other national problems. Apparently, half of foreclosures are related to homeowners with healthcare-related economic problems – not a bad subprime mortgage. It’s also hard to assign blame. Take obesity in poor communities. Obesity is expensive – it leads to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, just to name a few costly conditions. It’s easy to say people are obese because they eat unhealthy food. But if they’re on foodstamps, it’s hard to buy expensive, healthy food. Plus, supermarkets in poor communities aren’t exactly known for their stellar selection of fruits and veggies. Which have to be shipped, refrigerated, and go bad rather quickly. Not very cost effective.

I think the highlight, though, was when one question mentioned “socialized healthcare,” and the moderator, who was reading the question, said, “Oh look, John McCain is in the room. He’s in the back, so you can’t see him because he’s so short.” Which was hilarious in itself, of course – but what was even better was when a woman in front of me turned around to look. Really? Really?

It’s unfortunate. I get way too attached to blogging. Oh, it’s all right at first – I’m excited that I’ll have a record, a way to bring everything back once an experience is over. It’s nice to think I’m entertaining an audience (however small), and I try to do my best to keep things interesting.

Then, I start narrating my life in my head. It took me weeks, if not months, to break the habit when I stopped updating my old livejournal, and within days of starting this blog, I was at it again. I write, and rewrite, posts in my head – posts that by the time I actually get around to typing up, I’ve lost all interest in. And it’s kind of annoying, keeping up a running monologue in my own mind as I’m trying to live my life. Have you ever gotten sick of the sound of your own thoughts?

I start to feel supremely guilty if I don’t update as much as I should. Which, let’s face it, is all the time. And especially with this blog, I feel so much pressure to keep the posts short, informative, and entertaining all at once. In other words, no 3,500 word emotional avalanches about the minutiae of my life. Which I’m more than capable of producing, trust me. Or just do some googling, if you don’t want to take my word for it.

The self-censorship becomes draining in itself – I haven’t expressed my thoughts in this format in over two years. And it really is rather cathartic. So once I start writing about one part of my life (work, in this case), I start wanting to post about everything I’m feeling. It’s hard to stem the flow. But then again, is there anything else I’ve had more practice with?

I know, I know, there are no rules, and I’m free to make this space whatever I want. I’m not even getting a grade. But the perfectionist in me wants this blog to be, well, perfect. Oh well, I’m just indulging my angsty side. Probably because I lost two posts from earlier this week in the server crash. See what I mean? I’m way too attached – it’s not like they were earth-shattering, soul-baring, deeply insightful posts, or anything.

Perhaps I’ll change the background, though, to make it a little less formal around here. And who knows, I may even give posting the personal stuff a try.

Edited to add: Unfortunately, I don’t like any of the other backgrounds as much, mostly because I think this layout has the widest text box, and I think it makes the posts look shorter. I’m a fan of minimizing scrolling. I do really like Ocadia, though. Thoughts?

I’m home this weekend for my grandma’s birthday. My original plan was to be here this weekend because I was going to spend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in DC, but I uncharacteristically succumbed to fit of homesickness the weekend before Rosh Hashanah, and booked a last-minute flight to come home for the holiday. (If I had been keeping up this blog around then, I would have posted about the challenge of trying to balance work and observance, but alas, no such luck.)

Anyway, there are a lot of things I like about being home. The everyday antics of my crazy family, the gentle (and not-so-gentle) teasing, my room (which has yet to be converted into a study, gym, or my brother’s second bedroom, as threatened when I moved out), and clean bathrooms. However, one thing trumps all of the niceties mentioned above.

The Magic Fridge.

Don’t scoff. And don’t get me wrong – the laundry fairy is a godsend, and so is the gas fairy, who fills up the tank whenever I leave the car in the driveway with the needle dangerously close to “E.” But the magic fridge, man. I have a hard time expressing its awesome power. Cold-cuts? Sure! All the ingredients for a salad? You bet! Milk? Of course it’s not sour! And the holy grail of them all – leftovers.

I admit, I never appreciated leftovers before I moved out. I was even known to complain loudly about having to eat leftovers of the same meal too many days in a row. (What can I say? Dad likes to cook in large quantities.) But now that I’m in charge of feeding myself, there is nothing better than coming home, opening the magic fridge, and being able to choose from several entreés, side dishes, and desserts. (Although the desserts usually come from the magic freezer, the magic fridge’s close cousin.)

Best of all, it’s all free. No lines, don’t have to leave a tip, and so much healthier than the usual crap I eat. Usually there’s someone around so I’m not eating alone. And when I’m done, I just put the dishes in the magic dishwasher, which, of course, starts itself and puts the dishes back in the cabinets, so they’re clean the next time I need them.

Scorecard- Blog: 1, Ariana: 0

Remember when I was in charge of the generic DA website e-mail address, so I got everything submitted from the Contact Us page, as well as all the responses from every mass mailing we send out? Which roughly translates to hundreds of e-mails a day that I have to either answer, forward, or delete? In addition to everything else I have to do?

Oh wait. That’s been my life since Denver.

So I apologize for dropping off the face of the blog-planet. But with a little less than three weeks to the election, I’ve decided to start blogging again. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution.

I just have a short narrative I’d like to share with you today. (more…)