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.

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?

We had a fire drill at the DNC this morning. It was a nice change of pace – remember in elementary school when fire drills were SO COOL because you got to miss class for a few minutes? And you knew there wasn’t really a fire, but you still worried about what would happen to the class pet in the back of the room. Or at least, I always did. The principal used to time us, and announce the time on the PA system after we were back in the building. It was such a big deal if everyone got out faster than the last time. Nothing like that at the DNC, though. Although something that did baffle me were the number of people who took their coffee with them.

Nothing like a nice hot cup of joe while your office goes up in flames, I always say.

This morning has been full of answering e-mails, doing a fun coloring project, and writing a letter inviting Democrats Abroad from Oregon to a conference call with the Democratic candidate for Senate, Jeff Merkley. The coloring project involves finding an editable map online, manipulating the colors so each region is a different hue, and sending it to the Obama staff in charge of hiring field workers for each region. It’s a nice break from the e-mails from angry, angry people about the fact that our website and/or contribution page is broken more often than not.

Also I need to call the bank and figure out why they charged us over $200 to cash a check from Canada that was mixed in with our U.S. checks. However, it was clearly from an account with U.S. funds, not Canadian dollars. That’s another fun part of the job, dealing with all sorts of foreign currency. It makes the bank kind of hate us, so this is obviously an ill-disguised attempt at retribution.

In other news, international calls coming in to our phones sometimes distort callers’ voices so they sound like Darth Vader.

“::::Pant, pant::::How do I register to vote? ::::Pant::::I am youhr fahthahhr::::”

“What? Let me call you back”

“I said, I’m for Obama.”

Well, Lindsey is in Chicago, and I’m in D.C., and I’m super hungry. She e-mailed me at 11:33 am saying that she’d call me soon, so I didn’t go to lunch, for fear of being out of the office when she called. But it is now 3:16 pm, and I haven’t heard from her. Am considering making a run to Subway, but with my luck, in the 10 minutes it takes to go around the corner and grab a sandwich, she’ll call.

I know, thrilling stuff. I can tell you’re all waiting with bated breath to see if I’ll succumb to the hunger pangs.

In the meantime, though, I thought I’d give a brief introduction to what I do here on a daily basis. Feel free to visit the DA Wikipedia page , maintained by our fantastic press secretary, Jody Couser, to learn more about the organization in general. (And no, it never ceases to amuse me that we have the same initials as another one of my favorite groups.)

Most of my time lately has been taken up by planning our delegation’s experience at the Democratic National Convention (which has been given the acronym DNCC, so not to be confused with the DNC, the Democratic National Committee. Don’t ask me what the extra C stands for, I have no idea). Since the DNC considers DemsAbroad a state party, just like NY or any of the other 50, we get to send a delegation to the convention. We have 22 delegates, each with a half vote. And we’re not complaining about it, either! Take that, Florida and Michigan.

So I’ve been gathering everyone’s travel information, chasing down speakers for our Delegation Breakfasts every morning of the convention (today I’m trying to book Jimmy Carter…yes, that Jimmy Carter), making sure transportation from the airport to the hotel will be available, organizing venues for events, and trying to manage other logistical nightmares.

A typical day also includes answering e-mails submitted from the help page on www.democratsabroad.org, which is always an adventure. Today I had to figure out how a woman in Belgium could get replacement Social Security cards for herself and two kids. I also do a lot of telling people how they can vote (www.votefromabroad.org, of course!), and answering questions like, “The Obama site doesn’t ship outside the U.S.! How do I get my Obama bumper sticker/pin/t-shirt?” or “I’m traveling around the world, and will be visiting several countries in October and November. I don’t know exactly where I’ll be or when. Where should I have the Board of Elections send my absentee ballot?!”

The tough ones I forward to our voter registration issues team, but most I try to handle myself. The answers to the above, by the way, are 1) It depends on your country – some of our larger of our country committees are selling Obama chum locally – but otherwise, your best bet is to have a friend order the merchandise and ship it to you and 2) Register with your permanent mailing address on www.votefromabroad.org, but fill out and mail in the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot from wherever you are by Oct. 4th.

Wow, two posts in two days. Let’s see how long I can keep this up!

I’ve decided to keep a blog about my experiences in Washington, D.C. this semester. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ariana, a rising sophomore at Hunter College. I started this adventure in June, as an intern at the Democratic National Committee assigned to Democrats Abroad. Lindsey (my boss) asked me to stay on through the election, and the powers that be at Hunter and Macaulay gave me permission to take the time off. So, I’m going to keep a record of my experiences here for perusal by current and future MHC scholars. And my parents.

That’s enough of an introduction for today, stay tuned for a more in-depth introduction to the world of Democrats Abroad and the Democratic National Committee. Until then, take a look at our brand new viral video, encouraging U.S. citizens living overseas to vote. For Democrats, of course.

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