Politics & Parties

Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day. Have to say we didn't do anything romantic, we did go out for Malaysian food the night before though. And I did buy Ryan a chocolate bar with bacon, sounds gross, huh? I'm throwing myself a sort of bon voyage party tonight so was prepping for that last night instead. My theme is Mexican food as I'm not exactly sure what Guatemalan food is, other than beans and rice, which I'm sure is not entirely accurate either. I'm about to find out though....only 1 week and I'm off.

Warning: if you're not interested in politics, you might want to skip this paragraph. I'm now a Washington resident so last Saturday was my first time participating in a caucus, which was the only way my minority vote would count. The majority around here is for Obama, he won out in delegates 2 to 1. The caucus seems like such an inefficient system....the neighborhood precinct leader didn't even know where the Democratic National Convention was...and the whole purpose of this caucus (which I didn't know beforehand) was to vote for your delegates to send to Denver. Anyway, I was so frustrated with the disorganization I had to speak up when she was going to make us (90 people) go from one side of the stage to the other...I suggested just sitting down when our names were called. It was still hard to hear over the other precincts and people's yelling and clapping. The consolation to the disorg. is the interest so many people have this election and their passion about their views which is so awesome as most of us have been so apathetic with the current administration. My vote went to Hillary for 2 reasons: I really want a female president and can not imagine a smarter, more results oriented candidate as well as her health care plan. I actually dragged Ryan to see her at a rally in Seattle. She was over an hour late and we were so packed in this cruise terminal (Washington was not a planned stop, Bill was supposed to come instead), people were getting hot and ended up leaving and the fire alarms were going off but it was worth it. I knew she'd be articulate and polished but wasn't sure she'd enliven the crowd and she did at times, she really awakened a sense of hope I hadn't been feeling for a long time! And really catered to the environmental crowd, saying Seattle's leading the way in green technology, etc. I would have loved to hear Obama as well but his rally was during a work day and was closed off hours before he got there, 20,000 plus crowd!! I can't wait to see who the candidate will be, much drama!

Happy President's Day as well...to those of you who have a 3 day weekend! We're going down to Vancouver, Canada by train early tomorrow morning, can't wait. My last day of work was yesterday so when I get back Monday night, I'll have 3 days to focus on preparing/packing for my Guatemala trip. Hasta luego!