Cooking age: 21

While cooking dinner last night i realized i have the cooking skillz of a 21 year old. Remember the culinary gut-bombs you made back then? That's my level. My standard meal when i was 21 was a package of instant Lipton noodles (4 great flavors) and a fried plain white chicken breast. BAM! that's dinner. If i felt fancy, i'd toast a slice of white bread and add a dash of garlic salt. gourmet.

Fast forward 15 years... Jana's been cooking the entire time... but my cooking ability has stayed the same age...

damn. i forgot to vote.

This is embarrassing. ridiculous really. and yet, somehow predictable.

I was so busy helping everyone at the caucus that i forgot to check-in with my group and cast my vote!

At the end of the caucus, when i finally realized my mistake, i told myself "ahhh, I'm sure it didn't matter. it was just one vote." So i went to my precinct committee officer and asked about the results of our group... ohhh crap... one more vote for Obama would have changed the outcome of our group! Had i voted, Obama would have won another delegate (and Clinton one less). Crap. my vote does count! next caucus i'll try to remember to vote. ;-)

34th Precinct Caucus Results

34th Precinct - unofficial results:
Obama: 21 delegates (53.8%)
Clinton: 15 delegates (38.5%)
Uncommitted: 3 delegates (7.7%)

Today I helped my buddy Jeff Upthegrove with the 34th Precinct Democratic Caucus. It was great fun. There must have been 400 people.

My job involved running from group to group to calculate their delegate count. It was interesting to see the passion, the arguments, the negotiations and final results.

During the event a woman asked me...

Woman: What's your title?
Me: Uhhh. I'm just a helper-guy.
Woman: That's not impressive enough.
Me: Yes, you do have a point. (then i realized she was the secretary who was taking minutes for the meeting)
Woman: Can you come up with a better title?
Me: Ok, I'm the Precinct Caucus Calculator Administrator.

And yes, that's going on my resume. cause it's official. and impressive. ;-)

I wore pants today

Since my back went out i've been wearing sweats every day. It's a good look. I'm "soccer dad". prepared for anything. sweats rule! Today i was volunteering at the Democratic Precinct Caucus - can you wear sweats to a caucus? Hummm... Democrats are laid back, but i stepped it up - i wore pants. And after 4 hours in pants - my back is killing me! Back to sweats.

Another big milestone happened yesterday - i put on my socks - by myself. that's huge. Jana's most happy about this, she's been on sock-duty for the last week - and that's true love ya'll. Thanks Jana! :-)

midnight run to drug store, with a crazy ending

My back is killing me! It's been out for several days. The pain finally got so bad, i had to do something. So, just before the super bowl i went to the emergency clinic - and now i know - that's a great time to go to the clinic! Nobody was there. The doc gave me some good meds, and i've been eating them like candy. I'm finally starting to feel better, but now i have a different problem... how should i phrase this... pain pills sure can clog-up the system... no regularly scheduled trains are leaving this station!

So a few hours ago i decided to do something about it. Time for a midnight run to the drug store! I started driving... here's where the twist comes in... i rounded a corner on Maplewild and there was a car stopped in the road. On the side of the road was a blonde girl sitting in the dirt. I slowed down - the guy driving the car was holding his cell phone - he leaned out his window and said to me "this girl lives around here, she needs a ride, i think she hurt her foot." The girl was mumbling, drunk, covered in dirt. I was a little suspicious... who are these guys in the car? Are they with this girl? is this some kind of set-up? I rolled down my passenger window, turned down NPR, and yelled "hey, i live around here. do you need a ride? are you ok?"

She said yes, she wanted a ride, but she couldn't stand up - so i pulled over - and with my bad back i was able to pick her up and help her into my car. She was a mess. crying. dirty. in pain, for sure. her ankle was visibly swollen.

she wanted to smoke cig on the way to the hospital. i said sure. may as well give me one too, this is an odd night after all.

she asked if i would stay with her during check-in. I said sure. i felt sorry for her. it was obvious she wasn't telling me everything that had happened. she said she tripped while walking down maplewild... but it seems to me that she was probably thrown out of a car. she was covered in leaves and mud, sprained ankle, dirty scraped knee and she said her butt hurt.

we smoked another cig while waiting for the nurse to call her back. she told me she has three kids, but she didn't have anywhere to go, no money, and nobody to call to pick her up.

Back in the hospital waiting room an old batman episode was playing on TV.

The nurse called her back, i wheeled her to the emergency room bed, gave her a hug and wished her good luck.

I wish i could have done more for her. if she would have told me the REAL story, been honest with me, i probably would have stayed longer and helped more, but i really had no idea what the real story was... and she wasn't going to share it with me, that was for sure.

So i left the hospital, back to the drug store... to solve my other problem.

pain killer fog

I threw out my back over the weekend.

Now, I'm walking around like an old man. sleeping with huge pillows under my legs. i've been scaring the kids cause i've been yelling 'for no reason' while just sitting in a chair. the pain is horrible. it hurts to sneeze. hiccup. fart.

On sunday, just before the super bowl, i went to an emergency clinic and loaded up on pain pills. i slipped into a pain killer fog, and finally got a break from the pain.

Its monday morning. ive had my coffee and pills. time for a nap.