UNC won the game, and I learned a thing or two from some Serious Basketball Fans. Went to a matinee performance of a terrific play with a friend, and then to a sushi dinner. I used to go to this sushi place a lot, but the ex didn't care for sushi so I hadn't stepped foot in the place for eight months or so, and when we walked in two of the sushi chefs and one of the waiters called out to me and made a big deal of having me back. It was really nice. We sat at the bar where I love to watch them preparing the fish, and they cut me great big hunks of sashimi -- toro and escolar and scallops and tobiko and some salmon. And Tak, the head chef, gave me these funny fried shrimp heads to try -- a kind gesture, and not as bad as they looked. And I tried not to notice how much I was noticing the moments when my handsome friend's leg would brush against mine and how much I was hoping it would happen again. (Not the same friend, for anyone who is keeping track.) Anyway I didn't entirely succeed but it seems he was noticing it a little bit too and by the end of the evening some complexity and some smooching had entered the friendship.
And then yesterday 11 people came over for cooking and eating a big mexican feast. We drank beer and listened to James Brown while we chopped chiles and onions and carrots, and we talked politics a bit and we laughed a lot, and then feasted on two kinds of enchiladas (chicken and swiss chard + sourcream) and fava bean soup and chili and cornbread and rice with squash and carrots and this magical lime-flavored rice pudding and the best hot chocolate ever. Five of us tripped off to the caucus (to cancel out one another's votes), leaving six folks in my house cheerily washing a kitchen full of dishes. And the caucus was a trip -- mobs of people, poor organization and moderate to low levels of competence by the electoral officials manning the various tables and giving directions, and this great frenzy of good-natured enthusiastic energy. Dean and Kucinich were both there and spoke -- Dean moderately well and Kucinich extremely well. My friend D had come in planning to support Dean and gave his vote to Kucinich instead; I saw several others make the same decision and seriously considered it myself. We started out as this mob in the gym of my old high school, and after all the stump speeches and general rah-rah-rah (some of which I was distracted from because a beautiful baby sitting nearby had wrapped her little fingers around my index finger and was gurgling at me with these big blue eyes, and because the Fella I'd smooched the night before was sitting behind me on the bleachers and gently rubbing my back -- total sensory overload). Anyway then we went off to individual classrooms representing our precints. It was a mess -- imagine the most semi-competent junior high school teacher or grocery bagging clerk, give them an official red t-shirt, and put them in charge of a process they just barely understand. We had to elect a secretary for the proceeding and then vote for some town and county committees, before breaking into our groups for the presidential candidates and trying to poach the lone Clark supporter and the lone undecided, or the smallish contingent of Edwards guys. There was some math involved with figuring out who got how many delegates, which took longer than you could believe. The combination of basic competence, an eye for efficiency, articulateness, reasonable interpersonal skills, and the willingness to speak up and get involved made those people who possessed them instant leaders within the room, and four or five of us sort of helped out the overwhelmed official guy (who, for instance, forgot to count himself in the voting tally). In our room of 66 people the breakdown was this: 25 Kerry (5 delegates), 20 Dean (4 delegates), 11 Kucinich (2 delegates), 6 Edwards (who had not a single sign or sticker at the whole caucus -- totally absent save a very nervous local woman who spoke briefly and quaveringly about why she supported him) (1 delegate), 1 undecided and 1 Clark. (Plus two absentee undecided ballots -- a strange thing to send in....) The undecided jumped to the Kerry camp after flirting with Kucinich; the Clark guy stood fast, although I along with a couple of other Dean folks chatted him up for a while. Turns out he lives right around the corner from me. Anyway a totally unexpected outcome is that I am now a Dean delegate to the state convention in May, which to me sounds like a sort of a drag of a way to spend a whole weekend, but our group needed a woman and everyone was prodding me and I sort of figured it was my civic duty. Housemate is an alternate delegate for the Kucinich contingent.
And although the whole thing was a silly mess and took way longer than it should have it was fun to be with my neighbors and to see where they stood, and to talk about the various candidates and what mattered to us. The caucus was a great cross-section of people, and sort of a wonderful apple-pie kind of heartwarming democratic experience. Got home to a clean kitchen and a hungry dog, and a couple of other caucus-goers came by to tell war stories about the funny goings-on in their precints. One of the Mex Fest chefs is a Kerry delegate, so we'll have some company at the state convention. And then this Fella came over for a while and we taste-tested my two kinds of scotch and learned that I prefer the Balvenie and he the Glenmorangie.
Phew.
What a wonderful weekend. Sounds so warm and friendly, I envy it so very much!
Posted by: Womanofthelaw | February 09, 2004 at 05:01 PM