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Entrees
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Yesterday was a fun and exciting day! I was in charge of providing food for all of the workers in the control center of Barack Obama's Indiana campaign office, which was set up in my family's law firm. The firm donated the use of the offices, the food, and many of the firm's employees were around that day to help the campaign.I arrived at 5:00 a.m., and most of the people running the show were already there, camped out in front of their laptops or their telephone desk. Many had been there, on and off, since Saturday. The tension was palpable and they were already hard at work and mentally prepared for a long and challenging day. I brought Panera Bakery's bagels for them, and put out fruit, coffee, and juice. Many were thankful for something good to start their day, although a few said they were just too nervous to eat. I brought 120 bagels, and there were about 20 left, so there was a sizeable crew of around 100 people there most of the day. There was a flurry of activity, yet it was oddly quiet. When I arrived later with lunch, they practically threw themselves on the food table. I brought in sandwiches from Brozinni's, my favorite pizzeria, (gotta support those local, family-owned businesses!). People seemed a bit more relaxed than they did earlier. There was a steady hum of voices, non-stop ringing of telephones, and lots of coffee flowing. The workers were generally very appreciative and thankful, (albeit fairly messy).It was cool to witness some of the inner workings of the election. One guy was on his cell phone, talking to a coordinator for one voting facility in another county. The coordinator was in a panic because the wait to vote was three hours long. The guy calmly told the coordinator to start issuing paper ballots because the voters shouldn't have to wait so long.One lady was a little miffed because of the location of the coffee station we set up. She complained, as she ran down the hall, that it was in the way of her "urgent response". I pretty much just ignored her. I wanted to have dinner in place by 5:00, so everyone would be done eating by the time the voting booths closed and the results started coming in. Everyone was geeked when they saw the trays of lasagna, baked ziti, spaghetti and garlic knots. Most of them hadn't had a real meal like that in days. By this time, though, everyone was getting very anxious and were much more subdued than they were at lunchtime. After dinner, all of the televisions were tuned to CNN or MSNBC. Indiana is a battleground state and one of the first to close it's polls, so very close attention is given to the results here. In the 40+ years I've lived in this state, no democratic presidential candidate has ever won this state. I sat with the firm's staff for a while, watching the results come in, but had to leave before the Big Announcement was made. I had to get home to my family, but made it back to the TV in time to see Obama declared as the winner. I wish I could have stayed downtown to enjoy the Champagne and cake celebration with everyone there, but I was so exhausted, I fell asleep some time between McCain and Obama's speeches. Todd tried to rouse me at one point to let me know that Indiana is now a BLUE state.Here are a few pictures I took yesterday, a day I will never forget.
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