If you've recently crossed my path, you know this, but if not, here goes: At the end of August, I am stepping out of my "real" life for ten weeks. With the elegant title of "Obama Organizing Fellow" I'm relocating to the Gulf Coast of Florida where I will do my best to help get President Obama re-elected.
 
Even I am surprised by this decision and surprised (and delighted and honored) they chose me. It's exciting and anxiety-producing to be embarking on something unlike any of my prior experience. It's thrilling to be doing something that feels this important.

I'm a woman who loves being alone in a room with a computer or a book, pretty much avoiding the real world, but I hope the saying about old dogs and new tricks is wrong because as far as I can tell, I'm about to spend my days doing anything but sit in solitary contemplation. What I know is: I'm going to live in an unknown good-hearted family's home and be trained and then train others to do a variety of organizing activities. I'm going to swap living in the most liberal chunk of the U.S.A. for the west coast of Florida. Although at least in theory other "seniors" will be there, I am sure I'll be working alongside people who could be my grandchildren.

I'll be leaving my actual grandchildren, and children and husband and friends and puppy. I can only hope I'll be too busy to think of how much I will miss them all.

I am hoping for no hurricanes.

I am hoping nobody slams a door in my face.

I am hoping I can help make a difference.

That's about all I know at this point.

I was asked by several people to tell them how life as an Organizing Fellow was. One other thing that was stressed ins a conference call and interview was that there will not be a huge amount of free time. I'm committed to 40 hours a week but that seems to be a baseline. Hours are erratic and I will probably be even worse at keeping up with e-mails than I already am. Since I hope to keep a journal (something I  have never managed to do) it was suggested that I keep my journal as a blog and in that way, communicate with anyone who is interested in this geriatric adventure of mine. Thanks to a tutorial by son Matthew, I have now tiptoed onto blog turf.

So here it is, whatever it is. I don't know how often I will be able to post (or have anything of possible interest to say) but for those friends on Facebook, I think there is a way for me to link there saying there's a new blog. For those who aren't on Facebook, stop by when you think of it, click on the 'subscribe by e-mail' link (I think that will let you know when I've posted) and for everybody (except trolls) if I can figure out how to have you leave comments, please feel more than welcome to do so.

And now back to deciding what to pack...