Hello, I'm (kinda) new here

Hello everyone. I think I met a bunch of you in September, when Velma brought me to the DU social gathering in DC after the antiwar rally. But I didn't sign up for DU until a few weeks ago, and stayed mostly quiet until a few days ago, when I dove into :)

I blog about politics at daily kos and MyDD sometimes, but mostly when I blog about politics I cover the Massachusetts progressive movement (of which I'm an active member) at Blue Mass Group. My main personal blog is cos.livejournal.com (I have a couple of other LJ accounts as well: coslinks, and cosmusic). Most of my posts there are not about politics, though some are. For example, I used LiveJournal to find places to stay in Florida when I was going down there to volunteer for Election Protection in 2004 (I ended up not being a roving technologist, instead I was at the call center for Broward County, where I was the person they routed all the calls about voting machine troubles to). I also recently started writing on Gather.com.

Anyway, hello everyone.

If you met me in person, tell me who you are in a comment, so I can being to connect names with faces.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

:hi:

and missed out on the after-events. But welcome to DU! Better late than never!

:patriot:

:toast:

I met Velma at DemocracyFest 2005, and we made plans to meet up in DC. I think I might've met some of her DU friends at DemFest - which might be some of y'all here :)

:hi:

Hey, I'm probably gonna drive out to Seattle again this summer, early July-ish. I haven't spent much time there the past few years and I miss it. Is that where you live, or just where you're from?

Been here for about 23 years.

I'll be there in early July for a few days, probably staying with friends in Bellevue but I'll have a car.

Know any election reform groups I should meet while I'm there? :)

:hi:

Welcome to DU! :hi:

Does that mean you're a Bostonian?

Now I'm trying to remember whether I've ever had sex close enough to the Citgo sign to count as "under" :)

In response, I link you to this photo of Kerry with my friend Nathan, years ago, at Pride in Boston.

I am a native "Masshole" - grew up about an hour outside of Boston. Currently exiled in CA, but I go back every chance I get - it's still home as far as I'm concerned. Always will be. :-)

Awesome pic of your friend with JK...and yeah, Kerry's cool. Me and him at his birthday party last December - he's a sweetheart:

Cute! Perhaps even more than Nathan! :)

The Senator did not flinch or become uncomfortable when I shook his hand either, but I think he drew the line when I tried to climb him like a jungle gym.

:evilgrin:

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:hi:

and welcome to DU. :hi:

Huh, you're in PA, might you be going to the Darfur rally in DC on Sunday the 30th?

That's quite a drive for me and my nursing baby. Maybe next time. :hi:

:hi:

I was there on the 24th but, I did not meet any DU'ers. Nice to see you here.
:hi:

There were apparently a bunch of DU get togethers and marching together and stuff, but I only went to this Saturday evening meetup at RFD's.

I'm soon leaving this Jebhole and headed back to New Hampshire in a few weeks.

Glad to have you with us.

Were you there for the 2004 election? Which part of the state? What were you up to?

I volunteered for ACT and then MoveOn for most of the last week around Tampa Bay (Act was in St. Petersburg and MoveOn was in Tampa), then zipped down to Fort Lauderdale for election day itself.

Lot's of reports from dems about their vote going to Bush, but no coverage. I'm volunteering to get signatures for paper trail votes in Florida.

What was election day like for you? Did you get a chance to do anything?

I was comatose.

:hi:

:toast:

:hi:

Huh, a greeting like that makes me wonder if you're someone I know?

I can think of several people off the top of my head who I know and who currently reside in Ireland (though only one of them is actually Irish). But I guess you're not one of them. Not even the hot Finn. Pity! :)

:hi: Glad to see you finally on DU. Welcome to the Lounge. I used to terrorize this place. :evilgrin: But alas, they banned sex threads. *sigh*

And thanks for blaming me for getting you here. :)

Oh no, that's terrible! Why?

I'm the shy one in the corner. ;)

Iowa's in the middle! Does DU have corners? :)

Every good lounge has corners.

Your resume is very impressive, I look forward to reading more of your posts!

:hi:

I'm in the next town over, Watertown. :hi:

I've lived in Brookline, Newton, Waltham, Somerville, and Cambridge, but never Watertown. But I'm moving this summer so who knows, maybe I will :) Right now I'm actually staying with friends in Somerville - I do that a lot. My apartment in Cambridge is tiny, and the rest of my stuff is currently in Waltham, Brookline, Lincoln, Malden, and Somerville.

Do you go to any DFA groups around here?

Are you going to the DNC Victory '06 organizing meeting this Tuesday with Stephanie?

I lived in Somerville for a long time myself.

I must be having one of those "senior moments" and forgetting something I probably should know--what is the DFA? Unfortunately, I won't be around on Tuesday. I do go to the meetings of the Watertown Democratic Town Committee, which has been pretty good this year because each month candidates for state offices have been speaking to us--a good way to learn about them first-hand.

Democracy for America, the successor to Dean for America that Dean founded in March 2004 after he stopped running for president. Many of the old Dean meetups turned into ongoing local DFA groups, and some new groups have joined since then. Anywhere you are in the country, you can find the DFA groups near you by signing up on DFA-Link.

Around Boston, there are DFA groups in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton, Acton, Framingham/Natick, and Braintree. The Somerville group is PDS, which originated from the Reich campaign in 2002, and just joined DFA last year. It's a very active group that played a very big role in electing Carl Sciortino, Pat Jehlen, and Denise Provost to the legislature. Our annual meeting, where we elect new officers, is next Tuesday the 25th. We usually have some good surprises at the annual meeting. Do come!

hope you find it enjoyable here...

Ahh, silly memories of the Stewart Newburgh airport come back. It stole my friend Savannah's clippers :)

So... 9W is the answer. What's the question?

And why'd they change their name, a cease and desist from Lexus-Toyota?

:hi:

Where in NH are you?

Out in the woods just off of Rt 175.

Are you a Yankee, Cos?

My family moved to Boston when I was 7.
But my exgf (and still one of my best friends) is Yankee. She's the sort of Yankee that doesn't recognize MA as being in New England. I observe her culture while not being of it :)

She grew up in Moultonboro, so I've spent a lot of time in your neck of the state. Though mostly on the lakes side of the mountains. You're on the other side, right?

Well, there is serious debate about rather or not MA, RI and CT are true Yankees. So, split the difference. They're Southern NE with upper NY state an honorary member. VT, NH and ME are Northern and the last stronghold of true Ayeup Yankeeism. :hide:

Yup, northside. We can see Mt Tacumseh from our kitchen window.

You ask "what's a Yankee?" ...

... in Europe: they point to America
... in America: they point to the USA
... in the western US: they send you east
... in the southeast: they tell you look north of the Mason-Dixon line
... in the northeast: they send you to New England
... in Massachusetts: they point to northern New England
... in New Hampshire: they tell you to look in Maine
... in Portland: they tell you to look in a small town
... in a small rural Maine town: they find an old geezer living off the grid with his own well in a small, well kept, but old and cheap little house, with several million dollars cash stashed in his attic because even though he never earned much, he never spent anything. The geezer doesn't say a word, but they translate for you because he actually communicated a soliloquy's-worth and you just didn't notice.

And that's a Yankee.

pronounced PehBEHdee and he lives up on Gore Road, pronounced Gah Rod.

:toast:

Just kidding.
Great blogs.

You won't hold Velma against me? How sad! I'll just have to do that myself ;)

Welcome to DU! I didn't meet you in person but would love to get to know you over the board. Hello! :hi: