16 Days...

Yesterday I bought tickets to go back to Philly from Oct. 28 to Nov. 9. I'm leaving my car in Ohio for now, since I will need to come back to finish the interviews and then drive back to Philly. I can't wait to be home, though. I can't wait to be in my own apartment, see Alison and my cat, and actually go out to eat at a restaurant. The only good thing I can say for Ohio is that I've lost weight, because there aren't many good places to eat. It's either fast food, or make your own food.

Yesterday I canvassed for Obama for another three and a half hours, with an utterly useless man named Ben. Ben was nice enough, but he clearly felt nervous about approaching people on his own (and yet he was nearly 50!). So he insisted in going together to every house. Which meant I knocked on doors and talked to people while he played the part of my shadow. He also kept walking across people's lawns until I suggested that we not do that, would comment loudly on people's homes as we approached their door, and had a bad habit of spitting out of the side of his mouth as we walked. This was not helped by the fact that we were given a list of "persuade" voters, who were often republican, so we were yelled at and told "where to go" a couple of times. Still, we did talk to several undecided and "leaning Obama" voters, and conversations with these people made up for the grouchy ones. One woman, who was undecided, told me that her daughter and son-in-law were both in the military. She said she had gone to "too many military funerals to count" and she wanted us out of Iraq. She had even met with Bush about this at a meeting for military mothers.

In other news, I am wrapping up my interviews at the first school. I have completed 25, and hope to finish the other 5 or so before Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, I should receive the surveys from the second school, and will start a new round of interviews. My most interesting interview last week was with an extremely religious student who said she was "too close" to God, because she would walk through the halls talking to God out loud. She was a very smart, well-adjusted adolescent. But her interview went on for longer than most because of her long discussions about the role of religion in her life. I would have been happier about this if I had received permission to record her interview. Instead, I spent hours trying to make sense of my notes in order to cobble together a "transcript" of the interview.

Other than that, I am still obsessively reading political blogs and watching my job prospects slip away while I procrastinate from working on papers and post-doc applications. Good times.