I Suck At Getting Signatures

With the deadline to turn in the necessary paperwork for my bid to become an elected official quickly approaching, I spent yesterday getting signatures outside of the local public library. After all, I am running to be a trustee of the public library. Too bad I suck at getting signatures.

I must say, getting signatures to get placed on the ballot is definitely one of the worst parts about running for an elected position. I would say on a whole that the majority of the town where I reside is very friendly and helpful in signing my nomination papers. There are the occasional people who are downright rude and refuse to sign, but they are few and far between.

One man, with his ever hip sunglasses and sweat-stained shirt, simply bolted past me telling me to ask someone else who has the time. One cranky elderly woman snapped that she would not sign because she does not know enough about the candidates to sign. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the nomination papers were just so that I would get on the ballot and that it had nothing to do with endorsing me.

That said, I did have an interesting conversation with a woman who asked if I were for or against the public library. This woman was outraged over the recent attempts by the elected selectmen's attempt to outsource the library to another town. For anyone curious, a huge number of residents opposed the outsourcing attempt. It turns out, none of the elected selectmen use, or have ever stepped foot in, the public library, which sort of reminds me of Marie Antoinette and her out of touch "Let them eat cake" quote. (By the way, the position of trustee for the library is... for the library. Hence, "trust".)

Anyway, I was able to collect enough signatures yesterday to be on the ballot, thanks in part to Genevieve Davis, who is running for state senate. Turns out, the library is a hot spot for getting signatures for nomination papers. Genevieve came along shortly after I was getting signatures and she definitely made my job a lot easier when she came.

Ever the politician, she attempted to greet everyone with a nice handshake. And once she got her signatures, she passed the respective person off to me. It definitely made my job easier because most of the screening was already done for me. For anyone curious, I had to get signatures from Norwell voters for my nomination papers. Genevieve had to get a more specific subset: Norwell voters who were not Republican. Thanks Genevieve! And as an interesting side note, I learned that Norwell is primarily a Republican town. (Genevieve and I had a lot of time to bond together.)

Anyway, it was an interesting time at the library getting signatures. Following my little library excursion, my BFF (Kerry) came down for a visit. As always, it was good to see Kerry. She brought our two year old daughter (Briana) a little present for her birthday, which Karen seems to enjoy more than Briana. The present was a stuffed animal in the form of a giant carrot. Karen is a dietitian, so it makes sense that she would enjoy the carrot. Even though Briana has warmed up to the carrot, I wouldn't be surprised if Karen took the carrot for her own.

Like I said, it was great to see Kerry. Among the topics of conversation that I remember which came up were her first time home buyer class, her apartment, and going out to the movies. I remember the latter because it has been a long time since either of us went out to watch an actual movie in the theaters.

From there, the night essentially ended with a visit from my friend (Hot Amy) and her husband (Mark). Hot Amy and Mark came to meet our newest daughter (Bridget). I had not seen them since they had invited us, along with our friends (Dolores and Tom) to their place the month before. Some of the topics of discussion that came up were wedding anniversary gifts by year (like how the first year is paper), Facebook, and their plans for their first anniversary.

All in all, it was a good day.