Dreams of Europe

My travels to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sanury Sur Mer, Paris, Munich, Prague, Budapest, Vienna and Berlin were the stuff dreams are made of.  

Literally.  I frequently, travel the streets of Barcelona, the parks of Paris, the U-Bahn of Berlin in my day dreams.  In my head I can look out on the Meditteranean from the teleferic, peek in the cathedrals in Budapest, I taste the paella with fish fresh from the marketplace.

It was my decision to come back and I think I made the right one.  There's too much work to do in America right now.  No more letting vacation days go to waste though!  I'm on a crusade to work hard and play hard.  Playing hard used to be limited to the Friday all-night parties in slummy apartments in South East DC.

Now playing hard will mean hopping on a Chinatown bus to NYC, jetsetting to the Baltics and exploring the National Parks of New England.

For now, I'm living the not-so-glamorous life of a community organizer.  Yes, I do have real responsibility.  I'm overseeing Community Voters Project offices in Virginia bringing minorities into the political process by registering them to vote.  

It's not quite as thrilling as 3 months traipse around Europe.  It's not as beautiful.  It's not foreign.  It's strip malls, projects, hour long bus rides to get anywhere and many ignorant confederate flag wearing folks.

But it's important.  Virginia is looking to be the battle ground state of the year.  The only state shown in a deadheat-- 45% to 45%.   It's no wonder.  The economy here is crappy, people have certainly woken up to that.  Northern Virginia is filling with liberals pushed out of the DC housing market who like the looks of cities like Arlington and Alexandria.  And the last wild card is the 20.4% African American population.

But don't feel all that bad for me, there are beaches here.