Things Change Pretty Quick

A little over 2 months ago I announced I was leaving Deloitte and the consulting world in order to head overseas and serve in the Peace Corps; I discussed my passion and desire to serve other people abroad, including the awesome opportunity to deliver knowledge I had acquired here in the States to the far reaches of the world.  My hope was to teach them even one thing that would allow them to grow, prosper and, hopefully, pull themselves out of the cycle of minimal sustenance and instead increase their standard of living.  

The Peace Corps was a part of a larger plan - a chance to live and work abroad, return to earn a masters degree and then, hopefully, head to Washington, D.C. to work on policy.  Several of you who know me well understand that I have always had a passion for politics and wanted to be involved on a deeper level; The Peace Corps was an opportunity to get me to that point.

Before departing for my service overseas I headed to Madison, Wisconsin to work on a Senate race for former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.  I knew I was interested in getting involved in politics upon my return so I wanted to get a taste of what would be required before I left to see if I could be successful.  Little did I know my time in Madison would turn into a full time offer to stay on the campaign.  

Over the past two months I've worked to organize several grass roots events and handle other responsibilities across the campaign.  I've developed a strong relationship with everyone involved here.  Due to this strong relationships and the work I was doing, two weeks ago I received an offer from the campaign to stay on full time through the end of the election.  While there is some uncertainty inherent in any political race, I know this is an opportunity that only comes along once in a lifetime.  As of Monday, March 19th I accepted the offer to remain on the campaign full time.  I will continue to live in Madison until the election, working out of our office here.  

This was not an easy decision, and all of you know me well enough to know I considered the Pros and Cons of the issue at least 12 different ways.  At the end of the day, however, the benefits and potential of staying here to work on the campaign outweighed my perceived benefits of ending what I had here and moving on to the Peace Corps.  While I am sure I will miss out on a fantastic personal opportunity in Georgia, the leap I will make here on the campaign will be just as huge.

Thank you to all of you I talked with over the past few days - I appreciate your help and support and it is very reassuring to have such a great group of friends and family behind me.  

For those of you I haven't had a chance to speak with yet, please don't take it personal.  I have been busy here and put in several miles this past weekend all across the state of Wisconsin so I haven't had much time to actually call everyone.


Not sure what I will do with this page now that I'm not going anymore, but we'll see.


Hope you enjoyed it,


J

Hold off on planning to come to the party

Update coming soon - but don't show up that night.

10 reasons you should come party on April 20th

Background - Bryan and Jacob put a bug in my ear about having a party before I left.  This is the result of those discussions.  It'll be April 20th from 7:00 PM until whenever we go home at Uptown Pub (3605 McKinney Avenue  Dallas, TX 75204).  


If you're reading this, you're invited.  Show up.  No need to bring anything but yourself and some friends.

April 20th.

Uptown Pub.

7:00 PM.

Now the fun part - 

10 reasons you should come party on April 20th:

10. It will be a good chance to see everyone you haven't seen in awhile.

9. You get a chance to go to Uptown Pub - seriously overlooked and overshadowed by all the douch-y bars nearby.  But it's not douch-y.  Just surrounded by douche.

8. You can do shots again, several of them, and not feel guilty.  You're just helping me train for Georgian Supras (all night drinking / social gatherings)

7. We can go to the loon afterwards and laugh at SMU undergrads (and maybe a few grad students too).  

6. You can ask fun questions about Georgian language and culture and what I'll be doing and blah blah blah blah - I know you quit listening.

5. Cougars tend to prowl around Uptown, especially Lemmon bar.  I'm not saying you're interested . . . but they probably are.

4. You can make all kinds of jokes about me going to Georgia the state (Chik fil A, sweet Tea, Deliverance, Sherman's march to the sea) instead of Georgia the country.

3. You can tell me how you really feel and NEVER have to see me again.  Seriously - Love, hate, spite - its all fair game. 

(except for you, Mom and Dad - save it for dinner the next night).

2. You can tell the stories I swore you to secrecy about.  Just know that Stalin was from Georgia, so I may learn a thing or two and come back for you.

And the number one reason you should come to the party on April 20th at Uptown Pub is . . . 

You're 26-29 years old.  You may or may not be married.  You may or may not have a kid.  You may or may not need an excuse to drink and get out of the house AND you can still be home by a reasonable hour so you can wake up the next morning and clean the garage or plant flowers or whatever it is grownups are supposed to do.  Just come say hi and have a drink.

(read #1 and realized it made me sound old.  Shit.)


In all seriousness - I would love to see everyone that could make it.

April 20th.  Uptown Pub. 7:00 PM

Seeing Wisconsin

Note: My apologies, this is another lazy post.  15 hours on the road yesterday and another trip today means very little time to write anything extensive. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have a party invite I can send out to all of you with location, timing, reasons to come, etc.


After 8 weeks here and only a few weeks left I wanted to try to quantify exactly how many miles I had spent on the road with Gov. Thompson.  At last count it falls somewhere between 2800 and 3000.  That is a hell of a lot of time in the car.  I've been tracking cities for another (unrelated) reason, so below is what you get when you plug all of them in.  

Lake Superior.  Seriously, we were that far north.

As I've said before, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of awesome people and had a chance to learn a lot.  Maybe someday I'll put something up about it what exactly it is we do on the road, but not tonight.  Instead I'll let you look at the map while I catch some sleep before we get on the road again tomorrow.  In the meantime just know that the point at the northern part of the map is really frigging far up there (5 hour trip, one way) and there is NOTHING up there aside from some really good people, a lot of snow (still), a lot of trees and a bunch of snowmobiles (seriously, they're everywhere, it's amazing.  They use them for daily commutes, errands, etc.  Biggest disappointment of my time in Wisconsin - no snowmobiling).



View Campaign Stops in a larger map


Hope you enjoyed it.


J

Staging / Training / What the hell you pack for 2 years

Several of you have been asking what I plan to pack and what training will be like.  Obviously I don't know a ton about it (yet), but Peace Corps Georgia has set me up with a current in-country volunteer, Gus, who is giving me a heads up about what to expect.


Staging - Staging is April 23rd in Philly.  From what I've learned you're in your staging city for all of 48 hours and it is really just a chance to a.) meet everyone b.) make sure they have control of you so you don't miss your flight the next day and c.) give you a chance to go drink one last time on American soil to make sure it lasts you the 2 years you'll be gone.


Orientation - Once I actually get to Georgia we will be in a hotel for the first 3 days before we move into our training village of Telavi.  Apparently we get met at the airport by some of the local media, so if you hear of an international incident caused by an American make sure to turn on the news that night to see if it was me.  After the airport we head to a good restaurant to have a nice (Georgian) dinner before heading to the hotel.  I've been primed to expect the next 3 days to be filled with a lot of training covering safety, security, transportation, the culture and the host families.  Oh and shots.  Not the drinking kind, but any vaccines we may need in country that we havent already received.

More on training after the jump

Madison vs. Austin - An objectively biased comparison

Note: I've queued up a few different posts in case I wasn't able to put a new post up due to work. After putting in 15 hours and 500 miles yesterday I decided now would be a good time to run one.  Sorry for being lazy.-JM


After I made plans to move to Madison, I kept hearing how much Madison was like Austin.  For those of you not from not familiar with the great city on Lady Bird Lake, you're missing out.  All the live music you can handle, more bars than some small european countries, killer barbecue and texmex, texas university, the Texas State Capitol; you get the idea.  And that doesn't even include the lakes, or the hiking, or the hill country just outside of town.  So needless to say, Madison had a lot to live up to before I even got here. 


Both have great reputations as judged by people who spend a lot more time writing about these things than I do (GQ, Mens Health and Esquire), but I wanted to at least take a stab at it on my own after the greatness Madison has shown me so far.

Without further ado - Texans vs. Sconnies

Round 1: State Capitol and <more> liberal outpost than the rest of the state. 


Both of these cities have there fair share of liberals (not passing judgement - just saying).  But Madison?  Holy hell.  Blows Austin out of the water.  Austin-ites don't hold a candle to some of the people up here I have met.  But when compared to the rest of the state, Austin/Texas and Madison/Wisconsin is pretty close.  
Don't forget though, the Texas Capitol is taller.  Those 24 feet make a difference.


Round 1: Austin

Round 2: College campus


Obviously they both meet this one.  But I definitely prefer UW to texas (the university, not the state).


Round 2: Madison


Round 3:  Raunchy, reckless strips of bars (aka State Street vs. 6th Street)

64 days left

Several of you have asked what I am planning to do before I leave for Georgia, so instead of pumping out another 1500 words on Madison politics (and having my sister send me a critique about begin insensitive to members of the public unions here in Madison) I thought I would publish my plans.  I am trying to see as many people as possible and am definitely open to any invitations people send my way, so if you have an idea, please shoot it my way.  


More after the jump (and there is a party invite too - keep reading).