I'm usually a blog-a-day-er. Lately, though, my time has been consumed with the upcoming election. My boss has an opponent for the first time in 12 years and it's exciting and scary all at the same time. It's exciting because this is the part of my job that I love. I love the strategizing of a campaign--the way a team pulls together and brainstorms. It's frightening because I could potentially lose the job I've had for nearly 10 years. All in a day's work, though, eh?

What has struck me about this campaign in particular is the way candidates are turning to the internet for nearly everything. Back in 1996, when I worked on a targeted Illinois State Senate campaign, no candidate in his/her right mind would have thought to keep a blog or a MySpace page (was it even around?). Now you're a political dinosaur if you don't have a PayPal account for fundraising. Just check out Hillary's page. She had to have contacted every teenager in the nation old enough to vote and have an opinion about what would make her look as hip as possible. She is on every social networking site imaginable plus she posts YouTube videos every day. How on earth does she find the time?

My campaign travels have not taken me very far yet, but everywhere I've gone I've taken my cameras and my GPS--much to the chagrin of my sleepy and battle-weary teammates. They've been great sports, letting me document and not making too many snide comments about me under their collective breath. I've always been "that guy", though. I'm the person that gets the multiple eye rolls when the camera comes out. I always figure that they'll thank me later!

This is a really cool view of Chicago City Hall from the building across the street.

And here is the map it produced with the GPS. This is so cool! I really wish I had the GPS on the trip up and down the California coast we took a couple of years ago. I still look at those pictures and ask myself where the heck we were. My husband's no help as he thought the pictures from the San Diego Zoo were from a Florida trip we took years before. Hmmm. . .no Giant Pandas in the Magic Kingdom. Well, I guess if they're animatronic. I digress. . .Here's the map: