It's the fourth quarter of the Superbowl. The Patriots lead the Giants by an unimpressive 7-3 in what appears to be one of the least interesting sports contests I've ever seen.
Not that it matters, because the sound on the small TV across the room is turned so low that it's impossible to hear over the clicking of keys and the ringing of phones.
I'm sitting in the Obama for America headquarters in Chicago, answering the new national hotline for voters who need help finding their polling places for Super Duper Tuesday or need other information about casting their votes on Feb. 5.
UPDATE: We all just broke out in applause when Plaxico made that catch, fyi. =P
Despite the fact that the Superbowl is well underway, there are about forty of us volunteers manning the phones (and one call coming in about every five minutes), I've already answered four calls and helped people in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and New Mexico find their polling places and learn what time the polls open and close.
I could be drinking myself sick and throwing beer caps at Tom Brady's head in a friend's warm apartment, but I'm actually quite happy to be here with my glass of water and cold deep dish pizza. Because I feel like three hours that I could've thrown away have been put to better use. And looking around at the other forty people in this room, people of all ages, men and women, white and black and Asian and Hispanic, students and retirees, I feel like I'm seeing Obama's words in action. Despite our different backgrounds and beliefs, we are all here, from 6 p.m. to midnight on Superbowl Sunday, while heavy snow swirls outside the window and the "big game" plays unnoticed on the tube.
I have to admit, if the Packers were playing, I wouldn't be here right now, and that realization makes me feel kind of ashamed. But, I am here. And even if I don't answer another call between now and midnight, I'll know that four people in hotly contested Super Tuesday states know where, when, and how to cast their votes, and it only cost six hours of my time.