obligatory post about election day
I never wake up before 8am these days, mostly because I never go to bed before 2am. A problem, to be sure, since I'm supposed to clock in at 8:30 and not fall asleep at my desk, two problems I'm still struggling to overcome. This morning, with prompting from only one of my three alarm clocks (a triangulation of alarms, all set to different times, in a domino pattern is about the only way I can wake up and stay that way), I woke up, threw on the same clothes I wore last night and shambled up the block to the church where my vote was to be cast.
I got there around 7 something and waited in line with my neighbors, waiting for the older than old poll workers, from the lady who sat taking ballots, precariously close to hacking up a lung to the row of people at the tables, taking their sweet time about it all. By the time I got up there and proved my identity and got my ballot, I was gonna vote the shit out of it. As I slid my hoo ha into the doo wah, Kelly Sue walks into the booth next to me and then Matt walks over to his booth. Tandem voting. Team Voting. It was all very thrilling, giddy like school, exacerbated by being in a church, home of the sacrosanct and the quiet.
I was tempted to cheat, ask KS who I should be voting for in the judges category, a section that always baffles me. Instead I just voted Yes to keep them, since the one judge who I knew of was in need of a Yes vote, I figured everyone else was probably on the same page. A frightening way to conduct the voting process, but I'll take it. I turn in my ballot, I get my little sticker and I'm outside, where the line has grown out the door, down the stairs and onto the sidewalk, flanked by a MoveOn table and someone from the Taxpayers Something or Other handing out pamphlets, telling people who to vote for. There was a dog calmly tied to a tree, more people coming, trying to find parking on an already crowded street and it wasn't even 8am.
I didn't vote in 2000, because I had just moved here and hadn't logged enough days to register here and didn't get the absentee vote thing sussed out. So I decided to ignore the campaign entirely. I went from work, which was probably temping at Blue Cross/Blue Shield at that point (a job that would just a week or so later have an anthrax scare well before white powder in the mail was the punchline it is now) to the Fine Arts theatre to see I Stand Alone, a bitter pill of nihilism that seemed a nice counterpoint to the false optimism shared by both sides. I came home, I read, I ignored the TV, told people not to talk about it with me. The plan was to "ignore the elections entirely and I'll just wake up and know who the new President is." That didn't work out so well.
So, vote cast, sticker firmly on my chest, I rewarded myself with one of those crack-like bottles of frappucino coffee and listened to AM talk radio as I got ready for work, feeling just a tad bit hopeful. It's alright to feel that way, yeah?
So, for the 5 people reading this who haven't voted. Maybe you should. Vinny did, Matt did, Kelly Sue did. Laurenn is excited as I am. Harold is hopeful. And not only did Timmy vote, but he is passing around an mp3 with this picture he cooked up in honor of two great American traditions, Ray Charles and Voting, attached:
And as icing, I'm posting the greatest version of The Star Spangled Banner and the greatest version of America (The Beautiful) ever recorded. If these don't get you shagging ass to go vote or at least inspire a slight groundswell of patriotism, well, then, you're not very patriotic. And that's okay (but not really):
Ray Charles - America (The Beautiful)
Marvin Gaye - The Star Spangled Banner
go kerry
Posted by xtop at November 2, 2004 12:55 PM
