i voted!

i was going to get to tell a tale of slogging a mile and a half each way in the rain for the sake of exercising my right, but jesse happened to get off work early and loaned me his car. (he's still registered in california, so he voted absentee weeks ago.)

i took a photo when i got there. but (a) i don't have an SD card reader handy at the moment, and (b) the line of umbrellas outside in no way captures it -- inside, every bit of hallway in the little elementary school assigned as my polling location was lined up, complete with switchbacks in the final stretch through the cafeteria. two hours. there's a certain splendor in people being willing to hang out that long without even a roller coaster ride at the end, just a paper and a felt-tip marking pen. except for a little disgruntlement over the P-Z line running significantly faster than the others (fastest poll worker? dearth of smiths and thomases and williamses in the neighborhood? who knows...), people were incredibly cheerful over the whole thing, giving big rounds of applause whenever a first-time voter was announced.

yay for being in a swing state where nobody really knows how it's going to turn out. hoping to find someplace fun to watch the returns come in this evening...

and i'd like to make a big shout-out to the people working at the polls all day. my boss is among them, and he told us what a long day he's in for -- 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., plus however long it takes to get through the people lined up at 7.

i got up earlier than usual and didn't get my habitual snooze on the bus, so i may need the free starbucks before the day's out. happy election day, everybody!