#391 for hope

Where I've been spending some of my time lately

I just got to work a little while ago after waiting for the gas guy to turn on my furnace, and then going to my voting place. I was #391 in my district of about 1,200 voters. There was only a short line, which I was a little bummed about.

My bummed-ness, though, evaporated as I took my long paper ballot into the little plastic booth. I marked straight-ticket democrat and voted yes on some appropriations for state road/utilities work. We had no big initiatives here like Prop 8 or whatever.

I haven't felt this good after voting since I cast a ballot (or truthfully, two ballots) for Ann Richards back in Texas. She won that election, buoyed no doubt by my votes in two counties--one where I was going to college and one in my hometown (took a fancy bit of driving to get them both in!).

Um--am I going to be arrested now? Hope not. It's over, right? She's passed away, rest her soul, so I'm okay, right?

Last night, I made some phone calls at the Obama HQ in town, organizing volunteers for canvassing shifts today. After work, I'm going for a drink with some fellow dems from work, then I'll go watch the returns with some other friends.

My mind can't help but go back to this day in 2004, when a bunch of us got together and were marking each state as it was called for red or blue. PA went blue for Kerry, and I started to think that we might really win--we might just kick that Chimpy asshole out of the White House before he could fuck up even more stuff. Then the first hints of the back-and-forth in Ohio started. We all looked at each other, and you could almost feel the air go out of the room. Ohio was going to be that year's Florida, complete with a crooked election official to make sure that the state went red.

the sky a few months ago--taken on my cellphone, so it's not too high-res

But I want to put that out of my mind today. I had tears in my eyes as I inserted my ballot into the counting thingie. Voter #391 -- for hope.