OOOH! I am so excited about today, and also SO ANXIOUS. I had a dream last night that…um nevermind. We shant discuss it.

This is probably totaly illegal. SB was all reprimand-y about it. Hmph. It was just so exciting!

I feel like I didn’t get the whole experience because I didn’t have to wait more than a few minutes. But there was still QUITE a crowd as far as my cute little polling place is concerned. (Check out the deserted photos on my post from last November.) I don’t know what happened, by the way, but we got to vote there again. My county is one of only two left in the state where you can still go vote in person.

Check out this awesome yard. For the last election they had a toilet with a Bush mannequin coming out of it and a big sign that read, “FLUSH BUSH”. Let’s hope this year their gutsy display pays off! This particular yard is in an area that is probably more pro-McCain, so these folks deserve major props.

In Belly News, (Holy shit! Doesn’t it look HUGE?) tonight is our first Birth Class! Yay! Also, WTF?!?! Um… really? 6:30-8:30 PST? We are simultaneously excited for the class and crawling out of our skins. Those are two very key hours to be away from the election news IV drip. Pray for us.

***********

We got out of our class at 8:40 or so, and I immediately checked my text messages. There were all these, “WOO HOO”s and “Fuck Yeah”s. I said to SB, “I think he won already?” No. Way. We got in the car and turned on NPR and couldn’t believe what we were hearing.

We raced to the pub where some friends were meeting just in time for Obama’s acceptance speech. A couple of them yelled, “Your baby is going to be born into a much better world!”

It was so cool to be in a noisy pub, full of celebrating liberals, and to have it get silent for Obama’s speech. I’ll never forget it. It felt like we were all a part of history.

I’m going out now to buy a newspaper to frame the front page to hang in the baby’s room.

It’s a new day!

I’ve said it before, but I love my polling place. Sadly, as was reported in Sunday’s Tribune, yesterday was the last time I’ll ever get to use it.

I’m so sad! Sad, to lose my polling place, but also sad to lose the ceremony and ritual of voting. I like the official feeling of it all. Sitting at your kitchen table, filling out your ballot in spurts, eventually spilling something on it, does not on officious occasion make. Plus, I want my ‘I voted’ sticker, damn it.

So, yesterday, I took some scones to the poll ladies and thanked them for their service. I let them know how special it all was for me, how I loved that everything was exactly the same since the first time I voted there, way back in 1994. I also took some sneaky pictures for posterity’s sake. I wanted to document the whole thing more thoroughly, but I was afraid it would be against the law, or something.

Isn’t it so cute? It’s like walking into 1964 all of a sudden. The shiny floors and that yellow, gym-lighting are so charming and old time-y to me.

 ”…. Back in my day, kids, there was this giant official-feeling printed ballot, and we would use these always satisfyingly moist, and mysteriously capless pens to vote ‘No’ on stupid Tim Eyeman initiatives*.”

Farewell, dear Grange, nice old ladies, and always pleasurable civic duty. SB did say he’d rig me up some sort of voting booth in the house for the next one. I’m thinking the shower?

* Oh. Um. Hmmm. Well then.

Last summer, we visited my friend Peaches and her husband down in Sacramento, CA. Those two are certified CAPTAINS of the Green Team. He has an enviro-engineer-type job, and she was the one who first made me aware of all the awful chemicals and plastic-y yuckiness inherent in most baby toys and clothes. It was at their house that I first saw one of these:

Brilliant! Yet somehow intimidating. At first, I snickered a little to myself. Really? Washing and re-using ziplocks? I filed this away as another example of their uber-Green Team status and went along my merry way.

Then of course, I started noticing how often I use a ziplock for half a tomato and then throw it away, or for a handful of almonds, then toss it. My little green conscience started to bug me a little.

Then, I saw another one, at the home of K&A. Those two are definitely Green Team Lieutenants, or something. They even compost. I complimented their bag dryer and enquired where I might get one for myself, having decided that my Green Team Member status was in jeopardy by this point.

K got us one for our anniversary! Wasn’t that kickass of her?

The really fun part is asking people to guess what it is, when it doesn’t currently have a bag on it. I’ve heard something related to noodle making, as well as guesses involving knitting.

You can get one, too, right here. All the cool kids have one. 

It’s very old timey. Inside is a hall with shiny hardwood floors, yellowish lighting, and the requisite friendly old lady poll workers. When I’m finished and I’ve proudly applied my sticker, I always look around for some reason to stay a little longer. It’s very god bless america.

I feel something strange and fluttery and unfamiliar in my chest. Could it be hope? It occurs to me now just how politically defeated I’ve felt for so long. I didn’t believe this could really happen. I didn’t think it would be ALLOWED to happen.

Today was a good day.

Nancy Pelosi makes history and Brittney files for divorce.

CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?

Dude. Stop for a second and think how much it would have blown your mind if someone had told you this would happen 6 months ago.

A couple a months ago I applied to be a police department volunteer, to work at the new substation that was recently finished in my neighborhhod. My baby sister has recently become a police officer and I wanted to learn a little more about her scene. They’re planning to have the substations entirely run by volunteers, so I will work one shift a week and answer the phone and help people with reports and stuff. Neato, eh?

I applied, had an interview, and yesterday I had my training. It was held in the control room at headquarters, where they would manage a big crime. It looked just like on TV with white boards and flat screen TV’s everywhere and a huge screen that came out of the ceiling where they showed us how to work the computers.

Cop Shop
Originally uploaded by picture_ho.

It was a pretty interesting group of people*, mostly senior citizens. We spent AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES learning how to log in and out of our new email accounts. I am not kidding. I guess it is easy to forget that some people still have never even used a computer. They had to be shown how to click, (“no, don’t hold it down, just a quick tap”) and how to close a window (“see the red X in the corner of your screen?”). We practiced all together logging in…and then logging out, with successes followed by much applause.

At one point, this ancient lady with a loud, low smoker’s voice was getting all upset because it wouldn’t let her log in anymore. The trainer guy tried to explain to her that she had mis-entered her password three times and now she was locked out, but then she was more angry, like she was getting bad service or something. She kept arguing with him, “What do you mean I’m locked out, it says OK right there!”, thinking that the “you are locked out, OK?” button meant, “it’s all okay, this young feller is lying to you.”

Anywhoo, this should be interesting. Hopefully I will at least have some good stories to tell!

Snazzy New Polos
Originally uploaded by picture_ho.

* I have worked as a volunteer coordinator before, and the segment of the population that volunteers their time is for the most part, oh, a bit touched. Lots of crazies, lots of specials, and lots of old people, all with good intentions. Hmmm. What does this say about me?