It's finally over...

If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these acceptance speeches there wouldn't be any inducement to go to heaven.

- Will Rogers

So, I voted early. A week ago today, to be exact.

Normally, I enjoy voting on Election Day. I find it exciting. But, then I got a letter from my precinct chair, Janis (who I got to know very well back in March), telling me that she didn’t want to see me on Election Day and to suck it up and vote early. So I did. Heaven forbid I disobey a direct order from Janis – that is one feisty, old woman. Plus, she lives around the corner, and I started to worry about what would happen if I ran into her before the election and hadn’t voted early. I didn’t want a lecture. And Haskell hates it when his walks are interrupted because I’ve stopped to talk to a neighbor. You’d think my lazy dog would be fine with it, and use the unexpected down time to take a cat nap on the sidewalk. But, no, no. Not Haskell. He pitches a fit, and starts squeaking incessantly and barking at me to MOVE. So, I guess in a way, I voted early to insure (to the best of my ability) that Haskell’s walks in the past week would be blissfully lecture and neighbor free. He’s got a lot of trees to pee on, after all.

Anyway, I guess I really should not have worried. Apparently, there were very few voting hang ups in Dallas County, and wait time was virtually nonexistent at many polling locations. And my particular precinct isn’t known for high voter turn out in the first place, so I probably would have been fine even if I had waited until yesterday to vote.

But voting early did have it’s perks. I got to vote electronically for the first time in my life, which was rather exciting. I’d take voting on a giant scantron any day, but it was nice to finally have the electronic experience. Additionally, having voting out of the way allowed me to do more pre party preparation (tidy up, order pizzas, pick up beer, shred the build up of credit card offers, etc.) for last night’s election return watching get together with the usual suspects.

Regardless of who you voted for, though, it was exciting to watch history being made (the first Black President or the first woman Vice President!). Milestones like that don’t happen every day.

Moo on her 98th Birthday

My grandmother, Moo, was born in 1910, and just celebrated her 98th birthday back in early September. She was born when William Taft was President - before Arizona was a state or zippers and the telephone had been invented. I mean, can you imagine? Moo has seen so much over the course of her lifetime: women’s suffrage, the burning of the Reichstag (she was in Berlin on a bus in the middle of a riot on the day it happened), two World Wars, the Great Depression, commercial air travel, lunar landings, the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the first women Governors, Senators and Supreme Court Justices – just to name a few. And now she’s alive to witness the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election. As a history dork, it just boggles my mind how much she’s seen over the course of her lifetime. It’s simply amazing.

One final note: Now that the election is over, all the political phone calls and TV ads will finally cease. At least for awhile, in any case. If that isn’t a happy thought, I don’t know what is! Happy Day AFTER Election Day, everyone!