 |
| Image credit: Photo by Anthony Cain on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons |
I'm glad the election here is over. I'm feeling a bit wiped out today. (Note to self: elections are exhausting, even when all you're doing is voting. This must be why the inauguration isn't until January; it makes for more effective government. If I were Obama, I'd have to sleep for the next 75 days straight, which is yet another reason I don't get to be president.)
Marla asked how voting went, and while it was not without incident, it went smoothly overall and both kids did get to (sort of) see me cast my vote for president. We arrived at our designated polling place (armed with snacks and a Nintendo DS) to find there was (thankfully) no line. However, a data entry error with my registration took some time to sort out and caused a line to back up behind me. In the meantime, the polling place was brimming with triggers for Austen, who was apprehensive about the new people, the voting equipment and the paperwork. (Buttons, with their potential to cause noises or sudden movements, have always been fraught with danger, and he has particular quirks about handwriting and letter formation that make it difficult to write or sign anything without causing him distress.) This led to me become frazzled enough to play my Nintendo DS trump card to buy some less interrupted negotiation time with the poll workers.
We managed to figure out what had gone wrong, and with ballot finally in hand, I headed to a polling booth, where I held Janie up so that she could see me cast my votes. Austen watched for a moment, then sat on the floor under a table, knees pulled tight to his chest, playing his DS and waiting. I handed my ballot back to a poll worker who gave us each and "I Voted" sticker, to the delight of the kids, who proudly smacked the stickers on their chests and the poll workers, who thought the kids were terribly cute.
As we drove home, the kids wanted to know who won and were disappointed to learn that we would have to wait for the polls to close around the country and the votes to be counted to find out. That evening, when the polls started to close, I pulled up a live electoral map on my computer and my kids excitedly watched as a few states turned red and blue, cheering when their chosen colors appeared. But they were off to bed well before the winner was announced. I stayed up, hunched in the dark living room to watch the concession and acceptance speeches and cried during both.
Today, after school, Janie said, "Some kids in my class said Obama won." And I said, "Yes, he did."
10 comments: