Election night adventures

Congrats, Obama!

Yesterday, I got to call in to the paper the precinct numbers of a neighboring county. It was a 30-minute drive to the courthouse where I was reporting from, and I got lost approximately four times on the way there. (Who builds their courthouse out in the middle of nowhere? With no signs?!)

The first precincts had already come in when I got there, so I was busy right from the get-go. Everything went without a hitch until the 18th precinct, which were the absentee ballots. Then all hell broke loose. The ballot machine stopped reading the sheets at the same time that they discovered hundreds of torn ballots that had to be duplicated. Luckily, I had a lot of reading to get done, so the six hours went by fairly quickly.

At 1 a.m., the final numbers came in, and I skeedaddled. Then, I got lost again on the way home.

Election Day!

Countdown!!!

Election Day is upon us! Only 4 days, 13 hours, 43 minutes, and 30 seconds to go.

In preparation for this tumultuous event, we've got:
Candidate finger puppets
Candidate Cabbage Patch dolls
Political pumpkin stencils
Palin as president...

I love the Internet.

Our secret weapon? Responsibility.

It's been interesting watching this economic mess unfold.

I feel like I'm sort of on the outside looking in. I haven't yet run out of gas trying to find a gas station that still has fuel in its tanks. I still get a paycheck every two weeks. I still go to the grocery store once a week and spend roughly the same amount of money. I'm living my normal life, and I think I'm in denial.

I realized I have to start making adjustments because things certainly aren't normal. Five gallons of gas cost me $24 today. Gas stations and convenience stores are devoid of any activity, like those abandoned 1940s gas stations that you find on old highways in Florida. In fact, the entire country feels like it's a little devoid of activity right now. At least for me, it's like we're all holding our breaths, just waiting to see what's going to happen. Maybe if we sit tight for a while - take a rain check on that camping trip, postpone buying that new lawn mower for another week or two - maybe then things will settle out and we can get back to normal.

Things aren't going to get back to normal.

We've got to stop waiting for someone else to step up, and we've got to start being responsible. We have to learn to say no to things we don't need. We have to respect each other. And we have to respect this country.