Democracy

Democracy - it's a nerve-wracking process.

Today, I exercised my right to vote. I got up a little earlier than usual, got myself out of the house about a half hour early, and was at the polling place before it opened (at 6 a.m.). I stood in the line that spiraled around a basketball court (I vote at an elementary school) and knit. After 40 minutes or so, I got to skip the last 30-some feet of the line because they were looking for people with last names at the end of the alphabet (sometimes it works out well to be a W). And then I cast my vote. It amazes me that my government trusts its citizens enough to let us pick the leaders. I feel empowered. Now, all I have to do is sit and wait patiently to learn how the rest of the citizenry voted. While I'm not considering moving to Canada, I am anxious about the outcome. Patience may be a virtue, but it isn't one I have a great deal of at the moment.

Right now, I should be asleep or doing homework. (In my defense, I did do one problem and started to look at a second, and there are only three in the assignment, which isn't due until next week anyway.) But this is what I am actually doing (well, technically, right now I'm blogging, but you know what I mean):


Knitting on the Koolhaas hat that I started Sunday night and, in between stitches, hopping madly from site to site to see how the election's turning out. (You may think that it would be easier to just pick a station or two and listen to/watch the coverage, and you would be right, except for the fact that I don't own a TV.) I'd pick just one, but they are all using different guidelines for calling the states and their associated electoral votes. The knitting is, I think, the only thing keeping me from going crazy as I wait and watch...

I kind of hope it ends soon so I can go to bed.