11.04.2008

1.21 gigawatts

[note - tomorrow is going to be hectic so I'll just go ahead and future post tomorrow's blog entry today]

Whew!  I'm so glad Obama won.  I was nervous for a while considering how certain I was during the last election that there would be no WAY the Republicans would win.  But now we have a new president in the wings and hopefully a bright future ahead of us.  

Election Day was hectic.  Up at 6 a.m. to shower, eat, and get the kids packed up for their flu shots/mist.  ZP lucked out and only had to have a little spray in his nose.  Poor AP had to have a needle jabbed in her tiny chubby thigh and after a slight delay, she let her displeasure be known to the entire office.  After passing by the polling center (which is literally right behind our house) and seeing a slightly smaller line of voters, we dropped the kids off at home and I ran off to vote while TP, anxious about getting to work first, decided to vote later.  

When I arrived at 10:15, I saw that the cluster of people outside were actually not voters at all but last minute advocates for the candidates.  I called TP to come quickly because the line was actually only about 30 people deep.  I had barely hung up the phone and opened my book when TP appeared behind me.  A woman came down the line calling out, "Anyone K through R?  Anyone S through Z?  Come on up."  Apparently the "A through J" folks were behind on their game.  I was STILL standing in line when TP (with his fancy pants "P" surname) ran in, voted, and whizzed by.  Why didn't I change my last name?!  (interro-at-least-I-can-share-our-President's-name!).  Eventually, I was permitted to enter, get my "I voted" sticker, and leave.  The whole affair took about half an hour.  I grabbed an everything bagel from Tryst, a free coffee from Starbucks (which I split with Tia), and ran upstairs to work (i.e. stare at the intense yellow and red leaves in my backyard).  

How was your experience?  And answer this for me:  I have a theory that the "A to K" line was so long because as children, we folks with surnames towards the beginning of the alphabet were used to having to go first, stand at the front of the line, be called on before anyone else.  The kids with surnames in the rest of the lower 15 letters were used to going in later.  That's why the "A to K" line was long in the morning and, theoretically, the "K to Z" lines will be longer in the afternoon/evening.  So where does your name fall and what time did you vote?

5 comments:

Ayesha said...

i always had to stay the end of line.... no matter what the criteria was.
In school.. it was height and i was always the tallest one.
and in university... it was last name. "Z" always helped me. BAH!

about voting..i no nothing.. i was glued to TV. and now i am doing my happy dance...

as javed says.. Obama MuBarcak :D

baj said...

ahaha, eid muBARACK!

so do you show up early to events or are you perpetually late?

Anonymous said...

Man, when i was submitting my ballot, there was no even there. In fact I believe I was the first one there that morning, at the mailbox, 3 weeks ago when I submitted my ballot.

baj said...

oof, that's the way i need to do it next time. my parents did that (in case they didn't return from pakistan in time) and it was easy peasy. then again, the dude in front of me in line said that he thinks the DC rules are more strict in requiring proof that you really can't come to the polls. i'll have to look into it. in three point twenty one gigawatts years.

Chantale said...

Aly and I had the same different last names /line thing. O was in the A-J he was in the K-Z and tho we got there togethere he voted a good 10 minutes before me! our process took about an hour