Wife Like Me

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Yesterday Colin got home a little earlier than ususal so that I could go vote before the crowds started up at the polls.  Then he sent me to the polls alone while he watched the kids!  I don’t know how long it had been since I’d been anywhere totally alone, but it was the weirdest feeling to be in the car by myself and to not have to worry about the kids or load them in the car with me or get them out at my destination.

At my voting place I got the parking spot closest to the door with no effort at all, even though there were about a dozen cars in the very small parking lot besides mine.  I walked inside the building, which turned out to be the gym/basketball court of a church, and got in the A-K line.  I don’t know if A-K means first name or last name, but both of mine are in the A-K category so it was easy to figure out which line to be in.  There were only a couple of people in front of me in line, but there was no one in the L-Z line at all, and soon after I arrived about five more people arrived who also happened to be A-K voters.  Crazy, huh? 

The voting judge took my ID with no question, had me sign the voting book, and then sent me to “the gentleman on the end” to get my ballot.  The gentleman next to the end (I think he was the one handing out the Democrat ballots) started talking to me, but then when I told him I’d been told to see “the gentleman on the end” he chuckled in a kind of surprized way and pointed me to the gentleman who was really on the end who was handing out the Republican ballots.  The friendly old gentleman on the end asked me to sign for the ballot, and I noticed that every ballot was numbered and the number of the ballot is next to the signature spot.  I guess that’s to make sure that the person who takes the ballot is really there.  Before handing me the ballot, the gentleman on the end tore the perforated number off the ballot, I guess to maintain anonymity for me. 

Then I walked over to one of five empty voting boxes with my ballot.  It was just a sheet of paper with a lot more candidates on it than I knew were running and bubbles to fill in next to the one you want to vote for.  In the voting box there was a black ball-point pen to fill in the bubble and instructions on how to do it in case you were old enough to have never taken a bubble test in school.  I said a little prayer, asking God to stop me now if I was going to vote for a bad candidate and to inspire me over who would be best to vote for.  Then I filled in a bubble and took it over to the old gentleman next to the door who showed me how to feed my ballot into the scanner/ballot box and gave me an “I Voted” sticker.  I love those stickers and have been known to wear them for days after I vote.

This was the third type of voting procedure I’ve encountered in my voting life.  The first two were 1) the punch card system that made such a stink a few years ago in Florida, and 2) the touch-screen computer system.  I didn’t think any of them were hard and I felt confident that my vote would be counted in each case. 

After I left the voting place, proudly wearing my sticker, I called Colin to tell him I was done.  I felt this great sense of freedom at being alone and told him so.  He suggested that I go get my hair cut (he knows I love getting my hair cut) or something while he watched some movie about Hannukah on TV with the kids.  Hannukah reminded me of sugar-coated donuts, and Colin suggested that I go pick some up at the store.  In the back of my head I remembered that I was almost out of foundation and powder makeup and that I had a walmart gift card in my wallet from Christmas, so I decided to go take a trip to walmart in search of makeup and donuts. 

An hour after leaving the house, I got home with donuts and new makeup in hand and a great feeling of renewed optimism and energy.  I had a casserole ready to go in the oven for dinner, so I wasn’t worried about making a meal, and I had some fun new stuff to try.  The kids were happy and ready to eat, play, and go to bed.  Talk about luxury!  Colin quickly pointed out that he’s happy to do this every day if I want, and that I’m always the one who wants to do things together, and I said that maybe I’ll change my mind about all that now and take more time to be alone.  It was a good day. 

Tags: Marriage