But, it was only 4 and the polls were not yet open.
I went back to sleep.
By 6 a.m. I’m up again. Still too early to vote. I prepare for class and talk elections with various persons by phone. Including with someone who is hiding in England, waiting for this to be over. I feed her some horror scenarios, just to keep her on the toes and awake for the night ahead.
I don’t expect long lines at my polling place. Not at the time that I vote (after 9). It’s mostly seniors. The young working people (and students) are gone. Working.
Oh oh. My bike has a flat. No time to change it. I need to vote and get to class. I borrow a car.
At the polling place, the ones handing out ballots cannot spell my name even though I repeat it slowly six times. Then they can’t find my name at all. Even though I have already voted here once. Thankfully we can register on the day of elections. So I register AGAIN and wonder if next year there will be TWO Nina Camics on the log.
I vote, but not with one straight arrow – along my party line. That’s too fast. I need to savor the pleasure of connecting the arrow for my candidate.
I’m done.
On campus, it is a day of such exuberance! Of course. We are experiencing record highs. Temperature-wise (record breaking). Election-wise.
Purchase photo 2195
I get stickers slapped onto my shirt saying that I voted. I wear them happily – it is the unison of us voters that creates a winner. One act of voting doesn’t do it, but united in our voting effort we produce a winner. And so it is this moment of recognizing that our solitary act of casting a vote isn’t so solitary after all, we all did it, we with stickers saying so – I voted! – that gives the pleasure of accomplishing something as a group – of campus people, Madison people, Wisconsin people, Americans.
(No, I see no McCain supporters openly pushing their team today. Naderites - yes, though I found them to be, well, not really photogenic.)
I settle in for a long coffee and work my way through the rest of the afternoon until it’s time for class.
After, I hurry home, pick up some champagne and head over to the Sad Libs – a group with which I watched elections four years ago.
Today, young and old, we were on the hopeful end of things.
Not so sad right now. Hopeful and proud.
Yay. Wishe we were there. Delighted to see Steve came out of the bedroom. Good job everybody, sleep well.
ReplyDeleteI voted for John McCain because, although I am not involved in politics, we have been friends for over 25 years and I admire him immensely as a person. My vote was for John. It was not a vote against Barack Obama -- now President Elect Obama.
ReplyDeleteAnd I ask a rhetorical question: Can I and my fellow McCain voters, without embarrassment, feel proud of our country and shed a tear of patriotic joy about the historic significance of what just happened?
And I offer a short, rhetorical answer: Yes, we can.
Nina,
ReplyDeleteHaving you with our family on the night that we elected Barack Obama president made it all the sweeter. You are one of my all-time, most very favorite people in the whole world.
Love you, Anne
I'm with Julie - seeing the picture, I wish we had been there. It would have been fair payback for our nights in the figurative wilderness. I was thrilled to see The Mathematician out of the backroom and into the picture.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on your voter registration - perhaps a simple misspelling? I just tried to go to your blog on my new office computer and was informed that
ninacamcic.blogspot.com
was still available.
You're bookmarked now.