What a day

Wow, what a day it has been! John woke me up early to go vote. Amazingly when we got there (around ~9AM) there was no line and we did not have to wait to vote. I was able to use an electronic voting machine for the first time, and I thought it went very quickly. I was AMAZED at the number of presidential candidates on the ballot! 10 that I had never even heard of! It was crazy! Why do the media not cover these other parties?!?!?! It drives me nuts! I would have loved to hear who else was running. Why is everyone so dead set on always just having TWO major parties? It is madness!!! I had never even heard of some of these parties (Boston Tea Party, HeartQuake08, Constitutional party....). This really bothers me.

And then it happened. I was wearing an old "Vote Nader" button that said "Stop War" (Nader was smart enough to not bother putting a year on his buttons, I got this one in 2000). One of the election workers told me I could not wear it. Bewildered, I took it off and got on with my voting. Afterwards I asked her why I could not wear it and she said it had to do with something called "electioneering" which I had never heard of. When I asked her why they had let another woman voting in the room when I was wear her "NObama" shirt, she swore she did not see it. This kind of bothered me that she saw my small pin that only said "Stop War" but did not see this woman's mean shirt, and it was not a small woman or a small shirt. Grrrr.....

To add to the fun of the day, Mr. McCain decided to stop in our lovely town this morning. I thought it seemed a bit late to try to get more votes, but whatever. They (Republican Party, including Ms. Palin) called me 4, yes FOUR, times today!! Not a single call from the Democrats. But anyway, it is no secret that I am not a fan of their (McCain/Palin) campaign. And, as is traditional for me, I needed to protest this election. Since Ms. Palin had scheduled her visit when I was out of town, Mr. McCain was nice enough to give me my one last opportunity for the next four years. So down I went to the airport where the rally was being held with my sign in hand. There were cops everywhere and the sneaky suckers held their rally on private property at the airport, with no "Public" space for protesting to be had, so I moved my one-person-protest down the street to the sidewalk where I knew I would be safe from law enforcement pickiness. It was also a good spot because every single person that went to that rally had to drive by me. My "I Vote With My Brain, Not With My Gender" sign got alot of smiles, thumbs up's and laughs, with one person even telling me "Finally! And intelligent sign!" (which I appreciated). Unfortunately, the other side of my sign, which said "Stop War" with a big peace sign was only met with frowns, laughs and thumbs down. Mind you most of the negativity was from men in large trucks, but still, who is FOR WAR. That is just sad and nuts!! This was probably the most disappointing part of the day (almost, see below). It was so windy I thought I was goingt o loose the sign a time or tow an dmy fingers hurt pretty bad, but it was worth it.

I was a bit disappointed that no one else had turned out to protest his visit. I did finally meet some college students, but they were risking the cops up near the rally, and I was not willing to do that (today lol). After I had been standing by myself for about an hour and a half a family of Obama supporters joined me, and then two high school girls playing hooky. Up till this point everyone had been relatively polite in their jesters and comments. Once the Obama supporters showed up we were getting yelled at, the finger left and right (and in front of kids who were with us even) and TWO different people yelled at us the Obama is an "N" word! That just appalled me. I thought I had left the South, but I guess people are ignorant and small minded where ever you go :(

Once Mr. McCain arrived, I left for my "job" and spend the rest of the day playing with resin and clay. We are now just waiting to see what happens. I hope this one does not turn into a 'flustercuck' like 2000.I guess we shall see.

*UPDATE* While writing this, history has just happened. And I can’t believe it. Part of me is afraid to believe it is true and that this will just get drug out for many more months. But here I am, on my couch, listening to Mr. McCain let it be. It’s Amazing!!! This country has its first ethnic president. I am amazed. Wow. I really did not think this would happen to my lifetime, but this is pretty cool! Poor Obama is inheriting a mess to clean up. I hope he can make these next 4 years better than the last 8!!

Congrats Obama!!