trick or treat!

Happy Halloween!

My parents have the Zweeble, and what time did I get up? 7:30.

My plan for the day is to go out and take part in history (read: vote), shop a little, come home and do a little housekeeping, write, and then pack up and head to the parents' for Halloween fun!

I love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday. I say that every year--there are a lot of cyncial reasons why I love Halloween (relatively low-effort, don't have to deal with people I don't want to deal with), but I love dress-up, and I love candy, and I really love spooky, scary stuff. And this year, my son gets to go trick-or-treating (so I don't even have to buy candy). I have no idea how it will go--he may melt down, he may grin and start yelling "Trick treat!" and "Darth Vayyyder!" right away--but I think it will be fun, either way.

So, even if you're not really into Halloween, yourself, have a good day and eat some candy. I shall report on Darth Zweeble's Halloween misadventures this weekend.

Adventures in Voting, 2008

Took about an hour and fifteen minutes to vote, from the time I got in line until I walked out the door with my sticker. I stood in line next to this older gentleman (I was one of the youngest people in the line, aside from the baby in a stroller ahead of me), and we'd been chatting about polling places and voting in general off and on--I mostly read my book, and he really didn't seem too bothered not to chat--oh, and we both enjoyed the drama that ensued when they moved the line.*** So we're finally at the front of the line, then glance to the left, where the bulk of the line is, and then down the street, and then back along to the parking lot, and around the other side of the building ...

Holy cats, that's a lot of damn people on a Friday morning, waiting in line to vote!

I said, kind of without thinking, "You know, the wait time is a little annoying, but it's pretty awesome that this many people want to vote." And the two people in front of me, the guy next to me, and the three people behind us all agreed with me. :)

My quote of the day, though, came when we were inside the building, waiting to get our IDs scanned, and my friend from the line started inspecting the posters on the walls.

"I didn't know I had a voter's bill of rights," he said. "I thought the first one pretty much covered that."


***They shifted us so that we weren't blocking the entrance to the sleep clinic that's in the same building. But they wound up with two lines--twelve people were on the left side of the door to the polling place, and the rest of the line was to the right, then curving around along the access road back past the entrances. Which was fine with everyone, because we all knew the twelve people had been at the head of the line before, but then six or seven people got in line behind them. And this lady calls out, "Hey! We have line cutters!" So this little old dude, who was a volunteer polling person, had to shoo those people to the back of the line, at which point half of our line applauded. In the midst of this, the guy next to me asked, "You think there'll be a riot?"