Playing catch-up.
Man, I was out of it yesterday, I don't remember a thing! I tried reading, but my head was pounding. That's all I got.
Today, though. I got up super-early on my own for no reason at all, got my exercise out of the way, and headed out to vote. That was an adventure. The elementary school where I vote is a short walk from home. That was the only part that went relatively smoothly! When I got inside the building, there were a whole lot of people there. That's fine: I expected there to be some displaced voters, and I had to wait on a line when one of the staffers asked me which district I was in. No big deal, I've always gotta wait on a line.
The process is usually checking my district at the info desk (because I'm paranoid even though it's easy to remember), going to the district table to sign in and get my ballot, filling out my ballot at a table, and scanning it at a machine. Usually takes about ten minutes, and in the middle of the day, it shouldn't be too crowded. NOPE, not this time!
The biggest problem there wasn't waiting on the line itself, because it seemed to move quickly, but this one random dude standing near the entrance of the building, and inside, saying stuff like "this is Barack headquarters" and "you can vote for Romney at the gas station" which I'm pretty sure counts as electioneering and is kind of illegal. I know that pretty much everyone in my neighborhood is going to vote for President Obama -- and even if they don't, he'll take New York anyway -- but that's not the point. No one was calling this guy out and even the people who worked there didn't seem to care about this random dude loitering.
So I get all the way up to the info table, and I give the woman sitting there my ID. "I can't read that," she said snippily, "tell me your address." So I told her, and she proceeded to look my address up in a book with print about the same size as what was on my driver's license. Um? She told me I was in District 40, which is cool and all, but I've been in District 29 since before I even started voting. Are you sure? Why did it change? When did it change? Why didn't I receive notice?! She just told me to go to District 40. Augh.
Weaving through the lines of people to get to the table for District 40 (and very confused because I know it's 29: it's coincidentally the same as the Public School district, which makes it easy to remember), I couldn't help but notice that the voting tables were set up really haphazardly. Some of them were in rows and open to a wall, but a lot of them were out in the open, placed at odd angles, and the way the lines for scanners and districts were snaking around, it wasn't all that difficult to look over someone's shoulder if you wanted to.
The district table went smoothly, at least: there was a young woman sitting there who helped me and gave me my ballot, and I know how voting works already so I didn't have to ask questions (and that went smoothly so I didn't want to). Then I had to find the end of the scanner line, which was pretty long. I've never waited so long, and when I got to the front, I found part of the reason why: one of the dudes standing near the scanners -- to help people with them if they needed it -- was sitting there just chatting with one of the voters (who was probably a friend or neighbor but that's not the point) when there was a long line of people who needed to scan their ballots. It's not rocket science to scan them, but we have index cards, too, that are supposed to be marked with the machines we use and then collected and returned to the district tables, so the staff has to pay attention, and this guy was NOT.
The other reason the line was so long? There were five scanners and two were broken. Great! So do those votes count? What if the machine I use breaks, will my vote count?! It's terrifying to think of!
And the guy right in front of me in line was on the scanner line without even having filled out his ballot, and I know this because it was outside of the envelopes we're supposed to carry them in and he was just waving his around. Are... are you serious? You're really doing that. Wow, okay. He got out of line to fill out his ballot, then got back in line in front of me and I couldn't be bothered to raise my voice, I was so mentally exhausted.
Once my ballot was scanned, I was free, but shit. I'd've taken pictures or video of all that was screwed up and done a proper political blog post, but my phone was dying and wouldn't let me use the camera function. ;A; It was a nightmare, though. I'm just glad that's over.
With that done, I came back home and talked to Theresa for a little bit. She'd also already gone to vote, and though she asked yesterday that no one talk to her about the election today, our conversation kept weaving in and out of it.
Fired up my game of PKMN which I can't seem to progress in to save my life. I just started running around hoping for shitty battles where I would one-hit KO wild PKMN and earn 30 XP to level up my party super-slowly and maybe, possibly, eventually defeat the next gym leader sometime before I'm 40. So... why were characters running at me? Holy shit, have I never been this way before?! sldkjfl I'm an idiot. So I'm doing that now. I'd like to get past this freakin' gym, please and thank you.
Dinner tonight was mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a thick salmon steak. TOO MUCH FOOD. I'm happy I'm getting used to eating less, but salmon you were delicious and I want you in my stomach. :( I want to eat youuuu. And these blueberries. And drink this teeeea.
More hockey talks today, but no news. The Winter Classic was cancelled a while ago, and that was my one hope for the season. As much as I don't want to admit it, I really don't think we're gonna have one this winter.
In happier sports news, R. A. Dickey was named the National League Outstanding Pitcher this year! :D I'll be heartbroken if he doesn't get the Cy Young next week (and more heartbroken if the Mets deal him away). Hope he's recovering from his surgery well. And to drag the Mets back down to where they belong, Lucas Duda had surgery on his wrist today: he injured it moving furniture. *facepalm* My team.
Aaaaand I think we're done here. Gonna finish up that salmon, now that I can. :V (What's "portion control"? No, really, it's not that much.)
Today, though. I got up super-early on my own for no reason at all, got my exercise out of the way, and headed out to vote. That was an adventure. The elementary school where I vote is a short walk from home. That was the only part that went relatively smoothly! When I got inside the building, there were a whole lot of people there. That's fine: I expected there to be some displaced voters, and I had to wait on a line when one of the staffers asked me which district I was in. No big deal, I've always gotta wait on a line.
The process is usually checking my district at the info desk (because I'm paranoid even though it's easy to remember), going to the district table to sign in and get my ballot, filling out my ballot at a table, and scanning it at a machine. Usually takes about ten minutes, and in the middle of the day, it shouldn't be too crowded. NOPE, not this time!
The biggest problem there wasn't waiting on the line itself, because it seemed to move quickly, but this one random dude standing near the entrance of the building, and inside, saying stuff like "this is Barack headquarters" and "you can vote for Romney at the gas station" which I'm pretty sure counts as electioneering and is kind of illegal. I know that pretty much everyone in my neighborhood is going to vote for President Obama -- and even if they don't, he'll take New York anyway -- but that's not the point. No one was calling this guy out and even the people who worked there didn't seem to care about this random dude loitering.
So I get all the way up to the info table, and I give the woman sitting there my ID. "I can't read that," she said snippily, "tell me your address." So I told her, and she proceeded to look my address up in a book with print about the same size as what was on my driver's license. Um? She told me I was in District 40, which is cool and all, but I've been in District 29 since before I even started voting. Are you sure? Why did it change? When did it change? Why didn't I receive notice?! She just told me to go to District 40. Augh.
Weaving through the lines of people to get to the table for District 40 (and very confused because I know it's 29: it's coincidentally the same as the Public School district, which makes it easy to remember), I couldn't help but notice that the voting tables were set up really haphazardly. Some of them were in rows and open to a wall, but a lot of them were out in the open, placed at odd angles, and the way the lines for scanners and districts were snaking around, it wasn't all that difficult to look over someone's shoulder if you wanted to.
The district table went smoothly, at least: there was a young woman sitting there who helped me and gave me my ballot, and I know how voting works already so I didn't have to ask questions (and that went smoothly so I didn't want to). Then I had to find the end of the scanner line, which was pretty long. I've never waited so long, and when I got to the front, I found part of the reason why: one of the dudes standing near the scanners -- to help people with them if they needed it -- was sitting there just chatting with one of the voters (who was probably a friend or neighbor but that's not the point) when there was a long line of people who needed to scan their ballots. It's not rocket science to scan them, but we have index cards, too, that are supposed to be marked with the machines we use and then collected and returned to the district tables, so the staff has to pay attention, and this guy was NOT.
The other reason the line was so long? There were five scanners and two were broken. Great! So do those votes count? What if the machine I use breaks, will my vote count?! It's terrifying to think of!
And the guy right in front of me in line was on the scanner line without even having filled out his ballot, and I know this because it was outside of the envelopes we're supposed to carry them in and he was just waving his around. Are... are you serious? You're really doing that. Wow, okay. He got out of line to fill out his ballot, then got back in line in front of me and I couldn't be bothered to raise my voice, I was so mentally exhausted.
Once my ballot was scanned, I was free, but shit. I'd've taken pictures or video of all that was screwed up and done a proper political blog post, but my phone was dying and wouldn't let me use the camera function. ;A; It was a nightmare, though. I'm just glad that's over.
With that done, I came back home and talked to Theresa for a little bit. She'd also already gone to vote, and though she asked yesterday that no one talk to her about the election today, our conversation kept weaving in and out of it.
Fired up my game of PKMN which I can't seem to progress in to save my life. I just started running around hoping for shitty battles where I would one-hit KO wild PKMN and earn 30 XP to level up my party super-slowly and maybe, possibly, eventually defeat the next gym leader sometime before I'm 40. So... why were characters running at me? Holy shit, have I never been this way before?! sldkjfl I'm an idiot. So I'm doing that now. I'd like to get past this freakin' gym, please and thank you.
Dinner tonight was mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a thick salmon steak. TOO MUCH FOOD. I'm happy I'm getting used to eating less, but salmon you were delicious and I want you in my stomach. :( I want to eat youuuu. And these blueberries. And drink this teeeea.
More hockey talks today, but no news. The Winter Classic was cancelled a while ago, and that was my one hope for the season. As much as I don't want to admit it, I really don't think we're gonna have one this winter.
In happier sports news, R. A. Dickey was named the National League Outstanding Pitcher this year! :D I'll be heartbroken if he doesn't get the Cy Young next week (and more heartbroken if the Mets deal him away). Hope he's recovering from his surgery well. And to drag the Mets back down to where they belong, Lucas Duda had surgery on his wrist today: he injured it moving furniture. *facepalm* My team.
Aaaaand I think we're done here. Gonna finish up that salmon, now that I can. :V (What's "portion control"? No, really, it's not that much.)